It’s Friday. Good Friday. It’s always seemed odd to call it “good”. We look back in history and what we see is that Friday is the day when it all came unraveled.
Twelve young men, some just boys, had spent three years with the Rabbi Jesus. They followed him, learned from him, lived with him, traveled the country with him. They saw him do the miraculous. He healed people: made eyes see, limbs work, freed people from the bondage of illness, demons. He fed thousands with nothing. He taught them in ways that were confusing. He explained the scripture, the Torah, the prophets in ways that blew their minds.
He commanded the wind to stop. He walked on water. He even raised a man to life who had been dead for three or more days.
Who is this? Who is this rabbi they followed? Is he…? Could he be… the Messiah? The one they have been waiting for?
Can you imagine over three years, living with this man, this MAN who seemed more like God. Miracles. Healing. Teaching.
What comes next?
Will he overthrow the Romans? Will he restore Israel to a sovereign nation? Will he be king?
And then comes Friday. And he is killed.
Killed. Dead.
Now what?!
Does your life ever feel like a season of Good Fridays, one after the other? Anticipation, expectation, hopes, dreams and then all your hopes, dreams are dashed. Destroyed.
Now what?
I have experienced seasons that seem like on going Good Fridays. Everything is unraveled.
But.
My seasons of Good Friday all come after.
After what?
After Sunday.
The Sunday.
Easter Sunday.
The men who followed Jesus had to live through Good Friday without knowing. They didn’t know.
They didn’t know what was coming.
They didn’t know about Sunday.
But we do. We know what happened. And it changed everything. Backwards and forewards. Sunday changed everything.
EVERYTHING.
And we live after. All our seasons of difficulty, of devastation, come after the resurrection. We know.
We know the victory is won. We know there is forgiveness. We know there is freedom. We know this Rabbi Jesus is a man AND God.
But there’s more. We live after Sunday, but there’s more to come. The hope of living in his presence without any trace of sin, death, pain. We live after Sunday- the Now. But we look forward to the rest- the Not Yet.
I am attaching a link to a great video from a sermon: It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming.
Friends, it is Friday. Sunday is coming. Better still, Sunday has already come.
And yet there is more.
Don’t give up. Don’t despair. We know the end. Hang on till we get there.
Woo hoo!!!!