Holy Friday - Orthros*

*(Sung on Thursday evening – the 12 Gospels)

Themes:   Christ’s trial, passion, death, and burial
Gospel Readings: #1(John 13:31-18:1), #2(John 18:1-28), #3(Matthew 26:57-75), #4(John 18:28-19:16), #5(Matthew 27:3-32), #6(Mark 15:16-32), #7(Matthew 27:33-54), #8(Luke 23:32-49), #9(John 19:25-37), #10(Mark 15:43-47), #11(John 19:38-42), #12(Matthew 27:62-66)
 
This is really the Orthros for Great Friday.  During this service, we hear the 12 readings from the Gospel.  There is also the procession of the icon of the crucified Christ.

In the hymns and gospel lessons of this moving service we learn how much Christ loved us and the entire world.  He loved us so much that He endured a villainous trial, pain, suffering, and even death to save the world from sin and death.

The first gospel reading describes the Last Supper.  The next ten all describe the passion, or sufferings of Christ after Judas betrayed Him.  The final Gospel lesson is an account of His burial and the sealing of His tomb.  After the fifth gospel reading, the icon of the crucified Christ is processed around the church.  In one of the most important hymns of our Church, during this procession we hear:

Today is hung upon the Cross He Who suspended the earth amid the waters.  A crown of thorns crowns Him, Who is the King of Angels.  He, Who wrapped the Heavens in clouds, is clothed with the purple of mockery.  He, Who freed Adam in the Jordan, received buffetings.  He was transfixed with nails, Who is the Bridegroom of the Church.  He was pierced with a lance, Who is the Son of the Virgin.  We worship Your Passion, O Christ.  Show us also, Your glorious Resurrection.

This is hauntingly beautiful poetry.  The paradoxes are astounding.  We see the creator of all things, visible and invisible, amongst the glory of His creation – and in the same breath see the pinnacle of that very creation, mankind, turn against Him cruelly and vilely.  As beautifully sorrowful this hymn is, its very last line brings us great hope as we anticipate His rise from the dead.  There is always hope in the Church – like Christ in the garden, we are never left alone.

There are a number of other hymns in this service that are almost as beautiful and certainly as dramatic in relating the calamity of Christ’s passion, crucifixion, and death.  They are written in the first person as Christ (just prior to the 10th Gospel Lesson):

They took away My garments from Me, and put upon Me a scarlet robe; they set upon My head a crown of thorns, and gave a reed into My right Hand, that I may break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Here we have as if Christ were able to discuss the mockery that was thrown against Him.  Such arrogance, evil, and hatred poured upon Him by the tormentors.  They mock His kingship and place a simple reed in His right hand.  Yet that reed, a part of God’s creation, could easily be used to smash into dust another of God’s creation – the one made of a potter’s clay, or earth – man.  However, He does not do that.  Instead, we hear immediately following that hymn:

“I gave My back to scourgings, and turned not away My face from spittings; I stood before the judgment seat of Pilate, and endured the Cross, for the salvation of the world.”  The first and foremost part of a description of “love” is sacrifice, and it is shown nowhere greater than during this service.
With Love in Christ,
+Fr. Nick