Good Friday Feels

I don't always know how to feel on Good Friday. 

How about you? 

I think there is a healthy tension that we can find ourselves in in between giving worthy remembrance to the gruesomeness of Christ's death upon the cross for our sin and the resurrection-reality (with its hope & joy and so much more!) we live in 365 days a year. I think the tension we feel today is a good thing. Something wouldn't be right if we only gave attention to resurrection today. And, something wouldn't be right if we gave all our attention to manufacturing absolute somberness by trying to forget that 'Sunday is coming.'

In addition to tension, Good Friday also offers irony for us to contemplate.

Consider the words of the furious crowd that was addressing Pilate to bargain for the crucifixion of Jesus, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27.25) 

Wow. 

Of course, they were trying to communicate that Pilate could release himself from the sense of guilt he had as he pondered condemning someone he thought to be innocent and that they and their children after them would happily bear the consequence of this instead. However, as we read their words today, we can't help but notice the irony in that the only hope for their own redemption and forgiveness and that of their children for generations to come would be the blood of Jesus. 

Ephesians 1.7

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

Strangely, you and I might find ourselves praying today, "let His blood be on us and on our children." There is no other hope for our own redemption and forgiveness and that of our children than the very blood of Jesus. 

Maybe as we consider this you have someone come to mind that appears to be so far from the grace of God. Hope may seem lost. The prospect of them ever following Jesus may seem dead. 

Hold on.
Sunday is coming.

Pastor Mike