The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church mark Good Friday – the day when Jesus Christ suffered on the cross – the saddest day of the year.
Christ, arrested the previous night, was brought before the Jewish high priests for trial on charges that he preached teachings that they claimed were contrary to the religious principles and laws of Judaism.
A large number of false witnesses, brought by the high priests, stated, among other things, that Jesus’ speeches about the Kingdom of Heaven represented his intention to proclaim himself the Jewish king who would free them from Roman slavery.
The high priest Caiaphas took advantage of this and decided to hand Christ over to the Roman governor of Judea – Pontius Pilate, so that he could condemn him for rebellion against Rome, which was punishable by death.
Pilate handed Christ over to the Jewish king Herod, who returned him to the Roman governor.
To Pilate’s questions and claims, Jesus remained silent or responded only with: “You say so,” telling him at one point that “his kingdom is not of this world.”
Seeing that there was no evidence to convict him, the Roman governor used the old Jewish custom of pardoning a condemned man during Passover, and asked the assembled people whether they wanted freedom for Christ or Barabbas.
The assembled people, incited by the Jewish high priests, demanded freedom for Barabbas and condemnation for Christ, saying: “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Pilate decided so, saying: “You have condemned an innocent man.” After that, he began to ritually wash his hands. Hence the expression “washing hands” in the sense of absolving oneself of responsibility.
The soldiers flogged the condemned Christ, placed a crown of thorns on his head, and forced him to carry the cross to Mount Golgotha, where he was crucified.
The soldiers pierced the crucified Christ between the ribs with a spear, placed a sponge soaked in vinegar on his mouth, and placed a sign above his head with the following inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” During this time, Jesus prayed to God to forgive them, saying: “Forgive them, God, for they know not what they do.”
The Holy Gospels state that Christ breathed his last at the “ninth hour of the day,” or three o’clock in the afternoon.
At the moment of Christ’s death, the sky darkened completely, an unprecedented storm arose, the tombs opened, and the rock on which the cross was placed split in an unnatural line.
The dead Christ was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a burial cloth, and buried in a tomb, at the entrance of which a large stone slab was placed, and legionaries guarded the tomb.
Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross were for the purpose of washing away the sins of the entire human race and preceded the greatest event – Easter – by which the God-man defeated death and eternal damnation, as the consequences of sin.
Since Good Friday is the saddest day of the year, on that day bells are not rung in Orthodox churches, but the service is marked by clappers, blows with wooden mallets on a wooden board. On that day, a service is served – called the Imperial Hours, and in the evening a stanza is read with the carrying out of the shroud, a procession around the church and the laying of the shroud – a cloth symbolizing the suffering Christ.
