How is that good?

I know that there are a myriad of people who have wrote powerful thoughts about this day.  I know that I will never come close to expressing the immensity of the cross.  But this is what I was thinking through today.

How is this GOOD Friday?  How is it good that an innocent man was executed?  How in any way is it good that the man who was lauded as the Messiah is now punished as the most vile of criminals?  What crime did he commit? Is it a crime to love, to serve, to touch people's lives?

He is only guilty of doing one thing, obeying the Father.  So, the innocent bears the weight of the condemned.  The perfect lamb defiles himself with the atrocities of our sins.  Perfection was beaten, tortured and slaughtered in heinous fashion.  What's so good about that?

The good is in the last breath he breathed.  Good is in the cry, "It is finished".  Good is in his love, enough to follow the Father's will and make a way for us to find forgiveness before a Holy God.  Good is found in His ultimate demonstration of love by giving his life for those who were his enemies, who in no way could ever earn or deserve this gift.  Good is who He is,


And as I began to read through the gospels, It hit me again that Jesus and his disciples were celebrating Passover at the Last Supper and spurred these thoughts.

A long time ago in Egypt a lamb was slaughtered and his blood was placed on the doorframe.  That blood provided salvation from death.  That lamb became known as the passover lamb.  And then came the day when another spotless lamb was led to slaughter.  It was His blood that saved all the people from death.  He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.