It Is Good For Us To Be Here

"It is good for us to be here," Peter had said to Jesus.  Then he offered to pitch tents and stay.  Now, before someone wants to gently tap me on the shoulder and remind me that this is Good Friday and not transfiguration Sunday, I will assure you that I am not confused with the church calendar.  It is good for us to be here on this Good Friday.  We won't be staying; don't pitch your tents, but for this moment, it is good that we should be here.

I love Good Friday.  Glimpse any church and compare the attendance during Good Friday service with that of Easter and you will see that the day is not appreciated as it should be.  There is a lot of attraction to the bright outlook of Easter morning and while I love that service as well, Good Friday really sets the tone for me.  I like to draw myself into the somber mood of the day and feel the heaviness.  It is good to be here.  To feel the weight of sin.  The burden it has placed on my shoulders.  I have grieved God by what I have said and done.  I have grieved God by what I have left unsaid and undone.

We are moving collectively as a society to a dangerous position that God cannot be offended by our actions.  We pretend that our lusts and our greed and our unfaithfulness mean nothing to Him.  If God cares deeply for us as individuals then you cannot fool yourself into thinking that our sin does not grieve Him.  Sin will always be an affront to God; a matter He cannot overlook, just as a good parent cannot overlook the disobedience of their child.  He will never take it lightly for He sees the separation it causes; how His child pulls from His grasp.  If ever we should doubt how seriously God takes sin, we need only look to the cross.

That is why it is good to be here today on this Good Friday.  We must look our sin in the face and see the result it brought; the face of Christ, beaten and bloodied.  It is our sin that spat in His face and that stripped Him of His clothes and dignity.  My sin that spoke atrocities and that cracked the whip.  It was sin that weighted the cross He carried to Golgotha until He stumbled under the weight.  And the nails were sin piercing Him through.  It was sin that opened his veins and drained His blood.  It was sin that cast Him from His Father into death.

My sin and your sin.  Ugly, detestable, perverted sin that disfigured the face of Love.  My God, my God, what have we done?!

It is good for us to be here; to feel the weight of our sin.  My heart heaves under it.  It is mine for now to feel, but I won't be pitching my tent here.  For now, it is wise to experience this pain of sin, lest I forget to feel the release when Christ took it upon Himself.

If we are not willing to reflect on the greatness of our sin- to be repulsed by it, to see the effects of it in the lives of others, to recognize the offense we have committed against God- then how can we truly celebrate the gift that Christ offered on that Resurrection morning?  It is good to be here for a moment, so that for an eternity we can celebrate what Christ won for us.

Leviticus 17:6 "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
Romans 3:25 "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."