Dark Day For A Bright Future

The second most pivotal day in history, Good Friday. There is no small irony this Good Friday coincides with Earth Day. While many will be rightfully remembering the creation on this day, I wonder if they will remember the one who redeems all creation? When Jesus went to the cross on our behalf, it was not only humanity that was being brought back into relationship with God, all of creation was. The process God used to bring back the Eden-like relationship was one that was dark and painful. The journey from the table of the Last Supper to the reality of the cross was filled with betrayal, injustice, beating, mocking, and nailing.

History, not just Scriptural history, records the day when the sky turned dark in the middle of the day. When Jesus was doing battle with sin, all that would keep us from our created relationship with God, the whole earth was involved and the light turned dark. The theological world will talk about theories of atonement, and the various ideas of how Jesus death brings about our redemption. All those theories and discussion have their place, this is not it. What I have experienced is this, I was trapped in sin and death until I realized the grace offered to me through Christ. I do not need to explain all the pieces and parts to know the act of Jesus on the cross changed everything for me and for all of creation. This does not mean we are free from brokenness, or that all the world is perfect. What the work of Jesus means is that on the dark day all that would prevent the pursuit of the fullness was defeated. The victory was won when Christ felt forsaken. As Jesus breathed his last, the curtain was torn and all were invited into the Holy of Holies.

The cross is not the end of the story. In fact if it is the end of the story we are all still headed for a death separate from God. If the cross ends the story then Jesus was another moral teacher who had a very traumatic death but that was it. On the cross Jesus steps in and declares whatever is needed to repair the brokenness is being accomplished. Sin is canceled, injustice is addressed, and hope springs. Not until the tomb is found without Jesus do we know that new life is possible. Jesus told that he was only going to be in the tomb for three days, the proof was in the pudding, with no Jesus in the tomb the move from great moral teacher to Messiah was reinforced. The darkness of the cross is turned into a bright future for all who would follow after the One who made it possible.