Easter is meaningless without Good Friday. Without the shedding of blood resulting in the death of one who is totally innocent, the sins of man would not be covered and eternal life would not be accessible to man.
But there was shed blood! Think of the High Priest of the nation of Israel who, on Yom Kippur, took the blood of a bull into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. This blood covered the law which was in the Ark, the law which had been broken through sin. The Jewish belief was that as God looked down, He didn’t see the broken law because it was covered by the blood.
At the cross, Jesus shed His blood. This blood acts as a covering of sins for those who accept the salvation offered by God by placing faith in Jesus’ shed blood as payment for their personal sins and in His resurrection as overcoming death therein leading to eternal life.
Good Friday is a day we celebrate as “good” only because we know that it is the last rung in the ladder that leads to the third day, Easter, when He arose. When the disciples and Mary went to the garden tomb, Jesus’ body was not there. But after the disciples left, He appeared to Mary. His resurrection was confirmed by Mary and later others. Today, we know of this confirmation of resurrection through the written word, the Bible, which leads us to Him as Savior.
There is no celebration in the Christian faith greater than Easter, the confirmation of the covering of the sins of mankind and the provision of eternal life. A day of the highest praise, a Christian Yom Kippur!!
Mike Haigh
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