Foolish? Yes!
It is easy to let the busyness of life keep us from focusing on what is going on around us. For instance, this weekend is Easter weekend. Today is Good Friday. With all the other things vying for our attention we really need to invest a little time into remembering why this day and this weekend is important. Sure, it is fun to color eggs, have candy, eat together with the family and do fun things for the kids, but it is also easy to get totally caught up in that busyness and forget the whole reason we as Christ followers celebrate. Just as Jesus is the reason for Christmas, He is also the reason for Easter.
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
The Easter bunny has become the focus of the secular world as far as Easter celebrations go. It gives families another reason to have a meal together and gives parents and grandparents another event to show love and share fun with the little ones. But this holiday is not just a light hearted parade of colorful eggs and Easter grass. It is a celebration of a battle that was fought and won; a life that was laid down; a gap that was bridged.
The term Good Friday is a conundrum. How can something that seems so bad, be good? How does the Roman practice of tying people to two cross pieces of wood and raising them up so they slowly asphyxiate give us a warm feeling? How is it, a holy being, deciding to become a man, brings us joy. For people who know nothing of Easter, or its true meaning, that whole dying on the cross must look ridiculous and macabre. They probably think those of us who believe in such a historical event as being foolish. We are.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
You see, the entire basis of our faith as Christ followers is on these two things: the death and the life. Without the death, there was a wall between us and God. Without the life, there was no way to bring down the wall. Where did the wall come from? It was built brick by brick by man’s choice to sin. It started with Adam and Eve and has gotten bigger and bleaker with each passing generation.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned”
God is a holy being. He cannot sin. He cannot tolerate sin. Now He has a problem. His creation, the beloved thing that He spoke into existence, can no longer be in His presence. The only way for His fallen creation to be united with Him is through their ability to be holy, as He is holy. This is where the system of laws, feasts and sacrifices came in.
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
Now, don’t think for a moment, that God didn’t already know that He was going to send His only Son. He knew this, but He was setting the stage. God does everything with a purpose. His plans are perfect. His thoughts and ways are way beyond what we are able to think or imagine. He is a holy, eternal being after all. While we all bear His image, we are most certainly not God.
Jesus chose to do the Father’s will, to make a way for us to once again be reunited with His Father. It is His shed blood that was offered as the final sacrifice. No longer do we have to offer a lamb, because He is the spotless lamb.
“The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
“17 For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Good Friday is about remembering Christ’s sacrifice. This sacrifice was necessary for us to be able to once again, walk with God.
Are we foolish to believe in Calvary? Are we foolish to believe that Jesus paid it all? Yes, but only to the world.
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”