It’s just after 8:00 Good Friday night. I’ve chosen to spend some time in solitude and silence. For most of my Adult life I’ve not observed the disciplines that so many of Jesus Followers practice during the 40 days of Lent. But, in recent years, I’ve done so.
The primary reason I’ve chosen to do so is that I want to know Jesus more intimately. To have true intimacy with someone you really have to live with them. Living with Jesus is a little different from living with my Wife. I can’t touch Him as I do her. I can’t have a “face-to-face” conversation with Him. Still, by reliving aspects of His life, I can enter into His experiences spiritually. With the help of Walter Wangerin Jr. and his marvelous book, Reliving the Passion, I’ve been able to enter into the events leading up to Jesus crucifixion and the dreadful details of His execution as if I were there. Tonight I’m feeling the weight of it all.
I’ve been through it all before and it’s been hard. But, for some reason, it is heavier for me tonight. It’s all over now. Joseph has wrapped Jesus in linen and placed Him in his own tomb. All of the 11 surviving men who followed Him for 3 years have disappeared into the Sabbath night. The women who were with Him through the entire ordeal were still nearby. They’d watched Joseph place Him in the tomb. I’m trying to enter into their experience now. How utterly hopeless they must be!
Last Week I held a man who’d lost his Wife. She was only 50 years old. She’d been diagnosed with a rare disease but it wasn’t supposed to take her life so soon. He was completely distraught. He told me, as I hugged him, that he didn’t think he could go on. He was disheveled and pale. His shirt was hanging out and below his sport coat. I really was concerned for his well-being. He is, tonight, in my mind, a real example of how the men who’d followed Jesus must have felt as they relived, again and again, his awful death. The women too were completely devastated by all they’d witnessed. Wangerin captures the pathos of Mary Magdalen,
“What do I do? I don’t know what to do. Nothing. The Sabbath has started. So what? So, if I pray I’ll be mouthing the sounds. Nothing. And if I pray a vain repetition, what then? Will Heaven be offended? Well, Heaven has offended me!
Joseph’s stone is like the period that stops the sentence. Boom! – the story’s done. And when the story’s over, the very air is empty. No place for me. No home for my soul. Silence. Why do I keep standing here? It’s dark. It’s midnight. Everyone’s gone home. Except me. Abandoned. Nothing.
Why can’t I leave the tombs?
Because the whole world is a graveyard. Because this is the one that has my Lord.
Jesus! Jesus! Without you I am a nothing in a nowhere!
Your are dead.
My world is annihilated.
And still – I love you.
And still the man I held that afternoon loved his dead Wife – still …
When I released my embrace of him and lead him to the graveside I prayed for supernatural assistance in caring for this wounded soul. I was given that assistance. As I described for this broken Husband and his Family and Friends the new life his Wife – a Christ-follower – now enjoyed he looked up at me. His eyes seemed like dark pools brightening in the light of the morning sun. When the service was finished he gripped my hand and said, “Thank you! You’ve given me hope! You’re the one who was supposed to do my Wife’s Service.”
I’m remembering this now – Good Friday night – because it is a dramatic illustration of why I – we – need to “relive the passion” of Jesus. We need to relive it because only when we experience the utter heartbreak and absolute despair those present went through will we have the joy that filled their hearts when He appeared alive on Easter and the 50 days after. Remember, “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5) True joy comes only in the aftermath of pain. When and only when our hearts have been broken at the cross will we understand how such a horrible day could come to be known as “Good Friday.”
As I prepare now for the “joy” of Resurrection morning I’m remembering a favorite Easter song. It’s a Don Francisco song that reveals what might have been going on for Peter that miraculous day. The lyrics are readily available on the Internet so I’m comfortable sharing this remarkable story with you.
He's Alive
by Don Francisco
THE GATES AND DOORS WERE BARRED AND ALL THE WINDOWS FASTENED DOWN
I SPENT THE NIGHT IN SLEEPLESSNESS AND ROSE AT EVERY SOUND
HALF IN HOPELESS SORROW AND HALF IN FEAR THE DAY
WOULD FIND THE SOLDIERS BREAKING THROUGH TO DRAG US ALL AWAY
AND JUST BEFORE THE SUNRISE I HEARD SOMETHING AT THE WALL
THE GATE BEGAN TO RATTLE AND A VOICE BEGAN TO CALL
I HURRIED TO THE WINDOW AND LOOKED DOWN INTO THE
EXPECTING SWORDS AND TORCHES AND THE SOUND OF SOLDIERS FEET
THERE WAS NO ONE THERE BUT MARY SO I WENT DOWN TO LET HER IN
JOHN STOOD THERE BESIDE ME AS SHE TOLD US WHERE SHE'D BEEN
SHE SAID THEY'VE MOVED HIM IN THE NIGHT AND NONE OF US KNOWS WHERE
THE STONE'S BEEN ROLLED AWAY AND NOW HIS BODY ISN'T THERE
WE BOTH RAN T'WARD THE GARDEN AND THEN JOHN RAN ON AHEAD
WE FOUND THE STONE AND THE EMPTY TOMB JUST THE WAY THAT MARY SAID
BUT THE WINDING SHEET THEY WRAPPED HIM IN WAS JUST AN EMPTY SHELL
AND HOW OR WHERE THEY'D TAKEN HIM WAS MORE THAN I COULD TELL
SOMETHING STRANGE HAD HAPPENED THERE JUST WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW
JOHN BELIEVED A MIRACLE BUT I JUST TURNED TO GO
CIRCUMSTANCE AND SPECULATION DIDN'T LIFT ME VERY HIGH
'CAUSE I'D SEEN THEM CRUCIFY HIM, AND THEN I SAW HIM DIE
BACK INSIDE THE HOUSE AGAIN THE GUILT AND ANGUISH CAME
EVERYTHING I'D PROMISED HIM JUST ADDED TO MY SHAME
WHEN AT LAST IT CAME TO CHOICES I DENIED I KNEW HIS NAME
AND EVEN IF HE WAS ALIVE, IT WOULDN'T BE THE SAME
SUDDENLY THE AIR WAS FILLED WITH A STRANGE AND SWEET PERFUME
LIGHT THAT CAME FROM EVERYWHERE DROVE SHADOWS FROM THE ROOM
JESUS STOOD BEFORE ME WITH HIS ARMS HELD OPEN WIDE
AND I FELL DOWN ON MY KNEES AND I JUST CLUNG TO HIM AND CRIED
HE RAISED ME TO MY FEET AND AS I LOOKED INTO HIS EYES
LOVE WAS SHINING OUT FROM THEM LIKE SUNLIGHT FROM THE SKIES
GUILT AND MY CONFUSION DISAPPEARED IN SWEET RELEASE
AND EVERY FEAR I'D EVERY HAD JUST MELTED INTO PEACE
HE'S ALIVE, HE'S ALIVE,
HE'S ALIVE AND I'M FORGIVENHEAVEN'S GATES ARE OPENED WIDE
(REPEAT CHORUS TWO MORE TIMES)
HE'S ALIVE, HE'S ALIVE, HE'S ALIVE . . . HE'S ALIVE …
Today is “Good,” for another reason. It is, for Jews, Purim. The significance of it is described in the story of Esther chapter 9 verses 20 – 32. Purim is 2 days, as the historian explains, “when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration.”
He has, for time and all eternity, “turned our mourning into dancing!”
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