Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, the sixth day of Holy Week. We give undivided and unselfish praise, honour and thanks to our Risen Lord and King, Jesus Christ, whose selflessness we celebrate. We continue to be held captive by our Lord’s unwavering faith and trust in Father God and His unswerving obedience in suffering, even unto death on the cross. He is One with His Father’s Will and knows that every trial, every suffering and every maltreatment from His enemies, must happen, as each one is allowed by His Heavenly Father. Jesus makes this abundantly clear, as He faces Pilate, the great authority, who seriously thinks that he has power to do things to Jesus, as he wills. He has asked Jesus a question but Jesus simply remains silent. This does not go down well with Pilate.

Here is today’s Jesus Experience.

Then Pilate said to Him, Are You not speaking to me? Do You know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You? Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin. John 19: 10 – 11 NKJV

Holy Spirit, Teacher, Guide, Counsellor, school me in the knowledge that no one can do anything to me unless it has been given them from above. Amen!

It is fitting at this point, to turn our attention back to the text, after listening, seeing and hearing what some other translations have offered. Remember, our reason for that exercise was specifically to use as proof, collaborating and reinforcing the given text. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. Psalm 8: 2. We noted that however the verse was translated, certain facts remained unaltered and undiluted.

The first relevance is that children, very young children, infants, and those who are still younger, babies, are those through whom God works. I wondered what praise could come from the mouths of these children. All they do and can do at this stage, is cry, laugh and make some incomprehensible gurgling sounds at times.

The other relevance is that God has ordained or established strength from weakness. Of all the stages of human growth, God, in His unfathomable wisdom and way, decided to use humans at their weakest, most vulnerable, dependent, unaware stage. Babies are helpless and weak in every way. Left to me, if I had to establish any kind of human stronghold, I would most definitely be looking to man at his best strength – mature, young, strong, intelligent, wise and well proven – to give some measure of surety. Would this not be your position also? There is no way, not even in one’s most feeble mindedness, will one look to the most helpless, the weakest and most dependent. I mean, even to think of it is ludicrous and utterly insane, to say the least.

I hear and see, and I totally give myself away to God. I give up my human ways of thinking, my human intelligence, my human reasoning, my human sight and everything human, with which I have prided myself, to gaze and gaze on God and God alone. Where are you at this moment?

Holy God, there is none like You. I cannot even begin to try to fathom You, but I see and hear You and I bow low before You. You are LORD! You are All. You have told me that it is because You are Lord of all and You are Creator and Maker of all that You can do this. You can use the weakest to do the mightiest works; the smallest to do the highest works; the most insignificant to bring about the most intricate works; the most vulnerable to provide the securest and surest works and the least of all to do the most of all. If I do not believe this, then how can I believe that You used the cruel, filthy, sinner’s cross as Your ordained way of victory? You gave the sinner’s cross to Your Beloved, Holy, sinless, righteous and innocent Lamb, to decisively and completely, once and for all, defeat the enemy, silencing the foe and the avenger.

Forgive us Lord God, that we keep by-passing You and depending on our natural intelligent and lawful ways. Father, we are so often afraid to venture off in faith, because all around, faith is foolishness, if it is not injected and complemented by and with human works and effort. Holy God, we miss so much and live such barren and dry lives because of our lack of trust. Jesus has promised us abundant life with Him, but O how we live unabundant lives, because His ways and Your ways are not in our understanding. We simply cannot leave ourselves, deny ourselves, to take You at Your Word. Forgive us Lord and may Your Holy Spirit so convict and challenge us that we will have no choice but totally surrender ourselves to Him in Your Name. Amen!  Lord I really want to know You. Amen!

When I think of children and infants, people who cannot even talk, who do not yet know speech, I wonder about their praise – the praise of children – for I am baffled by what I hear coming out of their mouths. Then I am brought to take my eyes off me once again and know that it is praise to God and not to me. I do not have to understand, nor do I have to edit their praise, for it is from God to God. The Lord seems to delight, not just in our impossible, but in our ridiculously impossible. Establishing and ordaining strength from utter weakness is ridiculously impossible, but that is our God.

He is the God who hears and sees a Philistine champion, a giant of a mighty warrior from Gath, named Goliath, who has terrorized enemies left right and center and has remained champion in every battle he has fought. Now, this Philistine has King Saul of Israel, who has killed his thousands, and all Saul’s men, terrified. This is what is recorded in 1 Samuel 17: 10 – 11. Then the Philistine said, This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other. On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. You know the story, how, through a weakling, a shepherd boy, not an experienced soldier, with no heavy duty armour, just a sling and stones, God brought convincing and undisputed victory to David, Saul and all Israel.

Through Jesus’ death on a cross, life has been won for you and for me, sinners doomed to everlasting death. Jesus has died, the sinner to save!