This spring I’ve been learning about the precision, the impeccable timing of every word, every act of God. I’ve long known that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, that each book is a long unfolding scroll with His image gradually becoming clearer with each turn of the page.
Good Friday is the culmination. The closing pages of the Old Covenant. On this His last day of earthly life, Jesus precisely fulfilled the Old Testament requirements of the sacrificial lamb. He was nailed to the cross, a rough altar of wood, at the third hour, the appointed time of the morning sacrifice. At the ninth hour, the precise time of the evening sacrifice, Jesus gave up His life.
And just before He breathed His last breath, He stated with finality, “tetelestai,”—it is finished—just as the priests said to the people in the temple when the sacrifice was complete. The priests, if they noticed at all these correlations to the law, surely dismissed them immediately as coincidence, for they were determined to see their plan succeed. Jesus had been such a nuisance from the beginning. In the end He had become a threat to their power and prestige.
It is good for me today to try and express a thought or two about my Savior’s sacrifice, but it is profoundly difficult to find adequate words.
I find great joy in seeing the details of Good Friday reveal the magnificent love story written for me, for us. But there simply are not enough superlatives to elevate the meaningful minutes of this day to the awe-inspiring place it deserves. Even here none of us are adequate. All fall short in our child-like attempts.
Yet with the glad heart of a child I offer this to Him, knowing my Eternal Father welcomes even feeble gestures of thanksgiving and love.
‘Man of Sorrows,’ what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
