Good Friday
Every December as we turn to reflect on Advent and prepare for Christmas there is a crop of people who come out of the woodwork to complain. Don’t get me wrong—these folks love Christmas. In fact, they’re all about Christmas. Angels and rejoicing, trees and presents, candlelight services and caroling—as long as we don’t place too much attention on the reason for the birth of Christ. They inform us that it is distasteful, even macabre, to have a manger overshadowed by a cross. As though the consistent witness of the New Testament, never mind the prophets, or the historic teaching of the church, is in fundamental error.
An inverted process happens again in the spring. Whether it is the same folks I do not know, as I’ve never paid them much attention—though I suspect it is. This group of folks talks about the death of Christ as though it is some terrible tragedy. Some avoidable mistake, some political misstep, some unforeseen evil that could not be averted. But make no mistake, beloved. The crucifixion was planned. Jesus knew what he was walking into. And he did it willingly. And he did it for his people, like you and me.
Was not Joseph told from the beginning that this son of Mary would “save his people from their sins?” And did not John, from Jesus’ first public appearance to Israel, refer to him as “the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world?” A sacrificial lamb, mind you. Did not Jesus tell the disciples, after Peter’s confession, that he must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed (and after three days arise)? Did not the high priest himself prophesy that it were better for one man to die for the people? And did not Christ himself utter from the cross “It is finished,” before yielding up his spirit?
On this Good Friday, remember that our sin required that the Son of God take on flesh that he might die in the place of his people. Remember that the remedy for Adam’s fall was planned before the tree of good and evil was planted in the garden. Remember that for the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and sits now at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Nicene Creed offers a beautiful summary of the work of Christ that helps correct our perspective. In this creed, Christians affirm that we believe:
In one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
Begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
Very God of very God,
Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;
By whom all things were made;
Who for us and for our salvation
Came down from heaven,
And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
And was made man;
And was crucified also for us under Pontus Pilate;
He suffered and was buried;
And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
And ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father;
And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead;
Whose kingdom shall have no end.
Let Jesus’ incarnation and crucifixion inform one another, even as you look forward to reflecting on his resurrection, ascension, session, and return.
Good Friday
