ニューイングランドの母校から、２０１７年イースターへ向け旅の導き その6 Gordon-Conwell's Holy Week Devotional 2017 Day 6: Good Friday, April 14

ニューイングランドの母校から、２０１７年イースターへ向け旅の導き　その6
Gordon-Conwell's Holy Week Devotional 2017
Day 6: Good Friday, April 14

Not the Way the Story Ends
Mark 15:21-39

This is not the way the story was supposed to end.

Just five days ago, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey—fulfilling the most obvious sign that he was the Messiah/King—and touched off an enormous, public celebration. But, oh, so quickly, that public sentiment has changed. The crowds who cheered Jesus on Sunday were yelling “Crucify him” on Friday morning. Pilate, in spite of his own misgivings, went along with the crowd and condemned Jesus to death. Behind the hauntingly simple words, “And they crucified him,” lies the terrible reality of what happened to Jesus:

Nails the size of railroad spikes were driven through his wrists and ankles, with no myrrh to deaden the pain, since he had refused it.

He struggled desperately to breathe as his own weight crushed his lungs, forcing him to push up against the nails with his shattered legs to free space in his lungs to get a breath.

He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then, finally, he died.

It all seemed so final, so humiliating, so tragic. This isn’t the way it was supposed to end. At that point, those closest to Jesus had no explanation for his death other than the unthinkable—he wasn’t really the Messiah. Their hopes of the last three years were seemingly crushed completely, gone forever. On this day, we remember that terrible Friday. With Jesus’ closest friends, we feel the despairing disappointment, unable to come up with an explanation. We let the darkness engulf us, as it engulfed them nearly 2000 years ago.

But unlike them, we know that this isn’t the way the story ends. The darkness that we re-live today is temporary. On Sunday, the death that seems so final now will be undone, and death itself will be conquered. On Sunday, it will become clear why that death took place and what it means. On Sunday, the disciples’ abject failure—our abject failure—to grasp what has really happened will be replaced by understanding.

Because of what will happen on Sunday, we call this Friday “good.”

Donald Fairbarin, Ph.D.
Academic Dean (Charlotte); Robert E. Cooley Professor of Early Christianity