April 18 2024 Good Friday

Isaiah 52.13-53.12;    Psalm 22;    1 Corinthians 1.18-31;    John 18.1-19.42

Many of us have heard the comment that Jesus was born to die for our sins and offer us salvation.  In fact I have heard someone speak of a billboard they saw saying ‘born to die’.  But that leaves us with an ‘awkward’ image of God.  To send God’s son into the world for the express reason of dying, turns the rest of his life into a ‘nothingness’, just ‘biding his time till his death’.  And I do not think that was God’s intention.  Yes Jesus died, yes through his death he has given us salvation, but he always had a choice.  He chose to die, but he did not have to die, and it certainly was not the reason he was born.  Jesus was born to live.  Jesus was born to show us how to live.  And Jesus was born to show us how to love.  Easter is coming, we still remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us,  but let us also remember what he has taught us, how to live, and how to love.