Good Friday - Love So Amazing

 GOOD FRIDAY

“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my heart, my all.”

These are words that I’ve tried to focus on and live with during the latter part of Lent, our time to reflect on the cross and how Jesus died there, in our place, to pay the penalty for our sin.  Remember these moments as Jesus was breathing His last and dying on our behalf.

He gave of Himself for the immense “whole of humanity” that day but also in a very personal way to those who were around him. 

One of two thieves hanging beside Him asks forgiveness which Jesus graciously promises, while the other mocks him.  Others standing around the cross who should have understood from the scriptures that Jesus was their Messiah giving His life for them, shouted insults at Him instead. 

And there is Jesus, who could have called down judgment on them, staying on the cross and dying there for them and for all of us.

Is it any wonder that when Jesus died, one of the soldiers guarding Him responded in this way? 

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”

Luke 23: 44

Others didn’t quite know what to think except to be shocked and saddened.

When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. 

Luke 23:45-49

On this Good Friday we are stopped dead in our tracks, so to speak, in amazement, Lord Jesus, at the depth of Your love for us.  While we didn't care, while we scorned You and Your involvement in the earth and our lives You acted on our behalf at huge personal cost. 

Until the last moment you could have escaped becoming sin and the death and separation from Your Father that resulted, but You voluntarily laid down Your life. 

We remember with amazement and our hearts are filled with gratitude.

We try to look today at all You did for us from our little pinprick of time and it's hard to take in. You did so much more for us than we will ever know until we see you face to face in heaven. 

And then as we reflect back on our own lives and how difficult we find it to endure the smallest of inconveniences and hardships on Your behalf, we pray that You will do a new work in us that lifts us out of our self-centeredness and help us live into a courageous response to this immense love You have poured out for us.  Amen

It’s a solemn day and a day to just try to be with God and let this deepest of all truths – Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins --soak into our lives in life-changing ways.