A Message for Good Friday

God could easily have forsaken us. He could have turned his back on us back in Eden. He gave Adam and Eve one simple command-"Please don't eat from this one tree!" But what did Adam and Eve do? They listened to the snake, they desired, they coveted, they reached up and took for themselves the fruit. They soon learned what bitter fruit this was. They were covered in shame and vainly sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaves.

But God gave a Promise: The woman would bear a Savior for mankind. The serpent would bruise the Savior's heel, but the Savior would crush the serpent's head. Look at the cross. Jesus might look bad, but as they say in the streets, "You should see the other guy." Jesus lived among us, lived under the Law, that we might be redeemed under the Law. Jesus' death is important because Jesus did live a perfect life, untainted by Satan's temptations. He obeyed his Father's will perfectly.

Sin separates. It separates us from God. We often don't want to face someone we've wronged; we definitely don't want to face a God we've wronged. Sin separates us from each other. Satan works best when he "divides and conquers." With our sin, God would forsake us. Jesus took our sin upon himself and endured God's forsaking activity. Jesus was forsaken so we wouldn't be forsaken. We would be forsaken as a child might feel forsaken, lost and alone. David states that feeling when he writes in verses 1-5:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

Jesus willingly took on our punishment. He died so that we wouldn't die. Another word for separation is "death." Death isn't unknown to us. Every now and then we gather to mourn the loss of a friend or relative. Death separates us from loved ones.

Death is also a separation from God. God is life, not death. As such, we have no life apart from

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