On Good Friday: Are my eyes and heart dry?

Reflecting upon the Lenten season and particularly upon the sacrificial death of our dear Lord, I am struck by my own ability to slip into a strange and dangerous sort of devotional dormancy at times. Late winter can be just such a season.

But how can this be, in light of the remarkable grace and love of the King of Kings? How is it possible for a living human soul to forget even for a moment the majesty of God and the miraculous mercy that drove Him to the worst kind of death in our place?

19th Century artwork - public domain

 

Good Friday is good.

We shudder at the brutality and suffering our Savior endured on our behalf. We understand that He did it to rescue us from sin and from evil and from death and from ourselves. We know this dark day in history paves the way to eternal glory. So we call the day “good.”

Do we also realize that Good Friday is also good because this highest of holy occasions reminds us of the unimaginable cost of Calvary?

The Lord of the universe gave His very self for us. That cost Him everything.

Pause, and let that sink in for a moment. Can we carry that truth in our hearts?

Often, exquisite God-gifted art can point us back to the truth. Here’s an example.

This Good Friday poem stabs me right in the heart.

British Victorian writer Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) is one of my all-time favorite poets. I simply love her poetry. My Rossetti favorites include:

• “A Better Resurrection,”
• “A Daughter of Eve,”
• “Consider the Lilies of the Field,”
• “Fata Morgana,”
• “Good Friday,”
• “In the Bleak Midwinter,”
• “My Dream,”
• “Remember,”
• “She Sat and Sang,” and
• “Uphill.”

 

Christina Rossetti - public domain artwork

Rossetti’s poems display a depth of devotion and thought that strikes me to the soul. Perhaps her insights came in part from enduring three failed engagements (over matters of faith) and remaining single lifelong, devoted only to God.

Good Friday

By Christina Rossetti

Am I a stone and not a sheep

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,

To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon—

I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.

As much as I love them, these lines make my heart hurt.

I wonder: Am I a stone or a sheep? Do I look to the Lord, or do I stand stoically by?

A biblical witness is not merely a neutral onlooker. We are called to be active participants in the Gospel of Christ. If I truly believe the very Son of God took on human flesh to bleed for me, then I will not merely watch, but I will also weep. I will mourn for my own misgivings. I will bear remorse and repent. Then I will rise and follow where He leads me.

In Numbers 20, the Bible tells how, in the Desert of Zin, the people thirsted, but there was no water to be found. The Lord instructed Moses to speak to a certain rock, and He promised to gush water from the stone.  Moses struck the rock, and the Almighty One brought forth water from it. Although Moses overdid it, hitting the stone instead of following God’s specific instructions, the Lord did a mighty miracle.

God is in the business of changing stony hearts.

Consider this word of the Lord to His people, spoken through the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel: 

Ezekiel 36:25-28 graphic created by this user on poster generator.

 

^“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:25-28, NIV)

Soften my heart, Lord. Carve out callousness, and sweep away senseless scars. Keep my soul ever tender for you. Draw me nearer to the heart of God, and let my eyes and words flow with grace and gratitude for all You have done for me.

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Created by this user with online generator

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What if we had to wear our sins like labels?

It’s hard to graduate from high school without reading The Scarlet Letter. Many have seen movie adaptations of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel. That’s the story in which Hester Prynne was made to wear a bright red “A” on the front of her clothing to display her sin of adultery. (Her partner in crime, so to speak, had not been found out, so he was not subject to the same public shaming.) As if Hester’s protruding pregnant belly did not sufficiently telegraph her condition, the dreaded scarlet letter made her situation clear to all.

All around her, the presumably pious turned up their noses at Hester, pointing their fingers and wagging their tongues at her visible sinfulness.

It’s easy to hear such a story without personalizing it. We can skim along, swiftly turning the pages and thinking we are altogether different. We like to think we are worlds apart from Hester and the haughty townspeople.

But we’re not. Maybe we carry less obvious sins. But any one of us could wear a letter or two.  How about “E” for envy? “G” for greed?  “P” for pride?

What if we all wore our sins for all to see?

Thank God we do not. In His mercy, He does not expose us in such a way. At least, He usually doesn’t. Most often, He draws us back with kindness. If we don't respond to that, He follows up with  loving discipline, aiming to restore us to walking with Him.

And we are relieved that our sins have not been broadcast.

But we wonder about the really wicked people. We recoil from those who do the most dastardly deeds and seem to get away with their crimes. Why is hypocrisy so often kept covered? Why doesn’t God expose sinners for who they really are?

Ouch. Maybe that’s all of us –to some degree.

God doesn’t measure righteousness in degrees. Either we’re righteous, or we’re not. And we’re not – not on our own.

Although we may seek a semblance of comfort in keeping certain sins private, the Bible clearly says no sin is hidden from God. He is fully aware of everything we do, every word we speak, and every thought we roll about in our minds. He knows our attitudes, whether or not they come out in our actions.

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13, NIV)

In vain, we try to stash our rebellions, refusing to confess them to the Almighty. Because of His absolute righteousness, sin cannot fellowship with Him. We may fool ourselves, and we may even fool one another, but we’re not fooling God.

 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. (Jeremiah 16:17, NIV)

We’ve gotta have grace.

Truth does come out in time – in God’s time.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8, NIV)

Why does God seem to allow sin to be secret, even for a time?

Maybe He refrains from trumpeting our sins all about because He graciously awaits our turning to Him. And it’s a fair bet He doesn’t want to give sin any extra airtime.

But I am pretty sure the Lord knows us all well enough to know that we’d likely judge one another even more harshly, if we all wore our most secret sins like nametags. Then we’d have to wear extra name tags that read:

“holier-than-thou hypocrite”

“Pharisee wannabee”

 “pretender at perfection”

“self-appointed judge”

and the like.

The world would run out of nametags.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NIV)

Glory to God, who tears up the nametags of sin, when we come to Him. He writes His own Name on our hearts (see Hebrews 8:10) and writes our names in His heavenly Book of Life (see Revelation 13:9). And He calls us by much better names that those dirty old sin labels. He calls each of us:

blood-bought

child of the living God

healed

joint heir with Christ

loved

precious

ransomed

redeemed

restored

saved

and so much more.

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Potent Parent Prayers: Confessing brings a clean start

Who needs a new beginning? Doesn’t everybody?

Gathering with a special circle of friends a few days ago, I was intrigued by a discussion of this very issue. One asked how many times a believer needs to repent of a sin. The question opened a pathway to freedom. Once we repent, God tosses that sin away. It’s gone. His pardon and peace carry us forward, never back to already forgiven sin.

This promise is true for parents and kids alike. God offers fresh starts to all who ask.

We go from gory to glory by His grace. 

What a promise.

Parenting is tough. I’ve heard it called “the hardest job you’ll ever love.” I’m not sure who said that first, but it’s often true. As our kids get older, I wonder if the hardest part of all is watching them make choices that we are pretty certain will lead to heartbreak. We’d love to short-circuit the railway to disaster, but we can’t.

Maybe that’s a little taste of how our Father God feels, when He sees us step out of His good will for our lives. I wonder sometimes if He even winces a bit when we make bad choices, ignoring His instructions in what may be tagged as willful sin.

Thank God, He offers each of us a way back.

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NIV)

Dear Father of Heaven, please continue stir up a desire in our kids (and in ourselves) for confessing sin and receiving Your grace and purity and a new beginning. 

Open their hearts and ours to a deeper yearning for You.

We ask in faith and in the name of our wonderful Lord, Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

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