An Easter Message to my Amazing Readers

Today we Christians celebrate one of the most important days of the year: Good Friday. The day where God did something unfathomable. He willingly took on torture and punishment that didn’t belong to Him. Was He a masochistic crazy man? Or a historic figure representing an ancient myth? Those would make his behaviors more palatable.

We know His story so well we can recite it in our sleep: Jesus died for our sins so that we would be forgiven and have eternal life in heaven. Amen. We’re done.

Not so fast. Please. It’s Good Friday so let’s linger long enough to think this through a little more. If Jesus’ plight is a story from which we learn a few good lessons to follow, I’ll pass thanks. I’m just not that nice. Aside from my children and husband, there aren’t many folks I’d even consider being tortured for and even then, well….

There is also the possibility that Jesus didn’t really go to the cross or die. It could be a myth. But that would be hard to believe because many people recorded seeing him die and then coming back to life. We have scads of real documents so convincing that even the toughest skeptics agree that he did in fact die and rise from the dead. If you don’t believe me, I strongly encourage you to go on a hunt for the truth yourself. Because truth does matter.

So, if he allowed himself to be tortured and die, we’re stuck with a really tough question:  WHY?

Crucifixion is a horrific act and if God was Jesus (as Christians claim He is) then why couldn’t He simply snap His fingers and say: “OK, all you messed up people who won’t be nice, you’re forgiven. Stop being such jerks.” Then move on. Snap His fingers again and make people nicer. Make them stop doing horrible things to one another.

Clearly, something mysterious must be going on. If God is who He says He is and Jesus is God, we’re missing something here. God inflicted the horror on Himself at Calvary. One more hard concept to wrap our simple earthly minded brains around. He was up to something and displayed that something through the God-man Jesus.

But that still doesn’t answer why the torment. I remember as an 11-year-old being so upset about Good Friday that between the hours of 1-3 pm, I had a hard time thinking about anything else. I thought that if God allowed Jesus to die for sins He didn’t commit and that even if Jesus was God, it was still too awful to think about.

Let me share with you the answer I have found over the 45 years since then. The answer to the why. And it is the only answer that makes sense and the only one, that is truthful and that matters.

God allowed Jesus to be tortured and die because He wanted two things very desperately.