Friday, November 23, 2012
Matthew 27:45 ... darkness came over all the land.
THANKFUL FOR BLACK FRIDAY
If you're reading this devotion in the wee hours of the morning, chances are you've been out shopping, or are planning on going out soon. Yes, today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Not much of a shopper myself, this day holds no special appeal for me.
But I am thankful for Black Friday! Not the one that fills the stores with bargain hunters, but the one that happened nearly 2000 years ago. Today's Black Friday comes with a sea of humanity, and prices that seem hard to resist. The Black Friday of long ago involved all of humanity, and featured a price paid beyond all imagining.
Yes, I'm talking about the day we usually refer to as Good Friday. Nevertheless, the word black fits the day well.
On that day deep darkness came over all the land. For there was God Incarnate nailed to a Roman cross, carrying in his body the awful blackness of all human sin. He did no wrong, but the sin of all time actually and truly became His. He become dirty with my guilt. With your guilt. With Judas' guilt. With every killer and adulterer's guilt. God looked down from Heaven and punished the One He loved for the sin of the entire world. Why? Because He so loved the world. Because He so loved me. Because He so loved you.
I can't fathom what that day cost God the Father. But what a bargain for me! At no charge to me, through faith in His Son, I'm set free. Set free from sin and a guilty conscience. From death and the unending darkness of hell. From a useless life of living in the darkness of sin.
It was a terrible day. A black day. But, as I look back, I can rightly call it a good day -- a Good Friday. I bow my head in thanks, whispering: "Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God!" 