It is Good Friday!
Christians around the world observe the commemoration of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in light of His resurrection that we today observe the good Friday as a good one, but it was not a good Friday for his 12 disciples.
Whenever I read the Scriptures, I am astonished by how time changes the colors in which we observe an event in history. It is under this time context that as we see what God has done, we get new insights that lead to hope because we observe Jesus’ death and crucifixion as a finished work. Thus we rejoice in triumph and deep adoration for what the Lord has done.
This is the third Good Friday under the pandemic. It has been a huge learning curve.
We had to adjust to a new reality that was more than anything else unpredictable. But humanity and especially Christians have gone through unpredictable and dark times in history many times. The Church of Christ has always prevailed, just as Jesus told Peter that even the gates of hell will not prevail over his church.
But what does it say for us as Christians, when the world that we are living in is constantly changing?
I found this interesting picture on the internet. It is taken on the same street in New York but at different times. The first one was on Easter 1900 and the second one on Easter 1913. What could drastically change in a matter of 13 years? A lot!
In the first picture, you have all horses and chariots and only one car. Only 13 years later you have all cars, but only one horse. I did not live in that time, but it is easy to imagine how much that change influenced the way people thought. In just 13 years they had to get rid of horses, chariots, probably close down farms for raising horses, the business of building chariots, horse and chariot riders found themselves unemployed, and there was a need for a new profession to learn: drive a vehicle. They had to embrace a new way of thinking about life. It must have been a forceful change mixed with the excitement of the new and the lament of the old. A call to adjust and ride a new wave.
We too found ourselves in a forceful change just between two Easters, 2019 and 2020. If you search on the internet for Easter 2020 probably most of the pictures you would find would be what we would call Zoom Easter. You can even find special zoom background screens to use for Easter. In 2019 just that idea would sound totally insane. Talk about an online church prior to 2020 and everyone would oppose it. Now after almost three years of the pandemic we all know that is not a crazy thought, it is a new reality. This new reality has forced us to ask difficult questions that require intentional thinking.
“The way you think determines who we are, determines what we do” – John Maxwell
And what we do is sacred in God’s kingdom.
My thinking has been constantly challenged in these past three years leading me toward change, what about you? How has your thinking changed recently?
Happy Good Friday friends and Happy Easter!
Christ is Risen!
