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Friday, April 6, 2012

Good Friday

It's Good Friday, the saddest, most somber day of the Christian calendar.  We must all endure this retelling of Jesus' suffering in order to even try to realize the glorious gift that is ours on Easter morning.


It was our infirmities he bore,/our sufferings that he endured,/while we thought of him as stricken,/as one smitten by God and afflicted./But he was pierced for our offenses,/crushed for our sins;/upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,/by his stripes we were healed./We had all gone astray like sheep,/each following his own way;/but the Lord laid upon him/the guilt of us all. (Isaiah 52)


This passage is as true today as it was in Isaiah's time.  We have all gone astray.  Like sheep, we follow so many things other than Jesus.  And we forget so easily the sacrifice He made for us.  That is why, at the very least, we should meditate on His pain and suffering on this day, Good Friday.


Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted Him
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every other name.  (Phillippians 2:8-9)


Obedience.  A word most people ignore these days.  Shouldn't we try to employ some obedience into our daily lives?  Obedience and humility go hand in hand.  Putting others' needs before our own--isn't that what Christ did?  He thought of all of us, putting aside the thought of all the pain He would endure.  Our needs were above His needs.  Wouldn't life here on earth be so much better if everyone would think of others before themselves and would be obedient to the will of God?


Behold your king!


"Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!"


Every time we choose to sin in this life, we are screaming "Crucify him!"  We are helping to pound the nails into Jesus' hands and feet. We are turning our backs on Jesus' pain, suffering and humiliation.


It is finished.


It is done.  The ultimate sacrifice had been made.  And we are so undeserving, so selfish, so sinful.  That is what makes Christ's sacrifice the ultimate gift to us.  


So please, today, take some time to be there at the foot of the cross where Jesus suffered so.  Look up at His beautiful pain-filled face, and repent and suffer along with Him, if even just on this Good Friday.  Because Easter Sunday means nothing if we can't share some of the pain of Good Friday.


May God bless you and bring you closer to Him on this sad and mournful day in anticipation of the glory of Easter Sunday.

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