Good Friday 2008
I would imagine that most of us have seen “Extreme Makeover Home Edition,” where each week a family is surprised with an amazing, life-changing gift. At the beginning of the show, we are introduced to the family, we see a video application that they have sent along, describing their need – usually it’s a story of some devastating loss, or of an incredibly inspirational family that gives to others while facing their own great need. We get to watch as the Makeover team shows up unexpectedly one morning to surprise the family with a life-changing experience.
The family receives a wonderful week-long vacation, while their home is literally replaced with one that meets their needs. The highlight of this show is when that family first sees the gift they are being given, and we get to watch their response. Together with the host, Ty Pettington, the family and the entire crowd gathered there shouts “Bus Driver, Move that Bus!” and we get to witness the instant that their lives are changed. They are overwhelmed with joy. Sometimes they fall to the ground; sometimes it literally takes their breath away. Often you will see them jumping, hugging, and laughing and crying, all at the same time.
Often, in addition to their brand new home, appliances, furniture and all the rest, the family receives much more, like college scholarships for their kids, or a new car, or a paid off mortgage. The giving just keeps on coming!
The last thing you would expect would be to see them mourning or grieving. I’ve never heard a person say, “I’m so sorry!” And I’ve yet to see a family turn to Ty and say, “I don’t want it – take it back! Give me my old house back!”
That would be so wrong – so twisted, inside out, upside down and backwards!
Last Sunday I shared with you how I think we’ve gotten some of our emotions all twisted, inside out, upside down and backwards when it comes to Easter. Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and we talked about how most of the time we come to Palm Sunday with this idea of welcoming the King, and it’s all joyful and celebratory and happy – but the reality is that their worship on that Palm Sunday was shallow, selfish and mistaken. They were only interested in worshiping Jesus as long as He was fitting their agenda. He was coming to deliver them, to make their lives easy, to give them all they wanted, and to put them in a position of power over their enemies. But their Palm Sunday Worship ended up as Good Friday Desertion when the times got tough. I believe that Palm Sunday is a sad image of much of modern Christianity – we are willing to follow Jesus as long as we get to pick and choose which Jesus we will follow – the forgiving, prayer answering, powerful, victorious Jesus who will supply all our needs from His glorious riches. But let that talk start about “In this world you will have trouble,” and “If anyone would follow me he must deny himself daily, and take up his cross and follow Me…” and we’re out!
Palm Sunday is actually kind of sad – because of the shallowness of that worship, the limits to that devotion, the selective nature of the adoration.
Good Friday is kind of the flip side of that same coin. It seems to me that we get it kind of twisted, inside out, upside down and backward, too. That thought was never brought home to me more than when we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher last summer in Jerusalem. The church is built on the historical sight of the crucifixion, and the tomb of Jesus. Originally built in 330 AD, the church has been destroyed by invaders and rebuilt three times over the years. In the 11th Century, Muslims took over Jerusalem, and destroyed the church, and chiseled away the cave where Jesus was buried, leaving just the floor. The crusaders rebuilt it in the 12th Century, and that is the church that still stands today.
It’s a huge facility, built atop the traditional site of the crucifixion. It was dark and gloomy. After climbing the stairs to the upper level of the church, you came to the place of the crucifixion. A large rotunda, hundreds of candles burning, the smell of incense was sweet in the air. At the center of the room, a gilded alter covered the place where Christ died. Beneath the alter, through the floor, could be seen the ancient rocky top of the hill, with openings in the surface that held the crosses where hundreds of deserving criminals, zealous rebels, wrongly-accused innocents, and the Savior of the World, were put to death. Hanging from the ceiling above the rocky outcropping was a large golden crucifix, giving an artistic, traditional image of Christ on His cross.
A few steps away, under and even larger rotunda, is the site of Christ’s burial. The original cave is gone, and an interior edicule, or shrine, is built in its place.
As we visited the site, I have to tell you, it was rather depressing. It was dark and solemn. People were in tears and mourning. And I can understand that – it was my sin that put Him on that cross! It was for me that He was beaten, spit upon, had his beard pulled out, wore the crown of thorns, bled and died. It was me! It was my sin!
Yes, it is a place of death – but more importantly it is the site of victory over death!
Yes, it is a grave – but more importantly it is the place where the grave lost its sting!
Yes, my sin put Him on that cross – but more importantly, it was on that cross that my sin’s power was broken!
Today in churches all over this country, Good Friday is observed with sorrowful, mournful solemnity – and I’m not saying that that is wrong – we’ve done it here before, and we probably will again one day. But if all we do is mourn, I think we miss the significance of the day.
There’s an old hymn that calls us to never forget the cost of our salvation:
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine Agony,
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.
Yes, consider the tears of Gethsemane! Remember the agony of the cross. Never forget His love for you! Come to Calvary – and recognize the enormity of what that cross means for you.
You’re a decent enough person, as people go, but you were being oppressed by your sins. You know what sin is – it’s big things like murder, stealing and abuse. But it’s also “little things,” talking back to your mother, rebelling against your parents, overdoing the booze or drugs. Sin is attitudes – like pride, greed, jealousy or anger. Sin is not just cheating on your spouse, but ignoring your spouse. It’s not just beating your children, but breaking your children. The Bible tells us that we’ve all sinned.
That sin had caused your foundation to crack. The destructive rains of life poured in. Deadly decay and corruption crept into your life, like an uncontrollable mold. You found yourself living in a death-trap. In desperation you call out to God for help, and His help arrives. Jesus didn’t come on a big bus with a megaphone, He came borne of a virgin, in the awesome power of God. He came to give your life an extreme makeover. He doesn’t come in and just put a new coat of paint on the old – He destroys the old. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation…”
But it’s much more than that – it’s not just a new life – that same verse goes on to say, “the old is gone, the new is come!” That old debt of guilt and shame is wiped out. God promises that He will “forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more.” He separates us from our sins as far as the East is from the West! It’s gone! It’s like you life mortgage is paid in full! And there’s even more – God doesn’t come and give you a new life and then abandon you to run off to the next life that needs repair – no, you become part of His family! The Bible says that we have become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. We have been adopted into His family. We get to call Him “Father”!
A few weeks ago, I saw an interview with the Koepke family, from Dundee. It had been about a year since they had yelled out “Move that bus!” and received their new home. Guess what – they love their new life! They still face the realities of life that we all face. They lost their husband and father just a few weeks before their Extreme Home Makeover experience, and they still grieve that loss. They still have homework to do, bills to pay, struggles come and go. But I did not hear them say that they missed their old house, that they were sorry to see it go, or
How twisted, inside out, upside down, and backwards would it be if a year after receiving their home the Koepke family got out pictures of their old house and longed for a return to the past? Or if they sat day after day in the new home and felt bad for the people who worked so hard to build it, and never enjoyed it? That would be twisted!
So on this Good Friday – let’s celebrate this day rather than commiserate! Let’s put the “Good” back in Good Friday! Let’s receive the life-changing makeover that God gave us on that day – and let’s respond appropriately, with great joy, tears of delight, overwhelming love and gratitude…that sounds like worship to me! Let’s worship the Christ of Calvary!