Today is Good Friday, and there’s nothing good about it.
Jesus is betrayed by someone he loved and led deeply. His friends abandon him in the darkness, and he’s left alone, surrounded by enemies. Through a long night, he is harshly dragged back and forth between sham trials where he is accused, despised, and has no one to stand in his defense.
One of his best friends denies knowing him.
He is summarily tried and found guilty.
And then he goes to the cross.
Hope dies.
And we’re left with nothing but darkness.
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Good Friday is an invitation to sit in the darkness. Because it is here that the brokenness of the world meets the King who is with us. This Good Friday, know that you are not alone. And that we serve a God who is with us even in the darkness.
Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts.” The cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, "Me too.”