Good Friday
Some stories break our hearts. Some stories hold our hearts. But there are a few stories, like this one, that change our hearts forever.
On Good Friday, we gather at the foot of the cross, where the depth of human suffering meets the depth of divine love. Jesus, the innocent one, stands in the place of the guilty. The Son of God enters into the darkest places of human pain, not to condemn, but to redeem. This is not suffering without purpose. This is suffering that leads to exaltation. This is suffering that leads to Jesus being lifted up on the cross, then lifted up to sit at the right hand of his Father in heaven.
In the mystery of God’s kingdom, exaltation is not a reward for strength but the fruit of self-giving love. Jesus is lifted up not in spite of his suffering, but through it. It reveals a truth the world cannot comprehend. At the cross, humiliation becomes the doorway to glory. Surrender becomes the path to victory. In allowing himself to be handed over, Jesus hands over the powers of darkness to defeat. In embracing weakness, he reveals the strength of the Father’s redeeming love. God does not triumph by force, but by transforming suffering into salvation and death into the beginning of new life. Christ’s exaltation shows us that.
On Good Friday, we see a savior who does not turn away from suffering but steps into it to be with us. On the cross, Jesus enters the deepest places of human pain, carrying abandonment, grief, and injustice in his own body. Yet this suffering is not the end of the story. What looks like defeat becomes the place where God’s faithfulness shines most brightly.
The one who is wounded brings healing.
The one who is rejected opens the way of redemption.
The one who is humiliated is the one whom God exalts.
Through the cross, Jesus opens a new and living way for us by revealing the depth of God’s self-giving love. In sharing our suffering all the way to death, he gathers up our pain, our fear, and our failure into his own life. He brings it into the healing presence of the Father. Our salvation does not rest on a punishment being paid, but on the faithful love of Father, Son, and Spirit, who refuse to let brokenness have the final word. Even in the darkest moment, there is already a quiet hint of victory. Good Friday is not the end. It is the turning point where suffering begins to give way to glory. Death begins to give way to life. And the cross becomes the doorway into resurrection hope.
As we stand before the cross today, let’s reflect together:
Where do you need to trust that God is saving you, working redemption even in the painful places of your story?
[Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52:13–15; 53:4-5 NRSV]
13 See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him[a]
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—
15 so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
As we remember the cross, may our hearts be drawn into the mystery. It’s a mystery of a love so deep that Jesus chose to walk with us even into death.
The one who suffers with us is the one who leads us into life.
The one who is humbled is the one in whom God’s glory is revealed.
May this shared journey of suffering and love hold us in the sorrow of Good Friday.
May the Spirit gently open our eyes to the dawn of resurrection hope.
