Good Friday morning! This is the one day each year I get to say "Good Friday!" on Good Friday. However, in one way the title of the day is a contradiction. What, after all, was good about the murder of our Lord Jesus on the cross? Bear in mind first that this was a designed and planned event by God. Since God can do no wrong, else He wouldn't be perfect, then what He planned must be good. Also, Jesus assured us that He had the power to lay down His life and that He didn't do it because He had to. And finally, Jesus did lay down his life to save us from our sins. The day is starting to sound pretty good! Jesus accomplished much more than we realize on this day.
All of creation awaited the coming of the Son, and you can almost imagine the sigh of relief when Jesus gave up His life on the cross. Not relief that Jesus was gone, but relief that He had done the will of the Father and redeemed all who believe in Him. All of creation now looks forward to the second coming of the resurrected Lord! We have much to be grateful for on this Good Friday. But...today is a day when we examine the price that was paid on our behalf. Sunday is for celebrating the resurrection; today we do well to recall and ponder the heavy price paid for our redemption.
A good book to look at on this Good Friday is: The Murder of Jesus by John MacArthur. If you don't have time for a book, The Passion of the Christ is a movie that will show the suffering of our Lord on this day long ago. We can also simply get out our Bible and read the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, although the accounts seem to go over Jesus' suffering rather quickly.
The thought came to me that the Gospels keep it quick and simple to help with our initial salvation. "Pilate had him flogged..." kind of brings to mind a spanking when we were little. The act was a bit painful, but was over quickly and I doubt any of us were ever harmed in the act. As a beginning Christian, perhaps God wanted us to concentrate only on the gift of salvation and not so much on what Jesus endured to provide that gift. As we grow in our salvation, we become more interested in the details of what happened on that very unique Friday. When we see a graphic depiction or read the details of what it meant when "Pilate had him flogged" we begin to understand a lot more of what it took to gain our salvation.
As we learn more about what crucifixion involved, along with wondering how Jesus even managed to get there after the flogging and beating He endured, we learn a bit more about the cost involved in our salvation. Then, finally, he who had never complained or cried out, did so on the cross. What pain and loneliness must it have taken to make Jesus cry out like that? We may never know or understand, but as the sun rises on a new day, we can thank Jesus for His final declaration: "It is finished!"
Observe Good Friday; celebrate Easter!
Bucky
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