My daughter asked this morning, “Why is it called Good Friday when such a bad thing happened on this day?”
I grabbed a marker sketch of this image that I had scrawled out this morning and told her about how all of history converges on this very day, this very moment when Jesus gives up His life for the world, for us.
I had been grappling a bit myself with how to celebrate Easter in the face of such suffering. I’ve been reading the statistics of how the virus is disproportionately affecting African American communities and Hispanics, something not surprising given the great disparities that exist in our country. I’m so grieved by the injustices I see and my own complicity.
I don’t even know how to capture the mystery of the cross in words here, but I do know that the cross is the key, the center. I know that Jesus endured the worst of what we have to offer so He could turn it into our hope. I know that He represents everything we need and everything we are longing for–especially today. I know He is familiar with our suffering and that none of it is wasted.
I know that the cross created a new people called to live out a new life in a new kingdom in which we were made to shine.
I read this morning in my Lent devotional by N.T. Wright:
“As we stand there by the cross, let the shouting and pushing and the angry faces fade away for a moment, and look at the slumped head of Jesus. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in him, here on the cross. God chose Israel to be his way of rescuing the world. God sent Jesus to be his way of rescuing Israel. Jesus went to the cross to fulfill that double mission. His cross, planted in the middle of the jostling, uncomprehending, mocking world of his day and ours, stands as the symbol of a victory unlike any other. A love unlike any other. A god unlike any other.”
You can download the coloring pages HERE in English or HERE in Spanish.
USAGE NOTES: All artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. These printables are free for your personal, school, ministry, or church use. If you share this, please link back to this post and not the PDF file. Please do not repost on another website. For other uses, please contact me.
