My Savior, My God

Today is the much anticipated Good Friday. I believe for the past two years every Good Friday I share on my blog how my perspective of Easter weekend has changed.  The focus is less on the candy and more on the death and resurrection of Christ.  Our church has always had such powerful Good Friday services showcasing the death of Christ, making Easter Sunday, Jesus' resurrection, that much more meaningful.

Since I have Good Friday off, it has become a pattern of mine to sleep in, wake up slowly, and then prepare my heart to read Isiah 53 and the crucifixion story.

"He was despised and rejected by mankind" ... "we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted"... "he was pierced for our transgressions" ... "he was oppressed and afflicted"... "yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" ...

It's hard to take in those words.  My Savior, my God silent as he was led to the cross, his execution.  They misjudged and misunderstood him as they hurled insults at him and taunted him, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One.... save yourself..."  The crowds didn't realize that by allowing them to kill him, Jesus was saving them.  He was voluntarily taking on the sins of the world, knowing how it would all go down.  "No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." (John 10)

Something this year that I read regarding Good Friday caught my attention:

"He offered himself as a mirror they could see themselves in, and they were so appalled by what they saw that they smashed it. They smashed him, every way they could..... He is the light of the world. In his presence, people either fall down to worship him or do everything they can to extinguish his light.... Today, while he dies, do not turn away. Make yourself look in the mirror. Today no one gets away without being shamed by his beauty. Today no one flees without being laid bare by his light."

In his presence our sin is revealed.  In his light we see ourselves for who we really are: people who desperately need a savior, full of pride, selfishness, deceit, etc.  However, admitting that our sin is so bad that God needed his Son to die a brutal death to save us is a heavy pill to swallow.  Yet once we admit it and accept what His death means for us, we are finally free.  Free from trying to prove ourselves or make ourselves appear better than who we are because we have admitted that we don't have it all together and that we need Christ.

My prayer today is that I will remember who I was before Christ.  That I would be reminded of why Christ had to die and once again ponder the radical love that is needed to die a death in such a way and for such a people.