Good Friday thoughts

This was my Lent devotion for our church booklet this year. Since Good Friday was yesterday, I wanted to post it here.

Good Friday, April 22

“The Dark Valley, the Sunny Mountaintop”

I recently asked my NOOMA class this question: What does the Resurrection of Christ mean to you?Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) I got a lot of blank faces, and I wondered why. The Resurrection is essentially the linchpin of Christian faith. Without it, we are without hope, we are without a promise for the future, and we are without a faith. However, since I was assigned to write my devotion on Good Friday, the day of Christ’s crucifixion, I feel that I should back up a moment, for without the cross, there would not have been a resurrection. I’ve begun to realize that many people grow up in church their whole lives, yet rarely stop to think about or reflect upon the cross or the resurrection. It seems that many of us just go through the motions and brush by these essential pieces of our faith as Christians. So I ask you to stop and really think for a moment: What does the cross of Christ mean to you? For some, it is the act that Jesus took upon himself to cleanse or save us from our sins. For others, it is meant to bring God and humanity together once again to a restored relationship. For some, it is the very act of Christ laying down his life as a courageous and humble act of love, that we might be so moved to show love to God and others in return. Which thought makes the most sense to you?

It seems that most of us identify more with the cross than with the Resurrection. Perhaps this is because death is something we know, feel, and see as a part of our humanity. We can see the cross, feel pain, and know the sting of death. However, the Resurrection is something more mysterious, more beyond our understanding, and out of reach. So how do I experience the Risen Christ in my life? I experience Him wherever I see transformation taking place. I experience Him whenever I really stop to think that in order for transformation to happen, God had to take a messy situation and make it into something beautiful and mysterious, and that we are to do the same as Christians in our messy world. And finally, the Risen Christ brings me hope for new life, a new world, a new peace, and a reminder that sometimes, in order to get there, we have to walk with God through the dark valley in order to reach the sunny mountaintop.

Awesome God, it is You who chose an act of love so magnificent that still brings us to our knees thousands of years later. Help us to be reminded of this kind of love.Help us to understand. As we kneel before the cross of Christ on this Good Friday, may we live into the beauty, the mystery, and find a sense of hope and peace, knowing what lies ahead. Amen.