The Day Of The Cross

– Ponderings:

We’ve made a long Lenten journey together, and now it’s about at an end. This is Good Friday, the day of the cross. At first glance, the name of the day seems an incredible misnomer. How could Jesus’ worst day as a human be called “good?” Is it because his worst day became our best day, so we merged worst and best and settled on “good?” Is it because on the day God created humanity, he said we were “good?”

The theological answer is that we, as Christians, see Jesus’ death on the cross as a pivotal moment in our faith. The cross marks Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for humanity’s sins. His sacrifice is viewed as a demonstration of God’s love and the means by which humanity can be reconciled with God. As the Apostle Peter wrote, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10). The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth: ” When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:1-2).

If this were that morning of the cross, as I write these words, you and I would have no path to a full, restored relationship with God. We are not a people who have received mercy. But by this evening, everything will have changed. By looking to the cross and accepting God’s gift of love for us, we are offered mercy … and we are a people. You can’t get any “gooder” than that!

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

We all come to the foot of the cross with questions — one of the most haunting being: Why did Jesus have to die? John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, grappled with this too. He had the theological answer, but had a pastoral one as well. For Wesley, the cross was where God’s justice and love met in perfect harmony.

Sin had fractured our relationship with God. We had a deep sickness of the soul that had turned us away from God’s life-giving presence. Something had to bridge that chasm. Wesley saw in Christ’s death an act that satisfied divine justice, not because a vengeful God needed to be appeased, but because love demands restoration. We couldn’t do it, so Jesus did. Jesus bore the weight of our brokenness so we could be made whole.

Most of all, the cross is a love story. Wesley passionately declared that God’s motive was love. Christ died to draw us near to God. The cross is God’s open-armed embrace for all humanity. If a God who not only allowed the cross to happen, but set it all up as a divine plan, did it just for us, then how amazing is that?

Why did Jesus have to die? Because God couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without us … without you.

Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for the love that led Jesus to the cross. Thank you for not giving up on us. Help me to live in the light of your grace, walking daily in the freedom and love you have given. Amen.