Dark Clouds Swirling

As we approach Good Friday there is a very real sense in the Easter story of the clouds gathering, dark threatening clouds. Ever since Jesus was born threatening clouds had come and gone. The enemy knew who Jesus was. He knew why He was here. And throughout His life and ministry he was out to destroy Him.

But Jesus is greater than Satan, and He came to defeat and destroy the enemy and his works, but it would not be through any ‘low-life’ way of doing it. The devil tried that in the wilderness, scheming this way and that. He tried again and again to trip him up, spoil the plan and take Him out. But Jesus would do it Father’s way, a way agreed in the counsel of the eternal Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Throughout His life he would work out the redemptive purpose. He would learn obedience by the things He suffered. He would be tempted in every way as we are. He would be confronted by dark satanic powers. But everyday and in every way He lived out His life in relationship and obedience to the Father in the power of the Spirit. Every day in flesh just like ours He said ‘no’ to Satan and sin, and ‘yes’ to the Father and righteousness!

Every day Jesus knows where this will lead Him. Half way through the gospels we see it coming. He must go to Jerusalem and die, yes die. They couldn’t comprehend it. “No way,” says one of the disciples, but Jesus recognising that this was none other than the enemy seeking to work through one of His own, says, “get behind me Satan…”

He knew His destiny, nothing would deter Him, man’s sin must be atoned, the devil defeated, and it all led to the agony of the garden, a very real human agony, an agony felt in the heart of God, as in one final moment He counts the cost, the full excruciating cost in bearing the weight of our sin and says, “yes” to Father.

Oh, what a “yes” that was, let’s not pass it by too quickly, let’s appreciate all that’s going on here as these clouds swirl around the head of our Saviour as we meditate on these things in Easter week. So much hung on it. It was a ‘yes’ that would change the course of human history. A yes that would lead to the final undoing of old Adam, and bring about a new humanity, redeemed, reconciled, renewed, restored and in glorious relationship with a just and holy, loving and merciful God.