Waiting For Easter
Good Friday is a day of deep reflection and struggle for me. After all, this day was wrought with STRUGGLE, and as I try to process it all I’m filled with sadness and questions. I prefer skipping to the good part…to Sunday, to resurrection, to hope!
But God doesn’t rush the Resurrection. There is real pain and struggle first. And we can identify with that. Jesus, being fully human, understands our struggles.
There is value in this in-between time as we acknowledge the struggle everyone experienced.
Pilate struggled to save face.
The women struggled to help Jesus.
The disciples struggled to keep faith.
Even the Pharisees struggled to discredit Jesus.
But nobody struggled more than Jesus.
How did He come? He didn’t burst onto the scene in golden light, dressed in celestial white –
He came in the flesh, bloodied and bawling
From his mother’s inner cradle into chilly night air
What is more human than blood, birth and pain?
-from Good Friday by staff writer, Kristin Pelletier
“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” – Matthew 27: 42-43
Jesus was called a liar, beaten with sticks, covered with spit and then crucified in front of His family and friends.
As I read this on the morning of Good Friday, I tried to take mental note of the actual events that led up to this day, trying to figure out how He got through it. How did Jesus withstand the struggle?
Not one came to His rescue, so how did He endure it?
This is what I learned; Jesus only spoke 13 times that day, and 10 of those were directed to God or about God – He was always talking TO or ABOUT God.
He lifted his eyes, shifted his gaze away from His troubles on earth and looked to His Father.
He showed us (once again) that the more we think about Him the bigger heaven gets and the smaller our struggles become.
“We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2, TPT
Join me in prayer as we lift our eyes and voices together:
Father God,
Thank you.
You are the healer of the nations.
We come to you in the name of Jesus today, weary and humbled by our daily struggles and challenges and fully dependent on you.
We ask for your help, your mercy, and your strength.
Please heal your people and heal this planet.
Amen