Good Friday

No glory.  No praise.  No feel good time.
An execution. A lynching.  Watching someone you love die.
So many are not capable of sitting with Jesus at His death - his disciples among them.
We want the resurrection joy, the glory, the personal salvation... gimme, gimme, gimme...
The church rushes to the "Third Day" because we don't pay the price and don't want to hear
    about the price Jesus paid.
The church brushes past the pain because it does not make us feel good or lift us up.
The truth is, He was lifted up.  Not in the way we always want to be lifted up and highly favored.
He was lifted up in sacrifice.
And we are often unwilling to sacrifice "feel good", even for one day, for Him.
Give me the glory, the praise, the 'feel good'.

I am at the Cross today.
With horror, I see a God who had no sin, take on sin/become sin for me and die a gruesome death.
I see a young man lynched because He was a threat to the Romans, King and Church.
I see a man take on what was my punishment for my lack of mindfulness, dedication and
   commitment to God.
I see a man take on what was my price for not loving my neighbor, even stranger and enemy, as
  I have been commanded to do.
I see a man who, with Agape Love, unconditionally surrendered even to death, and actively
   committed to me, even to giving His life.
I see.  I do not look away.  I do not rush to the empty tomb and wait there until Sunday.

THIS is the true gift.  The Cross.
My redemption - being bought back from sin and death is HERE, NOT in the tomb.
I gotta get outa "gimme, gimme, gimme" for a while to know what He TRULY gave me.
I love Jesus on the Cross.  I wait today and watch with Him through the minutes and hours.
Today is Grace, not cheap, but costly - undeserved loving mercy given freely to me, to you.

Come down with me to the weepin' tree and cry with me a while.
Come all you mothers whose sons have died and cry with me a while.
Are you afraid of the cryin' place, the dyin' place, the weepin' tree?
Come down with me to the weepin' tree and cry with me a while.

HIS glory was in His humility.
HIS strength was in His willingness to be weak.
HIS perfection was in His taking on sin, becoming sin who knew no sin, and dying.
HIS gift is not just in the empty tomb, but on the hard, wooden, blood stained Cross.

THIS is God like no other.
Pastor Jamie