Today is Good Friday. But what's good about it?
On this day the worst crime ever committed occurred, the worst injustice, the worst demonstration of the depravity of mankind. Hatred, jealousy, hypocrisy, cowardice, brutality, greed and more all bubbled to the surface as some cosmic sewage leak. Jesus of Nazareth was railroaded, brutalized, and murdered. He who had always spoken the truth; who opened his arms to innocent children and broken, guilty sinners alike; who worked wonders, did no harm, and demonstrated love as no man ever before, was rejected in favor of the rebel murderer Barabbas.
Ah, but in the end it was a good Friday. One may indeed say it was the best Friday. On that black day Jesus tore apart the veil that separated us from God and made it possible for each of us - whoever is willing - to experience redemption, to know absolute forgiveness of sin, to find relief from an unbearable burden of guilt and shame, and to have the power of sin broken by the presence and power of Almighty God himself.
The Scripture tells us that on that day he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The divine Son, possessor of heaven and earth, came to our dark world to trade places with us, just as he did with Barabbas. He took our sin, guilt, shame, and death so that we could be right with God and made truly and eternally alive. He embraced our spiritual poverty so that we might possess the wealth of heaven for the ages to come.
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!" cried the prophet Isaiah. "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? . . . Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
On that terrible day a fountain for sin and uncleanness was opened in Jerusalem to which any may come and find a new beginning in life and a new hope for the life to come. Today is Good Friday. If you hunger and thirst for a new start, cry out for a new hope, weep for a new day, come to Christ. You are just the one he died for. I promise that if you come to him with an honest and sincere heart he will embrace you with open arms and, whatever day you allow him to enter your life will be the best day ever.
No one will ever be refused.
Just come.