March 29, 2013
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What’s So Good About Good Friday?
Observe this with me.
Almost 2,000 years ago, an innocent man who was well known for his good works and teachings was sentenced to be crucified for being a trouble maker… What good could possibly come out of that?
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be flogged? Skin ripping, stinging, sweat and blood running down your back and sides, bruised, and beaten to a bloody pulp… Your oppressors laughing at you, mocking you, spitting on you, pushing thorns into your head, parading you through the streets so others can do the same? What do you think it would be like to have 9″ nails driven through your hands and feet as you publicly hang naked on a cross for all to see? Your enemies watching with a victorious grin on their faces… your family crying… your friends hiding… your God leaving you stranded… As you are hanging, you struggle to catch your breath. Pushing up with your feet to fill your lungs with air leads to more pain, so you fall back down causing splinters to run through your back. You’re bleeding. You’re confused. You’re embarrassed. You’re suffocating… You’re scared… The sky darkens, and with one loud shout, you crash. You die as a crowd gawks, some mourning, most scoffing.The crucifixion hurts to even imagine. If this happened to an innocent man, what good could possibly come out of it?
Christians believe that it wasn’t just a man who died that day. We believe that it was God. We successfully killed God incarnate. Was it an easy feat?
Yes.
This very act shows us what we are capable of. We have the power to kill God. We are terrible enough to murder God’s innocent son. The good news is that Jesus’ works and teachings come around full circle. Though we punished Jesus, Jesus still loved us. Though we crucified him, Jesus forgave us. Though we were merciless to him, he showed us grace. When Jesus taught, when Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t doing it so that it could be written into a book and ignored. He didn’t do it so that we can say, “Oh, what a good guy Jesus was!” No. He did it to show us how to live life in a way that pleases God. He went to the death so we can see how far his teachings and good works stretch. It was out of the love of God and the sin of human hearts that Jesus was put to death. The very message of the cross is love. It is the love of God that covers our sin.
We have the potential to be so evil that we even crucified God… God chose to forgive us. God put his son through drastic measures to show us how much God values us. God’s love restores us. It brings us to God and causes all things to work together. This is the Gospel. Jesus Christ died so your sins could be forgiven. This is what Good Friday is all about.
Comments (9)
Its a hard image to understand
YaY!
I forgot Easter was this week. Happy Good Friday.
“We have the potential to be so evil that we even crucified God… God chose to forgive us”
Wow, what a true and powerful sentence you wrote there!
In Luke 23 you can read this passage about a man doing “good”:
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.]”=”">[d]”
43
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
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Here is one formula to get saved: The man admitted his guilt, and he asked Jesus to remember him……..
I loved this. Very descriptive and touching.
Happy Easter!
The purpose of Jesus’ incarnation was that he be crucified; therefore, God set the whole thing up so that Jesus would be crucified. Jesus even says to Judas Iscariot “What you MUST do, do quickly!” (emphasis mine). Having gone to all that trouble to set it up, wouldn’t it be pretty bizaare if God were to hold it against us?
@trunthepaige - It’s unbearable. When I was writing about it while imagining it, I shuddered often…
@ImNotUglyIJustNeedLove - :)
@ShimmerBodyCream - It’s early this year. If I didn’t work in a church, it would’ve caught me off guard too! Have a happy Easter!
@Doubledb - Thank you. The idea is powerful, and very reminiscent of the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. God is great. The greatest… but God knows what we are capable of!
@PPhilip - I like it (and find it interesting) that you said, “Here is
one
formula…”
@AngelAsh_86 - Thank you
And happy Easter to you too!
@Zakuru - I think that’s one reason, but not the only reason. He taught us what it looks like to live right, even though we still do a terrible job of doing that today… God would do no thing without a purpose, but I don’t believe it was God who killed God. People killed God, therefore, his blood was on our hands. Good thing our God is a forgiving God!
@jmallory - Oh, yes; people did it. And God knew that people would do it before he gave them the opportunity. What is worse, “we” (taken collectively as a society) would do it again, were the circumstances similar! Alas, compassion is NOT a watch word of our society, even yet!