Good Friday tears

I found this artist’s conception of the face of Jesus a few days ago. I’ve been looking at it and looking at it again, considering Jesus’s humanity in this week before Easter. And tonight I went to Good Friday worship service and imagined His face, imagined what this week was like for Him 2000 years ago.

Just knowing what we know from historical accounts brings me to tears. Imagine that Jesus was just a man, not the son of God. He must have been a really nice guy. People loved him and crowds followed him, listened to every word he said. He was selfless and kind and outrageously principled. He was wise and forgiving and he loved his mama. And he loved and served God, his father. Yet he was betrayed by his closest friends, unjustly accused, savagely beaten, and sent to die a horrible death, nailed to a cross to appease an angry crowd. That alone is one of the saddest, most heartbreaking stories I’ve ever heard.

But if you read the Bible and believe, like I do, that Jesus was indeed the son of God, the horrific betrayal and death is not a tragedy. It was and is the means of our salvation. When on the cross He cries out His last words, “It is finished!” it is not a cry of defeat, but of victory.

I still cry when I think of what He went through. He went through it for me and I am so grateful.