Sinners In The Hands Of A Loving GodSýnishorn

Where Was God on Good Friday?

How we understand the meaning of Christ’s crucifixion has a lot to do with where we find God on Good Friday. Think about Good Friday. Where do we find God during the suffering of Christ? Do we find God in the high priest Caiaphas demanding a sacrificial scapegoat? Do we find God in Pontius Pilate requiring a punitive death to satisfy imperial justice? No! On Good Friday we find God in Christ absorbing the sin of the world and responding with forgiveness. The cross is where God receives the most vicious blow of human sin, turns the other cheek, and forgives. Paul tells us that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

This should not be misunderstood as God reconciling himself to the world. It wasn’t God who was alienated toward the world, it was the world that was alienated toward God. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to change God’s mind about us, Jesus died on the cross to change our mind about God! Jesus does not save us from God, Jesus reveals God as savior. The cross is not what God inflicts upon Jesus in order to forgive, the cross is what God in Christ endures as he forgives. It wasn’t God who required the death of Jesus; it was humanity who cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” When the world says, “Crucify him,” God says “Forgive them.” When Jesus upon the cross prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” (Luke 23:34), he wasn’t asking the Father to act contrary to his nature, but in accord with his nature. Forgiveness is the very heart of the Father.

Golgotha is the place where the love of God achieves its greatest expression. As Jesus is lynched in the name of religious orthodoxy, executed in the name of imperial justice, he expresses the heart of God as he pleads for the pardon of his murderers. At the cross we discover a God who would rather die than kill his enemies.

Once we understand that on Good Friday we don’t see God against Christ, but God in Christ, it changes everything. As you realize that it’s not God who demands crucifixion for the sake of retributive justice, but it’s God who endures crucifixion for the sake of unconditional love, how does this change your view of God?