Good Friday
Have you made your Easter plans yet? For many of us, this weekend will be a busy one. There are church services to attend, brunches to be enjoyed and perhaps even visits from the Easter bunny!
But hold on...we are not quite there yet. First, we must get through this day.
And this day is different.
If you are a Christian, you know this. It is a day in which Jesus took up His cross and carried it to Golgotha. There, in agony, He was nailed to that cross and breathed His last. Today is more than simply another special holiday on the church’s calendar.
On Good Friday, God dealt with the problem of evil and sin. For this reason, today is perhaps the most important day in history. In reality, it is not an overstatement to say the entire scope of history finds its climax in the events which take place today. From the opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning...” (Genesis 1:1) to its closing words, “Come Lord Jesus,” (Revelation 22:20) the events of Good Friday stand at the very center of the human story. Richard John Neuhaus gets at the historical importance of Jesus’s death when he writes, “...everything is retrieved from the past and everything is anticipated from the future, and the cross is the point of entry to the heart of God from whom, and for whom, quite simply, everything is. Here is the beginning and end come together...”[1]
So today, we stand at the crossroads of history. Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled God’s ancient promise to undo the curse which plagued His creation. However, the events of this day also invite us to look forward to a better future– a future in which there will be no more “mourning or crying or pain.” (Revelation 21:5) I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of future of which I want to be part. The events of Good Friday make such a future possible. As Neuhaus reminds us, “the cross is point of entry to the heart of God.”
As we meditate on Jesus’ work this Good Friday, let us remember this is a day God changed the course of history, but it is also a day in which we gained entrance into the heart of God. You may have heard some Christians like to put other Christians to the test by asking them, “Can you name the day you were saved?” To this question, there can be only one answer: “I was saved on Good Friday.”
[1] Richard John Neuhuas, Death On a Friday Afternoon. New York: Basic Books, 200. p. 189.
