A Good Friday reflection

Delta Flight 104, with 272 passengers and 14 crew, had just departed São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport on Sunday when flames shot out from its left engine. Passengers screamed for the pilots to “turn around” the jet. They immediately declared an emergency, shut down the affected engine, and circled back to the airport, landing safely shortly after departure.

Video from inside the cabin shows passengers erupting into applause and cheers when the aircraft came to a stop. No injuries were reported.

Imagine yourself inside that airplane. If you could speak to the pilots, what would you say to them today? A year from today?

Let’s come back to that thought and its Good Friday relevance in a moment.

I was once given a ticket for what the officer claimed was an illegal left turn. I disagreed, but an attorney convinced me that the chances of winning my argument in court were nil. So I paid a fine and received deferred adjudication. By avoiding another ticket for six months, I also avoided what is known as a “final conviction.”

This was by the grace of my attorney friend. He advised me prior to my hearing, drove me to the courthouse, pled my case before the judge, and negotiated the mercy I received. He would not let me pay him for his time.

What he did not do was die for me.

Imagine that I had committed a capital offense and had been sentenced to death, and that the court somehow allowed my friend to die in my place. In that case, his sacrifice would make logical sense. My penalty was death, so he died to pay it.

However, I was accused of committing an illegal left turn. For my friend to die to pay for my crime would make no logical sense at all.

This episode constitutes the entirety of my experience with our court system. I have never committed murder or otherwise done anything for which the sentence is death.

Why, then, in atoning for my sins, did Jesus have to die for them?

Why do we call this day “Good” Friday?

We call this day of Holy Week “Good Friday,” though I can assure you no one present on that day called it that. The earliest use of the title is in a text from around AD 1290. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that “good” in this context refers to “a day or season observed as holy by the church.” Others think the title is a version of “God’s Friday.”

Etymology aside, humanity has an excellent reason to call this day “good.”

On this day, Jesus “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). But why did he have to die to do so?

Sin cuts us off from the holy God who “gives to all mankind life and breath” (Acts 17:25; cf. Psalm 36:9; John 1:4) and leads eventually and ultimately to death (Romans 6:23). If you cut a flower from its roots, the flower will die.

The “debt” incurred by sin, therefore, must be paid by death—either ours or someone else’s on our behalf. But since every other human (except Jesus) has sinned as we have, they have their own debt to pay and cannot also pay ours (cf. Romans 3:23). If I have $100 and owe $100, I cannot use my money to pay your debt as well.

This is one reason the Gospels so adamantly demonstrate Jesus’ innocence with regard to his trials and conviction (cf. Luke 23:14–15; John 18:38). If he had committed sin, his death could not pay for our sins. But because he was “tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), he had no debt of his own to pay and thus could pay ours.

“God’s love and justice came together”

However, there was another option: Why could God not simply forgive our debt?

If you run into my car on the street, I can forgive you without requiring your death or even that you pay for the damages. Similarly, the judge in my case had the power to dismiss all charges. If he wished, he could simply have forgiven me for my alleged misdeeds.

But he could not do so and do his job. The policeman who issued my ticket was as convinced of my guilt as I was of my innocence. The judge had no way to satisfy the demands of justice while ignoring or forgiving my legal debt.

The Bible says that God is both love (1 John 4:8) and holy (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). With regard to our sins, how is he to be both? Billy Graham expressed God’s quandary this way:

If God were simply to forgive our sins without judging them, then there would be no justice, no accountability for wrongdoing. God would not be truly holy and just.

But if God were simply to judge us for our sins as we deserve, there would be no hope of salvation for any of us. His love would have failed to provide what we need.

Dr. Graham explained the answer: “The cross is the only way to resolve the problem of sin. At the cross, God’s love and justice came together.”

If the judge in my case had pronounced me guilty and then paid the fine himself, he would have been loving and just. There was no other logical way for him to be both.

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life”

Imagine that someone died physically in your place. Perhaps a soldier shielded you from a grenade that would have killed you, or a police officer stepped in front of a bullet meant for you. Would you go a day of your life without remembering their sacrifice? If they somehow came back to life, what would you do to express your gratitude to them?

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen noted,

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.”

You and I will have all of eternity to thank Jesus for this day.

But remember, eternity starts today.

Quote for the day:

“If we want to know what God is like, let us look at Calvary.” —Robert E. Coleman

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Denison Forum

A Maundy Thursday reflection

Yesterday was filled with headline news, including:

• Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court as the justices considered the question of birthright citizenship.
• NASA’s Artemis II mission to circle the moon launched last night at 6:35 p.m. ET. Watching the rocket lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida was awe-inspiring.
• President Trump addressed the nation last night, stating that the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion” a month after Operation Epic Fury began.

However, I want to focus on this Maundy Thursday on news that isn’t making headlines in our culture but is being celebrated in heaven.

Recent studies show that eighty million Americans believe a spiritual revival is coming to our nation. Of those participating in the survey, young adults (statistically the most unchurched generation in history) are surprisingly the most likely to agree.

A story I read this week shows why.

 “I never knew God loved me”

Jennie Allen is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of IF:Gathering and Gather25, part of what Christian Post describes as a “vision to mobilize the global Church.” According to the article, she has been visiting college campuses with the Unite ministry and was invited to speak at Southeastern University in Florida last month.

The Dallas-based Bible teacher said, “We have been blessed to be on the road on about twenty campuses. And we have seen over and over again a huge response to repentance, to the gospel, to baptism, and it’s just been beautiful and amazing.”

This was especially true at Southeastern. After her message, she said, “The room did confession, which I’ve done in many rooms before. But a girl yelled out ‘abortion’ as loud as she could.” The student then collapsed to the floor. “I think after that, it got real,” Allen said. “Everyone began saying things that were harder to say.”

The gathering continued for hours and eventually days, with students staying for worship and prayer late into the night.

Allen, a mother of four, said she’s personally baptized hundreds of students over the past two and a half years. According to her, the desperation many young people feel is fueling their spiritual openness. She recalled, “A seven-foot athlete stood in front of me with tears falling down his face and said, ‘I never knew God loved me.’”

Gen Z’s faith gives her hope for the future of the church. “They’re so compelled by the love of God that they want to make a difference,” she said. “Jesus changed their life, and they want other people to experience that too.”

“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride”

Maundy Thursday was one of the most pivotal days in history. On this night, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrendered to the soldiers, and was illegally tried and condemned by the Sanhedrin. The next day, he would be crucified.

But one part of what transpired then has riveted my attention today. As you know, Jesus shared what we call the “Last Supper” with his disciples on this day (Matthew 26:26–29). This is the phrase that caught my eye: “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant . . .” (vv. 27–28, my emphasis).

Remember who was at the table with Jesus that night: Judas, who would betray him, Peter, who would deny him, and nine other “disciples” who would abandon him. Only John would be present with him at the cross. The rest would fail him in his hour of greatest need.

Yet, astonishingly, he included them all in the Supper that symbolized his body and blood given for them. And, just as astonishingly, he includes us as well. All of us. Any of us who know him as Lord will be with him at his table in paradise.

Isaiah saw a day when “the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food,” a day when “he will swallow up death forever” and “wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:6, 8). On that day, Jesus said, “many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). He compared this event to “a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Matthew 22:2; cf. Luke 14:16).

Now comes the most amazing part: at “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” the bride is us (Revelation 19:7, 9).

Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Now, as “a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2), we are “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (v. 9; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2). And “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5).

“The core truth of our existence”

Here’s my point: Your Savior loves you as passionately and unconditionally as a perfect husband would love his wife.

When you said “I do” to him as your Savior and Lord, you became his “bride.” Nothing can change your status as his beloved. Nothing can make him love you any more or any less than he did when he died for you. You are loved as you are, no matter what you do or do not do today.

Unfortunately, everything in our culture conditions us to believe the opposite about ourselves. If you are a student, your progress depends on your grades. If you have a job, your income depends on how well you do it. If you’re an athlete, a musician, a painter, an actor, or a writer (in my case), your success depends on your performance. Even your family is not exempt from transactionalism: your spouse can divorce you, your children can disown you, and your parents can disinherit you.

By contrast, as Henri Nouwen wrote in his marvelous book Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World:

The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: “These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity.”

Nouwen assured us that “being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” And he added:

“That is the spiritual life: the chance to say ‘Yes’ to our inner truth. The spiritual life, thus understood, radically changes everything.”

Will you say yes to your “inner truth” today?

Quote for the day:

“When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.” —Henri Nouwen

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Denison Forum

A Holy Wednesday reflection

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ “conversion therapy” for young people infringes on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor. Their ruling reversed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the law.

According to Associated Press, “The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.” Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint” and added that the First Amendment “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

Notably, the Court ruled eight-to-one, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the lone dissenter.

However, the news is not all positive on the religious liberty front. The Family Research Council has documented 1,384 “acts of hostility toward US churches” occurring between January 2018 and December 2024. Catholic churches have especially come under attack in this country.

In the Middle East, the Hoover Institution reports that Christianity is declining rapidly due to the persecution of believers. In Finland, a member of the Parliament and a Lutheran Church bishop were convicted for writing and publishing a pamphlet twenty years ago defending biblical sexual morality. In India, Christian groups are speaking out against legislation they say could enable the government to seize their properties.

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