Good Friday (Day 113)

Today is the day that most of Christianity celebrates or remembers in some way as "Good Friday." It is the day we remember as the day when Jesus was nailed to that old rugged cross about which we sing -- there to bleed and die for "the sins of the world." When we read the Bible's account of the crucifixion and the brutal events leading up to it; When we see a film such as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ," we must pause to ask ourselves, "What's so GOOD about such a day as that?"

The answer is that it this day is not good because of what was done TO Jesus, but we see this day as good because of what He willingly, deliberately and lovingly ALLOWED to be done -- what He gave Himself to as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

The depravity of mankind, the nature of man to sin, is at both the most unpopular of the Christian doctrines and also the most empirically verifiable. We have within us a basic sense of our desperate condition. We are aware, or are often reminded, that we are not quite what we were intended to be. Something went wrong, something we want to see made right, but somehow find ourselves incapable of restoring.

By Pastor John W. Watts