“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.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But 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!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet–
I can count all my bones– they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. “

The words of David, fulfilled in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of David.  In Him is found all hope for our souls, the restoration of life with the LORD, and the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, including the prophecies of Psalm 22.

Take a moment and consider the gravity of the LORD’s death commemorated today.  In His death do we find life everlasting and the defeat of the grave.

The painting beside this post is a painting by Diego Velazquez done in 1632.  The depiction is of Jesus the Messiah being crucified.  Today, commonly known as Good Friday, is the day which Christians commemorate the death of Jesus by crucifixion.

The historical veracity of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus have been questioned by some scholars, such as Bart Ehrman, the fellows of the Jesus Seminars, and a host of other critics such as Bill Maher.  While I will not debate the historicity of the resurrection in this post, suffice to say that the evidence against the resurrection is not sufficient to provide a compelling case.

Instead, I thought I would spend a moment to talk about what Easter means to Christians.  I find it intriguing that Robert Funk, in his decrying of Christianity, pointed to a sermon delivered by a pastor who continued to point to the empty tomb of Christ as a source of hope in the mundanity of life.  Mr. Funk then decided from there that the resurrection was merely symbolism to provide hope for Christians that we would be okay.  How sad that  a man as educated as Mr. Funk could have much learning, but then miss the key points of what he learned.  I agree that as Christians, we have immeasurable hope despite our circumstances.  In fears of job loss, in fears of tragedy and malady, we have a hope that is not available for others, because we have the Lord as our inheritance.  There are a host of bible passages that speak to this, such as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, where Jesus exhorts us not to worry about our lives, because the Lord sees our needs.  There is the epistle of Paul to the Romans where he says that “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28 NASB)”  The crucifixion of Christ offers us much more hope than that, though.

The crucifixion and resurrection is vivid, tangible proof that death has been defeated.  No longer does the believer have to fear death, because death is no longer a finality, but is now only a formality.  Death is now the passage from our life here to a life in the presence of the Father.  More than that, we can look forward to the day when we will be reunited with our bodies, which will be resurrected themselves into a glorious state where corruption will no longer stranglehold our bodies and souls into submission.  One day, my father will no longer be crippled by arthritis.  His body will be transformed into an imperishable body.  The ravages of age and time will no longer affect the believer.  Instead, we will have an eternity to spend in the presence of God in worship (I keep hoping that in the resurrection, I will have more hair to cover my bald spot).

Another hope that we have in the crucifixion is that our sins have been forgiven.  Much like the Israelites who were once slaves in Egypt, we have now been freed from our captor, Sin.  No longer are we separated from God because of the sacrifice of this Jesus.  As humans, we owe God our lives in payment for our sinfulness, for the wages of sin is death.  However, Jesus lived the life we could not live, payed the debt we could not pay, and now freely offers His sacrifice for us so that we might have relationship with God.  Without His sacrifice, we would still be estranged from God.  As it is, we now have a high priest in heaven who intercedes with the Father on our behalf.  Because of the painful death that our Lord suffered on our behalf, we are able to have community with God that would otherwise be impossible.

Mr. Funk is correct in that the spine of the Easter story is the recapturing of hope for humanity.  In that aspect, yes, it could definitely be said that humanity has hope in the crucifixion.  However, Mr. Funk was very far off in the assumption that this hope centers on such mundane things as our everyday life.  Instead, this hope rests in the fact that our very eternal destinies were decided by that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who fills us now with His very presence, who instead of leaving us in a state of eternal depravity, took it upon Himself to condescend to be one of us, live the life we could not live, and pay the debt that was far too much for us to pay.  The hope of the Cross in the resurrection of our bodies, the forgiveness of our sins, the restoration of complete fellowship with God, and the ability to forever commune with our Creator, the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

I have been to many funerals.  Funerals are the most dreadful thing for most people, because if nothing else, they impress upon the attendees the fragility of life and the finality of one’s meeting with the great beyond.  As mourners sing “Amazing Grace,” families weep, and friends bemoan the loss of one of their own, the last thing that goes through everyone’s mind is “that’s going to be me one day.”  Or perhaps, they contemplate the loss of another loved one next to them.  At any rate, the finality of death is a specter hanging over everyone in attendance.

The hardest part for me is knowing what to say.  The angst of the sufferers is etched upon their face, tears streaming past reddened cheeks, resolute determination to make it through the next few moments to face the aftermath of a funeral.  Too difficult, it is, in my opinion, to dish out pleasantries to the mourning, such as is the custom of most Christians.  More often than not, I sit quietly, feeling my own anxiety from the moment and not really in a position to comfort the suffering.

Why do we suffer from sickness and disease?  Why do our lives slowly succumb to the inevitable march of time, until sickness, disease, and fatigue rob us of our abilities?  Why do we suffer the pain of watching loved ones lose their facilities, their abilities, their health, eventually their very lives?  Why do we have to watch ourselves go through the same things?  Why am I losing my hair, why does my body hurt more than it did 10 years ago, and how long will it be until it is my time to succumb to disease and death?  WHY???!!!!

The theological reason is this:  Adam and Eve chose to defy God, and by doing so, doomed all of us to an eventual physical death.  Adam made a choice to defy God, the same choice all of us would have made.  In the words of John McArthur, we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners.  Because of our inherited depravity, we all are guilty of failing God and His standard, and as such, are destined for the grave.

How do we comfort those who are mourning death and disease?  We comfort them by first loving them and realizing that we will eventually occupy both possible roles, mourner and mourned.  The second thing we do is tell them the next part of the story.

You see, our history of redemption did not end with a fruit in a garden.  Our history of redemption took a long trip from the heart of God to a rugged wooden cross on top of a hill in Jerusalem.  As one man doomed us all to death (again, not that any one of us would not have made the same gaffe), one man, the LORD Jesus Christ, saved us all through His offering of Himself on the cross.  Jesus’ death was offered to God as a sacrifice, a fragrant offering pleasing to the LORD, and through it, all men have found salvation from the grave.  True, we will all face death, but even death itself has lost all sting due to the sacrifice of Jesus.  If we are willing to accept His death as payment for our sins, He is faithful to deliver us from death into eternal life.  Indeed, as Paul says,

“the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22-23 NASB)”

We are all waiting for restoration, a restoration that God has promised and that has been delivered by the person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man.  It is a restoration that became part of His plan from the beginning of His plan.  It is a time when God will remove suffering from our lives, when we will be granted eternal health, when we will no longer be slowed by diseases that seem to strike cruelly and unfairly, nor will tragedy and malady strike down youths in the spring of their existence.  Instead, we will live in a truly brave new world, with the LORD as our light, and with the Son as our eternal King.

How do we comfort the mourning?  Comfort them as Jesus would.  Let them know you love them, that they are not alone, and that they are on your heart.  Then, let them know the second part of the story:  Jesus conquered death for us, and though it is scary, it doesn’t need to carry the same weight of finality that it does for those who do not have the hope of Christ.