A Good Day ~E Reiss

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Today is Good Friday, the momentous date that Christ stepped fully into the sacrificial love of laying down His life for us, literally.

It was unjust.

It was unfair.

It was planned, carried out, and executed by evil men, with evil motives.

And yet... and yet.

It was also  the most poignant moment of all of history. For God turned even this ultimate wrong to His amazing ends. For where government failed, God's justice rose above the first century courts and His justice was meted out on a willing sacrifice - bringing divine payment in perfect love and submission using flawed men, flawed motives and an innocent man put to death. Because of what He did, a new government will be established. A just kingdom will come... and it will never end.

Where society failed, seeing someone to resist and condemn and destroy, He remained silent. He bore our evil completely, through ends and means and the darkness of our hearts lashing out in mob mentality. Yet because He did, the redemption He brings also brings us a way of peace. It's coming. It is fashioning a new heaven and a new earth and it won't be a temporary fix... it will never end.

Where we fail, being preyed upon by our own broken consciences, by our guilt and our shame, by the outshining of our sin and the display of our worst selves - we can know that this isn't the whole of our story. Because of what Jesus did, for me, for me personally... and because of what He did for you, and you personally, we know hope.

It is a hope where disappointment and death are not the end of the tale. It is a hope that love will overcome even the deepest darkness. In the light of that Friday, so long ago, what can be impossible for Him? What debt can He not repay? What ill can He not set right? What evil can He not undo with His love and make holy and pure and clean again?

If the Cross teaches us anything, it teaches us this: our fumbling government is not beyond His influence, or too far gone for the outshining of His will. Our broken and divisive society is not beyond His ken. Our hearts, no matter how dark, no matter how violent, no matter how apathetic, no matter how ineffectual, are not beyond His help. If God can reach into the moment of the Crucifixion, so many generations ago... and speak His love and grace and turn that singular action into redeeming light... then there is yet hope for us.

Don't give up. Don't lay down in despair the bright and shining beacon God is calling you to be. Endure just a little while longer - for God's Spirit and His power are on the move.

And though we are dead, God will breathe life into us anew. And though we are cut and broken, He will knit us together again. And though we are lost, we are not beyond His finding.

Don't gloss over the sorrow of the Cross - press deeply into it. The lesson we learn in that moment where the whole earth held its breath is one we must not miss. If we have eyes to see it, our Father can call us into a miracle to come.

If we have ears to hear it, our Father is calling each of us into a miracle to come.

If we have hearts to accept it, our Father, Who loves us, is calling all of us into a glorious and unending miracle to come.