|
Why Jesus? That is the question we have been exploring this Lent. Our answers have been varied and, perhaps at times, surprising. “Why Jesus?” we ask, “Because…
“Jesus meets us where we are,
“Jesus shows us true peace,
“Jesus invites us to the party,
“Jesus makes room for us at the Table,
“Jesus rides straight into the messiness of our lives.”
Today, Good Friday, we mark the fact that Jesus also knows what it means to suffer, to feel pain and anguish, and, yes, even to experience death itself. We call this day good because it is through the events of Jesus’s arrest and execution that we come to know fully a God who does not skirt around the most jagged edges of the human experience. The cross reveals to us the fact that there is no hardship, grief, or hurt we can endure in this life that God does not intimately know. God knows what it is like to sit in darkness so complete that it feels as if the light might never return. But, of course, the story does not end today…
This Sunday, we will proclaim the most important and consequential answer to that question: Why Jesus? Because Jesus is the Risen Savior. Simply put, Easter is the central event of our faith. Jesus’s rising from the dead reveals a Love so great that nothing – not even death – can separate us from it. The good news of the empty tomb is not just that Jesus is alive but also that God is on the loose, even now, bringing new life to all those places in our lives and in our world today that feel life-less. As the Gospel of John puts it: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not (and does not) overcome it!”
Hope to see you in worship. Invite a friend. All are welcome!
Peace,
| 
