Good Friday
‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’’ Galatians 3:13
Bible reading: Luke 23:44-49 (Go to the Bible passage)
What did the people think when suddenly, in the middle of the day, the sun stopped shining? Some will have thought, ‘That is not unusual…’ Of course, a severe sandstorm can easily darken the sky in Jerusalem, so let us keep watching that spectacular show: three crosses on the place of the skull!
The servants of the temple were too busy to go watch the crucifixion of Jesus, why should they care? What did they think when, suddenly, the curtain of the temple - that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place - was torn in two from top to bottom? Well, perhaps it ought to be repaired. It was fortunate that so many people were at Golgotha just now…
Neither the solar eclipse, nor the tearing of the temple curtain needed to shock the historians, but for the believers - now and then - it were signs of God.
If the Son of God becomes a curse for us, why should the sun still shine? The whole creation was dragged along in the fall of man. Should not the whole creation also be involved in the greatest event in the history of mankind? Here, the promise God gave to Eve was fulfilled: the guilt vanished that had separated the most Holy God from His creature, made in His image… The curtain, that in the temple separated God from His people, tore!
All of this happened when Jesus, forsaken by His Father, died on the cross. Many shrugged their shoulders. They had said, ‘Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ And He had not done so… But who said, together with the centurion when he saw all of this happen, ‘Surely He was the Son of God!’ (Matthew 27:54)?

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