17 Feb It’s Ash Wednesday, but Friday’s Coming

If you are a part of the weekly work force or a student whose rhythm of the work week is Monday through Friday, Wednesdays are commonly known as hump day. It’s right in the middle of the week where you have finally shed the Monday morning blues and are starting to have thoughts and hopes for Friday. It’s Wednesday but Friday is coming! When Friday arrives it’s for many people, Fri-yay!

It’s not that people dislike their job or school; but let’s be honest, there is a reason it is called “work” or “study.”   Work and studying by definition means and extended effort over a period of time, and sometimes we don’t have the energy for the effort, or we would rather be spending our time doing other things. Friday is the finish line of the work week; we’ve reached the end. We’ve made it! We know that rest is around the corner, and we are free for the weekend. We can choose the activities that will fill our Saturdays and Sundays. We have a little time for ourselves and others, and hopefully be refreshed a little to start up again on Monday. 

The rhythm of the work week in many ways is similar to the rhythm of our weekly life as Christians. We head into the week with the words of worship still ringing in our ears; the songs, the words of forgiveness, the prayers, the Scripture readings, the Creed, the sermon – all refreshing us in our faith and filling us up with God’s gracious love and mercy. We head into the week full and slowly we are being emptied. The reality of our fragile bodies reminds us that aches and pains go away slowly or not at all. The pressures of daily life slowly drain us. By Wednesday, Sunday seems so far gone, a distant memory. It’s hump day; we need the hope of a new day, a day of rest. 

It’s Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, but Friday’s coming. On one particular Friday, nailed to a cross, our Lord Jesus took all of our daily and lifelong burdens into his death. He bled, he suffered, and he died for you on a Friday as an answer and an end to your Wednesdays. His good Friday brings us into the weekend where new hope is found once again, for our Lord rose on a Sunday to give us a new start, a new beginning, a new life in him.

Our Lord’s dark Friday leads us into His Sunday. Once again, after a week of living by faith in Jesus, facing the trials and temptations of another week, our Lord gathers us to himself to strengthen and feed us, to nurture and encourage us, to fill us up with the assurance and hope of new life in him, and to give us hearts that rejoice and are full with his love that we may give to others. Sunday sends us out into our Monday, and Monday leads to Wednesday. It’s Wednesday but Friday is coming; and if Friday comes, we know that Sunday is coming soon. One day we will all enter into that eternal Sunday where we will rest from our labors and live in the freedom of our Lord’s divine love – a glorious weekend without end.    



In the name of Jesus, Amen.

-Pastor Darrin Sheek