Okay, so as I was writing I kept saying "Black Friday" instead of "Good Friday", and I was like, "Lisse, this has nothing to do with shopping!" And then I was like, "Wait. . ." What do you think of when you hear the words "Black Friday"? I personally think of spontaneous adventures in footie pajamas. How the heck does that have any parallel to Good Friday? It doesn't. BUT, the thing that stands out above the rest about Black Friday is this: the deals. I'm an avid deal hunter, so I don't really know why I haven't gone Black Friday shopping until this past year. That's a lie, I do, but we're not getting into that. People stand in lines for HOURS, sometimes camping outside of stores waiting for their doors to open, just so they can get some killer deals. Which is understandable, right? Who wouldn't want to get a super awesome deal? It's totally worth wearing hot footie pajamas with no pockets and staying out til 6:00am. Sometimes it's even worth the shoving that happens to get that item you want. It's all about the killer deals and the sacrifices made to get them. Jesus gave us His own killer deal, and today is the day that we commemorate what He did for us. He gave us the most killer deal of all: eternal life and salvation - for FREE. No lines, no hot & impractical footie pajamas, no money. (John 3:16 anyone?) He did this by making the ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross over 2,000 years ago. But what does that really mean? In the past I became so numb to those words, "He died on the cross for our sins", since I was raised in the church. I constantly heard it growing up, to the point where it became just empty words; just a phrase. But let's be real, He didn't just get shot and be done with it so that we could live crap-filled lives with no guilt. We're talking about the ONE man on earth who had never sinned, who performed countless miracles - one of which was raising the dead, who was God's SON; He was blameless, and yet they condemned Him anyway. He went through public humiliation; being stripped, spit on, and mocked, wearing a crown of thorns as His party prize. He was beaten bloody and whipped with a Cat-of-nine tails, ripping His skin off. And not only was He beaten bloody, but He was forced to carry a huge lumber cross on His open back, wood rubbing into his raw flesh. Through the town and up a hill, nearly naked, with people surrounding Him and mocking Him - the same people whom He was doing all of this for. And once He made it up the hill, He had a stake stabbed through each of His wrists, and through both His feet, securing Him to the same cross He carried on His back. And we're not talking killing a vampire with a stake just by driving it into them willy-nilly. They hammered the stakes in. Blow after blow, more & more pain and pressure with each hit. You can betcha they didn't hit the stake every time either. And then they raised the cross up with His body hanging from it; nearly naked, mutilated, and completely broken. I feel physically broken when my spine, hips, pelvis, and sacrum are misaligned, but that is NOTHING compared to the brokenness His body experienced. And this whole time, He carried ALL of ours sins. That's another phrase that I was numb to. What does that mean? All the guilt that you feel when you check out that super hot naked chick online, fell on Him. All the weight that consumes you when you murder someone - born or not, fell on Him. All of the emptiness that pulls you down after you've slept around, fell on Him. All of the hurt that you experience when you lie to someone you love, fell on Him. All of the pain that you go through when about to take your life, fell on Him. Only He didn't carry just a few sins at a time, He carried them ALL. Not just every type, but EVERY SINGLE SIN that was to be made. Can you fathom that amount? Every rape, every murder, every lie, every betrayal, every lust, ALL of it, fell on Him. Not just the big stuff, but all of the "little" sins that consume our days as well. The dude was sweating blood, He was in so much agony. And then to top it all off, He was separated from God. I don't think the magnitude of that is fathomable. But here's the best part: He still did it. He did it for each and every one of us, knowing exactly what we'd do. He did it knowing that people would worship His enemy, Satan. He did it knowing that not only would we disobey His word by murdering and participating in gay marriage, but we made it legal. He did it knowing that so many would refuse His free gift. He did it knowing that we as Christians, His children, would turn away from Him, shame Him, and reject Him and His gift. He did it knowing that I would try to throw away one of His most precious gifts, that of life; that I would forget about Him, deny Him, and blame Him; that I would take His credit, pretend to be something other than who He made me to be because I don't think how He made me was good enough; that I would tell the world of what He's done for me, and then turn around and do my own thing. He could have excluded any person He wanted from receiving His gift. He's God, He can do whatever He wants. And He did. He WANTS us to come to Him, in all of our broken, ugly, stupidity & pride, He aches for us. That just doesn't always compute with me. He went through all of that for us, with you individually in mind and heart. He did it so that we would be free from death, sins consequence. He did it so that we could live in eternity with Him. He did it so that we could have a personal relationship with Him. He did it to set us FREE. Good Friday is really hard for me and weighs heavily on my heart. It never really mattered to me in the past. Easter was the main day, right? The celebration of His rising from the grave. But last year was different. The Thursday before, the college group joined the church in watching The Passion of the Christ. It gave me more of a visual image of some of what Christ went through. How He went through so much suffering. . . for me. He knew exactly who I was while He was up there, and yet He didn't exclude me from that gift of salvation. He's God, He has every bit of power to have excluded that gift from whomever He pleased. But He didn't exclude anyone from it, including me. After it ended I got in my car, turned on my music (Sidewalk Prophets "Lay Down My Life" started playing), and headed to the library, as a bunch of us always did on Thursday nights. As soon as I hit the road I lost it. I broke down sobbing. It takes a lot for me to cry, but sobbing? Whole different level. God really softened my heart and revealed something to me on the road that night. When He died on the cross that day, He tore the veil in the temple that separated us from Him, allowing anyone and everyone to come into His presence, right? When He did that that day, He was not only saving my life through salvation, but He was saving my life by allowing me easy access to come into His presence 7 years ago when I almost killed myself. If that veil hadn't have been torn, and access to His presence made more available to me, I would not be here right now. So when we sing songs with lyrics such as, "Lifted up, He defeated the grave. Raised to life, our God is able. In His name, we overcome. For the Lord, our God is able." I think of two things simultaneously: Jesus' death on the cross, and the freedom & gift of salvation that He gave us when He conquered the grave. And God saving my life 7 & 2 years ago, freeing me from deaths grasp and bringing me to a place where I could really live. In both ways He saved me. Today marks the day that He died to set me free, and through that, how He saved my life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
Archives
November 2016
|