A Good Friday Sermon Part 2

For in the weakness of the cross, we saw the greatest power of God. In the pain of the cross, we saw the great love of God. In the brokenness, the agony , the bitterness, the pain, of the cross, we saw the majesty of God.

So, I think, in all areas of our lives, the strong as well as the weak, the good as well as the bad, the healthy as well as the brokenness, we see, feel and experience the power of God. God accepts us for who we are, for what we are, with our faults, with our weaknesses, with our failures, with our lifes that do not measure up to the expectations of others.

The cross of Calvary points out to us that God accepts us with our weakness as well as our strengths. Because on that cross, God not only showed us his power, but he shared with us his weakness, his willingness to share in the pain and the brokenness of this world.

Out of the event of the cross, the glory, the miracle, the power of God was revealed on Easter morning through the resurrection.

A poem by William Stidger says it well:

"I saw God bare his soul one day

Where all the earth might see

The stark and naked heart of him

On lonely Calvary.

 

There was a crimson sky of blood

And overhead a storm;

When lightning slit the clouds

and light engulfed his form.

 

Beyond the storm a rainbow lent

A light to every clod,

For on that cross mine eyes beheld

The naked soul of God. "

From the naked soul of God comes the greatest act of love humankind has ever experienced. For the power of the resurrection came not from glory, or power, or fame, or strength, or prosperity, or security, or wealth, or success, but the power of the resurrection came from the bare soul of God hung on a cross that endured the pain, the brokenness, the humility, the reality of this world.

The cross says that life is