WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT GOOD FRIDAY?

 


As a kid, I always enjoyed Holy Week.  I loved getting the palm fronds on Sunday and waving them as I was supposed to be paying attention to the service.  I loved forming them into a cross.  I loved being part of the children’s choir and singing the “Little Gray Donkey” song about Jesus entering Jerusalem.  I loved a week of things that had me dying and hunting for eggs, searching for Easter baskets filled with presents, a new Easter dress and bonnet, and lots and lots of chocolate!

But as an adult I’ve started to wonder more about how the crowd that lined the streets and welcomed Jesus with shouts of “Hosannah!” could become the same crowd that only a few days later would be screaming for His death.

I believe that transition speaks to some of the worst qualities of humanity:

People are self-centered – Very often people’s main concern is for themselves and how the things we interact with can serve us.  Heck, if we’re honest, most of us decided to be Christ followers because He promised an alternative to Hell.  But, when given the opportunity to enter our hearts, Jesus can change us so we are no longer prioritize ourselves, but rather become people who seek to do His will, and to honestly and completely love others.  Ezekiel 11:19 says, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…”

People are narrow minded – In Jesus’ day, when the crowd understood that He wasn’t there to overthrow the Romans, they turned on Him.  They wanted THEIR vision to be the one that transpired, and they offered no room in their hearts for an alternative. 

When we follow Jesus, we begin to recognize that He can see past the here and now, into the eternal, and that HIS ways are greater than our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

People are frightened of anything that threatens their power or status – The priests and Pharisees were threatened by Jesus.  They enjoyed their status among the people and within their government, and they knew that many of the things Jesus was saying contradicted them.  They clashed on issues of prayer, holiness, life after death, and paying taxes to the Romans. Above all, they clashed on the issue of Jesus' authority from God.  So, when given the opportunity, the religious leaders stirred up the crowd against Jesus because He represented a threat to their way of life. 

As Jesus followers we recognize when we’re focused on status and power in this world, we’re focusing on the wrong things.  Colossians 3:3-4 says it best, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.   For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

So GOOD FRIDAY is really about God’s love even when we’re NOT good.  Because when the crowd went from one who welcomed Jesus into the city, to one that demanded His death, their actions confirmed the need for a different sort of King:  A King who wasn’t here to rule on Earth, but rather one who could reestablish our place in Heaven by assuming the punishment for our sins. 

And that, my friends, makes this a GOOD FRIDAY indeed!


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