We come to Good Friday with some trepidation. We know the story well. It is the horrendous betrayal, abandonment, torture and death of Jesus. We love Palm Sunday and Easter but would rather skip Good Friday because, well, it is depressing, terrifying, a real downer. It makes us uncomfortable.
We do not want to contemplate the price of our sin. Good Friday acutely reminds us of loss of hope, end of dreams, death of faith.
Why do we have to go through this every year?
As the hymn says, “you have to walk it by yourself.” Without Good Friday, there is no Easter. Without the death of Christ, there is no life in Christ. We have to walk through this reality to experience the fullness of God’s grace.
It reminds us we are fragile, vulnerable, a breath away from death. It reminds us we are weak, two-faced, wicked in all our ways. We have to face our culpability in what happens on Good Friday.
Right now, we are living in a pandemic. We have lost so much: freedom of movement, a needed job, goods readily available in stores, eating out, hugging a friend, holding the hand of a dying loved one, or gathering at a funeral.
We have lost so much: the illusion of safety, a belief in scientists to create quick, effective cures, the infallibility of our leaders and government systems, and strong borders and barriers (now meaningless to a virus that can so easily spread and so quickly turn deadly).
In times like these, who can we trust? Who can we turn to for help?
We can trust Jesus. If ever there was someone who has demonstrated his loyalty, wisdom and love, it is Jesus. Although we are sinners, undeserving of His great love, He took on human life, to live among us and to know us, to experience all we go through – even the death of a really good friend, or an innocent child, or a beloved son – only to lay down his own life as a sacrifice to pay a debt we can never repay.
We must go through Good Friday because we must never undervalue or ignore the depth and value of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. He experienced the full array of human emotions and, during His passion, he experienced great physical pain unto death.
He is not a disinterested God, aloof or asleep, who allows His creation to muck things up until they self-annihilate. No. He is a personal, loving God who goes to great lengths to save us from ourselves, who responds when we reach out to Him.
Reach out. He is near.