Awful Friday

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming (that is, my shameless baiting about a big announcement), to observe Good Friday, which seemed like anything but good when it was happening way back when.

I'm dating myself with SMPTE Color Bars, which Google AI tells me is "a test pattern used to calibrate color and audio levels" on televisions and video. I have not seen midnight on a television set for forty years, but I remember they also appeared when programming was interrupted for a "test of the emergency broadcast system" or any time the TV signal failed. How creative of God to bring this to mind!

Roughly 2000 years ago, there was a terrible, unforeseen interruption to the heavenly signal with the hollow tone of disconnection, pierced by Christ's anguished cry during a test we failed abysmally.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Matthew 27:45-46

It was an awful end--gut-wrenching, terrifying, baffling. The apostles and newly-minted Christ-followers had just been celebrating His triumphal entry into Jerusalem days before. Some of those same folks would soon be calling for Jesus' death, perhaps placing bets on Barabbas as the better bet for getting them all out of this epic Roman jam. After all, the rabblerousing revolutionary was reportedly involved in at least one of the many insurrections against Roman rule. Were the turncoats thinking, Maybe Barabbas can fix this! ? When it was all falling apart, they chose Barabbas over the Savior of the World and the Romans let them, even though Barabbas was a convicted enemy of the state. The irony! Plenty of blame to go around.

Us humans are really something else! Thank God for Jesus.

From Franco Zeffirelli's masterpiece, Jesus of Nazareth.

Yes, I can imagine sitting with them, grief-stricken at this gigantic disappointment, amplified by mushrooming confusion and fear. What about all the miracles? What about this new Kingdom Jesus talked about? Would we be next?

I confess I can also imagine the turncoats' betrayal of Jesus. Maybe they thought he was a fraud. After all, who would willingly submit to such cruel injustice if they could bail? Or they thought they could get "better results" with violence. If we was God, why didn't Jesus save himself and them, zapping those awful Romans with a divine thunderbolt?

Plus, all this was mired in the puzzlement and heartbreak of losing a beloved friend and leader, and watching all that suffering play out, horrified.

Can anyone relate? I can.

There are no Gospel accounts of anyone shushing the wailing mourners with joyful anticipation of Christ's promised rising. No disciple assuring the grief-stricken, "You guys, don't worry! He told us all about this, remember? It's okay. He's coming back!"

Who can blame them? It looked so bad.

Here's the thing: It was all planned. All of it. As bleak as it looked in that moment, Easter was coming. Easter was excellent, eternal news.

This side of that first Easter, we know how the story ends and that as bleak as it was in the moment, there was an earthshaking (in a good way) promise on the other side. The permanent crushing of man’s greatest threat and one unknown day in the future, an unmistakable, truly triumphant return that would make everything right. Not our feeble and flawed notion of right. God of the Universe right.

A new beginning that never ends.

Back then (and since) it didn't play out that way in the worldly sense. The Christians did go on to be persecuted and sometimes killed, even as the unlikely faith spread like wildfire around the world. The Apostles died agonizing deaths, as did many successors who followed to this very day.

Jesus warned them. Warned us.

They were willing, because now they knew it was all true. Jesus was real. Paul put it this way:

13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. 1 Corinthians 15:13-20 (NLT)

In fact, the most compelling testimonies of Christ feature His undeniable power to transform, inspire and empower a passionate drive to believe, to stand, to obey, to persevere, to love, to sacrifice, even to die for Christ. Often, with great courage, joy, impact, and surpassing peace.

No Jesus, no peace.

Know Jesus, know peace.

This peace-imparting kind of knowing is deep and costly, a very narrow and hard Way. It's not casual or superficial, like knowing the postman or even a neighbor. I love the way Pastor Nikki Gumbel explained it in his gently powerful evangelistic program Alpha (Find one near you. It can revive your spirit.)

Nikki talked about his beloved wife, Pippa, explaining that reading, or even studying, a book about Pippa, however detailed, could never replace knowing Pippa personally, face to face. Living with her day in and day out, through ups and downs, communicating, watching, listening for many years...That's knowing.

Some of us have sought security in people, places and things that promise but don’t deliver. Like those zealous early Christians, we may rush to find unholy replacements when our first choice seems impotent or too remote or slow to turn things around when and how we want. Our idols may seem more powerful, reliable, or effective. Then we find they're not. We find we've made unholy bargains and been left holding the bag, with a big hole in it.

When our idols, human and otherwise, fail us as we're assured they surely will, we can raise our eyes to this God. He looks down on us from a cross, with compassion, and says "Forgive them, Father" and "I love you this much," that I would pay the price for your wayward hearts and heartless crimes.

A Rescuer who...

• Transforms the most hopeless, from death to life

• Redeems the reprehensible

• Inspires to sacrifice in service to others

• Empowers people to persevere through extraordinary challenges

• Enables martyrs to surrender their very lives rather than forfeit the promise they received and believed in Christ

A Rescuer who welcomes us back with open arms when our idols shatter.

Whatever is happening in your world, our world, know that there is a God who can make a bad Friday good.

Maybe our world‘s not falling apart. Maybe it’s falling into place.

Maybe Good Friday is good after all, and what seems like an unraveling end will lead to the ultimate, eternal Easter. He promised "It is finished."