This morning, I’ve been thinking about how so many people want a Jesus of their own design. They are willing to do anything and everything to justify their thinking, justify their positions, justify their way of life. When Israel got their messiah in Jesus, that’s exactly what their leadership did to send Him to the cross. They had the law and prophets, but their traditions either disregarded these, or supplemented them to fit in to the Israel they wanted to build, and not the one God established. So, their plan was to get rid of Jesus. It didn’t work. He gave Himself up, and took His life up again. And this also is why good Friday needed to happen: I can’t do that. I’m not good enough. Today, as we consider “Good Friday,” understand that this day happened because I’m so bad, and so are you.
We sent Christ to the Cross because we want to be gods in our own right. We try to take by force, as the religious rulers of Jesus’ day did, what God desires to GIVE us through obedience to Him. We see obedience to God as shackles and chains, but God understands that, as everyone does what seems right in his own eyes, that we continually destroy ourselves and others. In the beginning, God made us in His image. All that was required of us was to work the Garden and obey one rule. Adam and Eve tried to take godhood by force (that’s what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil really was about), when God had already cast us by His mold, and breathed HIS breath into us. Cain killed Abel who was righteous before God because Abel’s righteousness offended His rebellion. And the story spiraled out of control from there (ours, not God’s; He’s always in control).
Jesus lived as we were meant to, and died as we deserved. He took our place to restore us, so that we might be sons and daughters of God, and co-heirs with Him. Good Friday should be a reminder of what our pride and arrogance does: it destroys the innocent. And that is why the world still hates those who stand, as Jesus did, against darkness and unrighteousness, it’s why it still destroys the saints and prophets who call people back to God’s principles and foundations through Jesus Christ, and why they want to destroy us, sensor us, and delete us from existence: light cannot abide darkness, and those who love darkness rather than light seek to snuff it out. But Church, the Gates of Hell shall not prevail. Remember days like today, that God sent His Son to die in your place. That you have been rescued from yourself, and that God desires to bring all to salvation. Speak boldly, speak plainly, and if it costs you everything, rejoice, as Jesus did, when they nail you to a cross for it. They did this to Jesus, to the apostles, to many saints before us, and they will do it to us. Be bold, be courageous, be like Jesus.
Matthew 27:32-61
As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Soni of God!”
There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
2 Corinthians 3
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on oura hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Comments