The Core of Our Faith

Today is Good Friday. It is during this weekend, during the days of Maundy/Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday that we remember the core events of the Christian faith. It is during this time that we remember the start of the practice of the Lord's Supper which is continued to this day as a remembrance of the Lord Jesus' sacrifice of Himself on the cross for our sins.

We remember the events of Good Friday and the incomprehensible price paid by Christ to free us of our sins. On Sunday, we will remember the raising back to life of Jesus in His body. It is both a continuity and a discontinuity. Scripture is clear that this is the same body in which Christ died. Yet, this body has been more than revived. It has been given a life which will never end. (The implications of this are staggering. From that day of resurrection right up to today and beyond, Jesus Christ has been and IS alive in bodily form, the first human being to do so).

Prayer played a large part in these events which happened in real time and space. On Thursday night, Christ offered up prayers to be spared the suffering of the cross if possible. Yet, His prayers brought Him to the place of accepting God the Father's will for Him. On Friday, Christ speaks few words. He is mostly silent. Yet, in the midst of a physical and spiritual agony that none of us could possibly imagine, He prayed that those who were crucifying Him would be forgiven.

In your prayers this weekend, may I suggest that you thank God for Jesus Christ. What Christ did on the cross cleared the way for us to have the confidence to approach God in prayer. The veil separating God and humanity was ripped in two that day. In Christ, we have access to God and the life which truly is life.

The School of the Solitary Place wishes you a blessed Holy Weekend. (The picture is Rembrandt's "Raising of the Cross" c. 1633)