Friday April 22, 2011

Good Friday

Matthew 26:26-29

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink from this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father."

Jesus had said things like this before - lost followers because He insisted on saying that we must eat His body. And now was the time. To take bread and bless it and share it - and then to try to explain. The despair on Good Friday was complete, because Jesus broke His body first, as He broke the bread before telling us why. Then again, He had tried several times to warn His apostles about what was coming. But He spoke in parables too often or they didn't think now was the time or something kept it back.

It was an act of love - the most glorious act ever done by anyone. God made Himself human, and He let death touch Him. I can't think about the Death and Resurrection anymore without thinking of the Life of Pi take on the matter - how now death had touched God, that He allowed Himself to be forever changed by being touched by humanity and death. By suffering, by cruelty, by callousness, by jeers and shame. To show us that shame and pain and suffering are things that do not control us. They are things that can be overcome.

To free us from the burden of them. To carry our cross for us.

It was shocking love. It was heartbreaking love. It was unfathomable love. To turn Himself inside out and let Himself be tortured and killed. To change forever. To alter the nature of the universe as we insist on seeing it - to show us that we have it wrong in the most dramatic way possible, also known as the only chance we'll ever begin to understand the magnitude of God's love.

One thousand, nine hundred and seventy-seven years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross, an executed criminal condemned by His own people and betrayed or abandoned by those He loved most. So that we would understand what love is, and so that we would be free to follow God's path for us. So that we would be free of the burden of death, of the burdens of pain and shame. So that nothing could separate us from God again.

What wondrous love is this? O my soul. There aren't words for this, which is why I'm babbling trying to get at them. Words don't go here. And we all know the story.

We couldn't have made this up.

Dear Lord, thank You.