Today is Good Friday. Nothing “good” about it in a sense. It was anything but good for the disciples, and for our Lord. A dark day of death and apparent victory by the enemy, when all seemed lost. But it was very, very good as it turns out. Our Passover Lamb was sacrificed and this time, He was the end of all Passover lambs. This Lamb was effective – His blood has made us as white as snow. From our perspective, as we look at that original Good Friday through the lens of Scripture, we see that God was orchestrating the whole thing all along. Every thorn in the crown, the very seamlessness of Jesus’ tunic, the nearby tomb of the rich man – the whole thing was a drama ordained in eternity past. The will of the Father was done.
What did the enemy and his minions think that first Easter morning? Stone rolled away, tomb is empty – with Jesus’ grave clothes laying there in perfect outline as if somehow the body they once enveloped had been suctioned right out from inside them. I think that is what Peter saw when we are told that he went inside, saw, and believed. The cross, as it turns out, was a master strategy from the Master. The greatest surprise attack of all time. Death was led captive and the enemy POW’s were marched on display. He is risen.
