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Good Friday is absolutely the correct title. Yes, the horrific treatment Jesus was going through was terrible and led to a barbaric death. However, at the same time and, in fact the reason for His death was He was becoming sin. He became or took upon Himself our sin. So now when Our Heavenly Father considers and sees us, He sees us as innocent because of what Jesus accomplished. So it is good, very good for us, the sacrifice Jesus made for us today. Only good and not great? The Greater thing comes three days hence with His resurrection. Let us live into that sacrifice and see the greatness of His Good act.
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified…….I say to you. unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it produces much grain….” John 12:23,24
“If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, I am going to the Father….” John 14:28
There is a paradoxical aspect to mornings. On the one hand they are the start of a new day. We can look at that day as a fresh start, an opportunity that has never happened before. Although there is another way to look at a morning; as the continuation of the tragedy and desperation of the night or day that proceeded it. The new day is nothing more than a harbinger of more disaster.
One could only guess how the cherished loved ones of Jesus decided to face this day. One wonders if there was any aspect to which they saw it as “good”. Jesus had been arrested, dragged away, beaten and now was in the custody of the hated Romans. No one was sticking up for Him; no one coming to His aid. As they day progressed greater calamity after greater calamity befell Jesus. What little hope there might have been quickly faded away with each passing hour; desperation, depression, hopelessness.
Where was one to find hope? Where was one to find love on this seemingly darkest of days? The same place it had been found for the past three years; in Jesus. At no time did any curse or condemnation pass His lips. From the cross itself, He spoke of mercy to one rightly condemned. He spoke forgiveness to those who so hated Him. He spoke tenderness to His dear mother. Even in and especially in the horrible pangs of a cruel death, Jesus Christ did, by His very nature, what we find in our finest hour so difficult to do. Jesus Loved. Jesus loved unconditionally and completely. Yet wasn’t this unfair? Where was God in all of this?
Fast forward 2000 years. Waking up this morning; there is war and rumor of greater wars. A shipping ferry has overturned killing hundreds of teenagers. In my own country evil individuals are randomly gunning down complete strangers. So many family members in so many circumstances are facing another day with dwindling hope. Good Friday?
Where does one turn for hope? Where does one find love today? To the very same place. And where was God back then and where is He today? Here’s the answer. You see when Jesus took on our sin, our punishment; God had him to die to take the judgement that was rightfully ours. As the representative of sin, God may have forsaken His Son momentarily for our sake, but He never forsook us. He was right there with the disciples, Mary Magdalene, Jesus Mother Mary, Joseph of Arimethea and the rest of the believers, not losing one; except Judas.
God knew and knows that we need a Savior. Jesus Christ knew and knows that He was to fulfill that role as our Savior. I understand the grammar of the sentence but truly it is God so Loves the world (present tense for all times) that He sent His only begotten Son to save us. So now we can greet the morning, live the day and rest at night knowing that we are loved with a Love that surpasses all understanding, heals all wounds, uplifts all downtrodden, brings hope to the hopeless and restores the lost.
Good Friday? Good indeed. May the love of Our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ testified to us by the Holy Spirit keep you this day and every day and leave you knowing that you are never forsaken and nothing can come against you that He will not bring you through. In the Name of Jesus Christ, with praise to our Everlasting Almighty Father, Amen
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