Subtitle: The Cradle and The Cross
Good Friday, of course, is the Friday before Easter when we commemorate the crucifixion: the death of Christ for our sins.
Often preachers have mentioned that we can see the cross in the cradle. It seems that artists have pictured the manger scene with a cross foreshadowing in the background, and if memory hasn’t failed me yet, I believe there was a song about the same tree being used for the manger and for the cross.
However, this thought came to me because, in this year (2020), Christmas fell on a Friday.
To me, that makes it a “Good Friday.”
The world has pretty much learned to celebrate Christmas, sometimes to the point of moving the Christ child from the center to the periphery. Then Easter comes and again we dress up in finery, maybe even go to church again and eat candy eggs and chocolate bunnies. But Good Friday…
We have to realize there would be no Easter, definitely no cross, without Christmas. On this “Good Friday” of Christmas, God became man, Immanuel – “God with us.” It was His coming as one of us that showed us God’s love. It was His dwelling among us that showed us how we could and should live.
It was His death, on that other Good Friday, that gave redemption from our sin.
Yes, as much as the world doesn’t want to think about it, those two wonderful events are intimately bound together. The cradle and the cross; Christmas and Good Friday. Two blessed, glorious days for those who trust Jesus as Savior and Lord. Thanks be to God for His great Gift!
When I survey that holy Child,
There in a manger, God, yet man,
See as He lies so meek and mild,
Born thus to die for all my sin.
When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
[Isaac Watt’s deserves credit for the great hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” I’ll take all the blame for the imitation in that first stanza above.]
Blessings for a wonderful Christmas season!
Richard