Imagine you are one of Jesus' original disciples. One day you are a fisherman learning your trade from your father, the next you are following a most unusual rabbi. For three years you traveled with a group of disciples learning from the rabbi. Jesus was sharing wondrous things about the kingdom of God, healing people of all sorts of maladies, feeding the masses, and transforming lives. At first you had no idea why he picked you, but after awhile you even start helping Jesus perform miracles. At first you weren't sure who Jesus was, but after awhile you and others become convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, the long awaited and promised Messiah. The joy of knowing and following Jesus was tremendous, but just as everything was coming together Jesus was arrested, falsely tried, and crucified. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. What does it all mean?
For the disciples, and the early church, the cross of Christ was difficult to understand. Even though Jesus had predicted his death and resurrection numerous times, the disciples were shocked by his death. For many, Jesus' death on the cross meant he could not be the Messiah. After all, the Messiah was to be a military and political leader who liberated the Jewish people from the occupying forces and restored Jerusalem to the time of king David. And Jesus must not have been the Son of God, for God cannot die, and certainly not a humiliating death on the cross. For many the cross of Christ simply did not make sense.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles 1 Cor. 1:22-23
As the early church, and in particular Paul, tried to share the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection they found that many had difficulty understanding. This is just as true for us today as many people try to grasp the full meaning and depth of Jesus' amazing love and grace. As more and more people shared their personal experience of the crucified and risen Christ, as they shared what it meant personally to them, more people came to know the Lord. It was not through logic, or prophesy that people came to faith, it was through ordinary people living and sharing extraordinary lives that people saw the difference Jesus makes. As they began to understand that, through Jesus, we have received the ultimate gift of God's love and grace, that through Jesus we know have access to God, through Jesus we have salvation, they knew the promises of God were fulfilled.
The death and resurrection of Christ unlocks for us, and for the entire world, the fullness of God's love, grace, and mercy. Through Christ we have all we will ever need, and that is Good News indeed!
67891011 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:5-11
Paul, for the early Christians and for us, makes sense of the cross of Christ and the resurrection. Paul is able to articulate how Jesus' death was not an invalidation of him as Messiah, but confirmation. Paul is able to articulate why Bad Friday is really Good Friday, praise be to God!
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