Today is Good Friday – a day of profound paradoxes.
Even its name sticks in the throat, for what can be even remotely good about a day on which something so appallingly bad took place.
But Good Friday was good for those who know they’re not – and are prepared to admit it.
Some people say that Jesus’ death on the cross shows us how much He loves us. And they’re right. Because it does.
But it doesn’t show us how lovely we are.
Because the price paid is not so much a measure of our inherent worth but, given how incalculably high it was, a measure of how much has gone wrong in us – and in the world.
To think otherwise would be like a gangster imagining that the reward for his capture was an indication of how much he’d contributed to society, rather than a reflection of just how appalling his crimes were.
That said, the cross does speak of how highly God values us. Not because of how lovely we are, but because of the immense honour He has bestowed on us by creating us in His own image – horribly marred though that image has become as a consequence of the Fall.
Which is why, despite the severity of our sin, He sent His beloved Son Jesus to bear the punishment that we deserved.
And what a sacrifice it was – involving nails being driven through His hands and feet, a spear being thrust into His side, and the fearful realisation that, though completely sinless, He had been forsaken even by His own Father. [Matthew 27:46]
And all so that we need never be.
God loves us. Not because we’re lovely – but because He is loving.
So loving, in fact, that He was prepared to suffer for us, despite our sinfulness, so that, rather than suffering God’s wrath, we might be adopted into His family as His fully forgiven and much loved children.
But here’s the thing.
It is only by recognising the depths of our depravity that we can comprehend just how undeserving we are.
It is only when we appreciate the seriousness of our sin that we grasp how perilous our condition really is.
It is only when we acknowledge our guilt that we begin to marvel at the magnitude of His grace.
And it is only when we see the lengths to which He was willing to go that we understand how unconditional His love for us is, and, knowing how much we have been forgiven, can begin at last to love Him in return. [Luke 7:47]
How grateful we should be then for the cross and all that was achieved there.
Last year I heard a Romanian pastor speaking of his uncle who, back in the days of communism, was imprisoned because of his faith.
Every day of his detention his two daughters prayed for his captivity to end until eventually, after several years, he was released and allowed to return home.
And so his daughters’ prayers inevitably turned to ones of gratitude to God.
But to the increasing irritation of one, the other continued to thank God daily for longer than the first felt necessary.
So much so that, after some months, she expressed her annoyance and insisted that her sister, having thanked God enough, should instead start praying about other matters.
To which the father said, ‘Don’t tell your sister to stop thanking God for my freedom – because you don’t know what it is that I’ve been freed from’.
And something similar could be said for us.
I know what it is to be forgiven by patients for mistakes I made whilst practising medicine – some of which had serious consequences. I know how their gracious acceptance of my apology helped lift a burden that I had previously struggled to carry.
How much more, then, should we be grateful for the salvation secured for us by Jesus, which frees us from the consequences of our sin – the righteous wrath of God – that would otherwise have justly been ours to bear.
For God so loved the world that He gave His Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. [John 3:16]
Good Friday, then, is not good because of what took place that day – it’s good because of what those events achieved.
All of which means that today, Good Friday can be wonderfully good for each and every one of us.
I hope it will be for you.
Related posts:
To read ‘A Warm Welcome Awaited: From Hosanna to Hallelujah’, click here
To read ‘Visions of Blue: Echoes of Grace’, click here
To read ‘Minding the Gap’, click here
To read ‘And not just because baked beans get in the way’, click here
To read ‘The Kindness We Don’t Needand the Truth We Do’, click here
To read ‘No Ifs or Buts’, click here
To read ‘Hope in the Ashes: Why Sin Remains But Does Not Reign’, click here
To read ‘Hope for the Guilty’, click here
To read ‘When our best isn’t good enough’, click here
To read ‘On Narcissism…an the Pot Calling the Kettle Black’, click here
Some musings 