Excerpt from "Journey to the Cross" by Will Walker and Kendal Haug, pg. 176
Today is called Good Friday, which is not really good because "good" is too neutral of a term. The events of Good Friday are the ultimate paradox - at once atrocious and wonderful, scandalous and beautiful, the worst kind of hate and the best kind of love. On this day we were convicted and pardoned, condemned and freed, cursed and blessed.
It was the darkest day. Many who had followed Jesus up to now fled from the events of Friday. And those who stayed watched in horror: the phony trial, the mob that cried out for the blood of the innocent man, the brutal beating, the savagery of the soldiers, and the grueling walk through the city He had entered to cheers just five days before. Finally, the nails pounded into flesh, the tortured body slouched over, the naked man died as his enemies jeered.
To His disciples - those who had forsaken everything in order to follow Jesus - this day was the opposite of good. This man, in whom they had put all of their hopes, was hanging dead on a tree. This was the death of their faith, the crushing of all their hopes for a new kingdom, and the end of all they believed in. Or so it seemed.
As His followers laid Jesus in the tomb on that same dark day, Easter morning was on the horizon, but on Friday they couldn't see it. They couldn't see the defeat of death, the glory of the resurrection, or the advancement of God's kingdom. They couldn't see the whole story. There was no way around Good Friday, only the way through - through pain an death and burial.
It is the same for us; we cannot get around this day. We must go through the pain and death and burial to get to the resurrection. We must go through the darkness of Good Friday to get to the light of Easter.
God is a God of light: darkness cannot survive in His presence. We, who have dark hearts full of sin, should tremble at this fact. But Jesus, who was completely good, cloaked Himself in the darkness of our sin and stood under the wrath of God for us. On the cross, He was destroyed and cut in the midst of our darkest hour, God did not cut us off. Jesus Christ, our true light, plunged Himself into the darkness so that we might live in the light.
We can go through the darkness of this day because Jesus went through it before us. He is saving us and brining about our everlasting joy, in a way only God could have chosen. Easter is not far away!
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
