Friday, April 2, 2010

And Yet...


Steve Fowler, the lead pastor at Salem Alliance Church, gave a thoughtful sermon at Christmas about the unseen backdrop to the Christmas Story. Behind the typical beatific Christmas scenes we usually see, Satan was working hard to kill the Christ child and stamp out this intruder in his dark kingdom. Herod trying to co-opt the Three Wisemen, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the hurried trip to Egypt, all bear witness to the desperate collision of spiritual forces that we usually ignore in favor of the manger, the Star of Bethlehem, and the shepherds listening to angels from on high.

This unseen and desperate battle is even more true of Good Friday. On the actual day, titanic spiritual forces were at work trying to destroy God and His Kingdom in this world before a permanent beachhead could be established. If we could see that day what was happening behind the horror of the day's earthly events, I think we would cringe in abject fear.

I have been through two hurricanes and they are fearful for their power and longevity. The wind shrieks for hours, lightning crashes, the waters creep toward you and you hope and pray that the house you are in can withstand their frightful attack. So it was on Good Friday, but on an infinitely larger scale. I am sure the apostles similarly looked for a miracle to end the depravity inflicted on their Lord, but none came and He died, broken and alone on the hill. Darkness and evil had won; Good could not stand. It is finished. We are lost.

And yet...

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