04/04/2026
Hey everyone, Pastor Matt here. This is not a message but just a thought. As I reflect on Good Friday, I started thinking about my son Peter. He is our "band-aid" child. He is always getting hurt. As I am writing this, he is wearing a cast on his arm because he jumped off the couch W.W.E. style. As funny as that sounds, he has had a few really good injuries. The one that sticks with me still is from last summer. He was jumping off the stage (about a foot off the ground) as a toddler does, and his foot got caught, and he landed on his face. I could not grab him fast enough, and it was the most scared I have ever been as a father. He was not breathing and was trying to scream, but nothing was coming out, and the only thing flowing through my head as I was shooting up a prayer was "God, just let me take this pain; let me take this injury from him." Put it on me instead.” Thankfully the ER was a block away, and we rushed him over, and one bloody ruined shirt later, he was back to his old self, a little bit more cautious and 4 stickers richer.
I had a realization: this is the same attitude Jesus had, and because he is fully God and fully man, he was able to take our place and offer us a gift. The gift of eternal life. Jesus knew what was going to happen as they beat him, stripped him, and hung him on the cross. The whole time he was held up there by our sin. Now you may still be thinking, "What is so good about today?" Jesus loves you and me so much that he took our place, defeating death. It is a good day because he conquered sin and death so that we will never be apart from God on this side of heaven or after we die. It is a good day because, having the power to save himself, he instead laid his life down for you and me. 1 John 4:10 says it like this: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
