Considering the Cost

It’s Good Friday. Last night, my Lord was taken away. He gave no resistance.

Today, He has been paraded between groups of “authorities”, beaten and abused by every one. He will be condemned to death, nailed to a cross and left to hang with common thieves.

In the mid-afternoon, He will die in agony.

And, where was I? Where would I be if I had been there two millennia ago? Like each of those followers, like each of those men, like each of those women, I’d be somewhere... alone. Where was Peter, brave Peter? He was lying to protect his sorry butt. Where was John? In the shadows avoiding all recognition? Where was Judas? All alone; running from the consequences of his actions. Everyone else? Well, they were drifting back to Jesus; watching from afar. Some stood at the cross. He will soon be dead. And, His followers will drift again.

Where would I be?

This is my day of reflection – the day I consider the cost of Christ’s punishment and death. Those were my crimes for which He paid. Those were my sins – vile sins of rejecting God’s goodness and seeking my own faulty way; the way that in itself leads to death.

I will mope around the house today. No Good Friday Service for me. There never has been one. I don’t want to be with people. I don’t want to sing songs of joy that anticipate Sunday’s resurrection. This is my day to be alone, to consider the cost of my sins; the cost that the very Son of God willingly paid. Beaten and whipped – I caused that. Mocked and spat upon – I caused that. Nailed to the cross – I caused that. Dead – I caused that.

Where would I have been? I wonder, amazed.

Now I know that He is mine, I am His forever,
He is leading me along life's way;
He'll be holding to my hand when I cross death's river,
He will take the sting of death away…
     He will take the sting of death away.
         (“I am His and He is Mine” by GT Speer, 1965)