"Good" Friday?!

It’s Good Friday”! It’s the day on which millions recall, specifically, the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, at the hand of the Roman occupiers, and at the instigation of the Jewish hierarchy. Crucifixion – one of the cruellest forms of executing the death penalty. Yet we refer to this as “Good” Friday! Why?

These are difficult and troubled times in which we live. Social isolation means that many families are unable to meet together as they normally would at this time of Passover (for Jews) and Resurrection (for disciples of Jesus). But the times 2,000 years ago were also troubled.  If you have access to a Bible, or even just a New Testament (and, if you are reading this online, then you have access to both!), please turn to John 19, and read the first thirty verses.

Most of us like stories that end with “… and they lived happily ever after.”! I finished a novel yesterday. I won't share the full story but, at the end, a young detective was fatally wounded. The woman he had been helping visits his grave:

"You were a good man," she said, " and it wasn't supposed to happen like this. But how often do things turn out like they should, you know? Happy endings aren't always happy for everyone. I think about you a lot. I wonder about what you'd be doing, where you'd be right now. You're here because of me, and - I haven't figured out how to deal with that yet, but I'll keep coming back until I do, I promise. Maybe after that, too. See you next week, okay?" (Sara's Game; Ernie Lindsey).

"Happy endings aren't always happy for everyone."

From a human perspective, that Shabbat eve certainly didn't end well for Jesus - or for His disciples. I was speaking with a friend in Germany only a half-hour ago. Referring to the Covid-19 situation he asked, "Did you ever think that something like this could happen?" The same question could have been asked of the disciples and, in spite of all the hints, suggestions, and clear teaching that the Lord Jesus had given them, things had not turned out as they had expected. Who would have thought? Who would have imagined? But it happened. On that Friday, which seemed to be anything but 'good', those who were there could have cried out: "We live in troubled times!" And they would have been correct! They lived in troubled times - as do we at this season of Pâques. 

However, it is a sad fact of life that bad things happen to good people! remember that occasion on which "There were some present at that very time who told [Jesus] of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo'am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-5). Bad things happen to good people!

We, too, live in troubled times, and it's not just because of the Covid-19 virus. It's because we live in a twisted, and broken world. "We know," writes Paul, "that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;" (Rom 8:22). It's because sin entered the perfect world that Father God had created - and bad things happen to good people: perhaps more often than we want to admit!

Those who stood at the cross almost 2,000 years ago saw nothing "good" about what was happening. But they did not have the advantage that you and I have of being able to look from what was, to them, the future. We know that the "good" of Good Friday is the good that we may gain from it. We know how the story unfolds. We know that Sunday was coming - and the story would be different. We know that it was all in the plan and purpose of Father God Who loves us so much that, in the Persona of the Lord Jesus, He paid the penalty for your sins and for mine. "For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (II Cor 5:21). Ponder those words. The spotless, sinless, perfect Son not only "... bore our sins in His body on the tree," (I Peter 2:24). He actually became sin. He became sin in all of its vileness; its blackness; its depravity; its wickedness; its evil; its degradation. I believe that it was at that moment in time, that in eternity, the Father Who cannot even look upon sin, turned away from the dearly-beloved Son - and that Son cried out, in agony of spirit, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" (Matt 27:46).

He paid a debt He did not owe; because you, and I, owed a debt we could not pay. And that is the GOOD News about this day.

Of course, that leaves us, each one, with a choice. The inestimable gift of the Lord Jesus is available to all - but we must accept it. Father God does not force salvation upon any individual. We must each come to Him, in faith, by His grace, trusting Him with our lives, for all of the time that we have left in this mortal life.

Have you done that? If not, why not? Not one of us knows what tomorrow will bring - the Covid-19 virus has made that fact abundantly clear! But those who are "... in Christ Jesus." (Rom.8:1) need not fear. We don't know what the future holds - but we know the One Who holds the future in His hand. I commend you to His love and care.