On this Friday, with thoughts of the Holy Cross, we go back to the original day of the Cross, the day of Crucifixion, on a day that has now been designated as “Good Friday.” On that day, an innocent man was condemned to death. He was beaten and flogged for spreading a message of love. He was mocked and humiliated on made-up political charges. Standing at the foot of the Cross were only five or six of his followers, in stark contrast to the thousands who ushered him into Jerusalem only four days earlier (on Palm Sunday).
If you were one of those people standing at the foot of the Cross, or if you heard this story up and only to this point, you would hardly believe this to be a Good Friday. The horrifying torture and death of Jesus Christ was anything but a good event.
Then came Sunday. On Easter Sunday, Jesus’ tomb was empty! He has Risen! The first gospel – good news – is what changed an evil and “Bad” Friday into Good Friday! By his glorious Resurrection, Jesus made the instrument of torture and death, into a symbol of victory and goodness. He taught us that the cross – our trials and tribulations – are not to be avoided but must be embraced. And herein we learn the lesson that Resurrection can only follow Crucifixion.
Today we pray the Armenian Church’s prayer (from the Book of Hours): By this Holy Cross let us ask the Lord, that through it He would save us from sin and sustain us by His goodness; Keep us in peace, Christ our God, under the protection of your Holy and venerable Cross. Save us from visible and invisible enemies. Make us worthy to thankfully glorify you with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto ages of ages. Amen.
https://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Crosses-at-Golgotha-with-sunlight-782-e1757554546537.jpg910898Vazken Movsesianhttps://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/final_logo_large_for_epostle_web-300x189.pngVazken Movsesian2025-09-12 00:01:342025-09-10 18:36:20Friday to this Friday
Armodoxy for Today – Holy Friday – Participants in the Crucifixion
The journey through Lent, and now through Holy Week culminates today. It all comes together at the foot Cross. The Cross is the great equalizer. No one is exempt from the Cross – young and old, rich and poor, statesman and transient all have their crosses, but today, we witness that even God is crucified.
The Crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ is an event of singularity. It stands unique in the history of humankind. The acts of love, kindness and the message of hope with which Jesus came and showered us was repaid by acts of hatred, prejudice and death. He was crucified as a death sentence; a death sentence for spreading love.
With the help of St. Nersess Shnorhali, and his magnificent Aysor Anjar prayer we can come to understand the significance of this day as he takes love and juxtaposes it next to the hate that led to the Cross. First, we understand that this is not an ordinary man being punished, or even falsely punished for crimes. Rather, this is the Creator. This is the same One who breathed that first breath of life in the first human (and each of us) and now that Breath was being beaten out of Him. St. Nersess reminds us that the One who cried down from the Cross saying, I am thirsty was the same One who was offered vinegar, when, in fact, He was the one who made the rivers flow out of Eden. The same Hands which were nailed to the Cross and from which Blood was now dripping, were the same Hands which had fashioned the heavens and the earth, the same Hands which had written the law on the tablets. Those same Hands had given sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and had pulled Peter from the sea and then hushed the sea. Those same Hands which had created all of us were now being nailed by us to the Cross.
Today’s meditation is one of not only walking with Jesus to the Crucifixion, but understanding our place within the story of Crucifixion. That is, those people who nail Christ to the Cross are none other than us. When we practice hatred, when we allow prejudice, when we carry anger in our hearts, we are basically putting Christ back up on that Cross. We are the ones who are pounding those nails into Him, because just as we learned that when we practice good deeds to the least of Christ’s brothers and therefore do it to him, so too when we hate, when we allow anger to rule our emotions toward our brothers and sisters we therefore allow that hatred to go to Christ, and we participate in this Crucifixion,
Our Lenten journey, together with our Holy Week journey, is now ending. We arrive at the cross of Christ. We stand there at the foot of the cross, looking up and seeing our Savior beaten, bleeding and now killed.
We see Jesus looking down at us, asking for water, asking for assistance, asking for his mother. We hear him say to Here is your mother… reminding us that in this world we are united. The Crucifixion reminds us about the common thread that unites us all: the suffering of humankind. In fact, we may never be able to understand in human terms what a resurrection is, but when you talk about crucifixion, each and every one of us understands some portion of betrayal, of denial, of loneliness, of hurt, of pity, of being nailed for things that we never will understand, and at that final hour, Jesus cries out. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?(=My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me) cry that we share, a cry that comes from the bottom of our hearts as well.
Cover: The Bulleted cross at Gyumri
https://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_2684.jpeg20491536Vazken Movsesianhttps://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/final_logo_large_for_epostle_web-300x189.pngVazken Movsesian2025-04-18 00:01:402025-04-18 15:43:36Holy Friday – The Great Equalizer – Crucifixion
Each day of Holy Week, on the road to Resurrection, we have been confronted by a question which only you, and you alone, can answer. On this Holy Friday, we come up against the Cross, which in itself is an enigma. It is an instrument of torture. It is the instrument upon which the Son of God, was tortured and killed and yet, within our faith, it is the symbol of Christianity, and therefore the symbol of love.
Within the course of one night, Jesus was accused, stood trial on false charges, was taken back and forth between the chief priests, the councils, the Jewish king and the Roman procurator and was sentenced to death. The means of death was crucifixion – a slow, painfully agonizing means of torture by which an individual hangs from nails through his hands and feet while he suffocates to death over the course of a few hours. Meanwhile, crowds gather to watch the spectacle, mock and chastise him. All four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record this event in their Gospels, with graphic detail.
Jesus willingly accepts the path of the Cross, because it is there that He sacrifices for the salvation of the world. In so doing, Jesus transforms that cross from an instrument of torture to an means of salvation, just as he transforms the reality of the day, from a truly Bad and Evil Friday to “Good Friday.”
During His ministry, Jesus calls on us and challenges us, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
As we stand before the Cross of Christ, on this Good Friday, let us listen to the words of our Lord carefully. Let us absorb the events of this day. The question on this Friday, on the Road to Resurrection asks, “Are you picking up your cross and following Him?”
If you were in Jerusalem in the early Spring of the year 33, and you happened to see the persecution, mock trial, torture and eventual execution of Jesus of Nazareth, you’d most definitely be confused, as were the people of the time.
The year is 33. Jesus began his ministry only three years earlier. He spoke of love. He healed the sick and miraculously cured the people of their many social and physical ills. He spoke out against the establishment, which got him into trouble with the religious authorities. They persecuted him and finally arranged for his crucifixion. It was Friday afternoon. Word had gotten around that he was, in fact, the Son of God, and so they mocked him, saying, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:42-43)
If on that Friday evening you left town, after witnessing the life beaten out him you would have only been privy to half of the Jesus story. If you witnessed the crucifixion and left, you would understandably believe that the Jesus story ended there and then. You would believe evil has won and the promise of God was merely, words with no action.
Fortunately, we know the story didn’t end of Friday with the crucifixion. That is why we have the audacity and courage to refer to that day as “Good” Friday. We know that on Sunday, Jesus resurrected from the dead.
The Christian has the unique perspective of viewing life through the looking glass of the Resurrection. In other words, we’ve seen the Crucifixion but we know the Resurrection awaits! Viewed from Easter Sunday, from the vantage point of the Resurrection, we can proclaim along with St. Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting.” (I Corinthians 15:55)
Today we stand in witness of the Crucifixion of the Artsakh. As the Armenian Church, we are the witness to the Resurrection. We were there in the year 33 on that Sunday morning at the Empty Tomb. We were there at the end of St. Gregory’s imprisonment at Khor Virap in the 4th century. We were there at Avarayr with St. Vartan in the 5th century. We were there during the persecutions of barbarians through the centuries. We were there in 1915 and in 1918. We mourned the loss of our martyrs and also rang the bells of Sardarabad. We were there through communism and there when communism fell. We are there today, proclaiming the same Truth we have for centuries. The Crucifixion is not the end because there is Resurrection. Good overcomes evil, life is what is lasting over than death. Darkness can never overcome the Light. And Love is always more powerful than evil.
If at all we feel hopeless, we only open our hearts to the message of Resurrection from the Holy Church.
Today’s meditation is from the Resurrection account of St. Luke,
Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’
https://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2800-rotated.jpg24482448Vazken Movsesianhttps://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/final_logo_large_for_epostle_web-300x189.pngVazken Movsesian2023-09-27 00:01:362023-09-26 21:55:55Day after Crucifixion
Holy Week Day #7 – Great Friday – a mediation as this Lenten and Holy Week Journey culminates, at the foot of the cross with Christ, Mary and St. Nersess. The Cross is Unavoidable.
Prayer: “Lord Have Mercy”;
Music: Rendition of Der Voghormya by System of a Down; “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zepplin) Symphonic Kashmir; “John Nineteen Forty One,” Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber;
Cover: Holy Apostles Armenian Church in Kars, now converted to Mosque. 2014 Fr. Vazken
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net
Next Step with Fr. Vazken #723: Finding the missing step and the next step at the foot of the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. A look at some of the traditions that cheapen spiritual discovery. The amended Creed: passing blame and guilt for the Crucifixion? A special Easter reflection and edition of the Next Step. St. Basil Liturgical Texts
“Cheap Grace” Divine Liturgy CD
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for InHisShoes.org Listen via Stitcher Radio on demand! Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-2.jpeg12001500Vazken Movsesianhttps://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/final_logo_large_for_epostle_web-300x189.pngVazken Movsesian2022-04-14 11:41:582022-08-12 22:56:49Footprints at Calvary
