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Friday 25 March 2016

"What The Traditional Good Friday Doesn't Tell You"



Reading:  John 16: 16-23
Have you ever thought about this “what’s so good about Good Friday”?   Any takers?  Good Friday is like a double edge sword.  So then let us take a closer look so we can grasp the full experience. Where is the Good in Good Friday?  
It was because of this terrible tragedy that you and I are given this option.  If we can embrace the fullness of Good Friday we are given the opportunity to begin to live all over again with a new vision.   This option for the believers would be coined “the way of the redeemed”.     It was on that Day, through what seemed a tragedy, that Jesus releases the greatest power on earth.  A power that can change your life and bring you into a closer relationship with your God.  The power of unconditional forgiveness, love and acceptance, the power of GRACE.   And all you have to do, is accept it.  It was always there from the very beginning of creation, Grace I mean, but now made visible and graspable.   Using the metaphor of filthy rags, meaning all the things that hold you in bondage, selfishness, guilt, shame, loneliness, and alike,  can be exchanged for a garment covered in the fullness of God's GRACE.  That is truly the GOOD NEWS  of the Cross Folks.  It is through the acceptance of Christs offer and the following of His way, that we are transformed and made ready to be a new being.   And what is this way you may ask?   Right living, so you may die with a clear conscience freed from bondage.  Saved by grace and presented to God the Father in the righteousness of the Christ.     
                                             "You Found Me" 

    
It was a tragedy for Mary, for his brothers, for the disciples and many others who were following him, the day of great darkness on the hill of Golgotha.   BUT for us there was to be a new dawn!  It was Friday, but SUNDAYS A COMING FOLKS, a day of new beginnings.  Jesus accepted his lot in life and He choose the cross, so that we might know and experience this transforming love and forgiveness he offers us.  Here we can grasp and understand the other side of the double edge sword.  For what seemed to be a disaster at first, it has now turned into this radical love offering, the gift of God’s “Amazing Grace” to all who would accept it.  
In the wisdom teachings of Solomon we hear:  The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment will ever touch them.  In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died and their departure was thought to be a disaster and their going from us to be their destruction, they are at peace.  May I add my own though here, home in the arms of our heavenly parent where we truly belong.  
Therefore the day of crucifixion, our day of tragedy has two sides to it,  because two days later it turns into a day to celebrate a day of a new life, new beginnings.    Not just for Jesus but for all those who believed on Him.  No matter how you view it, out of tragedy suffering and pain comes new life.  In our weakness Gods power is always manifested.   Just when we think all is lost, God will show up folks.  We don’t see it at the time of our pain and suffering but it will come.  Ask any mother what happens after her water brakes and the pain that follows.  During the last moments of her pregnancy her pain turns into the joy of seeing new birth take place as she first lays eyes on her newborn.  This same joy is felt all over, and over again by our heavenly parent when one of us is transformed, truly borne again, John 3: 5-7.   New birth can only take place when something comes to its end, when the tears dry up and the old fades away there is a new day.   That is the way of nature and that is the way of the CROSS, as hard as it is for us to accept during our time of pain or suffering.  Not one new thing in life that is good comes without some sacrifice, without some form of pain or suffering, loss, surrender and then death.  Ironic as it may sound tragedy has two sides to it, a bad and good, two lives, one of suffering and one of relief.  There will always be difficult events in life that have to be endured where suffering, pain hardship, or disappointment find their roots.   Can you relate:  You wanted it so bad and you worked so hard for it, you sacrificed a lot to attain it, but it didn’t materialize.   A relationship ends!!  Your life has been going along fine but all of sudden a young child, a spouse, a beloved mom or dad is take from you through an accident, illness or natural causes.   You have just seen the Doctor and he gives you news you do not want to hear.  Helplessness, fear and emptiness fill your very being.  These are the same feelings Jesus must have felt as he expressed his feeling to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22: 39-46 and again while hanging on the cross:  why do I have to endure this suffering Father?   Is there not another way”?   No matter how much Jesus must endure, no matter how much you have to face, for the believer, there is always an Easter Dawn.  You may have heard the Rev Dr. Tony Compolo echo these words from his famous sermon:  It’s Friday, but Sundays a Coming!   Here is where you can turn your darkness into new light, knowing that something Good will come out of every tragedy.  Somehow, someway, God will bring us new life.  Trust in Jesus, Trust in God.  
                                          "Softly and Tenderly"
          Your resurrection Folks, begins and ends at the the Cross 

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