“I hope you have a really good day today… I know tonight is going to be hard. But it will be good,” my husband said before he and I went our separate ways to work this morning.
We’re going to Good Friday service tonight [Thursday] because that’s the best time it worked for our family. Good Friday is a big deal at our church because Easter is a big deal- and as a church family, we know we can’t fully grasp the level of celebration Easter merits until we’ve been to the cross.
The cross.
A beautiful message of hope and a solemn reminder of what that hope cost all in one.
The cross is a place that is hard to visit. I’d much rather bypass Golgotha and make my way to the open tomb. The cross reminds me that my sin costs something far greater than I could ever attempt to pay. The cross reminds me that separation for eternity from a perfect, holy God is what I deserve.
But there is beauty in the cross, because Jesus made it beautiful. For the moments He spent carrying it on his back, enduring nails being driven in His hands and feet, looking on with unwavering love as the ones He came to rescue showed no mercy… these moments were for you and me. The moment Father God turned away from His one, His only Son because He took my sin onto Himself and yielded up His life on my behalf- that was the moment it was finished. When the Savior of the world’s chest rose and fell one last time.
This was the moment that split the veil in two and sent a shock through creation. This was the moment that changed everything.
That’s why the cross is beautiful. It changes everything.
Including me and you.
Tonight, well… it’s going to be a hard service to go through at church. It always is. We’ll be wearing black (I’ll for sure be wearing waterproof mascara), we’re going to be reflecting on our role in putting Him on the cross, and we’ll be immersed in the depths of the cost of the cross.
Taking time to pause, to really sit in all that it meant- that’s hard.
But it’s good. Because when we remember what happened there, we’re able to truly grasp the wonder and the message of the empty tomb.
Sunday is coming!
