... wait, can I re-say that?
Every year my dad and mom have made sure we understand that Good Friday is alternately good/bad.
Jesus died on this day. Not so good. Actually pretty sad, especially considering we're to blame for it.
So while everyone where's normal clothes on Good Friday, my family wears black. It's like we're going to a funeral. Makes sense right?
Well, this year my church is doing a Good Friday service called, "Service of Shadows." Basically it's a funeral service for God.
Makes you realize the impact of it when you say it that way, huh?
Of course, you never want to underestimate the resurrection, that has just as much to do with our salvation as Christ's death. But I think we don't always understand the magnitude of a gift Christ gave us. On this day, God died.
"Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer"
"It was the Lord's will to crush him." --- This is what Christ did for you.
