Scripture Reflections for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Year A, Lectionary 40


As Jesus hanged on the cross we are meant to meditate on this event. On how we contribute to his crucifixion with our actions of hate and with our failure to act for justice. On how God willingly came to serve us all the way to the cross, all the while offering love and forgiveness. We all journey to the cross with Jesus but we can either be condemning him, preoccupied with his possessions, or at the side of the cross with him.

Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: AccompanyAdamCareCommunityContemplateControlCovenantCreationCrossDeathDiscipleEconomyEveFaithFearFollowForgiveGuiltHealingHelplessHistoryHoly SpiritHopeJourneyJoyJusticeKingdomLambLightLoveMercyNakedNonviolencePassionPeacePrayerPriestProphecyRacismReconciliationRepentResurrectionSacrificeSalvationSilenceSimon of CyreneSinSufferingTempleTruthWaterWisdomWitnessWorth

Isaiah 52:13-15, 53:1-12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-40, 19:1-42

“if Jesus' body is the temple and the side of his body from which the blood and water flows point us to the side of the temple mount, then where is the altar? Right? Well, the altar then would be his sacred heart.”

"The Blood & Water from the Side of Christ" | Brant Pitre | April 11, 2017

“he says 'come to me. Come to me naked and unashamed. Come to me completely as you are because you were made in my image. And you are mine and I love you.”

"Naked on the Cross" | Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ | April 7, 2023

“one of the signs we may need to look to is 'words may be great but silence is golden'”

Monsignor Raymond East | April 7, 2023

“if you want this Church to be around long after I'm gone, he's gone, you're gone, we got to show that love for each other and build up this faith family”

"Guilt" | Fr. Stephen Thorne |

“the greek word 'basileia' usually translated as 'kingdom' does not refer to a particular geographical or political entity that we could locate on a map...it is rather an authority under which people live”

"None of his bones shall be broken" | Fr. Geoffrey Plant | April 11, 2022

“many experienced thirst, hunger and lack of basic needs but knowing that we were persecuted because of our belief gave us power and hope in the Cross”

Luma Khuder, OP |

“In Jesus Christ, God invites us to join in his mission of love by standing close to those in pain and suffering. By bearing with them their silent cries, their cross, their darkness and by joining in their fight against injustice and abuse”

Karolin Kuhn SSND |

“Who among us hasn't needed a friend to wipe our faces clean of the blood and the sweat and the tears that we sometimes shed?”

Fr. Eric Immel, SJ | April 15, 2022

“And when our standard is built upon mercy, is built upon grace, gold can run out, mercy cannot. Dollars can be burnt away but grace is eternal.”

Fr. Oscar Pratt | April 10, 2020

“Good Friday is clearly about deep, faithful, steadfast, merciful love. Jesus shows us how to love. To love like God. Jesus' whole life and ministry and death show us how to love. The question is what do we do with so great a love?”

Joan S. Dawber, SC |

“That's the message of the day for us. To stand as the women stood and to speak as Joseph of Arimathea spoke”

Deacon Timothy E. Tilghman |

“The Son of God in all his glory came all the way down into our humiliation, into our physical suffering, into our fear of death...so that now we know even in our worst fears that we are accompanied by the divine love”

Bishop Robert Barron |

“Love is a very scary thing, people of God. It opens you and I up. It heals. It breaks down the toughest barrier. It's something that always is a balm, not a bomb, but a balm. We can rub into any situation that is impossible. It helps us to find perspective and healing”

Fr. John Paul Forté, OP | April 10, 2020

“Don't domesticate the cross. Don't turn the cross into a harmless pious religious symbol but let it display itself in all of its judging and taunting and finally liberating power”

Bishop Robert Barron |

“If the cross means all the negativity we can imagine, it means the limit of suffering, it means the limit of sin, it means all of human dysfunction, Jesus took that on and then broke its power”

Bishop Robert Barron |
Overall Readings

“Were you there when love costs everything? What is the cost of true love? A question asked on this Good Friday. What is genuine 'no holds barred' passion?”

Sr. Melinda Adrienne Pellerin, ssj | April 7, 2023

“through our sin we were there. Through our love for God we were there. Yes, even through our ongoing connection as the body of Christ we were there when they crucified our Lord.”

Fr. Tony Ricard | April 7, 2023

“The resurrection doesn’t cancel out the crucifixion as if it were only a passing episode on the way to Easter. The resurrection vindicates the crucifixion...the work the Father gave the Son to accomplish is consummated, completed, finished as he dies on the cross.”

"It is completed" | Fr. Geoffrey Plant | April 3, 2023

“Good Friday reminds us that Jesus' life exemplified just actions and the love for everyone especially the least of these”

Kimberly Lymore |

“I walk in the promise that by his stripes we are healed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so for we are truly not just a Good Friday people. We are Easter redeemed people.”

Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley, OPA |

“Isaiah's imagery holds us because the Servant's suffering is our suffering too. In it we can feel seen, validated, embraced by this key text of salvation history”

María Teresa (MT) Dávila |