- Good Friday

 - Good Friday. Put an ‘L’ sign over your head. Loser. That was what the followers of Jesus felt when they couldn’t meet the eyes of the religious authorities who finally got the troublemaker Jesus out of their way. Gloating, satisfaction, a feeling of justification for their sickening self-righteousness.

- Rather than feeling smug about “…But Sunday’s Commin’!”, we should take a moment to really put ourselves in the place of those who struggled with the reality they had left everything to follow a now shamed and permanently cancelled ‘loser’.

- Those who sat on the fence about Jesus, enjoying the show while it lasted, began rewriting their personal narratives about him with assurances they were smart to not get too involved in such a radical proposition that went against every truth of the social reality around them. The crucified Jesus had told his followers they would never fit in.

- It is time to look at the half-measures of our own commitment to the proposition that Heaven or Hell really awaits every human around us. It isn’t fashionable to discuss or openly admit to unknown strangers or cynical acquaintances our own convictions about sin, heaven, hell, demons, angels, and the truth about Jesus that puts us at odds with increasingly insane social norms now threatening us with social, if not legal, consequences.

- If we cannot really put ourselves in the place of desperate and fearful disciples hiding in an upper room and re-evaluating their futures, then maybe we need to take a closer look at our own hesitancy that keeps us silent in the presence of others rather than prayerfully reaching within ourselves to check with the Holy Spirit to see if God has other plans for that moment. I know I need to take that closer look.

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