I just wanted to take a little time to write about what a significant day is before us. It is Good Friday. This is the day that Jesus our Lord died a criminal's death on a cross to save us. I've never really thought about Good Friday before this year. I've always acknowledged the fact that Jesus died on this day and rose again three days later...but I've never looked so much deeper into it.
This week I heard a message about just how awesome and amazing Jesus's death for us was, and it really opened my eyes and my heart. I'll first begin in Isaiah 53, where Jesus life and death were prophesied. It starts out in the first two verses explaining how the world rejected the Son of God. It says that people did not recognize Him as a king because He was an ordinary man. Outwardly, there was nothing special about Him. The people of earth needed a deliverer. The people of the earth all turned their backs on God--their provider, their life-giver, their comforter, and their creator.
We needed delivering. So Jesus was sent to earth from heaven so that we could have the chance to be with God forever when we die. God loved us so much....it's just so incredible how much God loves us. But we rejected Jesus because we didn't have faith. Jesus brought the message that was prophesied for thousands of years, but people just turned their backs. Jesus was God in human form--He loved, He brought hope, He healed, and He comforted. "He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with the deepeest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care." Isaiah 53:3
Jesus loved us. He was sent because of love. He died out of love. He gave himself for the opporutnity to call us His friends--even though we were traitors. He was everything good and we, in our selfishness, turned away from His open arms. Despite the fact that we turned away, He still went through so much pain and suffering--He knew that what was to come would be so much better than what He had to go through to get us there.
I can't imagine what thoughts were going through Jesus' mind when He was up there on that cross. I wonder if He thought, "If you only knew how much I love you. I am dying for you. One day you will see."
Jesus didn't retaliate because He knew what was going to happen. Any one of us would have just told the world "Fine! You know what?...You guys don't deserve this! You will never understand." But Jesus had the mind of the Lord. He knew the big picture. He knew that what He was doing would be worth it all.
Isaiah 53:11 is God speaking of His Son: "When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all of their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious solider, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels." I think that is such a special verse! We are the spoils that Jesus will reap from the victory over evil! Wow. He really loves us.
He held the weight of the world on his shoulders, as he hung there in inconcievable pain, there on the cross. He was completely and utterly alone in the world. "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" And with His dying breaths he said, "It is finished." He had done what He had come to do. He came to the earth as a sinless man and was forsaken by the world that He came to save. And He did it.
But wait....a King is not supposed to die! This can't be right...
Thankfully this is not the end of the story...
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