169--it is finished

an email from my friend, brilliant cellist, KUSC radio personality, and wearer of funky socks, Brian Lauritzen:

"we just got back from the h'wood sda good friday service--my favorite religious service of the year. i like it more than easter, more than christmas, more than lent, more than second coming, more than anything. i used to think i was strange, because i thought i should've loved easter more: the resurrection, joy, triumph over satan, etc. but now i get it: i love leaving Jesus in the grave a while. not because i'm a depressed person or i like to kill Jesus, but because i think everyone around me has always been so quick to just raise Him up again, i've never felt like i actually got to contemplate the sacrifice. and isn't the sacrifice of more value than the raising up? good friday. we put Jesus in the grave. we stop.

and listen.

and sometimes it sinks in. it was more than humiliation and rejection. it was more than death. it was eternal separation from His Father. Jesus didn't know what came next because, in that moment, there was no next.

and as much as i love the mournful, dolorous music that we play at good friday services. as much as i love the somber pall cast over the room as, one-by-one the candles are extinguished until finally, we're left in complete darkness...and silence. death. as much as that's an overwhelming emotional experience for me, i also love to think about what that moment (the real moment, not the representation we've created) was like for Jesus. how is He not smiling a little bit? nails and thorns and lashes and splinters all cause physical pain. rejection causes emotional pain. but beyond that, He's saying, "fine. you can have me. my Father gets anyone throughout the entire history of the planet who claims my sacrifice. i'm just one guy. they're tens of millions. it is worth it. it is finished."

it is finished. without a resurrection, it is finished. without "arise, my love," it is finished. without our pathetic definition of a happy ending, it is finished. death, sacrifice, darkness, it is finished.

and so i get to mull that over in real time once a year. good friday. holy saturday. it's not a fist-pumping, easter sunday kind of a celebration. but there's hardly more joy in my life than during those 36 hours or so when Jesus is dead. and i just had to share that with you."

that was amazing, Brian. thank you.