Intro and Prayer Good Friday

Good Friday Thoughts

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger?

Lamentations 1:12

How do you see the cross? Is it nothing to you?
Since the beginning of Christianity, the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus have been the focus of Christian believers.
The cross is at the heart of God's purposes.
In John’s Gospel Jesus is called,
"the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,"
and in Revelation he is,
"the Lamb slain,"
whose blood redeems people from every tribe and nation.

Could it have been different? It was a violent death, wasn't it?
There was nothing calm and peaceful about it;
Christ was beaten and executed, for the sins of the world.

How does the cross feature in your life this Easter?

This Good Friday, let us put the cross back where it belongs,
visible in the world it brought salvation to and re-uniting it with God through Christ's sacrifice.

We must remember every hit of the hammer on the nails,
every gasp of his pain as the foot of the cross was lowered into the ground and every drop of blood on his brow from the cruel thorns pushed deep into his skin.
He carried the sin, the pain, the horror and the suffering of all of humanity;
those who have been, who are now and those who are yet to come.

We must put the cross back where it belongs, at the heart of our lives. How can the world see the cross in its rightful place, in the world it had come to redeem, unless we hold it central in our hearts?
Not just as a symbol in our churches, or jewellery around our necks
but the reality in the way we live.
Is it nothing to you?

“Man of sorrows, what a name,
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!”

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