Bittersweet Friday

One of my favorite things is chocolate. Any kind of chocolate, as long as it's good. One kind of chocolate is called bittersweet. It is definitely the best for cookies if they last long enough to get them made. Today is a bittersweet day. It is Good Friday, the day that my Lord was crucified. He willingly suffered a death that most of us can’t even imagine. The truly amazing part is that he knew ahead of time that this would happen and yet made the choice to pay that price. He chose death. He suffered this death for people that that did not love him. He said there was no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. Do you know what that means? He called us friends, when we were still separated from him by sin for surely there was no greater love that the love Jesus demonstrated by his death on the cross. That is amazing. As I think of the price that Jesus paid to build a bridge so we could get to him, I realize what a debt I owed. I know that I have done things worthy of death, but he took my death sentence and let me live. The bitter part is knowing that by taking my sin, and not just my sin but yours too, he suffered a terrible death and worse his own father had to look away because he couldn’t stand the sin. He had to suffer the rejection of his heavenly father and the separation from his father that sin caused. That was harsh. The Bitter part is knowing that my sin caused that. There is also a sweet piece. His willing death “sacrifice," made a way for me to get to God where there was no way. I no longer have to die for my sin because Jesus already paid that bill. Now that, my friends, is sweet. He loved us so much that he would die so we didn’t have to die. The only requirement that God made was that we hand over control of our life to him. We need only to look to him and trust him. The rest was signed, sealed and delivered when he said, “It is finished!” Does he have your life? The price he paid may not have cost you anything, but it cost my Lord everything. Yes, it is indeed a bittersweet day, like chocolate without the calories.

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