Good Friday

For contemplation on this Good Friday, here are my favorite Good Friday passages.I feel that the prophecy in Isaiah so completely tells of Christ's innocence, his selfless gift of sacrificial death on our behalf. I needed an intercessor because I could not approach God in my sinful state. God is perfect, holy, and just. I am sinful, dirty, and unworthy. So today I am so thankful for Christ's sacrifice. Because I have accepted Him as my Lord and Savior I may approach God with confidence. Christ paid the price I should have paid and now God sees Him when He looks at me.

"See, my servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness" (Isaiah 52:13-14)

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearnace that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the inquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." (Isaiah 53:2-9)

I'm so glad the story does not end there. I look forward to Easter when, "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name." (Philippians 2:9). And I look forward to the future day when "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:10-11)

He has risen, He has risen indeed!

Side note on painting: This was a painting Mama Jean and I saw at the Orsay in Paris. It is titled "In the morning of the resurrection the disciples Peter and John on the way to the grave." The artist is Eugene Burnard. It was my favorite painting in the Orsay. Look at the expressions on their faces. Hope, anticipation. Could it be true? Could their friend, their teacher, their Savior be alive? Would they truly see him again? The joy to find that it was indeed true. He had risen!