March 30, 2018 Good Friday

“« To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. » My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”” (Psalm 22:1-8 NKJV)

            Some have asked, “What is so good about Good Friday?” One of the amazing things about Christianity is at its core it sees the horrendous suffering of Jesus as redemptive.  And through the suffering of Jesus we can know that every form of suffering can be redemptive.

            Like the title of the book Pain, the Gift Nobody Wants suffering has come to be seen as abnormal and unnecessary but in a world broken by sin suffering is a regular part of our lives.  For many suffering is the very thing that causes us to cry out to God.

            The first words of Psalm 22 teach us of the connection of the suffering of David to the suffering of Jesus!  Here God explicitly connects all suffering and reveals that suffering can and does have meaning and can even be a gift that can call us back to God!

            In the rest of this passage suffering reminds him of God’s redemptive power in the past and the help when trouble and suffering comes.  But then we are shown the real problem with pain in that David looks within and the self pity begins.  The trouble with pity is that is focuses us on ourselves rather than looking to God.

            God teaches us about the universality of suffering by showing us the only true description of the suffering of the New Testament crucifixion of Jesus in the Old Testament.  Verses 1 and 8 are quotes that amazingly are a preview of Good Friday.

            We can discover that the reason this is called Good Friday is that the suffering of Jesus is good to us in that our suffering calls us to God, the suffering of Jesus redeems us and the suffering of the who gave the Son He loves to bring us back to Good that comes from suffering.

            The amazing thing is we cannot truly believe in Psalm 23 about the Shepherd until we see that the Shepherd was willing to lay down His life for us!

            What does Good Friday mean to you?  What does it tell you about God?  What does Good Friday teach you about your suffering?

            All of the pain, suffering and loss I am going through pale in comparison to what My Lord and Love went through.  Jesus bore not only my sin and suffering but the sin and suffering of everyone.  Can you imagine not only what Jesus went through but what God goes through seeing all the terrible and horrific happenings throughout history?  Thinking about that pain God feels gave me the idea of trying to make God smile.