Good News on this Good Friday

{The Deposition, Caravaggio, The Vatican}

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. Isaiah 53:3

Today I will not hide my face from Christ. Today I will speak of Him with joy and a grateful heart for all He has done on my behalf and on the behalf of all mankind.

We live in a sin sick world, this Earth. So much beauty to behold. The sweetness of a newborn’s breath, her infant mouth stretched in a yawn. Creation drips with paint from the Creator’s hands. Glorious colors, intricate details, biological wonders.

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” Isaiah 40:12

But amongst all this beauty, something has gone awry. And that something is humankind. It all started with Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, brushing away the fruit crumbs, knowing their disobedience. Since then, The Garden has deteriorated with pollution, sickness, and death. Man now lives longing for intimacy with his Creator. We attempt to fill the God shaped hole in our hearts with many a distraction; looking to others, possessions, and other gods to fill the vacuum in our souls. In our state of sinfulness we cannot have fellowship with our Holy God and we are left longing. I see it in myself, the temper that lashes out, the self centered thoughts, the pride. It’s sin and my Holy God can have nothing to do with it. Despises it. Seeks its retribution. I try. I keep the Ten Commandments until I lust after my neighbor’s perfect family and then make myself an idol, trusting my own ability to control things rather than His. And because you are God you see it all.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

You are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Psalm 139:1-4, 8

So we stand before you God. Fully exposed. Imperfect. And rebellious. You are righteous and cannot be in the presence of sin. Yet all along, since the fall of Adam and Eve, You had a plan. A radical plan that rested on You alone. For in your extravagant love you allowed us to be the scapegoats and for your Son, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to be the final sacrifice.

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 out 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 iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:4-6

Yes Jesus, I believe You took human form and lived fully human and fully God. That You lived a perfect life and died a convict’s death, taking the punishment that should be rightly mine, on Your shoulders. And You did all this in love for the people You created, the people standing before You, mocking You, and turning away. I believe that on that 3rd day, You rose from the grave. You ascended into heaven and now sit at the right hand of God. So I sing this scripture and I shout it from the rooftops because it is Good News. It is the news of Your love, Your plan, and Your redemption.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

I live today under His grace, knowing I belong to Him. I am His child and He has given me a delightful inheritance, promises in scripture, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and eternal life in heaven. So today, to those that read this blog, I echo Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. I pray:

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

May have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:17-19

What will you do with Christ? For I believe all eternity rests on this answer.