Friday April 10, 2020
I’ve been silent for awhile.
Covid-19 has silenced the world in a manner of speaking. The earth isn’t even vibrating as much as normal due to the slow down of activity. I feel the silence, don’t you? Empty streets, closed shops, shut doors. Life at a stand-still.
We aren’t used to it. It feels like something is missing, like normal will never be again.
This morning as we listened to our Good Friday service on-line as so many others did, I was reminded of years past that saw us gathering together as a body of Christ in our respective places of worship. United, together. Bodily present. Today…separated, silent. Distant from each other.
The power of this day is that even if we’re separated in body we remain united in Christ!
The gift of the cross is that we will never be separated from Christ as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV) Including Covid-19!
The beginnings of Good Friday started all the way back in Exodus, well Genesis…okay~ seriously in eternity, but let’s focus on Exodus. In Exodus chapter 12 we read about how the first Passover was celebrated. It laid the ground work for the eventual fulfillment of all prophecy through Christ as he became our Passover lamb. Perfect, without blemish, slain as a substitute for sin.
Why? Because all sin keeps us at a distance from God…and more that just 6 feet! It keeps us an eternity’s distance away from God. He longed so desperately to be able to show us just how deep and vast his love was for us and so the solution to the punishment for our sin had to be deeper and more vast than the chasm sin had created.
The power that death and hell had over us needed to be broken. The curse of sin to damn us to hell had to be nullified.
Have you caught yourself thinking…yah, I know this already. If you’ve been a Christian any length of time you’ve heard this story many times, you’ve taken Communion many times as a celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.
So what’s different this time?
For the first time I’ve noticed the silence.
In Exodus chapters 1-11 there was a lot of noise going on! The Israelite’s were slaves to the Egyptians and were being mistreated. The Lord heard their cries for help as Ex 2:24 says “And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Issac and with Jacob.”
God’s response was to send plagues on the Egyptian people. Can you imagine the hopeless, fearful noises of the Egyptians as the plagues rained down on them? Their cries must have risen in the streets, a cacophony of terror.
And then a call for silence from the Lord as he gave instructions on how his people were to prepare for the Passover. A request for each family to go to their own home and as a family prepare a special meal to share together, the significance of which would not be truly understood until Christ died on the cross.
I realize there’s no actual call to silence in this story. But it struck me that the world at that time must have felt upside down, much as it does today. Fear and anxiety would have been rampant and unchecked.
In the middle of it, God says to the Israelite’s…I’ve got this. I have a plan. I’d like you to focus on me because what is happening all around you will turn out for your deliverance so please go to your homes and quietly wait for your salvation.
We know each family did as they had been told and prepared the first of all Passover meals. While the world all around them went crazy, they remained in quiet contemplation and reverent worship of their God.
Safe. Protected. Still.
There are many references in the Bible about being still and waiting on the Lord. A little further on in this same story we read in Exodus 14:14 that Moses says to the people as they prepare to cross the Red Sea “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Be silent.
Fast-forward to the Crucifixion.
The night before, we find Christ in the garden of Gethsemane overcome with sorrow and distressed at what was to come. He had taken friends with him for encouragement, to watch and pray with him. They go to a quiet place, a garden. A place of sanctuary and peace in the midst of a terrible storm that would soon be unleashed against all of them.
The disciples didn’t know what was coming, Jesus did. Take out your Bible and read Matthew 26:36-46.
What does this scene depict for us? In times of crisis and fear, how should we respond?
- Get alone and pray
- Relinquish your will to the will of the Lord in your life
- Exercise self-control over a body that is weak and discipline yourself to keep watch and remain alert
It’s a good time to do all 3 of those things right now. Instead of filling your time with TV re-runs, movies, gaming etc. I encourage you to use this time of silence in the world to focus on the Lord. Hide his word in your heart, lean into him.
Use this time to get to know the Lord better. Listen to him. Good Friday is a special day, it’s the day the Lord paid the ultimate price so that the deep chasm of sin that separated you from him could be spanned by the cross and I pray you’ll reflect on this great gift today.