DEAD! The Author of Life lies in a tomb….

The Passion, detail. Hans Holbein the younger. From Web Gallery of Art.

art credit

How incredible.  Jesus, God Himself, the Author of Life, was nailed to a cross and died, and his Body was placed in a tomb.  How can it be?  A devotional reflection from Desiring God in 2013 reminds us how and why it happened.  The blame rests on US!!

Holy Week makes us uncomfortable. There is glorious life and victory to come on Easter Sunday, but to get there we must pass directly through the darkness of Good Friday. We must remember the day when human malice broke barriers and reached levels of previously unmatched atrocity. The Messiah, the King, come to save mankind, was nailed to an accursed tree and left to die.

There is no immunity for such cosmic treason.

On Good Friday we feel the finger of guilt and culpability rightly shoved into the ribs of humanity:

• “…this Jesus whom you crucified…” (Acts 2:36)

• “…you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life…” (Acts 3:14–15)

• “…whom you crucified…” (Acts 4:10)

• “…whom you killed by hanging him on a tree…” (Acts 5:30)

 

Think on that fact for the next 24 hours….

art credit: (clicking on the image below will give you a larger version)

The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, Hans Holbein the Younger, from the Web Gallery of Art.