Holy-Week-Friday

This blog is a part of our Holy Week series.

Dr. Richard Lints

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:23-28)

When Friday arrives each week, it is a common phrase in our household to say, “It’s finally Friday!” Many of us experience the work week as a sequence of days leading to a conclusion. If it has been a difficult week, we are grateful that it is over. If it has been an especially tumultuous time, we are even more grateful the week has come to an end.

That emotional rhythm was turned entirely on its head in the final week of Jesus’ life. The week had begun with a virtual parade of celebration of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The crowds had sung the “Hosannas” as he walked the streets of Jerusalem. But as we know in all too gruesome detail, the week concluded on Friday with the worst possible ending. The “Hosannas” had turned into “Crucify him.”

What an incredible week it was—a week that changed the course of history in the most unexpected ways. Jesus had told his disciples that he must suffer and die (Matt 16), but none of them believed their beloved Messiah would actually suffer and die. Surely God’s anointed one would find a way to avoid that sort of thing. Nor could they see ahead Jesus’ gruesome death on the cross, portrayed as a common criminal before the crowds gathered that Friday. The end of the week appeared to be the end of all their hopes and dreams.

The disciples must have asked, “Why did God do this to us?” It is a question we all ask in our dark moments, perhaps especially at the end of a very bad week. Hopelessness and despair are our constant companions when circumstances go against us. But the deepest meaning of our hopelessness and despair is its signal to us that there is no place to turn except to God.

It is the strange irony of the gospel that Jesus’ death is the final nail in the coffin of death and despair. It is the reality that Jesus’ death is not merely an earthly event, but, as Hebrews 9 narrates, is an event that takes place on the stage of eternity. It is a cosmic event. It is a death that brings the cycle of despair to a close. There is no way to fully grasp the significance of Jesus’ death on our behalf without staring into our own despair and realizing that God alone can take away its sting through the death of his Son.

In Jesus’ death, everything is mysteriously and strangely put right. It is a story too incredible simply to be invented by human imagination. This week, may it sink down deep in your soul.

Dr. Richard Lints is senior distinguished professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell.

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This post first appeared in the devotional, Journey to the Resurrection, published by Gordon-Conwell, April 14 – 21, 2019.