As time goes by, reading this well-worn post bothers me more and more. I don’t like talking about pain, torture, death, sacrifice, and heartache, but I need to face the truth. There is raw truth in what follows:
Today is Good Friday. This is the day of remembrance of how our Lord Jesus suffered the agony of torture and death for our great benefit. I can justify that name only with some mental gymnastics . . .
Like the criminal on His right, I believe some part of me hung there and died with Him that day – the darkest part that needed to be put to death – in order that I might be saved into eternal life and be with Him always. Like He spoke to that wretched, miserable, condemned and dying man, He still speaks to me, to us all, today through His Word, with labored breath, gasping one painful word at a time as if we are face to face –
“I Forgive You” “You Shall Be With Me . . .”
When I stood accused of selfish sins and crimes that I knew I was guilty of, He, in effect, said to me as He stood there (weak, trembling, and covered with blood) (and tears try to form as I say it) :
“Don’t worry, you’re “good”. Get behind Me. I love you too much to let this happen to you. I’ve got this.”
I can’t help but feel His torture and death were my fault in a sense. (My brothers and sisters argue that they share the blame, which may be true, but I maintain that, in a sense, I’m the most at fault) He went ahead and saved me anyway. He went to the cross in my place. All He asked is that I repent (turn away from sin and toward Him) and that I believe in Him and proclaim Him as my risen Lord and Savior – so He forgave me that fault – “It’s forgotten,” He says, graciously.
What kind of Love? . . . I can scarcely fathom.
As the song says, “Love has a name,
And it is JESUS!”
So, I don’t know about the “Good” part of Good Friday. I’m ambivalent, unsure.
It is also called Black Friday and Holy Friday, either of which I can relate to, especially “Holy Friday”, but hardly Good Friday? Except that good resulted from it.
And, one can’t have a resurrection without a death, especially THE Resurrection following THE Death,
both of which rocked the foundations of the world, as did His birth. Everything about Him did!
If anything should be called “Good”, it is Resurrection Day. What happened that day is the most radically important event ever in history (His Story) – “Good Sunday” if you will – the joyous day that I (we) returned to life and lived through Him, and had Life real and true because of Him, and through His return to life, His defeat of death, we were shown the true meaning of Love.
Resurrection, to me, is like “rebirth” – the return of life into something that was dead.
I once again turn to Keith and Kristyn Getty, and Stuart Townend, to express with music and images what cannot be expressed with words alone. I pray that every heart that hears and sees this will be broken, transformed, and renewed at the foot of that one horrible, and glorious, cross . . .
Thank you victoryinjesus123 for uploading this beautiful video.
Oh, and one more thing – the power of the cross is only the beginning.
The power of His victory over death lies at the doorstep outside the joyously-open doorway of His empty tomb! Let us each tread that step, leave our tombs, and embrace new life the way He showed us!
THANK YOU, JESUS!
That hardly seems enough to say,
Yet it is heartfelt.
Father, I pray you help us LIVE those three words.
Amen
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