There is no Easter without Good Friday

Mark 15:34

Then, at the time Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why would God the Father turn His back on Jesus as He hung on the cross of Calvary? Had He not been obedient even unto death? Paul explains it this way…

Galatians 3:13 (Message)

Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the Cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse.

To save us Jesus had to become us. He became a curse so He could bring the cure. Often we want to rush from Palm Sunday where the crowds are shouting Hosanna, to Easter where people are bowing before Him. This avoids the messiness of crucifixion, the horror of a crown of thorns, and the guilt of our sin. But there is no Easter without Good Friday and to believe sin has no price is to ignore the cross. There is no possibility of repentance without sacrifice, and only the sacrifice of God’s Son was sufficient for the accumulated sins of humanity.

Perhaps Max Lucado says it best in his book “When God Whispers Your Name.”

To see sin apart from grace is despair. To see grace without sin is arrogance. To see them in tandem is conversion.

When our eyes behold the cross we see our sin and our salvation; our worst and God’s best; we see the consequence of sin and the power of grace. We see the curse become the cure and the condemned become the Savior. How can the one sentenced to death be the one who brings life? The problem and the solution are all rolled into one divine event.