Good Friday Really is Good

          I’m sure that the picture of a man, flesh torn up, dripping blood, and hanging fully exposed on two beams of wood is exactly what we imagine when we think of a conquering king. I’m sure this image, full of suffering and humiliation, is exactly what comes to mind when we think of power. Ok, ok, I’m sure it wasn’t. This scene is about as far from power and triumph as I can possibly imagine, apart from my faith, but as with all things God, His ways don’t fit with our natural inclinations or expectations. His principles and methods may not fit with our human wisdom and understanding, but they are always far greater.

          Kingdom principles tend to fly in the face of our reasoning. For example, in our reasoning, if we want to have greater influence, authority, and power, we need to have the highest position and the most control. We’ve seen this over and over again in history. Yet…somehow…this exact recipe just never seems to work out. As an individual gains control and power, usually self-centered motives win out and more people lose rather than gain until eventually there’s a move to oust the controller. On a smaller scale, an overly demanding, micromanaging boss that seeks to squeeze out every drop of productivity and efficiency out of every millisecond typically experiences less productive staff and has a higher staff turnover rate. The idea of having greater position and influence because of the amount of control one has seems to make sense yet more often than not, simply doesn’t work. What does work? Humble, servant leadership. It may not fit what pops in our heads or what we expect, yet it’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 20:26. To be a great leader, an effective leader, and therefore a powerful leader, we need to humble ourselves and serve. The Bible and the research base agree.

          Here’s another kingdom principle that just doesn’t make sense to our human minds: to live we need to die. What?! Yet we see it in nature all the time. In order for a seed to give life to the plant, it needs to die. In order for the plant to bear life-giving seeds, it needs to expend its life. In order for us to live, truly freely and abundantly LIVE, we need to die first. We need to die to our agendas, our biases, and our expectations. We need to die to our “right” to hold a grudge and always be on top. We need to die to our plans and our ways and let God work His plan His way in us. Because when we do, that’s when we REALLY live. That’s when we live His dream for our lives, which always far exceeds anything we could imagine on our own. That’s when we live free of anger, bitterness, resentment, disappointments, and regrets. We live in the freedom and power of His joy and forgiveness and in the limitless, eternal vision that could only come from God. But we don’t get to have and experience that unless we die first. Furthermore, we will only experience it to the degree and level that we die to ourselves; the greater and deeper the death, the greater and more abundant the life. Just look at Jesus.

          He died wholly and completely and took on levels of humility that are beyond the ability to describe in words. In a move of complete and utter humility, He chose to leave His home in glory, in perfect union with the Father. While that is a level of humility we can’t even begin to imagine, He didn’t stop there. He served people, ALL people, not just the “rich and famous” but all of those who were rejected by society as well. He touched, healed, ate, drank, walked, and talked with them. All of them. He even washed some feet! But He didn’t stop there. He went even further. He took His humility to the most extreme level and allowed Himself to die on a cross, a death that was created, in part, for the purpose of humiliation. And, in true kingdom principle, His actions of extreme humility, extreme service, extreme submission, and death unleashed extreme power and life. For Him, yes, but for us too because when we receive His gift of salvation through faith, we aren’t just receiving “fire insurance,” we’re receiving that extreme power and life in us. In Christ, we have access to the extreme power and life He paid for! He paid it, we get to live it. So many times we go about our lives only living in the first half of what He gave us—a free pass into heaven after death. But if we do that, we are missing out entirely on the unimaginably vast powerhouse of a life we could have THIS side of heaven. Because Jesus didn’t just die so we could live AFTER death, He died so we could live NOW. So while God’s way of life may not fit our brain molds, if we choose to live His way, we won’t want those brain molds anyway.

Goleman, D. Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books, 1998