Good Friday. The Gospel lesson includes 2 long chapters, John 18 and 19, describing the events of the arrest of Jesus, "trial", and crucifixion. This year I was struck by words at the beginning of the lesson. "After he said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples and crossed over to the other side of the Kidron Valley. He and his disciples entered a garden there. Judas, his betrayer, also knew the place because Jesus often gathered there with his disciples." So it was a familiar place, loved by Jesus and probably his followers. Was it a place of respite, restoration? Was the experience of going there like that of mine retreating into my backyard, surrounded by the singing of birds and reveling in the blooms of every plant? Was it a spiritually nourishing place? Was it one of the "thin places" where heaven and earth are barely separated and the spirit is loosened?

And then what did it become, a place of conflict, confrontation, treason, disappointment, deception, sorrow?