Every Day a (Good) Friday

On this holy day where we remember the painful trek to Golgotha that Christ made for us, it's important that each believer stop and calculate the cost of his or her salvation.

I'm personally not good at calculating costs.  Don't tell Dave Ramsey but an accountant I am not.

So, being a more free-spirited kind of person, I don't usually count the cost.  I'm usually in the camp of least resistance.  Not, however, when it comes to my faith.

In a day and age where there are many high profile pastors proclaiming that Jesus is essentially a magic genie that will take every problem away from your life and make your life the stuff of fairy tales, many folks don't have the first clue as to what being a true follower of Christ means.  They've been robbed of the true power behind Good Friday and the walk of a Christian.

Yes, the life of a believer does have every day as a Friday.  It's just that every day is a Good Friday.

That's not to say that Jesus will not bless you.  He will.  It's just that our narrow constructs of what "blessing" means seems to translate into our modern narcissistic worldview of "me me me."  God blessing you does not mean that you will have a mansion, the model family, no history of sickness and virtually no strife.

God's mansion for you comes in the next life.  This life is quite simply not about you.

We are so conditioned thanks to the carnal nature of our world to put our own comfort and ease above all else.  If something is hard, hurts our feelings, or makes us struggle we shrink away from it.

And so, those who cling to Jesus solely as a "get out of jail free" card and magic charm to erase all of their hurt, are missing out on a much larger life-altering blessing.

That's why when pressed for the greatest commandment, Jesus told us in Matthew 22:37-40:

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Notice Jesus didn't mention that iPads and fancy new cars would be falling from the sky.  He didn't say that the most important thing in life was your personal comfort or happiness.  He did, however, lay out a plan that would leave you fulfilled and whole.

Jesus is talking about the priorities necessary in order to live the Christian life and be a true follower of Him.  It's.  Not.  About.  You.

You don't even make the list.

Your first priority in all that you do, think and experience should be your all-encompassing love of your Lord Jesus Christ.  Your love and relationship with Jesus will not only determine your eternal destination but also the fullness of your wisdom and experience in this life.  He is the "solid rock" on which you stand "all other ground is sinking sand."  Any theology or teaching that starts without Jesus as the first priority and center of everything is false doctrine right from the pit of hell.

The second priority is again not you.  It's other people.  Jesus is telling you that in order to be successful in this whole Christian experience, you need to put Him first and others second.  You come somewhere after that.

In our culture, many in the church are trying to gain favor in our self-centered culture by focusing on your needs and your wants and how you can feel better and become more comfortable by citing verses that refer to Christ giving you whatever you ask for in His name.

That is a distortion of reality and one of the subtle ways that the enemy can warp our thinking and thwart our witness in this world.

Again, this is not to say that Jesus wants you to suffer in this world.  He doesn't.  The world and the enemy do, however.  He wants you to stand with Him and not with the pleasures of this world.

And that involves a choice.

You would think that if Christianity was the secret formula to riches and a life of ease that the disciples and early New Testament believers would have been on Easy Street.  And yet, despite the miraculous world-changing witness that they bore, we find the opposite: people being boiled in oil, crucified, stoned to death, hanged, exiled, beaten repeatedly, mocked, scorned and rejected.

This is why Jesus didn't promise us to "live offa fatta the land."  (A little literary reference to my Of Mice and Men scholars!)

Jesus counts the cost for us.  Right after He predicts His own death on the cross, He tells us in Luke 9:23:

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

ANY basic understanding of God's purpose for your life begins and ends with this verse.  Your life is not your own.  The Bible talks repeatedly of being bought with a price.  We are slaves either to self or Christ.  The Christian life is not about what you can get, how easy you can make life for yourself, or how every day will be like a Friday to you.

It's about understanding the reality of your salvation.  The cost involved in liberating you from an eternity in hell.  The proper response of a freed soul.  It's about following the Master, walking in His steps, and finding your contentment in serving and loving Him.

Every day is literally a Good Friday for the Christian.  We must pick up our cross to follow our Lord.  We must enter into a world at war with our Savior and shine His light for others.  We must put God's plans and desires ahead of our own.  Heck, we must even put other people ahead of our own.  And not just our kids or spouses.  The life of a Christian is one of sacrifice.

And in that sacrifice and diminishing of self comes the blessing.  Not in iPads, new threads and McMansions.  It is the blessing of a life (and a choice) that Jesus laid out in John 10:10:

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. "

The more abundant life is one of purpose, wholeness and blessing.  It may not be the path with the most material wealth.  It may not be the path with the most popularity or earthly power.  It may even not be the path with the least amount of sickness and struggle.

The truth is, however, that one day you will see your Redeemer face to face.  And in that moment when you are basking in His glory and the freedom of being whole in His presence for eternity, you will understand what His definition of a blessed life truly is.

So today, take a moment and think about the sacrifices that Jesus made for you.  He denied Himself His throne in heaven (and refused to seek a throne here as well) and lived a life as the stone that the builders rejected.  The man of sorrows, who was mocked, scorned, beaten and savagely slaughtered on the cross for sins that He never committed.

Fair?  No.  Right?  Yes.  His example showed how He intends to bring about freedom, purpose, restoration and salvation.  And this Good Friday, may you find the abundant life of Christ by embracing the "every day a Good Friday" mentality about your very important mission on this earth.

Lives are hanging in the balance.  Live like it.