“Were you there when they crucified the Lord?”
Good Friday is the day to answer, “Yes, I am there.” Time is part of creation. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5). While our lives are physically bound to time and place, historians and futurists lift our minds from the here-and-now. Missing a loved one who has died or anticipating falling in love show the heart can live beyond the present. Good Friday mind and heart are present at the ancient cross.
Jesus prayed Psalm 22 on the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When you and I meditate upon and pray the psalms, we are lifted beyond our boundness. We are one with Christians around the world who pray the psalms with us. Praying Psalm 22 this Good Friday 2018, we pray with Jesus on the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him” (Psalm 22:1-2, 6-8).
“Were you there when they crucified the Lord?” Faith lifts us from the present to the past, mysteriously. “We were buried with him by baptism into death” (Romans 6:4). Come Sunday, faith lifts us to the future. “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:8). But for today, watch and pray with Jesus. Know that you are there. “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). “He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted” (Psalm 22:24).