He is Risen for All of us!

 Friday 18 April 25 Recap

     After experiencing technical difficulties when prepping this recap, I realized He was leading me to simply share the artwork and holy expressions presented in last Friday’s gathering. Blessing! Tamara

Front Blog post art by: Ali Parnas

Art Created by: Courtney

Kristi's Blog Art

GOOD FRIDAY: DEFENDING OUR FORGIVENESS  By Kristi Cain 

God wanted to forgive us and restore us into heaven. But death for sin could only be undone by the death of the sinless. Otherwise we would enter eternity as fallen creatures cast out of heaven. Only a righteous blood covenant could make us spotless enough to enter. 

Our enemy did everything he could to change Jesus’s mind that we were worth forgiving. But at 3 pm on Friday, he lost. Thanks be to God! The war for our souls was finished. We were given a chance no angel can ever hope for. 

At daybreak on Friday, we were reminded of how desperately even his closest friends needed the very forgiveness Jesus was purchasing. How easily their own free wills led them into destruction, even when they had a level of access to our savior most mortals can only dream of. 

Peter wept as the rooster crowed and Judas threw his 30 pieces of silver on the temple floor. Unlike the perfect high priest who was laying down his life for him, the pride-twisted temple priests sent Judas away with contempt, making it clear they had no more use for him. Before he could understand why Jesus was submitting to sacrifice, Judas hung himself. 

Meanwhile, Jesus endured further indignities and violence as he was sent first to Pilate, then to Herod. Neither ruler wanted anything to do with what looked to them like a disturbing frenzy of religious zealotry on both sides, and their shared rejection of spiritual priorities replaced their past enmity with friendship. 

Those who elevate worldly priorities above spiritual ones often consider themselves wiser and more level-headed than their religious counterparts. This love of the world is another widespread sin problem Jesus needed to die to cleanse us of. 

After Herod returned Jesus to Pilate, it became increasingly clear to the pagan governor that there was only one way to make these riled up Jews go away. Anyone reading scriptures can tell Pilate wanted no part in Jesus’s death. But he bent to the voices that would make or break his position of worldly favor, and no child of Israel had really expected anything different from him. Pilate’s ignorance of the truth represents another group of people Jesus died to forgive: Gentiles and those who were not brought up in traditions of faith in the one true God. 

Finally, weakened from a vicious scourging, Jesus bore his cross to Golgotha with the help of Simon of Cyrene. Even when the enemy tried to make it physically impossible for Jesus to get to the hill he died for us on, God helped make a way. 

When Jesus arrived at Golgotha to be crucified, the soldiers inscribed, “King of the Jews” over his head. Meant to mock this strange tribe from the Roman’s worldly point of view, from a spiritual point of view, these words symbolized the breaking of the Abrahamic covenant and the loss of spiritual authority that once rested on God’s chosen. 

Jesus had many famous last words as he suffered the torment of this cruel death for our sakes. My favorite was his promise to the thief that he would join him in paradise that very day. Which to my supernatural kingdom-loving mind means that Jesus did not have to wait until Easter for the light of heaven to welcome him. 

To stay on my supernatural tangent a moment longer, the 3-hour eclipse during his last 3 hours on the cross, the earthquake that erupted the moment his spirit left his body, the opening of graves and the tearing of the temple veil all testified to the divine power of the sin curse Jesus broke on this world-changing day.

But despite all of these incredible things, I still believe the most important words that were spoken on Good Friday were, “Father, forgive them.”

Forgive them—the ones who murdered him. Forgive us—and every sin we would ever commit. Even when we don’t deserve it. Even when we don’t think we’re worth it, and the enemy tries to his best to prove it. 

Because to Jesus and our Father who formed us, we were worth it then. We are worth it now. And we will continue to be worth it until the last human life is formed.  

Because that’s what love is. It covers every wrong. It mends every broken place. It conquers sin, hell, and the grave. And makes us perfect in Him. ✨