Never before or since has more been lost and gained at the same time.
[Russ Ramsey]
It is the most incomprehensible thing, isn’t it?
We call it Good Friday, and we read about the underhanded mock trials, the religious leaders’ desperate twisting of Jesus’ words, the horrific physicality of the execution. We read about the disciples scattering into the night and that other Simon, who was yanked out of the crowd to drag the cross Jesus was too weak to carry. We read about the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and about the women there at the cross.
Did you remember that His mother was there?
His mother, standing at the foot of the cross, watching her firstborn Son suffer.
Did she remember how this all began, when that angel had appeared and told her that she was beloved and highly favored and she’d said, Let it be done to me according to Your word, oh Lord?
Did she recall, as that terrible day wore on, that Simeon had told her, A sword will pierce your own soul, also?
Was it her willingness to submit to God’s purposes that ultimately nurtured her Son to pray Not my will, but Yours in the garden that night?
Could she have conceived of calling this good?
Probably not today. Not on Friday.
On Friday, it didn’t look good.
But that upside-down kingdom that Jesus was bringing?
It was about to bend the definition of good into something altogether miraculous.
Friday did not appear good to His disciples, to the women, or to His mother. It may not appear good to us, either. But there was, and is, an otherworldly goodness at play.
When we gauge our circumstances, we see things that are outright bad: heartache, resentments, betrayals, trivial irritations, exhaustion and more. But we are not asked to somehow repackage truly bad things with false cheer or worse, malign God’s character by suggesting He calls good what is objectively bad or difficult.
The invitation is to trust the Word —the Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God— to trust that Word to define for us what is good. It’s Jesus, the Word made flesh; He was rewriting the story even as He hung on the cross.
And so the Good Friday invitation to you, whether you are mired in difficult work or tiring days of parenting or long months of deferred hopes, it’s to believe that there is a literal, supernatural good that God intends to work in you and for you, as you wait on Him.
The invitation is to lean so hard on the everlasting arms of God that our circumstances are no longer the lens through which we view God and the Word Himself becomes our good. The invitation is that we, like Mary, find strength by the Holy Spirit to say our own be it unto me, according to Your Word, oh Lord!
The invitation today, as we consider this terrible Good Friday is to remember that the Son of God bears our griefs and sorrows with us and that He is always, always good.
TO READ:
Old Testament prophecy: Isaiah 53:1-6
The Crucifixion & Burial: Matthew 27:11-61, John 18:28 - 19:42
From the psalms: Psalm 22:1-18
TO MEDITATE:
'For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. '
Colossians 1:19-20
It’s Friday, friends; but Sunday’s coming! 🫶🏽
PS: Are you coming to our Grace family Easter celebration on Sunday? Get the scoop: