Faith Talk for Good Friday

Today is Good Friday the day in which disciples of Jesus commemorate the death of Jesus by crucifixion on a hill called Calvary. This is the darkest of days of Holy Week. The religious Hebrew people were celebrating Passover (a Jewish celebration of emancipation from Egyptian slavery) days before the cross of Christ! Remember the 9th Plague? The Hebrew people knew something about darkness and deliverance (Exodus 10:21-23).

At noon on that Friday, the Son of God hangs, bleeding on the cross. From noon until three in the afternoon the world grew darker and darker. The sun went completely dim. During that darkness on Friday, hell came to Calvary.

But God never abandons us to our darkness. God never abandons you to your darkness. God never abandons me to my darkness. God enters into it. He moves into our darkness, and He turns on the light. He gives us the light. He gave us Jesus! (John 8:12, 10:17-18)

• On Friday, in a garden, the decision gets made.
• On Friday, in a garden, Jesus says, "I will suffer. I will die. I choose love."
• On Friday, He dies for the world, not because of anybody else.
• On Friday, God declares His heart for you and me and every sinful person who ever lived.

There was a classic book made into a movie and by C.S. Lewis called, The Lion, the Witch, and the WardrobeIn the movie, Aslan, the lion, offers his life in the place of a traitor. The White Witch and her minions mock and taunt the kingly lion; they strip off his mane and lash him to the Stone Table. Then, the White Witch plunges her knife into the lion. There, surrounded by the jeers and chants of his enemies, Aslan dies.

If you took your family to the theater to see this movie you were worried for your kids because they didn’t understand the tragic events that were unfolding. You were concerned with the tension and the silence in the theater that followed the death of Aslan. I wonder how many parents leaned over to their kids and whispered, “Don’t worry. I read the book. He doesn’t stay dead.”

That’s the message that parents and preachers are privileged to proclaim whenever we consider the death of Jesus: “Don’t worry. I read the book. He doesn’t stay dead.” The darkness and God’s silence on Friday and Saturday were only temporary. The anguish of a hero dying is only short-lived. If you’ve read the book you know that there is only a fleeting moment when the cosmos seems to hold its breath in anticipation.

• On Friday on the cross, the heel of the divine Son crushed the serpent’s skull;
• On Friday on the cross, the cosmic vice-regency of an obedient Servant flattened Adam’s ancient revolt in Eden;
• On Friday on the cross, a new exodus dawned—an exodus from which there can be no exile because the King himself has endured exile from his Father’s presence once and for all in place of the people he has purposed to save.
• On Friday on the cross, the Son died and the sun went dark.

And so, when it seems that the darkness of Friday and silence of Saturday may never end, don’t descend into despair. Read the book. He didn’t stay dead. Because he is alive, the moments when the darkness is blackest and God seems silent are only temporary.

He is alive! He is alive! He is alive!