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In the Christ Church in Fulda, visitors experienced an emotional service on Good Friday. Dean Dr. Thorsten Waap spoke about abandonment and the power of love.
Fulda – On Good Friday believers gathered in the Christ Church, where an interactive Easter garden recently openedfor a service that commemorated the hour of Jesus' death. The church was decorated for the occasion: a black cloth covered the cross, and a crown of thorns lay on the altar. Dean Dr. Thorsten Waap used his sermon to share a personal experience from his time in school service.
He remembered a conversation between two students that particularly stuck with him. One of the students said with great bitterness, “And then he just left me hanging.” These words, according to a press release from the Fulda church district, reflected deep disappointment. The feeling of being abandoned in times of greatest need is a fundamental human experience.
Dean Waap speaks about abandonment at Good Friday service
Dean Waap drew a parallel from this school experience to the story of Jesus' suffering. The passion story is characterized by the experience of abandonment, starting with the betrayal by Judas, through the denial by Peter, to the flight of the disciples, who left Jesus alone in his most difficult hour.
The cross is not just a religious symbol, but the place where God himself experienced human despair and the feeling of abandonment. “The cross connects heaven and earth, but at the foot of the cross there is often the loneliness of betrayal,” explained Waap.
The question of why God did not prevent the death of his son is the central question of Good Friday: “Why did God let him hang?” But it was precisely this endurance that made a new world of love possible. Joseph of Arimathea was the first witness of this change. He risked his position by placing Jesus' body with dignity in his own grave, thereby preventing him from hanging.
Waap emphasized: “God opposes the worldly love of power with the power of love.” The Fuldaer Kantorei under the direction of district cantor Tobias Wirth provided musical accompaniment to the service with the choral movement “Who persists until the end” from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s “Elias”. At the organ, regional church music director Andreasschneidewind created the right atmosphere with his impressive playing.
The Christ Church was filled to capacity and many Christians from other congregations took part. A group of pilgrims from the Bonhoeffer community and Petersberg, led by pastors Marvin Lange and Christian Pfeifer, set off on foot to the city center to experience the service together.
Meanwhile, in the Kreuzkirche in Fulda, Pastor Stefan Bürger spoke on Good Friday about the “Blue Hour” as a symbol. His sermon combined art and theology. It was a thoughtful and hopeful service that reminded attendees of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
