Here is a reflection for Good Friday from my book, Could this be God?
Don’t know if you have ever been face to face with a little child in the three to five year age range who insists on asking “Why?” No matter what answer you give, it is immediately followed by yet another “Why?”
I feel a little like that when it comes to Easter. You can’t but scratch your head and ask in amazed bewilderment, “So why did Jesus love me so much that he would die for me?“ No matter how good a theologian you are, it is a question that can’t really be answered. Another “Why?” quickly follows.
True, we can make a start. “So why did Jesus love me so much that he would die for me?”
“Because God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us.”
“But why?”
“Trust me, it’s just the kind of God he is. And it’s as well for us. After all, our sin, which separates us from God, who is holy, means that we are the ones who should die.”
“But why?”
“Well God is angry at our sin. He sees what it does to us and to the world when we fall short of the standard we are called to. That standard is to reflect what God is like in the world. When we miss it, it doesn’t matter too much at the start. But it adds up to a terrible harvest. Children die of hunger not because the world is full of dreadful people, but because it is filled with people who are not quite what they should be. Wars are fought, not because most people want to kill each other, but because none of us are what we should be. Huge wrongs start from minor deviations from the course. God is angry with that. He wouldn’t be loving if he was indifferent to what sin does to us.”
“But why does Jesus’ death solve the sin problem?”
“Because it is God’s radical statement that he is against sin. That sin makes him suffer.”
“But why?”
“Enough. Stop, and look at the crucified one. There is a time for questions, and a time to simply know. Stand at the cross. No – weep at the cross. His death is somehow your salvation…”
