My Favorite Holiday

So, wow, Easter is coming. I love Easter. For me, the holiday serves as a renewing of my mind. It is a fresh reminder of the reality of God’s overall plan for our salvation. I have been to the Garden Tomb. Peering into it, I got to see first hand that it was empty. He is alive!! And that fact separates him from every other person who ever claimed to be the way.
But there is another holiday coming up that I think deserves as much or maybe more attention. Good Friday. Wow. Now there is a holiday. We might acknowledge it. But we don’t give it the attention it deserves. Don’t get upset, but it, in my opinion of the three days, Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday, I think it should be the one we exchange gifts on. Can you imagine people going around this Friday, hugging each other, giving each other gifts, high-fiving, saying to each other, “Happy Good Friday? Jesus died on this day!” Only to get a reply, “Yes, isn’t it wonderful?”
Let’s think about this for a minute. Do you take communion at church? You can read about the first communion in the gospels. Paul gave us more insight in 1 Corinthians 11. There is a very interesting statement there. He says in verse 26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Now I have to admit, every time I read or heard that verse, I really thought Paul was trying to say, “ . . . you proclaim the Lord’s death (and resurrection) until he comes.” I would hear it and think “That’s OK. I know what he really means. He means the whole Easter package.” I think I now have a clearer understanding of that. Speaking of communion, Paul encourages us to do it often. And each time we do it, proclaim his death. He then goes further and admits some there in Corinth haven’t been doing that. And the evidence of that is that some are sick and some have even died. What the . . . ?
I really like John Paul Jackson's understanding of this. In his new teaching on CD named “The Communion Effect” he goes into detail about the day of Jesus’ death. In Isaiah 53, it says “ He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. By His stripes we were healed.”
Here are some questions for you. When you think about the answers, you might just high-five someone else on Good Friday.
1. Do you really understand and believe that Jesus was pierced for our sins? The thorns in His brow, the spear in His side were for all of our sins. All of them.
2. Do you have thoughts or habits that you know you shouldn’t? Have you done things that you hate to even think about? Do you feel guilty about them? Christians shouldn’t have those things, right? They are the kind of thoughts and actions that you can’t really share with anyone. Let’s face it. They are perversions. So do you really understand and believe that Jesus was deformed for our perversions? The beatings he took caused Him to be unrecognizable by the people who loved Him. The horrible stuff on the inside that deforms you doesn’t have to. It has all been paid for. God knew about your perversions. He provided for it. Jesus incredibly bore all the punishment for it. Friend, . . . . . they are all paid for.
3. Have you succumbed to the fear of sickness? We have all been attacked by sickness. Cancer attacked me. Crohn’s disease attacked my wife. No known cure for either. But we have not succumbed to the fear of them. They do not rule over us. Why? Because we know they too were paid for. Jesus paid the full price. When he took that horrible punishment, He took it for our sickness. Yours too.
So, on Friday, He did it. He paid the full price for you and me. All that nasty stuff that we did, we thought about, and we suffered were paid for completely on Friday. That didn’t happen on Christmas or Easter. Those holidays are wonderful and are all wonderful evidence of God’s plan. But Good Friday? We are free, completely free because of what Jesus did for us on that day. He died on that day. Paid in full on that day. It was the best day of our lives.
Now if you are like me, with the business of life, you forget. You get spiritually tired. You regress. You relapse. We need a reminder. Take personal communion. That’s not my theology; that is Jesus’ advice. He said “Do this often in remembrance of me.” Paul said, “Do it and proclaim His death.” By proclaiming His death we are proclaiming that it is done. When the enemy tries to bring it all back, take communion. Declare Jesus’ death. The enemy knows what that means. It’s paid for. That is the truth.