good friday

in our current culture it is really hard to grasp the tension that this day respresents for Christians. in north america we really do not have to suffer for our faith....certainly not to the degree that Jesus did over 2000 years ago. good friday creates a tension because to really observe this holiday we are forced to grapple with the darkness that came over all of creation when Christ was nailed to the cross. to see our hero beaten beyond the point of recognition is terrifying....he was supposed to be the savior. to see him carry his own cross up the side of golgotha isn't the way it was supposed to be....he had already carried so much for us on his shoulders. to see him nailed to a cross and mocked was sickening....he didn't deserve any of it.

i hope as you move into this easter weekend you will pause at least for a moment today and REMEMBER what this day represents. luckily we know how the story ends so there is peace. however, if we ever get too far away from the truth of what preceded the resurrection we might just miss the point.

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?2For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.8By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who consideredthat he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?9And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53