Good Friday

Good Friday is the day we remember the betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion of Jesus. It was in the very early morning, what we would call the middle of the night, that Jesus was arrested by the temple guards and taken to stand trial. In Luke 22, we find a sorrowful and bitter account of what happened that morning.

54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. 59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” 60 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.

A poem is making the rounds these days on social media titled “What Corona Reveals God Can Heal.” With piercing insight, the author discusses the spiritual ramifications of COVID-19. The opening lines read, “We’ve all been exposed. Not necessarily to the virus (maybe … who even knows). We’ve all been exposed by the virus.” From there, she goes on to talk about the various ways this strange season exposes and reveals all sorts of things about each of us.

We are discovering truths about ourselves, and they aren’t always pretty. Before now, these revelations were things we could conveniently hide from others or ignore altogether - but not anymore. The stress and strain of close quarters, the complete upheaval of our schedules, and our inability to do the things we’ve always done are making us terribly uncomfortable, and all sorts of unpleasant things are coming to the surface: impatience, unkindness, our need for control or the illusion we were ever really in control. Couple those things with the fear of getting sick or the actual experience of getting sick, and we begin to discover we aren’t the people we thought we were. We aren’t as holy and Christ-like as we imagined.

My response to stress is to turn inward, keep it all to myself, and stop communicating with those around me. You can just imagine what this does for marital happiness. For about a week, I lived with the illusion that I was doing just fine, holding it all together, and then Becky said something that hit me just the wrong way. Ordinarily, I probably would have blown it off, but not this time. The ugly, unkind, un-Christlike part of me that I usually keep well-hidden came roaring to the forefront like a locomotive! Suddenly, I realized I had been exposed, and I didn’t like what I saw.

In a similar way, that first Good Friday exposed the truth of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. It certainly exposed the truth about Peter. Just one day earlier, he proclaimed unswerving loyalty to Jesus, and even if everyone else abandoned him, he most certainly would not. But Jesus knew better. Peter’s stark betrayal of Jesus at the house of Caiaphas exposed him for what he really was – a broken, sinful man, a coward, one filled with good intentions but no integrity to back them up.

Now, if that were the end of the story, all would be lost, but thanks be to God, it is not. Here is the hard truth we must all accept: Exposure is the pathway to genuine and lasting change. We cannot embrace the truth of the gospel until we have come to grips with the reality of our brokenness. Until we are willing to admit our sinfulness and the various ways we betray our Lord, we can’t begin to experience change. Unless we do this, we can only ever be Good Friday people.

But thanks be to God. We don’t have to be Good Friday people. The joy of Easter Sunday is made concrete when we own our sinfulness, our reliance upon the flesh, awakening to truths we had previously managed to hide from ourselves and others. Let’s use this weekend not to run away from these ugly truths or turn a blind eye to what is uncomfortable but to step into the light and let it expose us for who we truly are. Only then will the true impact of Easter be all that God intended it to be.

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EASTER BIBLE READING PLAN

Easter is about an encounter, a time when we experience the hope and love of a Savior who sacrificed His life for us, despite our deepest struggles, betrayals, and failures. Easter is a time to share the Good News of the empty tomb and the grace only found in our risen Savior.