A Funeral for Jesus: Good Friday Service

In this service, we put ourselves into the shoes of Jesus’ family and closest friends as they mourned his death. They did not have a funeral for Jesus, but they saw his body and knew that he died. In our culture, we have a funeral for people who have died. When we perform that ritual, it is clear that someone has passed away. Having a service that is funeral-like on Good Friday can hammer home to us in a very deep, visceral way that Jesus really died.

Most people have been to many Good Friday services where it is explained that Jesus died for our sins. That is an important message, but not one that this service talks about. This service doesn’t talk about that since we are putting ourselves into the shoes of the disciples and Jesus’ family; just after he died they were in a time of shock, of wondering and not understanding.