The Cross and Coronavirus | Good Friday for us Today

It’s a strange Easter. Today, Christians all around the world remember the death of Christ on Good Friday which culminates on Resurrection Sunday.

But this year its done rather differently. The pews are empty, there is no mass gatherings. Each person stays at home engaging through services online: breaking bread with their family, remembering Jesus death rather solemnly.

As I reflect on what is going on now. I can’t help but question the significance of the cross during this pandemic. The cross speaks in every situation from victory to sorrow, in health and in sickness, in life and in death. Surely the cross still speaks to us during this time. How so?

A God not far away from suffering

As we read reports of the numbers of death escalating, people having to send off their love ones without proper services and the poor and vulnerable starving, we realise that this is only the tip of what people are going through. We don’t really understand what they are going through until it hits us personally. Yet, the good Friday message is about a God who knows the details of suffering so much more personally than we can fathom. God’s Son, Jesus, on the road to the cross experienced rejection, shames, loneliness, pain and mental anguish. He cries ‘ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!’. His friends had left him, He is in physical anguish and He experiences death, separation from God the Father – the source of life and light.

The cross shows that the God of the BIble is not one that simply leave us when we as humanity mess up and suffer. He comes down, He acquaints Himself with suffering. Hence, we can be assured that this same God understands what we are going through having gone through it Himself, and He wants to be as close to us as we allow Him to today.

A God who takes our place

On March 15th 2020, a 72 year old Italian Priest who had contracted the Covid- 19 virus gave his ventilator away in order to the save the life of a younger person. He eventually passed away, but the ventilator, bought for him by his parishioners saved the life of the other person. He sacrificed his life, dying so another may live.

In a similar but greater act of sacrifice, the story of Good Friday is about Jesus Christ, the innocent God man, suffering and dying on the cross so that we may live. The fact is our sin results in suffering and death, and only a perfect sacrifice carried out by one who is fully God (perfect) and fully man (to sacrifice Himself) can save us from it. In other words, Jesus took of His oxygen mask/ventilator and offers it to us who are willing to take it.

A God who promises hope

What this means for us is that for whoever that repents of their sins and believe in Christ sacrificial death, we can have eternal life. Even though our bodies may decay and die, there is eternal life for our soul and spirit. And while suffering may still take place in this world, there is hope of a day with no more suffering, no more death, no more tears. It is ours because He suffered and took our place.

So in our seeking and searching for answers this season of the pandemic, look no further than to the cross. Yes, there is suffering, tears, sorrow, pain in this world. However, the cross shows that He endures it with us while we are still on earth, and we need endure it no more when we are no longer on earth.

Today, I don’t know what you are going through or what questions you may have, but why not consider looking to the cross for strength, life and comfort.

Blessed Good Friday. Praying for you.

P/S – for those who want to seek some answers to questions of life here are some good links: If God exists why does He allow suffering// Who is Jesus? // Answers to other tough questions.// Christianity and Islam.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7.

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21