As I kid, I struggled to understand why such a tragic day could be called “Good Friday”. It seemed to me that “Bad Friday” would have been a much more fitting name. Now, as an adult, sometimes I still struggle with it. If you’re like me, we struggle to understand what happened on that day because, on the one hand, the concept of “substitutionary atonement” is difficult to wrap our minds around, and, on the other hand, if it’s a doctrine that we understand only in our minds without it being a living reality that grips our hearts, we still aren’t getting it. It’s about a man’s suffering, but it’s not only about the magnitude of his suffering. It’s about who he was and why he suffered and why it matters to us. Dwelling on the magnitude of his suffering without understanding it in its context and experiencing it in our souls will not yield the desired effect. We will be analysts rather than being experiencers. We will be audience rather than being actors. We will be spectators rather than being participants. There is a world of difference between saying “I believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world” and saying “Jesus died for me, and that is the one thing that I most cherish about being alive”. Getting the cross right means getting our life right and getting our eternity right. We must properly understand, and we must properly experience. We can’t approach this trivially. There is too much at stake.
Why would one person give his or her life for another? A policeman or a fireman or a lifeguard puts his or her life at risk in order to save another life. A doctor or nurse or other hospital or nursing home worker may risk getting sick and possibly dying in order to preserve the lives of those under his or her care. Organ donors put their lives at risk in order to preserve the lives of their friends. A traffic cop rushes into the middle of a busy intersection, putting his or her own life at risk to save the life of child who is about to be hit by oncoming traffic. Parents will put themselves into harm’s way in order to protect the lives of their children. We can picture a parent saying “take me, but save the life of my child”. These kinds of examples start to move us in the right direction, but they fall far short of what Jesus accomplished on the cross on that tragic but beautiful Friday afternoon. Let’s start by looking at the theology of the cross. Here’s how the apostle Paul explains it in his Epistle to the Romans: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”. (Romans 3:23-26) So we are all sinners; we have all offended a holy God. How can God be both just and justifier? If God forgives our sins by overlooking them, that would make God less than just. A just God can’t overlook sin without compromising his own sense of justice. So here’s the “dilemma” (not really a dilemma but in human terms, by human logic, it looks as though God is in a dilemma). God is loving, so he wants to forgive us our sins. God is just so he can’t forgive our sins without compromising his own sense of justice. So God does the unthinkable. God becomes a man. God comes to earth. God takes the punishment for our sins. As prophesied in Isaiah 53 “The chastisement for our iniquities fell upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed”. By presenting Himself as our substitute, God pays the penalty. God exacts the penalty, and then God comes to earth to pay his own penalty. Now God can forgive our sins in a way that does not compromise his own justice. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, can can forgive our sins without overlooking them. He didn’t overlook them; he paid for them. The penalty has been paid. The punishment has been taken— by God Himself. That is what allows God to be both just and justifier. Jesus died so God could forgive us of our sins in a way that makes Him both just and justifier. Two planks of wood and some nails are arranged in a pile. That’s all the equipment He’ll need. Painful, bloody steps to the place of execution, the place of the offering, the place of reconciliation. The hands now pierced with nails: Cold, sharp, painful nails mercilessly hammered through the hands of the One who loved because He is Love. Friends and enemies stand to witness the self-sacrifice of the Lamb, for love of God, for love of man. Friends and enemies brought together to this place, at this time to watch, to weep, to wonder. God and man brought together in this place, at this time to witness and experience the ultimate act of reconciliation, and the price is death—slow, painful, excruciating death. The dark death of Friday’s cross was not for the man who died. This death was for the world—no, for me! “Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost”. (John 19:29-30). Jesus is on the cross, and he is thirsty, so they give him some vinegar on a sponge. That’s like telling a prisoner “We have to feed you but you don’t have to like what we give you. It’s this or nothing. Take it or leave it”. They stick it on a piece of hyssop so it could reach up to his mouth. It’s not much but it will have to do. The Son of God comes to earth and all that we humans can come up with to give him is some vinegar in a sponge on a piece of hyssop. He gave his life for us. We give him vinegar on a sponge. Our little token efforts don’t amount to much. All of our best efforts come to sour wine— “filthy rags”. And then Jesus utters the words “It is finished”— “tetelestai”— you can almost hear that word echoing through the mountains, as it was portrayed so beautifully in the movie, “The Passion of the Christ” — “tetelestai, telelestai, tetelestai”. What was finished? Not only his life, but also the entire assignment that God the Father had given him, and the whole work of redemption. Sins atoned. God and humanity have been reconciled, for those who would receive it. The work is finished. Our debt, which we could never pay back, has been paid in full. The God who had created the world came to die for it. He took the punishment that we deserve. He died in or place, as our substitute, wearing our name tag. He suffered and died that we might live— the just for the unjust. The death of Jesus was for us, so that we could be forgiven, but it was also for God, so that He could have the world reconciled back to Himself, as He deserves. Jesus could have stopped the process at any time. He could have pressed the “abort mission” button, but, had he done that, you and I would still be in our sins, with no hope of salvation, no hope of forgiveness, no hope of an intimate relationship with God, no hope of a life-transforming spiritual awakening, no hope of meaning for our earthly existence, no hope beyond the grave, no hope of eternal life in intimate relationship with God forever. We would be condemned to live forever in existential isolation and darkness under the shadow of Dante’s sign “Abandon all hope here”. Jesus could have saved himself, but by saving himself he would have left us alone to wander in our own self-imposed darkness. He suffered our darkness so that we might live in the light. He died our death so that we might experience his life. He suffered the penalty for our sins so that we might experience God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. In this strange sacrifice where priest and offering are one, God reconciled the world to Himself. God reconciled me to Himself. Immense gratitude is the only response that is fitting. How little we understand the great price that God Himself paid for our redemption, and how little we understand how undeserving we are. Humanly speaking, it was a very bad Friday— the worst day in history, for it was the day that the world put God on a cross and killed him. From God’s perspective, though it was ugly and horrible and painful and tragic, it was also beautiful. It demonstrated the greatness of God’s love for us. It made a way for God to be both just and justifier. God accomplished His goal of overcoming sin and death and reconciling a sinful and rebellious world to Himself. It was not humanity killing God. It was God sacrificing Himself for humanity. It was God giving Himself up for us, because of His great love for us, so that we might know Him and live with Him and glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. If God’s plan of redemption is more about God than it is about us, then what is our role? It’s to receive His gift of grace and mercy with joyful gratitude, and to live in such a way that our lives bring as much glory and honor to our God as possible, not to pay Him back, but out of a sense of immense gratitude, because our greatest delight is to love the one who loved us so deeply. What is an adequate response? I am reminded of the phrase that was used by the Moravians as they prayed for 100 years straight and as they went to the ends of the earth as radically obedient missionaries, even at one point being wiling to sell themselves into slavery if that was what it would take in order to reach people for Christ: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his sufferings”. Let’s not place ourselves at the center of God’s plan of redemption. Let’s place God at the center of God’s plan of redemption. We benefit, but it’s not about us; it’s about God. God got back His world. God deserves to have the world reconciled to Himself, and now, because of what was accomplished by Jesus on the cross on that Friday, it has happened. Now God can be rightly glorified, as He deserves. Our brokenness and alienation sin and death have been overcome, so that we can give to God the glory that He so rightly deserves out of hearts of joyful gratitude. God gets back the world that he created, humanity becomes a beautiful reflection of God’s greatness and beauty and mercy, and God receives the glory that He so fully deserves. We get to be reconciled to our Creator, and to glorify Him by enjoying Him forever. Though I deserve condemnation, I get to spend eternity as the beloved son of my loving heavenly Father, to whom I have been reconciled— and so do you, if you will receive it. From that perspective, it was a good Friday— a very good Friday indeed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About Joe Scordato
Archives
March 2024
Categories |