Good Friday
Now that this time of year has finally come around, and at last we are all in for a lovely long weekend, we are all hoping for a load of lovely fine and sunny weather before winter arrives, but really, what is this weekend really all about? How can a death become “Good” unless we are in for an amazing Inheritance from the Will being read, and we are a benefactor of that will? I guess that Calvary and the death of Jesus Christ is sort of a good thing, because his death on Calvary, means that my death for my sins is now taken off the table, and I am now free to leave the Court as it were, with no charges or accusations against my name, squeaky clean and free from any accusations that stick.
If one looks at the “Fine Print” as it were, acceptance of this gift (Jesus Christs Death and Resurrection) means that we do actually “Inherit the Kingdom” where we transition from death unto life, and that gift being most abundant, to make us Royalty as Kings and Priests unto God. We also have to move house and to relocate from where we live currently, to the Palace of the Monarch of the Universe as we have been adopted into his family, and we get to live in the Capital City at the very centre of everything.
All “Relocation Expenses” are fully taken care of, and are just a part of the “Inheritance Package,” along with all the assistance ever necessary to assist us to re-settle and to re-locate, into our new Mansion, and then to help us to find our way around such and enormous city. The New Jerusalem is about 600 Kilometres long on each wall, and if you are fortunate enough to have a “Rooftop Penthouse Apartment” then you are in an enviable position of being some 600 Kilometres up into space, so your panoramic and Galactic views are almost beyond breathe taking. You never ever have to fear about a neighbour building out your views, ever, so you can forever keep your almost global views.
So is a Death a good thing, well not very often. We often come across people who have somebody very close to them who has suffered long and deeply, we feel for them, it breaks our hearts and we feel their sorrow for their protracted calamity and most awkward situation, we hate to see death arrive, but it is a sort of a blessing in disguise as their battle and trials are over, but we do so miss them so very much. Good Friday meant that the early church had lost their leader, comforter and beloved friend, their councillor and guide, so their whole dreams, goals and ideals were completely shattered, so how could anything good ever come out from such a dark day, well they never thought it was ever possible, so as the dense blackness of the “Garden Tomb” seemed to them, to be endless, the end of the road as it were, but they only had to wait another day, and a bit more, for Resurrection Sunday, is coming quickly.
If your burdens seem too great for you to bear, then look to Jesus, reach out to him, give him your burdens, cry out to him for help and then rest in his mighty arms. Reach out to your support group because “a burden shared is a burden halved.” It took the early church a fair few weeks to get going again from “Good Friday” which was probably more of a “Black Friday,” poor Thomas had to struggle for over a week, Peter struggled hard and long, and then finally “threw the towel in” and went back to fishing, and he even failed at what he knew best, “Breakfast on the Beach,” with a resurrected Jesus, a tough question asked three times, admission of his limited abilities, but his total reliance upon his Saviour made all the difference, Pentecost is coming.
Pentecost and fifty days later, and look out, the Disciples and all the believers and supporters and followers, though very few in number, were unshakeable, you could not scare them with threats of imprisonment, death or anything as the Resurrection finally made sense, all the “duckies were now in a row,” it all made perfect sense, and it was full steam ahead, and 3000 souls were added in a single day at the begining. Those who play with statistics, give us the concept that huge numbers of believers were added to the early church on a daily tsunami flood, and stretching their meagre resources on a daily basis, as they all finally grasped the reality that from this “Black Friday” it all made sense, Jesus Christ was now risen, but that was a hard path to learn for some, and it took some time for others, but Sunday is coming.
Dear Reader; We can often quote those encouraging phrases like, “It is always darkest before the dawn,” “There is always light at the end of the tunnel,” “Every cloud has a silver lining,” but from “deep down the coal mine,” from under the cloud of troubles, trials and despair, it is so very hard to see “Good Times” when all around us is so dreary. We need to “Have Faith” and to “Look Up,” and “Look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith,” who has never lost a single soul who has clung to him. If you are “walking through the valley of the shadow of death” Psalm 23 tells us to have no fear, “Sunday is Coming.”
