Good Friday and Holy Saturday

Taking of Christ, Caravaggio (c. 1598)

When we wake up on Good Friday morning, a lot has transpired in the hours while we slept. Jesus has prayed in Gethsemane. He has been betrayed by Judas and arrested. Because of an illicit conspiracy, he has stood trial, not in the broad daylight, but in an unplanned, middle-of the-night trial before the Jewish leaders and then at first dawn before Pilate (and also before Herod in Luke's Gospel!). And as Peter denies him the third time, the rooster crows, and we awake (Matt. 26:47–27:36; Mark 14:43–15:15; Luke 22:47–23:25; John 18:1–19:16). 

Reading the Gospel Narratives
Throughout Good Friday, we do our best to read through all of these stories. You could use a regular ol' Bible or a children's Bible, depending on the ages of your children. We will also read from Peter's First Easter by Walter Wangerin, which narrates the events of Holy Week from Peter's perspective, and At Jerusalem's Gate by Nikki Grimes, a collection of poems dealing with many of the events of Holy Week (see my Holy Week post for more on these two books).

Ecce Homo, Antonio Ciseri (1871)

The Stations of the Cross
The hours of 12noon–3pm are the hours that Jesus would have been on the cross. So sometime during these hours, we will do the Stations of the Cross. If you and your kids aren't home in the afternoon, don't let that stop you! Later in the day after school is dismissed or at dinnertime would be perfectly good.

There are fourteen Stations of the Cross, and together they trace Christ's journey from Pilate's residence, where he was sentenced to death, to his body's final resting place in the tomb. The Stations of the Cross are designed as imitations of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, which is the physical path that Jesus took on Good Friday. For this reason, the stations are typically arranged along a physical path. For indoor settings (the home!), this can be done wherever you have room: around the walls of your living room, along the wall of a stairway (so that you ascend up the stairs as you progress through the stations), and even on the floor if you don't have enough wallspace available. You could even use a model of Jerusalem built out of wooden blocks to do this!

I have always found doing the stations deeply moving. By slowing down to focus on all the moments of anguish and suffering of Christ, I have come to see more and more the great love he must have had for all of us to endure such pain and shame. By sharing in his grief and suffering, even in such a small way as doing the Stations of the Cross, our hearts open up so that we see not just what he has done for us—giving us forgiveness of sin and the resurrection of the body—our love for him is kindled and flamed. And so we love him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). 

Via Dolorosa, Station IX (Jesus falls for the third time), during daytime

The Stations of the Cross can be done with children of any age, but I think it's helpful to find stations that are designed specifically for use with children, especially if your children are younger. You want descriptions and pictures of each station that gently draw the child into compassion for Jesus's suffering. I really like this Stations of the Cross liturgy from Christ the King Reformed Episcopal Church (Dayton, Ohio). It includes descriptions of each of the stations, as well as short age-appropriate prayers. For little ones, you might have to abbreviate each station a bit, but not much. (Also, the introductory part of the liturgy that precedes the Stations of the Cross can be skipped in a family setting, although it would be great to include as well!) The pictures that go with it are less than desirable, but here are some great alternatives that you could print out:

The Stations of the Cross from the Church of Notre Dame des Champs (Normandy, France)

The Stations of the Cross from St. James Cathedral (Seattle, WA)

And if you're not committed to being able to hang each station in a different place on the wall, this book is an excellent Stations of the Cross book designed for kids: The Story of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross for Children, by Mary Joslin (however, you will have to hunt to find at a good deal on this book, so maybe keep it in mind for next Lent! I'm sure the price will go down after Easter!)

We will also listen to this album, which contains songs that are meditations on the Fourteen Stations of the Cross: Songs for Lent by New York Hymns.

Crucifixion, El Greco, (1577-1599)

In lieu of doing the Stations of the Cross, you could take some time to open your Resurrection Eggs (again, see my Holy Week post for more).

Good Friday Services
For more on bringing children to a Good Friday service, see my earlier Maundy Thursday post.

Assorted Food Activities
Hot Cross Buns are a traditional and tasty Good Friday baking activity.
The Passion story told with lunch food (from catholicicing.com)

Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday is a day of quiet and stillness. Christ's body is in the tomb, and nothing happens, although we assume his followers spend the day in anguished grief. The only story from the Gospels that takes place on this day is found in Matt. 27:62-66, when the Jewish religious leaders approach Pilate to request that he place a guard in front of Jesus's tomb, because they know of "a rumor" that he said he would be raised from the dead after three days.

And even for those of us who know how the story ends, time still slows to a snail's pace as we vigilantly watch and wait for Christ's resurrection. As we wait in the stillness and quiet, we focus our hearts and minds on this very wait, on what Christ has already accomplished, and on the hope of the resurrection.

Andrea Mantega, Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480)

One of the best ways to do this is with quiet and stillness. But sometimes it helps to use music to focus us in our wait for the resurrection. There is a great list of Songs for Holy Saturday from Cardiophonia. See especially the two-part song listed there called My God, My God by Welcome Wagon, based on Psalm 22, which includes the words that Jesus quoted on the cross when he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Many churches hold Easter Vigil services in the evening or at night on Holy Saturday, and this is the time for people to be baptized. We don't have this custom in our own church, but we still like to pray for those who are being baptized as part of our Holy Saturday bedtime prayers. We begin by reciting the baptism liturgy that our church uses (a French Reformed Baptism Liturgy), words that I said over both of our children when they were baptized (and both times I made the mistake of looking at my child while saying these words, which of course made me choke up; maybe I'll get it right with Baby #3!). And then we pray for others who are being baptized and who will by God's grace someday be baptized, something like, "May all those who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise with him to newness of life. May we too remember our own baptism, when our sinful natures were buried with Christ and when we were raised to new life in him. And we pray that those who do not know Christ will hear the good news of the Gospel—that we love him because he first loved us—and will themselves be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."

Attributions
El Greco, Crucifixion, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of Vanderbilt Divinity Library (Nashville, TN). http://diglib.library/vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48044 [retrieved Mar. 28, 2018]. Original source: www.yorckproject.de.