Worthy is the Lamb

In a loud voice they were saying: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Revelations 5:12

On Friday evening our family of three attended the Good Friday service at church. My wife had to be at the church earlier than us so we dropped her up and drove to the local Carabou to mentally prepare our selves through a reading out of 1 John.

As my son and I entered the sanctuary we were each given a strip of cloth. As I sat down I saw the word Love on the very front of the Sanctuary. In our section my eyes took a gentle sweep around the section we sat in. I noticed many people I knew. People who knew first hand what the sour taste of grief tastes like.

Toward the front sat a man who's son took his life. I personally remember listening to him share his pain in the months following his loss. Just to the right of this man sat a couple who understood the pain of a life altering diagnosis and what it meant for their family and for their future.

Several rows behind this couple sat a bereaved man who's wife left this world prematurely through sudden circumstances. Beside him sat his daughter who lost her role model and mentor, her mom. As my eyes glanced to the right I noticed one of our Pastors who personally understood the sour taste of grief just being their with loved ones as they experience a sudden death.

This good Friday service started off with a series of worship songs. Then our Pastor began speaking about what love means. He said that on a universal level everyone agrees that 'God is love'. He read from I John 4:10:

10 In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.

1. God loved us

2.He sent his son to pay the price for our sins.

The pastor talked about the cross as our ground zero. The cross where God paid the wrath of our sin through the painful sacrifice of his son. This cross was meant for us, but God paved the way for all of us to have our sin's wiped clean through Jesus Christ who took our place on the cross so we can receive favor.

The cross of Jesus is pained, scratched and there is no greater love than someone who lays down his life for his enemy (us)

We were asked to recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt and that Jesus came to pay the price of that bankruptcy. We then asked to confess to the Lord our spiritual bankruptcy as the choir sang in the background.

When communion began each row walked to the front of the church with our strip of cloth. On the cloth we were asked to write a confession of our sin. Once at the front we were to take our strip and slide it under the metal grid. The couple helping at the front knew this sour taste of grief through the premature loss of their sister/sister-in-law. By the time our son and I reached the front there was a tapestry of different colored strips already in place. Each of us slid our strip between the grids before taking a wafer and communion glass.

As I glanced around this section at the people I knew who personally understood the sour taste of grief I was reminded that we also had a Savior who loved us so much that he laid his life down for each of us, including our loved ones who prematurely left us. That, my friends, is the greatest news we could all possibly know.

If you are not sure you know this savior you can with this simple prayer:

Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that it is my sin that separates me from God.  I want you to come into my life and give me the peace that I see in those around me who know you personally. I open up the door of my heart and invite you to come into me and become my savior and Lord. I thank you Lord for the assurance of salvation just as I John 5:13 says, 'And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

God is no stranger of knowing what the sour taste of grief is like. He sacrificed his son to demonstrate his love for us and to pay the penalty of the cross rightfully reserved for us.

 This same God who accompanied your loved one home to heaven is the same God who desires to be part of your life when grief and pain enter it. As I made one final glance around my section I saw each of these friends placing their trust in the Savior through this sour taste of sorrow.