Good Friday message

I love the English name – Good Friday – it beats Easter, Karfreitag or any other name. It is the day when Jesus said it is finished! Having completed the job for which he came to this earth.

Some people say the film, the Passion is too brutal. I think no film can ever capture the awfulness of what Christ must have suffered. According to his own he account he came to fulfil the law. He was talking about the spiritual laws that govern the universe – the master equation that says the wages of sin = death. As we have all sinned the only hope for us is a substitution. And that is what he did: he replaced my name for his in that equation. He took my punishment so that I could go free.

That is the Easter story and it is a scandal. It insults our logic in so many ways, because how can we comprehend a God who devises such rules. But most of all it is an insult to our humanism because we are so addicted to personal responsibility. The rallying call of our free market capitalist society – each of us needs to take responsibility for our lives and if you are not an internet millionaire yet it is your own fault.

The cross is an insult to our intelligence, because it comes in a double pack with a resurrection and people don’t come back to life after three days in a grave, do they? But that is another story.

For now we have A very Good Friday, because hanging on the cross Jesus says “It is finished” and he talks to the thief hanging beside him who says:

“Lord remember me when you come in your glory”. And this simple request is all it takes.

“This day you will be with me in paradise”, says the Lord, because I knows they are both about to step off the timeline and into eternity, where the price has been paid and the work has been done, the accuser of the brethren has been cast out of heaven. And now all who have been washed in the blood of the lamb can boldly approach the throne of the Father.

What all that means is also food for another day. But for today it is a Good Friday. Because your accuser has been cast out of heaven.

John 12: 31 Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 As for Me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself.