Good Friday

On this day we celebrate Good Friday, the day which seems to have a paradox about it. I was actually in the McDonalds Drive Thru line today when a former co-worker asked me, "Why is it called Good Friday?" It's called Good Friday because even though Christ was put to the Cross, even though He died...it was for a reason. It was with that death that the forgiveness of sins was won. It was a very good day.

That said, I've never been fond of Good Friday. It was on Good Friday all those years ago that my grandfather had his stroke that left him crippled and unable to speak. It is also on this day, as I stated before, that Christ was crucified. Two individuals whom my love for in this life was truly great and remains to be.

On this day Christ was betrayed with a kiss. On this day Christ was taken from the Garden in the wee hours. On this day Christ would find himself judged by a most sympathizable figure in Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea. On this day prophecies were fulfilled as his legs were not broken and pretty much the entirety of Isaiah chapter fifty-three came to pass.

Three times in the eighteenth chapter of John do we hear two words applied to Jesus Christ, "I AM". The name of God. When Jesus is asked by those sent to seize Him, He states this, then the Gospel narrative restates it to show the significance, and then finally once more he states it after asking whom they are looking for. He is God, and He does not deny it, He states it so clearly.

He also gives His mother to His beloved Disciple in John chapter nineteen, verses twenty-six and twenty-seven:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."
Then he said to the disciple,
"Behold, your mother."
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Then the climax to Good Friday must be, has to be, the death of the Christ. The Lamb of God dies upon the Cross and as He does so, he is given wine on a sponge upon a stick of hyssop...the Passover symbolism is undeniable. Then when He gives up His spirit, it is decreed to break the legs so the men shall not hang on the Sabbath, and His bones were not broken in fulfillment of Scriptures. When His side was pierced by a blind Roman, blood and water gushed forth, a process of separation that should have taken far longer..and the first sight a blind Roman sees is that of the Son of God crucified.

When we survey the Cross, what is our first thing we see? Is it just a shape? Is it just a meaningless bauble? Or do we see within it an echo of history and of our salvation? Do we see within it, the love of God whom would send His Son to die for us?