Easter Friday post

It's not a Good Friday post, cos its not really a 'good' friday, is it? Our Saviour has just been crucified.

I was quite impressed with todays Service at our church. No songs about Jesus rising victorious or anything. We even had a cross and a coffin up the front of the church. Brilliant! I think sometimes we are all too keen to get to Sunday, when the happiness floods our soul, when we know our Saviour is risen. But I think its important to dwell on the Friday, when things seemed like they'd turned to custard, when Jesus was being brutally killed.
If we were his disciples, what would we have thought?
"I thought Jesus was the Messiah, the son of God, and here he is being crucified. What kind of King is this?"
Would you have felt failed? Disappointed? Disillusioned? Despair? Bitterness? Hopelessness? futility? shame? desolate?

Is the sorrow so great it overwhelms you,
the pain washing over your head
Is the black and dark surrounding you,
such great loneliness and dread

Where is your leader now, they taunt,
supposed King of the Jews?
How can he save you as you claimed-
he's dead, hanging on a tree.

I remember one year at Easter Camp (with good old Mike Dodge) he spoke on the Saturday night about how at this point in time, many years ago, Jesus was actually dead. He didn't rise as soon as he was killed, there was actually a day inbetween when Jesus was not alive. Mike Dodge got us to think on that for a while; Jesus is dead. Its really sobering. Imagine the intense sorrow the disciples felt.

Its so hard to fathom what would have been going through the heads of the people. One week earlier, they had been celebrating Jesus as King, paving his way with palms. A week later they were shouting, "crucify him". What would have come after that? Shame, remorse, guilt? Its over; they've actually killed him.

To quote from Stuart Townend's "How Great the Father's Love For Us"
"How great the pain of searing loss... wounds which mar the chosen one... behold the man upon a cross/my sin upon his shoulders/ashamed I hear my mocking voice/call out among the scoffers"

I'm sure we all know the intense agony that Jesus must have been in while he was whipped, beaten, and then crucified. Imagine the desolation he felt when he gave up his spirit.

Perhaps today is both 'not good', because it tells of the brutal death of the Messiah, and 'good', because it causes us to pause and lament the huge sacrifice that was made for us two thousand years ago. Let us remember that right now, Jesus was dead.