The King Has Arrived!

As we walk through this Holy Week, I want to take some time to reflect. First of all, what does "Holy Week" mean? Well, the word holy means "set apart." It also conveys the notion of purity. Thus, God is holy by being set apart from all creation and from anything impure. We become holy, then, as we become Christians, meaning we have been set apart to God for the purpose of glorifying him, and we have also been cleansed from our sins. Holy Week is, therefore, a reminder of what--or rather who--makes us holy. It is Jesus, the perfect sacrifice for our sins. In fact, it is also his sacrifice that makes this Friday "Good."

What an odd choice of names for the Friday of Christ's death! Good Friday. How can anything good be said of that day? Jesus is rejected, beaten, mocked, whipped, spit upon, and finally crucified. Not the sort of day most of us would chalk up to a good day! Yet, it was and is good. It was exactly what was needed. As Hebrews 9 tells us, "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." Thus, Christ takes upon himself the sins of us all, that we could become pure and clean before God; moreover, so that we could have the promise of salvation!

However, had Jesus remained dead, none of this would be true. Salvation is tied not only to the forgiveness of sins, but to the conquering of death, as well. So, what started out as a horrifying and brutal day--with the worst of humanity on display!--in hindsight, becomes a good day, Good Friday. Peering, now, through the empty tomb, we can make sense of that awful day. The day that God used to make both us--and that week--holy.

Now, 2,000 years later, we all have the benefit of hindsight. We can see how an awful day can become a good day. Moreover, now that we can look at all of life through the empty tomb, we can have a perspective that allows us to find holiness in the most unexpected places and events. What might seem in the moment a "terrible, no good, very bad day"-- to quote a children's story--may just turn out to be something beautifully wrought into a holy instrument for God's purposes of shaping us for the ministry he has set us apart for; a ministry of revealing his life-changing love and power to a world that so badly needs to know that there is hope even in the worst of times.

* Community Good Friday Service- Here this Friday at Bailey Christian Church at 7 pm
* Easter Services- 9 & 10:45 AM Bring a friend!
* Brunch- 10:15 AM in the Cafe'