The temptation today is to not stand with the women and the disciple that Jesus loved at the foot of the cross. The temptation is to turn and run, to lock ourselves into the room upstairs out of fear. There is even the temptation to try to remove ourselves from all that happens this “Good” Friday. Wouldn’t it just be easier to skip ahead to Easter Sunday? Wouldn’t it be easier to skip the misery and agony of death on a cross?
Yes it would be. But Jesus didn’t do what was “easier,” and God didn’t do what would have been more pleasant, or more joyful. Not when the redemption of our souls…indeed the redemption of the whole creation was at stake.
Mathias Grünewald, Crucifixion, Isenheim Altarpiece, c.1512/15
Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar
How much does God love us? To what lengths is God willing to go to redeem us from the power of sin? How much agony and torture is God willing to endure to banish the power that death held over us? To die for us, even on a cross.
God’s love for us knows no bounds. Jesus is the very vehicle and proof of that love, of that redemption. Today we celebrate that gift of terrible agony, that gift of perfect love that sets us free.
In Christ,
The Daily Cup 
Thank you for telling us that running and hiding from God is not a option. God is for, with and ahead of us. Who would want to run away from him?