Reflections on Good Friday – The Truth About Everything

Tonight many from our church, along with guests, will gather for our annual Good Friday service at 6:00 PM. If you had not planned to come or have forgotten about it, I encourage to join us for this service that reflects on the death of our Savior.

For the last few years, Christine has planned our Good Friday service. In preparing this year’s service, I have been reminded that this year she is no longer here to do so. However the plan that we will use for this year's service is one she found a few years ago and implemented. It takes us through the stations of the cross — those events Jesus endured on his way to the cross and on the cross itself.

My worship on this Good Friday will be richer this year as I reflect on the eternal reward that Christine has now received as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We only have hope for eternal life because Jesus did endure the cruelty and suffering of the cross, and because of Christ’s resurrection, which we will celebrate on Sunday. However, as Charles Colson wrote a few years ago, we must not “rush the celebration before coming face-to-face with the paradoxes that are at the heart of the Christian faith” — paradoxes which are seen most clearly in the c ross.

Richard John Neuhaus wrote about this a few years ago in his book, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus. Neuhaus writes, “If what Christians say about Good Friday is true, then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything.” What is that truth? It begins with the truth about the human condition, namely that we are sinners and our sins keep us from God. So what does God do? He paradoxically punishes the offended party — his Son — instead of the guilty party — us.

Colson reflected on the cross, in his meditation on Good Friday, this way: “Our unwillingness to see our sins as they really are—that is, as God sees them—leads us to embrace another falsehood: that is, that we can make things right. Even though our culture is, in many respects, post-Christian, it still clings to the idea of redemption. However, just as with our ideas about sin and guilt, our ideas about redemption are pitiful and impoverished.

“On Good Friday, God made it clear ‘that we are incapable of setting things right.’ He made it clear by taking our place. On the Cross, ‘the Judge of the guilty is Himself judged guilty.’ This is, of course, the great scandal, one that paradoxically points to the great truth at the heart of Good Friday. We are powerless to set things right, and only God, the offended party, could undo the mess we created.

“The Cross—God’s way of bearing witness to the truth about our condition—is as offensive today as it was 2,000 years ago. Now, as then, we insist on misinterpreting the events of that Friday afternoon, but to no avail. Our sin has been judged, and God Himself bore the punishment. And that is the truth about everything.”

So reflect on the cross today. It is the most important reflecting you will ever do.

April 4-6 – An Amazing Weekend

Jerry Kizzire, senior minister at Lake Superior Christian Church (LSCC) in Marquette, MI — who preached at Westwood on April 6 — called it a “God weekend.” He could not have been more right. Our two congregations have been inextricably intertwined since Christine represented WCMA at LSCC on December 8 and then died on December 10 after her accident, and God did some amazing things at both congregations through the events of last weekend.

The weekend events began on Thursday when Jerry and his wife, Natalie, left Marquette to begin their trip to Madison and I left Madison to travel to Marquette so that we could each preach for the other’s congregation. Ryan Gilroy, who has begun plans to plant a church in Manistique, MI, traveled with me so that we could meet with LSCC leadership about the church plant. We all traveled on Thursday because forecasts called for a winter snow storm in the U.P. on Friday, but even an all-day snow storm could not stop what God was about to do.

The actual events of the weekend began with the Madison Christian Women’s Retreat on Friday evening. Although the attendance was smaller than the planners would have preferred, all the ladies were blessed by the retreat events and by this year’s speaker, Shelly Larson. I spoke with Shelly on Monday, and she was thrilled with how well the retreat went.

On Saturday, Ryan and I attended LSCC’s monthly men’s breakfast and shared information about WCMA and the two current church plants in Menomonee Falls and Muskego and plans for the Manistique church plant. Then we met with some of the elders and missions team from LSCC for a broad ranging discussion about the church plant. There is growing momentum and enthusiasm for the church plant project in Manistique that will result in Ryan, WCMA, and LSCC all working together to see another church planted in the U.P.

On Sunday, I preached in both services at LSCC. I preached the sermon I preached at Westwood on February 2 when I returned to preaching after Christine’s death, “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” Quite a few people at LSCC, shared with me conversations they had with Christine when she was at LSCC on December 8. Jerry preached at Westwood from the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 and asked, “Are You Ready?” He told about his interaction with Christine on December 8 and then told the adult class about Christine’s presentation at LSCC on December 8 and how their congregation had learned about her accident and death and how they then prayed for me, my family, and Westwood in their worship service on December 15.

All through the weekend God was at work, healing our hearts, strengthening bonds of friendship and creating new ones, and prodding us for how God will work in the future through another church plant, the very thing for which Christine had gone to LSCC on December 8 with which to challenge them.

Videos of Christine’s presentation at LSCC on December 8 and of the prayer time there on December 15 are available on LSCC’s website at this link. If you just want to see the applicable parts of the videos, fast forward to 51:37 on the December 8 video and to 13:10 on the December 15 video. Also, the audio of Jerry’s sermon and his adult class presentation are available on Westwood’s web site: www.westwoodchristian.com. The audio of my message at LSCC is also available at this link and the video of the worship service from last Sunday at LSCC is available at this link or either may be accessed through the sermon page on our church website.

Doubting the Resurrection

A few weeks ago, I received a small book in the mail — it is just over 100 pages — that the publisher was marketing in preparation for Resurrection Sunday. The book, written by two pastors, has an intriguing title: Raised? Finding Jesus By Doubting the Resurrection. The title piques your interest — which I am sure is intentional — because it begs the question, how can you find Jesus by doubting the resurrection?

Chapter 1, “Doubting the Resurrection,” goes immediately to the heart of the matter. They say at the outset that “One out of every five Americans does not believe in a deity. The ‘none’ category in religious polls has doubled over the past ten years, and less than half of the population attends religious services on a regular basis.”

This is not new, however. Matthew 28:17 even says about the disciples of Jesus after the resurrection that “when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.” Indeed why wouldn’t some people doubt him? After all, the Christian faith makes some audacious claims.

As Raised? unfolds, the authors answer the doubters questions as they discuss the evidence for the resurrection and why you should want the resurrection be true. They spend a chapter showing “How the Resurrection Reshapes History.”

In chapter 3, “Stepping into the Resurrection,” the authors of Raised? come to the heart of the matter when discussing the resurrection — as does the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul maintains that the heart of the Gospel — what “I delivered to you as of first importance”— is “that Christ died for our sins…, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day….”

Raised? lifts one verse out of 1 Corinthians 15 to get us to the crux of the matter in regard to the resurrection. Verse 17 says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sins.” The authors say,

“Here Paul puts it all on the line. If Christ hasn’t been raised, the Christian faith is fiction and we are stranded in the fall of humanity, trapped in our imperfections. In others words, there is no hope, no purpose, no plan for the future. This is all there is. But if the resurrection is true, it means there is hope; there is purpose and a plan for the future.”

Churches will return to the theme of the crucifixion and resurrection with services on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, and at other times. No matters are more important to our faith, to resolving our doubts, to empowering our walk with Christ. The resurrection is indeed our greatest hope.