Good Friday

Today, we do not walk around and see people hanging on the cross.  2,000 years ago, this would have been a different situation.  Criminals were hung on the cross for their crimes that they committed.  The most likely did not have many people protesting against it like there is today.  The slightest insight that a person may get the electric chair or anything and people are out protesting either for or against the criminals death.
Years ago when Jesus died on the cross, there was a similar situation, but there were no protestors.  You could not protest the Pharisees because they were head of the church and could not welcome you.  Some people believe that the very same people that welcomed Jesus when he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey were the same people that yelled for him to be crucified.  My Johannine Literature professor and I disagree with this, but this is another argument for another time.
One thing I think a lot of us miss about Good Friday, or Jesus' death on the cross is how much of an impact it has.  I do believe that people have used the cross message to much that it has become something like a bad habit.  We have proclaimed this message of the cross through jewelry, t-shirts, a John 3:16 sign at the Super Bowl game, and we have made it something that it is not.  It is not a message that is to be merely worn or thrown in peoples faces, but I believe that it is to be a message that is lived out.
Of course its supposed to be lived out, we hear this a lot but we have no example of people who have lived this out.  My question is, does it matter?  Jesus says in Matthew 5: 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."  I think that we miss that there is an example to follow.  Christ's example on this earth excites me so much because that is what Christ came to do and I can follow him as I obey and follow his example.
I think something else that we miss is to allow God to search our hearts.  Our hearts matter, we can either live like Pharaoh with a hard heart, or live like Christ with a heart that glows for the Father.  I have always asked myself how to be an example of Christ.  As I read the Bible more I got it!  Psalm 139: 23-24 says, ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts! ²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!  Is not that a great message of hope!  What if we pray this when we wake up and go to bed every day?  God, search my heart, know me, but not only search me and know me, but lead me to everlasting life with you!  I pray that your remembrance of what Christ did for you may challenge you to reflect on your life and to truly let God search you and lead you.