Tom's Message: "I AM" and "I am Not"
Hey, everyone…
Just wanted to remind you about…
and welcome you to…
our Good Friday service tonight.
Although it’s not like welcoming you to other things we do.
It’s not going to be an easy time.
It’s a time to read in God’s Sacred Word…
and reflect…
and maybe even to repent…
as we sing and listen and remember the Day when darkness covered the Earth at noon…
as the Son of God and our Savior bore our wrong and shame…
and even His beautiful, love-filled heart was pierced for us.
I don’t believe we will hear so much in awful detail about what happened to Him moment by moment in those dark hours. As you read through the accounts of the Evangelists of the Gospels they are surprisingly restrained as they tell of His sufferings. I believe that it is because all He went through for us is beyond our capacity to comprehend.
As I was reading John’s Gospel this week, I found it chilling that it simply said of His suffering, that “He went out to the place of the Skull…There they crucified Him.” (19.18)
The Gospel doesn’t linger on all the ugly and awful details of what happened to Him.
I was almost overwhelmed when I read however that John does describe in slow-motion and close-up, “moment by moment” detail…
not so much what happened to Him…
but what had happened to us.
What happened to humans??
How could they have been…
how could they be…
so awful??
From His arrest to His death…
watching what they did to Him…
my heart filled with questions.
“How could humans be so cruel..
and cowardly…
and callous…
and shameless…
and merciless…
and heartless?
What happened to us?
You just read and wonder…
“How much would a person throw away for money?” (18:2)
“Where does that first violence come from?” (18:10)
“How dare a person do that?!” (18:22)
“How cowardly and desperate for power could a human be? “ (18:38)
“Why are we worse when we’re in crowds? When we’re shouting?” (18:40; 19:6)
“How could they not have known what they were doing?” (19:1-2)
“How did humans get to a place where they do these things?” (19:18)
“How could they have done this??”
John is telling us in such painful, awful detail…
“Look! This is what is in the human heart. This is what comes out of the human heart.”
And then after they had done all they could do to Him, John tells us of a moment that he alone of the disciples of Jesus witnessed.
“But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side (actually His heart) with a spear…” (19:34)
After describing for two painful chapters all that comes out of the heart of us broken, fallen humans, John tells us what came out of His.
“One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear…
and out came a sudden flow of blood and water.”
Blood and water from His beautiful heart.
Blood to pay for us.
Water to cleanse us.
Just what a heart like mine needs.
I noticed something in my reading of John this year that I never had.
When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, He asked them who they were looking for.
When they told Him “Jesus of Nazareth”, He answered (in John’s Greek language)…
“I am.” (18:5)
When Peter, one of His followers was asked around a courtyard fire if he was indeed a “Jesus follower”…
“Peter replied…
“I am not.” (18:17)
Jesus said “I am” because so many times I have said, “I am not”.
Blood and water from His beautiful heart.
Blood to pay for us.
Water to cleanse us.
Just what a heart like mine needs.
Good Friday Service of Remembrance
Triple C at 7:00pm