The Good of Good Friday

REMEMBER

As Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, God's words to them resounded with the command to remember (Deuteronomy 8-11):
Remember His provision for them during their forty years of wilderness wanderings - the manna from heaven, the quail, the water from rocks, the fact that their clothes never wore out and their feet did not swell.
Remember His guidance - a cloud by day and fire by night.
Remember His promises - the land would be theirs. All they had to do was claim what God had already won for them.
Remember His covenant - He promised to be faithful even when His people were unfaithful.
Remember His laws and keep His commandments.
Remember that it was the LORD who gave them the power to obtain land, wealth, and comfort. All blessings come from Him.

Upon recounting all that God had done for them, how could they not be assured of His continued care? They could go forth in confidence and peace because they followed the LORD God, the One Who had created the universe and the One Who was in relationship with them.

THE PESACH

This week, I helped the family that I nanny prepare for Passover Seder. As we were cooking, the mom and the children explained the meaning of the various foods - the matzah and the bitter herbs to remember what the Israelites quickly ate as they awaited the original Passover, salt water to represent the tears of God's people while slaves in Egypt, charoset to symbolize the mortar that the Israelites used to make bricks when the Egyptians stopped providing them with grain, a lamb shankbone to represent the original Pesach offering, hard-boiled eggs to represent life and the perpetuation of existence, and four glasses of wine to represent the four stages of Israel's redemption process from Exodus to the Promised Land.

During the Seder, the maggid, the retelling of the Exodus story and the first Passover, is shared in fulfillment of Exodus 12:24-27, and my family even uses a "Bag of Plagues" to depict the events leading up to their release from Egypt. (The cow was my personal favorite - you press a button and it falls over dead, but I also liked the man cut out of bubble wrap - he represents the plague of boils.)

The entire purpose for Passover Seder is to remember. And it is only fitting that at the Last Supper, Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples. He instituted a new meal and issued that His followers take and eat in remembrance of Him (Lk. 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-25). One Passover was replaced by another, and once again, there is the instruction to remember. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). Paul directs believers to partake of the Lord's Supper in order to both remember Christ's death and to proclaim His salvation.

GOOD FRIDAY

Growing up, my family and my home church did not observe the liturgical calendar, and as a result, it has only been since I came to seminary that I have learned about the significance of events such as Maundy Thursday and Lent. I have recently been reading a book on Jewish spiritual disciplines, and I quickly observed that there is rhythm to Jewish life, a purposefulness and a thoughtfulness in the way that the Jews live. From keeping kosher to observing Shabbat, to the way that they mourn - there is intentionality. Everything is designed to point the person toward God and toward community. Everything is designed to remember.

Life can be so daily. How often do we stop - or even pause - to think and reflect? I often feel like there is barely enough time to consider the present or to plan for the future much less to remember the past. But remembering changes my perspective of the present and the future. I regain my sense of what is important. I grow in my confidence of the Lord's power. I offer praise and thanks to the Lord for what He has given. And I feel a greater sense of peace as I trust that the One Who has kept His promises and led me thus far will continue to do so.

In lieu of Holy Week, I decided to make space in my busy calendar to remember, and here lies the result of my musings.

In the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle stood the Ark of the Covenant. The wings of the cherubim spread out above the mercy seat, the place where God would meet with man (Exodus 25:22). The mercy seat was the lid that covered the contents of the ark, which included the 10 Commandments, and each year on the Day of Atonement, the priest would sprinkle the blood of the goat on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Essentially, the blood was put between the law and the cloud of God's presence, for "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22b). The presence of God saw the broken law of His people, and with the blood, God saw that the payment of sin had been satisfied by a substitute. Atonement had been made.

But the sacrifice had to be repeatedly offered. It was insufficient.

"But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:3).

Enter Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He came not with a sacrifice but as the sacrifice.

"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).

"But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12).

Since it is Good Friday, I read Mark's description of the crucifixion, and what I found blew me away!

"And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" (Mark 15:37-38).

Jesus gave a great shout before dying (Mt. 27:50; Mk. 15:37; Lk. 23:46), but only John informs us of the content of this cry: "It is finished!" In the Greek, this is one word, and "that one word was the great shout" (William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark). FINISHED! Jesus died proclaiming His victory.

At the moment when Jesus died, the veil was torn. Direct access to God became available to all people. No more animal sacrifices because the Lamb of God had been offered on our behalf.

The veil was torn - I can't get over this! The Greek word skizo is the verb used to describe this action, and my Greek lexicon defines it as "to divide by use of force, split, divide, separate, tear apart..." (BDAG). Force was used to tear this veil - it was not by accident nor by the power of man - it was a divine act.

Here's the really cool part, the only other time that this word is used in this Gospel is in Mark 1:10 at Jesus' baptism: "And when He came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove." Like the veil in Mark 15:28, the heavens were torn asunder. In 1:10, Mark is directly alluding to Isaiah 64:1a, which is addressing the LORD: "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down." Even at the beginning of His ministry, it was already apparent that Jesus, the Promised Messiah, had come down to earth to be the bridge between God and man.

"The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

"But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:7-11).