Holy Week: Friday

How do you kill an immortal?

That is perhaps the most relevant question that faces Christians today.  I know that my study of the Bible has led to greater understanding of the meaning of this Friday that we call "Good", and in many ways, that has helped me truly understand better the depth of what really took place on that cross that Friday on the outskirts of Jerusalem.  An immortal, God Himself in human flesh, died.  How can God die?

Jesus Himself told about how it would happen.  "No one takes my life from me; I give it up of my own accord."  That's the essential meaning behind it.  Nothing can kill one who is immortal.  No amount of flogging or time spent up on a cross could do it.  No deprivation of water or food could do it.  (And on a side note, think how silly Satan looked, then, when he tried to tempt Jesus to change stones into bread in the desert.  As though Jesus could starve to death.)  That's just the thing.  An immortal cannot be killed.

The only way for an immortal one to lose his life is to give it up of his own accord.  "I will lay down my life, and I have authority to take it back."  The fact that this particular immortal, Immanuel, God with us, would not only give up His life, but carry our sin and the weight of the curse of the world on Himself is not an act of defeat, but instead, one of triumphant victory.

That's why Friday of Holy Week is "good."  The one and only immortal One to walk this earth did the most powerful and loving action possible.  The immortal God lay down His life for His beloved creation, so that everything broken in it would die, and it could be raised to new life.  Have a very "Good Friday."