Good Friday

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

      All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. -- Isaiah 53:3-6

I read Isaiah 53, and I wonder that I ever so much as doubted Jesus of Nazareth is the Anointed One of God.  

Good Friday has come.  Long ago, on a day like this, the Man was crucified.  He died that day, not for His iniquity, for He had none.  The accuser could find no fault in Him.  Instead He died for me, for my sins, for the corruption that is in my soul. 

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).  That’s the message of Good Friday.  Darkness falls upon the earth as the Lord is rejected and put to death, and we are glad for the darkness for we do not want to see ourselves.  We cover the mirror.  We hide our faces and turn away. 

Yet even in the pain and ugliness of Friday, there is a glimmer of something.  We dare not call it hope, but it is something.  The Man went willingly.  He offered Himself.  The prophet tells us that he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter … (v.7).   

It looks bad on Friday, but today is not the end:  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.   Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors (vv. 11-12).

When we wake up, in the morning, on the first day of the week, the Son will rise.