Happy Good Friday, y'all! It's almost Easter and I'm excited. I love this time of year! I love the pastel colors, the bunnies, and the family and friends who gather together to celebrate spring and Easter.
Then, on Easter Sunday I love seeing the special outfits that everyone wears. The full seats at church and the pretty background for pictures in the lobby. The sermons that always lay out the Gospel so well.
But one thing this time of year often gets skimmed over. . . Good Friday. The past few years I feel like I have more deeply realized the importance of this day. Good Friday should be a day to stop in your busy schedule and reflect on how much God truly loves us. It's a day to think about the cross, and not just as a step to the empty tomb, but a series of events that led to the death of the Son of Man.
As we now know, that isn't where Jesus' story ends. But, have you ever imagined what it was like to be there, on Golgotha looking at Jesus while He is hanging on the cross.
Today, I encourage you to take a moment and imagine you are there. Not on the outskirts of the crowd but in between the disciples. You can hear the guards teasing Jesus and the conversation between the men on the other crosses. You can see the crown of thorns pressed onto His head and the sign above Him calling Him the "King of the Jews."
Imagine you are standing right in front of Him when He says, "It is finished."
All of this is necessary and needed to pay for our sins. For the sins of everyone who has lived and who will live. When Jesus said, "It is finished" He didn't mean He was finished. He meant that the debt has been paid and all sins are washed clean.
As hard as it is to think about this sight, I encourage you to ponder it for a little longer this year. It is important to realize that this Sunday school story many of us have been taught isn't just a man dying and then coming back to life three days later. It is the retelling of an actual event in history where Jesus was tortured, mocked, and killed all because of how much He loves me and you, and how He would give up everything for us.
Then, He came back to life three days later. The stone was rolled away and He walked back to His disciples. As Pastor Joby always says, "If the tomb is empty, anything is possible!" That's what we will celebrate on Sunday.
Just don't forget to think about the cross, not just the empty tomb.