So often, we watch love stories unfold—in movies and in the lives of the people around us. We turn on the News and hear of rescue missions—in our own country and overseas. Both are good and happen all the time, but today is special. Today is for celebrating the greatest love story of all time and the rescue mission that changed the world: Good Friday—the day God died.
I sat for a while this morning thinking about the power of this day… from the weight of the tragedy that called for rescue in the first place to the significance of that rescue still today. I thought about how God created a masterpiece of a world and found great joy in talking with, walking beside, and being with the people He made. Then I thought about how sin entered the world and God’s heart broke, because the price for this sin was not only death but also separation from God… because He is so perfect and pure that nothing impure could stand in His presence. I thought of how His deepest desire is to be with us but that He is not only a God of love but also of justice. And I thought of the love in His response because while He couldn’t simply ignore our sins, He could forgive them… so He planned a rescue mission with the promise, “I’m coming.” And I thought of the deep love it took years later for The Father to send His Son into this world and for Jesus to live the perfect life He lived and die the death we deserved—so that we wouldn’t have to. I realized that this rescue mission became the greatest love story that has ever existed. As I pictured Jesus on the cross and felt the depth of the love, I felt deep sadness that I was part of the reason He had to hang there and deep thankfulness that He did so. It was overwhelming, so I asked God what to do with it all. He answered, “Eryn, that day, the suffering, and my whole life were because of love. You know this love… show it to people. I want them to understand.” So I want to share with you the love that I see in this story.
I see God’s love in the way He didn’t give up or wipe out His creation to start over. I see it in the way He didn’t settle for separation but instead created a costly plan to save us. I see it in the sacrifice God made to send His Son into a broken world knowing all that He would one day face, and in the humility He took on to enter the world as a helpless baby born in a stable beside animals. Love is the reason Jesus walked the earth for thirty years, showing kindness to the same people who hated Him. It’s why He allowed Himself to be arrested in the midst of the agony of knowing what was ahead and praying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Love is why He endured floggings He didn’t deserve and was powerful enough to escape. It’s why He allowed people to spit insults at Him, a crown of thorns to be pressed into his head, and blood to run down His body. It’s why He willingly marched into death, carrying His own cross up a hill on His beaten and bruised body, until He collapsed beneath its weight and someone carried it for Him. Why He was nailed to a cross and crucified… we deserved that, but He took it in our place. Bearing the weight of the whole world’s sins and more pain than we can imagine, He stayed on the cross—not because of the nails but because of love. And it was love than enabled Him to say of the people who did this all, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” All of this because of love. Because this is why He came. Because this was the only way to save us and Jesus declared us worthy of His life and said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Talk about a love story, right?
In the way my parents have loved me, God has shown me the depth of Jesus’ love. There were many days that ended in tears for my mom because the very kids she poured her heart and soul into failed to show the love back that she deserved. But when she felt disrespected, unappreciated, and like she might crumble under the weight of her duty—when giving up would have been much easier—she found the strength and the grace to hold on, because she saw the hope of what waited on the other side, and love won. When Jesus was rejected by the people He came to save, He continued anyways when He could have turned back. If someone tried to kill me, I know my dad wouldn’t blink twice before standing in front of me with outstretched arms, saying, “No. Take me instead. I love her too much.” This is what Jesus did when He hung on the cross in our place. And while I cannot imagine two parents who could love better or more, the love Jesus showed in the way He lived and died was even greater. That’s how huge His love is.
How can anyone not want this love in their lives?
And in a final act of love, as He hung on the cross, Jesus bowed His head and died. And in that moment, sin lost power. Love won. Justice was met through Jesus’ sacrifice, and the barrier between God and man was forever removed. The rescue mission was almost completed…This is why we call today—a day filled with suffering and heartbreak and the death of God—Good Friday. Because it is good. Because the love story was about us all along. Because God’s mission was to rescue us from separation, and this is the whole reason Jesus came.
When Jesus died, sin was defeated. Death still had the victory though, which is why today is only the second-greatest day in history. Christmas is important, but it has no power without what happened on Good Friday, and Good Friday has no lasting power without what happened two days later on Easter. Because on Easter, the greatest day in all of history, Jesus rose from the dead! Death lost its power, the rescue mission was completed, and we now live in the promise that Heaven—not death—is our ending. Today is the day love won; Sunday is the day hope won and Heaven’s doors were flung open to believers. So we don’t only get to be with God now but for eternity… and what greater reason could we ever have to celebrate?
If you don’t know and believe in Jesus, I want you to know that He did this all for you and invites you with open arms. If you do believe, I pray that you’ll stop for a moment to think about His deep love and sacrifice, and thank Him.
Because if you were the only person in the world, He would have done it all the same.
