Observation
There are moments in mankind's history where the ugliness in the human heart climax's and shows a side of ourselves we would rather hide and never look at. It seems that inherent goodness brings out the worst of our nature. The terrible atrocities that mark mankind were performed against races of people; the Jews in the halocaust, slavery in the United States, Christian persecution in the days of Nero, the slaughter of whole villages in Africa by warlords, etc. But this is the one time where history has multiple accounts of One person receiving the ugliness of mankind through unimaginable torture and death. No wonder such darkness was cast over the land. The darkness is a representation of our guilt. It shows that in our hearts is an ugliness that fear and pressure brings out.
As I read Mark today, it just seemed like no one missed out on the opportunity to express the deprivation of their human heart. In Mark 15, it even notes that as visitors were coming into town they would ridicule him on the cross.
Application
To except the hope of Easter, I must except the guilt of Good Friday. I live in a culture that admonishes guilt; "live the way you want to and if anyone questions you and make you feel guilty then rebuke them, you are not supposed to feel guilty". How could I feel anything but guilty when I look at the cross? I may not have been there over 2000 years ago, but I have joked about Jesus to make my friends laugh, I have done things I know we're wrong so that I could fit in, I have put my needs before anyone else's over and of again. My abuse of Christ may not have been physical, but the darkness of my heart cast a shadow over me for several years. It was my guilt that brought Him to the cross. It was my guilt that needed the sacrificial lamb. He had to face hell for me, so that the darkness inside me would leave. He did it for me.
Prayer
Jesus, thank You! I love You!
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