It Shall Be Provided

Jim:
Good Friday is a time to reflect on the love that God has poured out for us. We really can not appreciate the joy of Palm Sunday and Easter unless we walk that lonesome valley with Jesus through Holy Week.

Psalm 22
This psalm is always a profound reminder of what Jesus went though. Verse one, of course, is one of the things that he said from the cross. It is a cry of anguish from one who feels completely cut off from God. But notice how the psalm ends: "Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it." (verses 30-31) So though the psalm begins in despair, it ends in confidence, ascribing to God praise and honor for all the great things God has done. Jesus, then, was not giving up on the cross, and he certainly was not cursing God. He was witnessing to the purpose of God and his willingness to be a part of that purpose.

Genesis 22:1-14
This is one of the toughest stories in all of scripture and impossible to deal with easily. I have found the most meaning in verse 14: "So Abraham called that place 'The Lord will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'" Ultimately God did provide for Abraham and intervened to save Isaac. But later, when God's own Son was being sacrificed for the world, there would be no intervention. God was providing for the world though the death of Jesus.

1 Peter 1:10-20
Here I focused on verse 13: "Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all you hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring when he is revealed." The author is pointing ahead to the second coming and encouraging us all to be ready, in mind and body and soul, for that wondrous day. Meanwhile, our relationship with God has been secured through the blood of Christ ("on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided").

John 13:36-38
I think we all wince when we think of Peter's denial because in so many ways we have all done it ourselves. But the very next verse of John's gospel says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Jesus was speaking to all of the disciples at that point, which includes Peter, of course, but which also includes us. So even in the face of human sinfulness God's grace abounds. God has provided for us once more.