It's a beautiful day in Lincoln. A little breezy, but 60 and Sunny! A lovely Spring day. The kind of day to get out and play in, to celebrate light and life. Not the kind of day to think dark thoughts, or to celebrate darkness.
And yet.
Today is Good Friday. The day Christ-followers do exactly that - Remember the darkness. The darkest of days in all of History, the day God chose to die. And suffer, suffer terribly. His was not a quick death. He was tortured. Beaten, for hours. Mocked. Questioned. Ridiculed.They took His clothes. They placed a crown of thorns on His head. They made Him carry the wood for the Cross -the method of His execution. They put nails through His hands, His feet.
I can hardly bear to write this. I hate thinking of it. I hate reading about it. I am too empathetic a person, I cannot think about pain on this level. I am a puddle of tears.
But this isn't about me. Except it is. It's about all of us. He didn't go through all that for Himself.
I think about His loved ones. There. Watching. Waiting. Peter's denial and how much he must have hated himself. Jesus' Mother, his friends, his family. How could you stand to watch your loved one be humiliated and broken?
And there's more. They believed in Him. He was the Messiah! A King! Their Savior! They thought it meant politics, that He was to shake off the shackles of Roman Rule and re-establish Israel as the Theocracy it rightfully was.
And yet.
There he was. Dying on a Cross. Like a common criminal. So much for hope. The Darkness which covered the land must have matched the Darkness which flooded their souls.
And then He died. And they didn't know that wasn't the end. They didn't know what Sunday would mean. That He would rise from the Dead. But even that wasn't all. He didn't just rise Himself. He wasn't so limited in Power.
His Resurrection meant All Death was Conquered. Forever.
All Sin, taken into Himself on the Cross. Conquered. Forever.
Satan and all his minions. Conquered. Forever.
And that Messiah thing? Freedom from shackles? So much bigger than Rome. It's for all of us. FREE. Forever. Free from the power of sin over us. Free to LIVE as He meant us to live. In Fellowship with Him and each other.
I am Thankful. I am unworthy, but I am Loved. And I am FREE.
To anyone who reads this - If for you today isn't a beautiful day. If life is dark, even if it feels like it's been Friday for years... Sunday is coming. We can choose Life and Freedom. He paid the Price so we don't have to.
*Biblical References: Luke 22-24, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 8:31-39, 1 Peter 1:3
