Good Friday

(These are excerpts from last year's 268 Easter blogs by Louie Giglio....)

It's the week in which the Son of Man did the unthinkable.
Jesus wore the sinner's crown.
And He suffered and died alone.

What Christ has done is unique in time and history.
His surrender gained for us eternal freedom.
His goal was to glorify God by showing Him to be the God of justice and mercy, the One who could be both just in regard to our rebellion and the justifier of those who put their trust in Him.
But the price would be steep.
Beyond compare.
Jesus had already voiced willing participation.
A babe had been born.
33 years of footsteps now led to this Passover meal.
To this upper room.
To this moment.
He looked them all squarely in the eyes.
This time, He declared as crumbs fell, I am the bread broken for you.
The cup from now on, He affirmed, is my blood shed for your sins.
The time had come.
Nothing would deter Jesus now.
No disciple's desertion.
No weary flesh.
No soldiers commotion.
No false arrest.
No late night rail road in the court of the High Priest.
No lonely dungeon.
No dark night of the soul.
The goal of glorifying His Father was fixed in His gaze.
And a lonely journey had begun.
The mission would be accomplished.
A day we now call good seemed anything but that in the midnight hour.
A night of waiting none can fathom.

Jesus affirmed...
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
John 10:11-18

The nails were real
Crucifying.
Rusted.
Penetrating.
Roman.
Hard.
Metal.
Used.
Filthy.
Bloodstained.
Driven.
Piercing.
Germ-infested.
Flesh-tearing.
Fastening.
Holding.
Searing.
Wounding.
Nails.
But something greater held Jesus to the cross.
Until he could not gasp for one more breath.
And the struggle thankfully ended.
He had done it.
Become sin.
Crushed under judgement.
Price paid.
Given all.
Finished.
Now dead.
And rushed before sundown into a nearby tomb.
No one on earth was calling this good.
Yet.....


(These are excerpts from last year's 268 Easter blogs by Louie Giglio....)