The Path of Love, Good Friday, April 15

Good Friday, April 15

John 15:13: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Throughout his life, all Jesus did was love. No matter what he might have breathed in – injustice, brokenness, hatred – he exhaled love. Jesus loved because it was in his DNA. He is the child of Love, for God is love. Love is intentional. It is love that leads to healing, redemption, and wholeness. The cross erected before us on this day forever stands as a symbol of God’s movement to renew, restore, and reconcile everything, just as God originally intended it.

The events that occurred on that Good Friday were a result of Jesus’ persistence to choose love in every moment. But to love as Jesus loved would mean sacrifice, change, and transformation - none of which are easy or always desired. Love challenges systems that rely on power, suppression, and injustice. For Jesus, choosing love would lead to death, yet that did not deter him. The same is true for us. To consistently choose love leads to the death of our selfish intentions and desires. It leads to the death of our desire for control and dependence on systems of power. It leads to the death of our own apathy and inactivity.

Jesus also knew that, through death, all things would be made new, and new life would be discovered through re-creation and transformation. While the path of love may lead to death, it doesn’t end there, for with God, death does not have the final word. It may be difficult to love, and maybe even painful at times, but through Love comes new life. Joy will come in the morning!

From manger to tomb a life of love Nurtured in love Teacher of love Suffered in love. Born that all might experience the fullness of love. Died so all may be restored in love. Buried for all to be united by love. The path of love leads to the tomb not to languish in defeat or raise the victor’s sigh of relief But to testify that love bears all things hopes all things endures all things. It is here, in this, our darkest hour where love is revealed as grief and hope is disheartened by despair.

But… as it has done through all of time God’s light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome. For in the evening we may weep yet joy comes with the morning. In Christ’s suffering, death has been defeated Love has won.

God who is Love, let the events of this Good Friday stir in us that we may replicate your love in this broken world. Knowing your love brings healing and wholeness, help us to choose love in ways that precipitate healing and wholeness so all people may experience new life. Amen

Glenn Hecox, Lead Servant for Worship Life