Today is the day God died. Good Friday—a day of darkness, sorrow and suffering. The Lord of all creation has been betrayed with a kiss, abandoned and denied by friends, beaten and mocked by godless men, and crucified with criminals. He has willingly drank the cup of God's wrath for the sins of all mankind. But the most remarkable thing about Good Friday? It came and went largely unnoticed by the world.
How can this be? How can it be that God came to earth, and His own did not recognize Him? How can it be that the people God lovingly set apart chose to condemn Him and pardon a murderous madman? How is it possible that the very world Christ created rejected and humiliated Him, nailing Him to a cross to watch Him suffer and die in brutal agony? How is it that the majority went about their day, eating and drinking, and were none the wiser?
The truth is that today will pass much like it did over 2,000 years ago. Many, even most, will simply go about their lives oblivious to the significance of Christ's cross. Some will be a voice among the mockers. Still others will abandon Him in fear and shame. But some will follow weeping to the cross. Some, like the thief, will see and understand and give their hearts to Jesus.
While the pain Jesus faced was excruciating beyond measure, the real agony of the cross was the separation from His Heavenly Father: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" The sins of all humanity clung to the Son like thick, black tar. He became as one of the forsaken—cursed and cast away from the presence of God.
By contrast, it rarely grieves man to be apart from God. We have grown dull to our estrangement. Indifferent. Comfortably distracted. We are more often grieved by our circumstances than our separation from the Divine Being. But the "good" in Good Friday? It is the rending of the curtain. The tearing of the veil. The cry not of the forsaken, but of the victor: "Tetelestai!"—"It is finished!" (Jn. 19:30). Our debt has been paid in full!
No longer do we have to live apart from God. No longer are we helpless slaves to sin. No longer must we wander in the darkness. The light has come; the barrier is removed! Forgiveness is freely available to all! Because of Christ's sacrifice, we can say, "as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us" (Ps. 103:12). Because of Christ's sacrifice, God can say, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more" (Heb. 10:17).
Do not let God's goodness pass you by this Good Friday! Christ may have come peacefully and gone quietly, but He will return in glory and with a loud command. We may be able to overlook the Son of God today, but on that final day every eye will see Him, every tongue confess Him, and every knee bow before Him (Rev. 1:7, 14:11). Do not delay, for Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2)!