No Easter without Good Friday

We like joy and happiness. We certainly try to avoid pain and suffering. We do whatever we can to avoid pain and suffering. And so we like to jump from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and avoid the negative vibes of Good Friday and all of the pain and suffering that is expressed there.

However, without Good Friday there is no Easter Sunday. There can be no resurrection without a death. Some religions try to suggest that Jesus didn’t really die. If that were the case, then Jesus would never really have been resurrected either.

Jesus, in his humanity, did not want to suffer and die any more than we do. When Jesus told the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, Peter rebuked him. Jesus responded: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark 8:33) This was the same temptation that the devil brought to Jesus in the wilderness. And even in the Garden on the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

What does Jesus’ death have to do with us? Many have heard the famous John 3:16 passage, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whoever believes in him should have everlasting life.” We know that Jesus died on our behalf and took our sinfulness upon himself, giving us his righteousness.

There is another very important reason that Jesus suffered and died. In Hebrews 4:15-16, we read “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Because God became one with us and experienced our whole range of emotions and struggles, we can now approach God with confidence. Since Jesus lived as we live, he understands us. As the Super Bowl ads say, “He gets us.”