Who Are You Looking For
Tonight we come to the climactic moment of all human history. But it’s more than that, it’s the singular moment that holds all other moments together. Good Friday is not simply an event on the timeline of history but the underpinning of all history, the foundation upon which everything else in the cosmos is built. Scripture tells us that Christ was slain “before the foundations of the world”. Thus, what we witness today is the ground of all being.
Genesis tells us that in the beginning there was nothing but the void of total darkness. Into that darkness a voice, the voice of the Creator God, spoke. John’s prologue tells us that the word uttered in Genesis was Christ Himself, who is the very utterance of God.
Good Friday returns us to that same darkness. The Last Supper takes place late into the night. Judas the betrayer leaves, returning to the shadows to complete his dark and evil deed. Once the meal is finished, the remaining group also leaves the upper room and walks through the quiet streets of Jerusalem, passes by the Temple complex, and exits the city down into the black garden they often frequented.
Jesus still goes further into the darkness, leaving his disciples behind to go and pray. Here stands the Son of Man all alone in the blackest of nights.
After wrestling in agony for some time, his strength is weak. He has already begun to invade the deepest of all horrors and blackness: death. It’s here a light shines, approaching from the entrance of the garden. Although this appears to be light it is only so in the same way Satan appears to be a angel of light, and yet his light is nothing but darkness in disguise. The torch of Judas approaches, and with him a Roman unit.
They approach and the voice of the Word rings out into the midnight air, “Who are you looking for?”
“Jesus the Nazarene”, they reply. “I Am”, and they all fall down before the living Burning Bush who stands before them.
He asks again, “Who are you looking for?” And they again give the same reply.
This is the question I want us to sit with tonight for just a moment. As we look upon the cross, as we gaze into that impenetrable darkness that exists in our own hearts as well as in the world, and as we look upon the dying and dead body of “Jesus the Nazarene”, let us ask ourselves this same question.
“Who are you looking for?”
Are you looking for a healer? He is here, broken and beaten, so that you may be whole. Are you looking for a deliverer? He is here, taking captivity captive from the inside out. Are you looking for hope? It is here, in the One who makes His bed in the same darkness and despair that surrounds you. Are you looking for mercy? It is here, forgiving the sins of the world even though they don’t ask for it? Are you looking for a leader? He is here, high and lifted up so that all will follow Him. Are you looking for a king? He is here, wearing a crown of thorns with a royal edict above His head. Are you looking for new life? It is here, in the death of the only Son of God.
But where is God? This was the question the crowds were asking, both in the hearts of the scornful and in the mournful onlookers. The question that arose from Jesus’ lips as he hung, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Where is God on Good Friday? Was he in the washed hands of Pilate, giving Christ over to the vicious crowds? Was God in those crowds, calling for the execution of an innocent man? Was God in the violent revolutionary Barabbas, whose name means “Son of the Father”? Was God in the hands of the Roman soldiers, nailing his son to a tree? Was God in the onlooking crowds, standing by, unable or unwilling to do anything?
Paul tells us, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” Where was God on Good Friday? There, hanging on Calvary’s tree.
Who are you looking for? Are you looking for God? Here he is, in all his splendor and glory, remaking the world in the darkness.
Who are you looking for tonight? Turn your eyes to the cross and see, he is there revealing himself to you.