The Lectionary for Good Friday is here. A couple of notes … Isaiah 53:8 “By a perversion of justice he was taken away.” I would want to associate this with Jesus and say that there is nothing fair or right about Good Friday: it was horrific. But read on … Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain.” That’s something harder to associate with Jesus. How could God will such a thing? Maybe there’s a clue in the words of the Lord’s prayer (old-fashioned version for no good reason except that it’s easier to remember)… “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” … which suggests that there’s a way God’s will in heaven is different from that currently on earth, and it needs to be prayed for, for it to happen on earth. God’s will on earth is circumscribed by the painful and messy realities of life with billions of other people on this planet. I don’t know. But this week, we remember one who suffered, and whose suffering, I believe, gives hope and offers solidarity to the millions who suffer today, Monday the 6th April 2020.