Reflections On Good Friday

Today is Good Friday and I'm home, still recovering from a terrible cold virus... It's a blessing in disguise to have to stay home (it's not a holiday here); to have the opportunity to stop and reflect on what Good Friday is all about.

Our reflections started last night. Jonny and I read several passages from the book of Matthew and John together, mainly focusing on the events that happened on Thursday, the day before Jesus was crucified.

What struck me in our reading yesterday of John, starting in chapter 13, was all that Jesus did and told his disciples only hours before he was taken away. Instead of focusing or preparing for what was going to happen to him, Jesus focused on loving the disciples. Here is a summary of some of the things he did or said:

• He washed their feet as an example of what he wanted them to do for others
• He warned them about what was about to happen, including Judas' betrayal, so they would believe in him
• He told them to love one another, just as he loved them
• He told them not to let their hearts be troubled, but to believe in God and in him
• He told them that he was going away to prepare a place for them and that he would come back and take them away with him
• He told them that he was the way, the truth, and the life; that no one comes to the Father except through him, and that if you know him, you also know the Father.
• He told them he would ask his Father to give them the Holy Spirit, a Helper, who would be with them forever and would dwell in them.
• He said he would not leave them as orphans.
• He told them to abide in Him, and he would abide in them, and they would bear much fruit. 
• He told them as the Father had loved him, he had loved them
• He said that they were his friends, because he had made known to them what he heard from the Father
• He told them to remember that if the world hated them, it had hated him before. The world would love them if they were of the world, but they were not
• He even told them that some would be killed because of believing in him
• He said it was to their advantage that he go away, so that the Helper would come
• He told them that in a little while they would see him no longer but again in a little while, they would see him. He said that their sorrow would turn into joy
• He also prayed for them and all the future believers in Him...

And then, this morning, I listened to the crucifixion narrative; a very moving 23 minutes which I highly recommend -- here is the PDF. Again, the love that Jesus demonstrated for others during his final hours of life touched me immensely. Most of his last few words on the cross, in agony, focused on others, including:

• "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"
• He told the thief on his right that believed in him: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise"
• He told Mary, his mother, that she would not be left alone; that John, would be her son.   

But then, I was reminded again in a powerful way, what we so often forget about the crucifixion. Yes, Jesus suffered immense physical pain; he was slapped, whipped, outfitted with a crown of thorns, laid on the ground where cold spikes were driven into his wrist and feet, hung on a cross...

But the worse of it all, was the spiritual pain he experienced. He was, for the first time in his life, separated from his Father.  Though sinless, he took on all the sin of mankind, and experienced his Father's complete hatred and wrath towards sin. Did he deserve it? No! But he still chose to experience this so that he could reconcile human beings, including me, back to his Father. It was the only sacrifice that would count, once and for all.

In the crucifixion narrative I listened to, God tells Jesus exactly why he is being punished, by specifying all the sin He hates. And I couldn't stop myself from crying. You know why? Because I saw myself in that description so many times and I knew that Jesus was innocent! I felt like screaming, "No! Stop! He is not to blame, I am!" So many of the words used describe me, at different moments of my life:

"You are self-sufficient and self-righteous—consumed with yourself and puffed up and selfishly ambitious. You rob me of my glory and worship what's inside of you instead of looking out to the One who created you. You are a greedy, lazy, gluttonous slanderer and gossip. You are a lying, conceited, ungrateful... You exchange my truth for a lie and worship the creature instead of the Creator...You hate your brother and murder him with the bullets of anger fired from your own heart... ignore the needy. You love money and prestige and honor. You put on a cloak of outward piety, but inside you are filled with dead men's bones—you hypocrite! You are lukewarm and easily enticed by the world. You covet... You are filled with envy and rage and bitterness and unforgiveness. You blame others for your sin and are too proud to even call it sin.... you have a razor tongue that lashes and cuts with its criticism and sinful judgment. Your words do not impart grace. Instead your mouth is a fountain of condemnation and guilt and obscene talk.  You mock your parents. You have no self-control. You're an anxious coward. You do not trust me. You blaspheme against me."

That describes me. According to God, there is no denying that I'm a sinner. And because I am, I have no right to be in a relationship with a Holy God who hates sin. Instead, I deserve eternal separation from Him.

BUT, the good news is that on Good Friday, Jesus drank the Father's cup. He bore the separation that I deserve.

On the cross, the Father could no longer look at his beloved Son, the mirror-image of himself. He looked away and Jesus exclaimed: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”And then Jesus cried: "It is finished."

And it is indeed  finished. Every sin of every child of God, including my sin, has been laid on  Jesus. Jesus accomplished His mission. The ultimate sacrifice was accepted.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24-25)

I will never fully comprehend, until Heaven, the significance of what Jesus did on Good Friday. But I know enough to be moved to tears for I am reconciled with God; I have a relationship with Him; the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and one day, I will be reunited with Him again. I know enough to believe and worship Him! I know enough to love Him! I know enough to experience his peace that surpasses all understanding, even amidst the most difficult of trials. Even when my newborn son was dying in my arms...

Oh, my heart overflows with gratitude!

Thank you Jesus. Thank you Abba Father. Good Friday is indeed, very good.