Good Friday slowdown

Today is the day that we humans have set aside to meditate on the death of our Lord and Savior. We call it Good Friday.
The general definition of "Good Friday" is this:

the Friday before Easter, which is annually observed to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Not a bad definition.
But rather sparse.
It certainly doesn't tell the whole story.
Jesus knew Who He was. And He knew why He was here. That is why we "see" that glint of determination on His face when He turned to go to Jerusalem the last time....it was His death march.
He would be mocked.
Spat upon.
Slapped.
Insulted.
Nailed to a cross.
And He would say, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."

Today, can we emulate Christ and forgive the wrongs that others do to us? Can we forgive when we are hurt, humiliated, wronged, scarred with the unkindness of another human being?
Does our forgiveness reach out and encircle those who have hurt us?
Each hurt or pain, each moment of loneliness or sorrow, each moment of hatred or of guilt -- all of these nail us to a cross by those who hurt us. But the reverse is also true; we can also use the same nails on someone else as we nail them to their cross. There is a lot of hammering of nails going on in this world.
But is there forgiveness, too?
We who say we are followers of Christ . . . do we show forgiveness?
Many powerful speakers have encouraged us to put ourselves into the place of Jesus at this moment. Think of the bitter agony He experienced - it was more than mere physical pain; it was agony of spirit. Remember that He was the Son of God and that He knew the power of God -- the almighty power that could have removed Him from that cross at any moment. Remember that it was the power of a Father watching His only Son die a slow and agonizing death. Remember that His Son felt the weight of all the sins and the punishment of all those sins, from past, present, and future generations. It's no wonder that He cried out, "My God, my God, why did You abandon Me?"

But why didn't God reach down and save Him? Why didn't He send His angels to help Jesus down from the cross?  Why does God allow evil to exist?
Think of the implications to those questions. What would God do? Kill all who are evil? Where does He stop? If God destroyed all who resist His will, how would you and I have come out? It might have happened before we had the chance to be saved.....

No, God has another way. It's the way of the loving Father. He meets us where we are. He suffered everything that our sins could bring upon the world, and did it all with His heart breaking. What is that loving Father like? The cross tells us that story. He lets the rejection of His Son run its full course to the cross. Since Jesus was to be the sacrifice for our sins, He had to feel all of the feelings of humankind; He had to feel and experience everything, including the bitter feeling that even God had abandoned Him. Through my tears I confess that I don't know how the cross has reconciled me to God. It's too high, too much, too overwhelming to fully grasp. I only know that it speaks of His love for me and for you.
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!"

And He stopped breathing.
Dear God, my Savior stopped breathing.
His heart stopped beating.
No.
This cannot be.
But Jesus knew that the Father would save. He prayed in the garden the night before, so earnestly that blood dripped from His brow. The power of that prayer, and the power of God's plan to save mankind saw Him through this agony, so that He could call out to the Father and know that He would accept Him into His mighty arms.
He took my place on the cross.
He took your place, too.
We belonged on the cross, not Jesus. He took our punishment. It's easy to say that. We can even be smug about our salvation. But when we admit to ourselves, and to God, that we belonged on that cross, all of our smugness and self-righteousness falls away as we tearfully bow our heads.

But now....
Now we look ahead. We look ahead to Easter. To Pentecost. To the power of His Spirit and His love coming to earth to be with each of us as we walk this pathway.
It's Good Friday, because we know that Easter follows.
It's Good Friday, because Christ lives!
We can look at the stark reality of the cross; it's a symbol of death that was meant for us. But we can also see the joyous reality that the cross is a symbol of hope!