Why I Love Good Friday

In our culture talking about sin is not politically correct.  Everyone has their own truth, and there are very few if any absolutes.  Everyone is told they have choice over everything, and whatever they choose for themselves is cool.  Advertisers use sex and money to entice us to buy whatever will make us "happy" at the moment.  Long term thinking about actions is often lost in the thrill of "love" or desire for more money, more things, "beauty", and power.  I know this may offend some of you, but sin is real and the Bible is not a book up for any interpretation that fits our desires.  There is right and there is wrong.  And this is offensive.  And not one of us lives up to the perfection of doing, thinking and saying what is right 100% of our lives.  We ALL sin.

This is why I love Good Friday.  Because I know I need a Savior. 

I cringe when I think of the sinful thoughts I have at times, when I think of dumb things I did (knowing full well I was sinning) in college, when I know my true motives are not pure, when I am hateful or snap at my husband, when I talk disrespectfully about my fellow man, when I am a glutton, when I don't take care of the body God gave me, when I am jealous ... the list goes on and on.  Every single one of us could write a list a mile or twenty long of the ways we have sinned against the Perfect God.  And that's where Good Friday comes in.

Jesus, God with flesh on (as Pastor Jonathan would say), willingly died the most horrifically painful death - and He did that to take the punishment for MY sins, or YOUR sins, for the sins of the whole world.  Good Friday is a day to remember and be grateful for His sacrifice.  When He hung on that cross He not only felt the physical torture, He also felt the weight of all the sins of every person who will ever live.  I feel such horrible weight when I have one sin on my shoulders.  I cannot imagine what that felt like for the perfect Son of God.  And I am so incredibly grateful. 

But you know what the best part about Good Friday is?  That it doesn't stay Good Friday.  Sunday always comes, and with it the celebration of the Risen Savior.  Jesus didn't stay in that Good Friday tomb, Easter Sunday came and with it all the hope and joy the world needs.  We are freed from our sin!  We don't have to carry the weight and punishment with us any longer.

What Jesus did on Good Friday doesn't mean that we should just go and do whatever we feel like.  We still live in an imperfect world and sin is still real.  In fact, Good Friday should make us want to do what is right, it should make us hate sin all the more.  Good Friday should inspire us to live for the One who took our sin on His shoulders to give us the opportunity to have a real and lasting relationship with God. 

So, wherever you are on this Friday, take some time to sit in the awe and wonder of the Savior.  He died so that we might live.