Good Friday.  It would not have seemed good to anyone in the concentric circles that orbited  Jesus on that day. There were those closest to him – Peter, James, and John. Then the rest of the twelve including Judas, family members, a larger group that followed him from place to place and helped support his ministry, the crowds, and, of course, those set on destroying him.

The morning had begun before sunrise with his arrest. Betrayal had born its fruit. The night before, just as the twelve were taking the bitter herbs of their Passover Seder in the upper room, Jesus had announced that betrayal was at hand. It only took a few hours for that prophetic word to be fulfilled. Taken to a kangaroo court before the High Priest and members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus had been accused by conflicting testimony so that Caiaphas, the High Priest, finally bound him by an oath to tell the truth. “The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ ‘ He is worthy of death,’ they answered” (Mt.26:63-66).The confession of who we was would, of course, seal his fate in the mind of the Jewish leaders.

From our perspective as Americans, we expect trials to be logical events with twelve somewhat detached jurists coming to a conclusion to be read with little emotion in court. But in this “courtroom,” the high priest tore his clothes. Feelings ran high and anything that smacked of blasphemy raised a tide of emotion rather than a reading of the findings. Think of scenes on the 6:00 news in the Middle East – funerals or demonstrations with people weeping, shouting, and wringing their hands. Think of flags being burned and crowds filling streets chanting for the death of the Great Satan America. Those scenes frighten Americans because they seem so unpredictable. So out of control. So emotional. Imagine those crowds surrounding Jesus who had been accused of blasphemy on Passover Eve when Israel was awaiting a deliverer and needed no one to be offending God by his words or actions. Suddenly the kangaroo court would take on a life of its own and spill into the streets moving toward the quarters of Pontius Pilate.

From there “Good Friday” spiraled downward. Jesus became a political football that would be kicked around the streets of Jerusalem – Caiaphas to Pilate; Pilate to Herod; Herod back to Pilate and Pilate back to the Jewish leaders screaming for blood. Beaten beyond recognition, Jesus was finally dragged up Golgatha and spiked to a rough and splintered cross. All of this occurred by about 9:00 in the morning. The shepherd’s flock had denied him and scattered into the night, except for John, the youngest. All were hiding in fear and wondering what would come next. This was not the triumphal coronation of The Messiah they had expected. Instead of glorious and powerful, this Messiah was broken and helpless. Why didn’t he call on the legions of angels he had spoken about? Why didn’t he call down fire on Caiaphas as Elijah had called down fire when facing the prophets of Bail? Why could he not heal is own wounds as he had healed countless others? Nothing seemed good about that Friday.

Darkness followed. Then death. His limp body was pulled from the cross and placed hurriedly in a tomb to avoid desecrating Passover. I am certain there was no hint of Passover joy in the rooms where the disciples huddled in disappointment and fear. However, as the old sermon goes, “It was Friday, but Sunday’s comin.”

Three days later, a dismal defeat was transformed into certain, unimaginable victory. The Passover Lamb rose from the ashes and the world has never been the same. In Exodus 6, Jewish scholars find four promises that are reflected by four cups of wine in the Passover Seder. These were almost certainly recited by Jesus in the Upper room. To Israel, God had said, “I will bring you out. I will free you from being slaves. I will redeem you. I will take you to be my own.”

Those promises are for us as well. He will bring us out of the Kingdom of Darkness. He will declare us to be free instead of slaves and take away our slave identity. He will redeem us by paying the price for our freedom. He will make us his as a groom takes a wife to be his own. Jesus is our Passover, by his blood spread over the doorposts of our hearts he has brought us out, set us free, redeemed us, and taken us to be his own. In so many words softly spoken in the upper room, Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you that seals a covenant I have made with you. Remember all this until I come again and be sure that I am coming again.” It was a very good Friday after all.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 2But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Rom.8:18-25)

As we continue searching through Romans 8, we discover that Paul seems to leap from a discussion of our adoption and inheritance to a reflection on our suffering in this world. If we are to live effectively in this environment we must remember that being children of God and co-heirs with Christ does not make us exempt from hardship, persecution, and even death in this world. Jesus clearly declared, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn.16:33). He also tells us that if the world hated him it will hate us and if the Rabbi suffers, the disciple will suffer as well. Jesus does not keep trouble from our door but enables us to overcome the trouble when it appears. Our standing in heaven supplies what we need for the victory rather than paving the way around every assault of the enemy.

A prosperity gospel tends to promise that we can live above the fray and stay one step ahead of trouble but that is not the witness of Jesus or the apostles. We live in enemy territory and as we push back the lines of the enemy we will be in many battles – for ourselves and for others. Paul knew that better than anyone and had suffered in incredible ways for the gospel. In this section of Romans 8, Paul gives us one secret to enduring the battles of life and continuing to push back against the dominion of darkness. That secret is to get our glorious future fixed in our minds so that the struggles on this earth pale in contrast to what our sustained faith will bring us in eternity.

Paul simply says that our present sufferings are well worth the struggle when we keep the end in mind. There is a glory that is to be revealed in every believer who holds onto his or her faith in Jesus until the end. In one sense everything is about Jesus but in another sense, Jesus has made everything about us.   Paul alludes to the Garden and the moment Gold cursed the earth because of Adams sin. The original earth was built to be eternal and perpetually self-renewing. As Adam and Eve were intended to have eternal life in the Garden, the Garden was intended to be eternal as their perfect residence. But as man became subject to death and decay because of sin, the physical universe fell under the same curse.

Paul tells us that God’s creation waits for the day that God’s children will be revealed and that is the day of resurrection when those he has adopted will be given glorified bodies fit for eternity. Apparently, as we are released from death and decay, the universe will be released as well. But it happens only after God has raised his children. Paul suggests that God is waiting on all of his children to come home before pulling back the curtain on glories we can’t even imagine. We have already been adopted but will not experience the fullness of that adoption until we experience the redemption of our bodies. Paul seems to point at three great events in history – creation, the cross, and the resurrection when God restores both man and his creation to his original intent. Satan beats God out of nothing.

We have already experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit. When we were “born again” our spirits were raised to life and reconnected to our Heavenly Father. At that moment the Spirit began his work of transformation in our body, soul, and spirit making us fit for the kingdom of heaven. I believe that the Spirit touches our bodies even now with strength, health and energy but the capstone on his work will be the resurrection when these bodies will be totally replaced or transformed into glorified bodies suited for eternity and the presence of God – no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death, no more disabilities, no more weariness, no more separation from those we love.

We are children of the King, resourced by heaven, but in a battle and the battles must be fought. To give up is to lose out. Paul had many chances to turn back but he kept his eyes on Jesus and his mind fixed on the promises of glory and resurrection. His thought was that any suffering in this life was a small inconvenience compared to the amazing things God has prepared for his children so when this life gets so heavy you can hardly carry the load, when the battle gets fierce, when your heart gets weary – call on heaven while you think of the glories to come while the Spirit whispers, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor.2:9) Don’t give up.