“At Nine O’Clock in the Morning They Crucified Him” (Mark 15:25)

A Good Friday Message from Pastor Tom

Why there is so much evil in the world? Why is “nature red in tooth and claw?” Why are some people so wicked? Why are there earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and viruses? If a loving and powerful God is in control of all things, then why are we in such a sad state of affairs? Theologians call this the problem of evil, and there is no good answer for it. Billy Graham, speaking at the National Cathedral after the 911 attacks, recounted how he was often asked why God permits evil. He paused and said he was never able to find a fully satisfying answer.

What we do have is the cross, which speaks to us where we are, in our suffering. It tells us, for one thing, that nothing we experience is beyond what the Lord himself has experienced. Crucifixion was brutal torture. The Bible omits its gory details, but we know from extrabiblical sources and from our own imagination that the cross was a horrible way to die. Throughout his life, right up until he breathed his last, Jesus was “a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering” (Isa. 53: 3). The cross doesn’t address the problem of evil philosophically, but it assures us that God personally understands it and is with us in it. Like a military commander who leaves the safety and relative comfort of his rear position and puts himself forward in the battle with his troops, the Lord is with us in our suffering. In part it was to show his solidarity with us that Jesus “endured the cross, despising its shame” (Heb. 12:2).

The cross also answers how a holy God can justly and fully forgive penitent sinners. We’re not merely victims of evil; we’re perpetrators of it. We see it so clearly in others. Democrats see it in Republicans, Republicans see it in Democrats, individuals see it in corporations, law abiding citizens see it in criminals, blacks see it in whites, women see it in men. If God is holy and just, then surely there will be a price to pay for all this sin. We say with Abraham, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25). We all want justice to be done. The problem is, we want it for others and not ourselves! For ourselves we want mercy. Our cry is, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). The cross is the way God exercised both his justice and his mercy on our behalf. “Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). That’s justice. “God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior” (John 3:17). That’s mercy. How to be true to both aspects of his nature was actually a problem for God, which he solved by the cross.

Once more, the cross assures us that even when we can’t see them, God’s love and power are at work on our behalf. No one who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion was thinking that either of them was in operation on Good Friday. It appeared that both were wholly absent on that awful occasion. We know now, however, from the perspective of the resurrection and the rest of the New Testament, that the reality was far different from the appearance. The cross was the fullest display of God’s love and power in all of Scripture. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). In the midst of this coronavirus pandemic, we may be asking why we don’t see more clearly God’s love and power at work on our behalf. There’s a lot of suffering happening. Many good people are being adversely affected by it. People are dying. Why doesn’t God put an end to it right now? Doesn’t he care? If he does, then is he impotent to do anything about it? The cross calls us to trust in his love and power even when we can’t see them. “What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete – as complete as God’s knowledge of me” (1 Cor. 13:12). In the mean time we walk by faith. God is as much in control of today’s events as he was in control of the events of Good Friday. He who brought us safely through our past national crises will bring us safely through this one too. Keep on praying, keep on believing. Better days are ahead!

The following prayer is from Catholic Online. “Heavenly Father, I may not understand how everything will work out, but I trust you. I don’t see a way, but I know you will make a way. I have faith that at this very moment you are touching hearts, opening doors, and lining up the right breaks and opportunities. Things may look dark and bleak now, but I have faith that a new dawn is coming. Amen.”