What’s Good?
Mark chapter 15:23-32 ESV
23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour[d] when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.[e] 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
in this moment, believer or unbeliever, what is good about this situation?
What is the wine that we have to offer Jesus?
Let’s think about this question…what exactly is good? Put aside the theologically correct answers you know to be true for just a moment, and just be radically honest even if it sounds selfish. What do we tend to offer others and God as good or our best? Is it a feeling, an emotion, a state of being etc? Hold that thought….
How do we as members of the Body of Christ, gather in remembrance of the Friday of Christ’s crucifixion, and call this “Good Friday”? Is it the day of Friday that is good? Is it the cross that is good? How about the Man on the cross?
God with us, Yeshua Ha Mashiach, the lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world… and He is treated as a criminal worthy of capital punishment, nailed to a cross and condemned to die.
This is the story of our savior climbing into our delusional state, where we’ve chosen to live in a fantasy: A world without God
Jesus came with a mission, absorb the full brunt of sin and death taking curse and corruption upon Himself where He would put to death the hamartia* of the world. Where He would put death to death but would ultimately suffer what no singular man could previously suffer: the collective shame and grief of mankind living under a curse.
*Hamartia: distorted form i.e. sin
Genesis 1:28-31
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Who defines “good”?
Does god merely define “good”?
Mark 10:18 ESV
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
GOD IS GOOD – GOD CREATES GOOD
GOD CAN TAKE NOT GOOD AND create GOOD
According to God, what is not good?
Genesis 2:18
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for[a] him.”
What is God’s plan to remedy “NOT GOOD” in this passage?
God makes a helper for Adam, but Adam and eve are both deceived. They believe a lie, and many of us have believed the same lie, we believe God has held out on us and try to take things into our own hands. The tragedy being we attempt to take something that already belongs to us in God’s likeness. This also sews the seed of doubt in God’s goodness, because after the transgression, the fear is so great, we hide from God, declaring him (with our posture) to be harsh and unforgiving.
We believe the lie and we live it as true – There is a beautiful parable about this kind of departure.
Luke 15:11-16 esv
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to[a] one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
Colossians 1:21
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
Isaiah 53:6a
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
Like the prodigal son, we have all in one way or another demanded something from God we felt like we were owed.
We continue in our delusion, god never stops being good
Our time in the world will never provide us with the same love and sustenance that being home with the father does. Don’t believe the lie that you are too far gone to return home, God is closer to you than you think or perceive.
Our departure from God in relationship is man choosing to be alone – We sometimes try to approximate relationship with very strict ritual communion and offerings, more as an exchange.
We must view the cross as God doing many profound things at once, all as the single most powerful act of love, ever. One of the things the cross accomplished was a fulfilment of a strict sacrificial and ceremonial system being the only way to commune with God in a very limited way. It also eliminates the need for intermediaries a hierarchical class system that interacts with God on behalf of the people.
When God said it is not good for man to be alone, He still shows that same heart through the Life and mission of Jesus. Jesus chooses to lay down His Life with the intention to send us The Helper – The Holy Spirit, so that we would never be alone again.
John 10:17-19
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 16:7-10
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The cross is not God judging His Son…
The cross is The Father and Son Judging the sin and death plaguing His creation, in perfect agreement and union with each other.
What does The Son’s perfect and righteous judgement look like?
Luke 23:34
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[a] And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Isaiah 53:5-7
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
Romans 5:6-11
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Colossians 1:20-22
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Ephesians 2:1-5 ESV
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Luke 15:17-24 esv
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[b] 22 But the father said to his servants,[c] ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Ever wrestled with the idea of god’s goodness?
If God is good, then ….
This is the contest of a heart that defines God’s goodness circumstantially.
If God is good, there would be no ….
This is a heart filled with righteous anger toward sin, but neglects every person’s infinite spectrum of choice that affords the potential that any human being is capable of both remarkable and heinous things
If God is good, then He could never love me because ….
This is a heart that feels the condemnation or shame that comes from the weight of sin and brokenness without a relationship to a Savior who bore that sin.
Truthfully, we are deathly afraid of relationship – and this fear is the result of a lie that we need to do more and become more before we can be in God’s presence. The tragedy of the lie in the Garden is that Adam and Eve were already made in the image of God, and they believed they needed something they didn’t have to become like God.
But the lie is more insidious. The lie sews doubt that God really is good and merciful. We believe He has held out on us so we become willing to savagely take what we fear we are missing. When we have gone too far, we then fear being punished in our vulnerability and nakedness that is examined in true repentance. When we behold our Savior on the cross, and the lengths Jesus went to afford us perfect love, may all this fear of punishment be cast out in Jesus’ name.
1 John 4:17-18
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
This is our Savior, this is the Lamb of God, and this is the body that has been given for you to eat and His Life blood, the wine poured out for you to drink.
Let’s review – What’s “not good”?
What is not good?
- Beng alone
- Fear of being naked in God’s presence
- Fear of relationship
Is it better to be naked in God’s presence (which actually results in being clothed in God’s presence) Or to flee Gods presence because we fear he will respond badly to our nakedness and vulnerability? That he would shame us or that He would reject us?
Have you ever fled relationships of any kind for any of these reasons?
Rejecting others because of their “imperfections” or rejecting them for their nakedness or vulnerability, is not Gods modus operandi, it is the way we have approximated justice when we believed we were separate from God. That was how we used to handle things until we were awakened to the hypocrisy of it.
On good Friday we grieve a good grief. A grief that realizes we are the ones shouting Hosanna – “Please Save!” and we were also the ones shouting crucify, every time we demand a pound of flesh, every time we scorn “The least of these” we have done it unto Him.\
On good Friday, we find joy in the mourning, realizing the one we scorned has forgiven us while we were whipping him, torturing him, and calling for his public execution. When I was slave to my sin, my Savior chose to suffer for me so that He could cleanse me from all unrighteousness. When I made a mess and destroyed myself and people, our savior suffered and died so He could send His spirit to make beauty from ashes. So that we would not be alone, and to see that He has finished what we could never do.
Romans 8:28 esv
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose.
Closing Remarks
God doesn’t just define “good”
Good is a person… God IS Good AND God makes good because He puts Himself in wat He creates. We can disagree with God but that just makes us incorrect, and He longs to spare us the tragedy of walking contrary to his prime intention: To be one with Him in perfect union forever.
He takes bad things and transforms them into good
He suffers in our behalf to do so
He suffers with us in the bad things while he makes good out of it
Good is not a set of Characteristics or qualifications
Good is not a resume or track record, though good does carry a reputation of good action
Good is a person, endowed with the fullness of God, choosing to take on the sufferings and brokenness possibly afforded by a life in a body of flesh and bone. Good is a life in the flesh, unwilling to settle for the paradigms of merely flesh and bone though, because heavenly seating translates into profound manifestations in a body of flesh and bone. Good is not conformed to the ways of this world but is transfigured by the power of the Holy Spirit in a renewed heavenly mind. A mind that has nothing to do with brain or intellect, but actually closer resembles the intuition of a pure heart.
We must make the shift from what is good, to who is good.
We must make the shift from God defining good – leaving us to enforce it – to God makes good because He is good, and the creator puts Himself in the creation. The creator doesn’t see Himself apart from the creation, the way the creation sees itself apart from its creator. This is Good as a person, taking bad, which is simply a perversion of good, the lovely aspects of mankind corrupted by a false word, a lie told from as far back as the Garden, that leads us to assume a delusional reality where God is far away and forsaken us.
God himself took on this exact brutality to show us He was never expecting us to go through anything alone. Wherever humanity went, God sent His son to go there with us, not to leave us there, but to make it good from the inside out.
The son didn’t have to die in the sense that His blood was demanded by his father. This is a pagan way of thinking. The Father is not a bloodthirsty demagogue, Jesus said “if you have seen me you have seen the Father”, meaning that the Jesus’ heart looks EXACTLY like the Father’s heart. Jesus’ heart is to pour Life out of Himself upon even His most bloodthirsty and vengeful creations. Jesus said “no one takes my life from me, I lay my life down and I will take it up again, this charge I have received from my Father”. The Father gave the Son all authority in heaven and on earth and the Son chooses to act out this authority righteously in that He gave His life for the mercy of those who hated and scorned Him. We didn’t take His life from Him; He gave it over to us so that we could be fed and filled with His life. We thought we were killing God, but He was really giving us His body, we thought we were bleeding a fool dry, but He was really pouring out His life blood to fill us with His spirit.
God pulled the great switcheroo.
He took our wrath, our sin and our wickedness and poured out for us a fresh cup of Life. He refuses to stoop to repaying us evil for evil, but took our evil deeds upon Himself and said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”
Now we knew what we were doing in a sense – But Jesus sees that though we were murderous and bloodthirsty, Jesus is saying that in our wicked actions, we were truly out of our minds and lost. The heart of God sees past the flesh and sees the lost son or daughter. The heart of God longs for the prodigal son to come to his senses and return home, knowing that he will always hold a room for him at home.
For the sons who have returned home, we remember just how far our savior was willing to go to bring us home, we remember that he bore our grief and transgressions, he bore our sufferings and our curse to set us free from the bondage of sin and death. We remember that He has rescued us into relationship with Himself and has taken all of the bad that we made and given us all of the good that He made. We remember that He took the cross and the torture that we made and turned it into a victory over hell, death, and the grave.
For the wandering prodigal son, who is running and running and running, hear this plea from the Father. It’s okay to come home now. He is not mad at you. You will not return home to punishment and scorn. You will not return to the Father to merely be shamed and belittled. But should you fall into His arms, you will be embraced by the most comprehensive and truest Love. A love that can take any mess you’ve found yourself in, and work all of it for Good. Now that doesn’t mean He waves a magic wand and takes away the challenge or suffering in life, but it does mean He is with us in all of it, and He is the one who will do the heavy lifting. You don’t need to clean yourself up or fix every habit or addiction before you come to him. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light, His Spirit will work in you with supernatural grace, and what is impossible with man, is possible with God.