Wecome to Logia, the personal blog of Paul Hartwig. Reflections and resources to enhance understanding of what God has revealed of himself in Scripture.
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The greatest day in human history was the worst day in human history. On this day human nature and all its institutional forms was revealed for what it really is. Good Friday is only good because God in his grace was doing something good as people acted out their worst on the Son of God. It is this divine-human antithesis acting simultaneously and in glorious contradiction In the Cross that defines for us the grace of God. While men were doing their worst toward God, God was doing his best for them. The Gospels all witness to the fact that Jesus was the focus of every sort of human abuse and rejection. It started with the very personal betrayal of Jesus by Judas. This close unfaithfulness was a shock to the inner circle of the 11. Then Peter’s repeated verbal denial of any acquaintance with Jesus shattered the confidence of many disciples and must have been fuel to the fire of their own doubts and fears. In this we see that even Jesus’ followers share in fallen human nature and are under the power of sin. The national leadership of the Jews had decided to murder Jesus after concluding that his ongoing success would mean their downfall. The Nazarene preacher and healer had divided the nation into two irreconcilable positions: he is the Messiah or he is not. The Torah did not tolerate fake messiahs. Rather, it commanded capital punishment for such blasphemy. The high priest, Caiaphas, a leader in this national opposition to Jesus, knew his Bible and reasonably and fervently advocated for his execution. We see in these facts that theology, reason and religious leadership are also poisoned by sin and become ‘the flesh’ when they do not embrace the weakness of the Christ. The institutions of national governance are also shown to be corrupt in this Holy Week. On Good Friday all the entities of authority we encounter in the Gospel, one and all, reject Christ. Jewish leaders and authorities and Roman leaders and authorities team up against Jesus. They all fail. They all go wrong, terribly. They totally disqualify their right to exist since they used their rights to condemn Jesus rather than affirm him. This is human nature in its individual and corporate will at its worst. The carpet is pulled from under the feet of all that is human on this day. The only One who perfectly loved his neighbor as himself now reaps only hatred and rejection. Friends, enemies, kith and kin, Jews and Gentiles, all give him the Crown of Thorns. This is unholy week…..yet it is also Holy Week. It will soon be Good Friday… yet it is also evil Friday on the same day. God was doing his greatest work simultaneously to man doing his worst work. This is what GRACE is all about. Grace does not act beneficially toward the good and deserving but toward the bad and undeserving. Grace is defined by this Friday. Every human causality leading up to the nailing of Jesus to the Roman Cross and then pitching it into the hole dug on Golgotha was also matched and mastered at every point by a Divine causality, will and hand working unbelievable grace for the perpetrators. For every human deed that meant evil to Jesus on that day, Jesus meant it for their good. The hand of the brothers who put Joseph into that empty cistern were the hands of God filling up that cistern for those brothers to drink in the future time of drought. This is the power of the Cross, and this is the power of Grace. It is what the Good News is all about. How can we not respond thankfully to such a God a million times a day and let nothing keep us back from Him?
1 Comment
Gardiol
7/4/2023 08:11:33
Thank you.
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