Good Friday
Psalm 22
"The Rough
Road"
A fire swept through the three bedroom trailer as the family slept. The father tried many times to bring out his wife and their three children, but he could not reach them.
The tragedy left the man homeless, widowed and fatherless. Fire had swept through the trailer, and all was lost. It took some time for the full weight of the loss to descend, and when it did, he was nearly crushed. Like Job in the Old Testament, he would not be comforted.....When the gift of shock was lifted, anger, resentment filled every waking thought. God had not been fair to him -- God had not protected his family. He had not come to him with a special visitation to explain the "why" and the "what next".
He was in a wilderness as rugged as the Sinai.....The greatest temptation was to add to his losses by forfeiting his faith. He felt justified. No one would fault him. Some might even support him. He prayed angrily now, daring God to hurt him further, and challenging Him to give any reason to hold on to the thin thread of his faith that was left.
He prayed angrily, but he prayed, and God could handle it..........The anguish continued to mount until one afternoon he uttered a cry so forcefully, it could only be described as a scream. No word was spoken, just a loud angry scream against the forces of heaven and hell, as if to say, "I've hurt all I can, and I've paid my dues for love.... Help me!!!."..........
The silence that followed was quieter than silence. A peace was evident for the first time in months. Scripture might have said, "Angels came and ministered unto him."
The journey of this Good Friday is not some sentimental journey that we relive once a year as we follow Jesus to the cross of Calvary. But the journey of the cross is indeed a real live journey. For I believe that all of us at one time or another have journeyed to our Jerusalem where we have encountered the cross, the cross of separation from God, the cross of separation from the human race, the cross of separation from the very essence of life. The journey we travel this evening into the darkness of the cross of Calvary is a journey into the reality of life.
For the reality of the cross of Calvary for us is to admit in the most inner depths of our souls that our
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