Commentary from
THE ANNOTATED
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER
Edited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT
Rivingtons, London, 1884
GOOD FRIDAY.
This day is not one of man's institution, but was consecrated by our
Lord Jesus Christ when He made it the day of His most holy Passion.
It is impossible that the anniversary of our Lord's sufferings could ever
have passed by as a common day in those times when the memory of them was
yet so recent, and when a daily fellowship in them [Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24]
was so continually before the eyes of Christians in the martyrdoms of His
faithful servants. It is spoken of under the name of the Paschal
Day in very early Christian writings [TERT. de Orat. xviii.], but in later
ages it was chiefly known by the names Paraskeuh, Dies
Parasceves, the Day of Preparation, or Dies Dominecae Passionis, the Day
of our Lord's Passion. In early English times it was known as Long
Friday [AElfric's Can. 37, A.D.957. A. Sax. Chron. A.D.
1137], and so it is still called "Lang Fredag" in Denmark and Sweden: but
its present beautiful appellation is the one which it has now been popularly
known for many centuries.
Very soon after midnight our Blessed Lord was betrayed and apprehended;
and about day-dawn He was taken before the judicial High Priest Annas,
the ceremonial High Priest Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin or great Council
of the Jews [St. Matt. 26:64; St. Mark 14:62; St. Luke 22:70], where He
was accused of blasphemy. After that He was sent bound to Pilate,
before whom He was charged with treason; and by Pilate sent to Herod as
belonging to his jurisdiction. Having been mocked and insulted by
Herod, the holy Jesus was sent back by him to the Roman governor, declared
innocent of all crime against the state, yet scourged, to please the Jews,
and for the same reason sentenced to be crucified. [St. Matt. 27:3,
25; St. Mark 15:1, 14; St. Luke 23:1, 21; St. John 18:28; 19:6.]
Then He was insulted with the purple robe, and the reed sceptre, and a
corona radiata made of thorns; was buffeted and spit upon; and afterwards
led forth from the Praetorium by the Via Dolorosa to Calvary.
At the third hour [9a.m., "Tierce"] our Lord, having borne His cross,
or a portion of it, until His exhausted Body had fainted under the burden,
was nailed to it upon Mount Calvary without Jerusalem, the two thieves
being crucified on either side with the intention of adding shame to His
sufferings, From the Cross He spoke His last words. As they fastened
His limbs upon it He cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do" [St. Luke 23:34]; when the penitent thief prayed for His remembrance
in His Kingdom, He said, "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be
with Me in paradise." [St. Luke 23:40] When He beheld His mother
and the beloved disciple standing at the foot of His Cross, He said to
the one, "Woman, behold thy son," and to the other "Behold thy mother."
[St. John 19:26]
At the sixth hour [Noon, "Sexts"] ensued the darkness and the earthquake;
and during the three hours which followed before the return of light, it
is supposed that our Lord's greatest sufferings took place, the veiling
of the Father's Presence, the agony of "being made sin for us," and of
having "laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." The awful mystery
of these three hours was summed up in an ancient Litany, in the words,
"By Thine unknown sufferings, Good Lord, deliver us." [St. Matt. 27:45;
St. Mark 15:33; St. Luke 23:44.]
At the ninth hour [3p.m., "Nones"] the climax of this awful period was
reached when our Lord spoke the words, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"
which are the first words of the twenty-second Psalm. [St. Matt.
27:46; St. Mark 15:34] After this He said "I thirst" [St. John 19:28],
and when He had received the vinegar, "It is finished" [St. Matt. 27:48;
St. Mark 15:36; St. Luke 23:46; St. John 19:30]; for now He knew that "all
things were accomplished" of the Sacrifice for sin, and the sufferings
of Him in Whom, sinless, all sinners were then represented before God.
Then, crying with a loud voice, as with a willing exspiration of that life
which no man could take from Him, He laid it down of Himself with the last
of His seven words from the Cross, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My
spirit" [St. Luke 23:46], which are also words uttered by David in the
spirit of prophecy in the sixth verse of the thirty-first Psalm.
It must have been shortly after this that the body of our Blessed Lord
was taken down from the Cross, for the Sabbath began at six o'clock in
the evening, and that Sabbath being "an high day," the Jews entreated Pilate
that it might be removed from the Cross (to be cast into the pit where
the bodies of malefactors were thrown) before the legal beginning of the
festival. Thus on the eve of the Sabbath, after being subjected to
eighteen hours of mental agony and bodily suffering, the holy Jesus fulfilled,
in His Body and Soul, the words of the Compline Psalm, "I will lay Me down
in peace, and take My rest: for it is Thou, Lord, only that makest Me to
dwell in safety." [Psalm 4:8]
With this Passion of our dear Lord in view, it has ever been the object
of the Church to make the devotions of Good Friday such as should help
Christians to realize the magnitude of the Sacrifice that He offered, of
the sins by which it was made necessary, and of the Mercy which moved Him
to offer it. "On the Paschal Day," writes Tertullian [de Orat.
xviii.], "the strict observance of the fast is general, and as it were
public," not restricted to those who professed to lead a life of closer
devotion than others; works of charity were permitted, even to the extent
of the rich ploughing the land of the poor, but no other labour was engaged
in on this holy day. In all Churches the Passion of our Lord, as
narrated in the Gospels, has ever formed the central subject of the day's
meditation around it in saddened and penitent tones, the more perfectly
to represent before God and man the events of this central Day of the world's
history. In the ancient services of the Day one was conspicuous,
in which the Clergy and people showed their veneration for the atoning
work of Christ by ceremonies which acquired the popular name of "creeping
to the Cross;" in which the image of the Cross was placed in the front
of the altar, that they might more thoroughly realize the spirit of penitents
"before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among them" [Gal. 3:1], while they gave Him the lowliest adoration of their
bodies.
[The popular feeling of reverence towards the Cross never
died out. It is illustrated even by the Pilgrim's Progress, in
which Christian, standing before "the Image of a Cross," says, "He hath
given me rest by His sorrows, and life by His death."]
During this ceremony of prostration before the Cross, the "Reproaches,"
followed by the hymns, "Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle," and "The
Royal Banners forward go," were sung to their well-known ancient and beautiful
strains.
The "Reproaches" are a striking expansion of Micah 3:3, 4, in which
the loving-kindness of the Lord is contrasted with the ingratitude of those
whom He came to save, carrying the idea through each step of the Passion.
They are sung in the following form: -
O My people, what have I done unto thee, and
wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me. For I brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt, and thou hast prepared the Cross for thy Saviour.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal;
have mercy upon us.
I led thee forty years in the wilderness,
and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into a goodly land.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal;
have mercy upon us.
What more could I have done unto thee that
I have not done? I planted thee indeed My choicest Vine, and thou
art become bitter unto Me; for thou hast given Me vinegar to drink, and
hast pierced the side of thy Saviour.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal;
have mercy upon us.
For thy sake did I scourge Egypt with its firstborn,
and thou didst deliver up Me to be scourged.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I led thee forth out of Egypt, and drowned
Pharoah in the Red Sea, and thou didst deliver up Me to the chief priests.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I opened the sea before thee, and thou hast
opened My side with a spear.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I went before thee to lead thee in a cloudy
pillar, and thou didst lead Me into the hall of Pilate.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I fed thee with manna in the wilderness, and
thou didst fall upon Me will scourgings and buffetings.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I gave thee to drink living water out of the
Rock, and thou dist give Me gall and vinegar.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
For thy sake did I smite the kings of the Canaanites,
and thou dist smite Me on the head with a reed.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I gave thee a royal sceptre, and thou gavest
to My head a crown of thorns.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
I lifted thee up in great strength, and thou
didst lift Me up to hang upon the Cross.
O My people, what have I done unto thee,
and wherein have I wearied thee? answer unto Me.
During this ceremony the red copes and chasuble which were worn in the
other Offices of the day were set aside, and black copes alone were used;
the utmost aspect of sorrow and mourning for sin being, at the same time,
thrown over the church and all the instrumenta of Divine Service,
by means of black hangings, a custom which has never been discontinued.
It is a very ancient practice of the Church to abstain from celebrating
the Holy Communion on Good Friday. On Maundy Thursday (as has been
already shown) a portion of the Sacrament then consecrated was reserved
in one element only, and this being placed in a chalice of unconsecrated
wine on Good Friday, was then received by those who communicated instead
of elements consecrated on the day itself. This Mass of the Pre-sanctified
is an institution of very ancient date, being found in the Sacramentaries
from which our modern Offices are so largely derived: and since it is traceable,
on good evidence, as far back as the time of St. Augustine, it seems to
represent the practice of the primitive Church. The use of this Office
has been general in the Western Church for the greater part of the time
of its existence. In the Eastern Church there is no recognition of
the Eucharist at all on this day, there being in fact almost a total absence
of prayer altogether, the services consisting chiefly of the reading of
prophecies and gospels respecting the Passion: and such appears also to
be the practice of the Ambrosian Rite.
But although this custom may be of primitive origin, it has not been
preserved in its primitive form. In the Church of England before
the Reformation the practice had grown up of the priest alone receiving
on Good Friday the Holy Sacrament which had been consecrated on Maundy
Thursday; and this is still the practice of the Latin Church. The
Sacramentary of St. Gregory clearly indicates that in the early Church
others communicated with him as on other days. The Rubric directs,
"Cum dixerint Amen, sumit de sancta, et ponit in calicem, nihil dicens.
Et communicant omnes cum silentio, et expleta sunt universa."
[Menard's ed. p. 70; comp. pp. 77, 87] In the tenth century
a Canon of the Church of England which enjoins the reservation on Holy
Thursday and certain ceremonies to be used on Good Friday, adds respecting
the latter day, "Then let him," i.e. the priest, "go to housel,
and whosoever else pleases." [JOHNSON'S Canons,
i. 404.] In fact, Martene proves that Communion of the Laity as well
as of the priest on this day was the prevailing custom of the Church until
the tenth century at least; and there are strong grounds for believing
that the practice continued down to the time of the Reformation.
The exact intention of the English rite is not easy to ascertain.
The appointment of an Epistle and Gospel is (under the circumstances in
which the Prayer Book was set forth) a prima facie evidence that
Consecration on Good Friday was intended to supersede the Mass of the Pre-sanctified
which had been hitherto used; and Communion was, of course, intented to
follow. On the other hand, this was a deviation from the ancient
practice of the Church, which was not in accordance with the respect for
it shown by those who set forth our first English Prayer Book. Such
a deviation can only be accounted for by supposing that strong reasons
against reservation were present to the Reformers, but that, at the same
time, they did not contemplate depriving the Church of Christ's Sacramental
Presence on this Holy Day, and therefore enjoined the ordinary Service
with consecration.
The practice of the Church of England since the Reformation certainly
seems to have been to celebrate the Holy Communion on this day. On
Good Friday in 1564 [March 31] Queen Elizabeth openly thanked one of her
preachers in her Chapel for his sermon in defence of the Real Presence,
which seems to show that the Holy Eucharist was then celebrated.
[HEYLIN'S Ref. ii. 317, Eccl. Hist. Soc. ed.]
And in Bishop Andrewes' Sermons on the Passion there are allusions to it
which put the matter beyond a doubt.
The conclusions that may be drawn are, [1] that the Church of England
never intended so far to depart from ancient habits as to be without the
Sacramental Presence of Christ on the Day when His Sacrifice is more vividly
brought to mind than on any other day in the year: [2] that from
the introduction of the un-Catholic custom of Communion by the priest alone,
or for some other reason, it was thought best to disuse the Mass of the
Pre-sanctified and substitute Consecration: [3] that it is a less evil
to depart from ancient usage by consecrating on this day than to be without
the Sacramental Presence of our Lord.
