Friday MEDITATION
How does a mere mortal write about Heaven-inspired events which are the most important in human history and even beyond? If you call yourself a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, the events beginning on Friday of Jesus' last week on earth are the very foundation of your life.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were assigned the task by the Holy Spirit of detailing it. Two of them were eyewitnesses. The Apostle Paul wrote much of the rest of the New Testament explaining the events' meaning. He received revelation directly from a supernatural visitation with the Lord Jesus Himself. Since those days, thousands of books have been written, movies made, and countless songs composed retelling the story and significance of Jesus' death. Who can tell it better than those who were there?
What else needs to be said? What else CAN be said? Do we try to make it fresh by telling it from the disciples perspective? Which one? Judas who hung himself? Peter who denied Him? The rest who fled for their lives when He was arrested? Do we view from the the ones who crucified Him? The day profoundly affected everyone involved. The story can be told and retold thousands of different ways, each one with a different perspective, each with an important lesson. Where in the world do you begin?
It was a violent, strange, extremely emotional, supernatural day. Jesus went through six trials before the High Priests and the Roman Governor Pilate. He was tortured and abused. There were three executions and the suicide of one of the twelve disciples. Peter denied he even knew Jesus. There was a great earthquake. Day turned into night. Many graves were opened and the dead rose and went into downtown Jerusalem! It was a day like no other. And all that happened by 3:00 pm! There would never again in all of human history be a day like it...at least for another forty-eight hours.
So from whose viewpoint do we examine this day? How about from YOURS?
You were there. Not only in the sense that Jesus was your substitute on the Cross, but part of you was actually an eyewitness to it all. If Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, the same Holy Spirit in and upon Him, is in you. The Holy Spirit was there guiding Jesus through the day and empowering Him with God's grace to fulfill His mission. The Holy Spirit performed the miraculous events, raising the dead, and turning the world upside down. He is in you now. You were there. (Rom.8:11)
If you read about an event in a history book, you can only imagine it. When you read the Bible, you have already lived it. Deep inside, you know the feeling of Jesus' rejection, His physical pain, what it was like carrying the cross up Mt. Calvary, and His victory and intimacy with the Father.
Take some time today to read in the Scriptures what Jesus went through just for you. What does it mean to you? Your perspective on Friday's events are all that really matter.
