Good Friday, Easter, and the "Upside Down Kingdom"
“Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough
Emily also wrote a beautiful post about her thoughts on Good Friday in 2016 that can be read here.
Think about what an “Upside Down Kingdom” Jesus presented by His life! Instead of coming to earth in full power and glory on a white horse with an army of angels in tow to take the world by force, He came as a vulnerable baby, born to a young mother who the world thought had stepped out on the man she was betrothed to and was born in a stable for livestock. He came not to show His power, but to show the world the heart the Father has for us through His life and ministry.
Then 33 years later, He knew His time had come to fulfill the words given to the prophets of old. He had just spent the evening showing His disciples what it meant to be a true servant leader (He washed their feet). He shared His last Passover meal with them even though He knew in a few hours one who betray Him into the hands of those who hated Him and most of the others would abandon Him. He spent hours praying in the Garden of Gethsemane for His Father’s will to be done, to the point of sweating blood, while His most trusted disciples couldn’t even stay awake to pray. He was betrayed with a kiss by one of His 12, had to heal a servant’s ear when Peter reacted too quickly, was lied about before and by the Sanhedrin, stared into the face of Peter when He was denied by him 3 times as He has predicted, had His skin shredded to pieces by a whip swung by eager Roman guards, was exchanged for the release of an insurrectionist murderer, was found guilty without justifiable reason, He was spat on and mocked, stripped of His clothing which was cast for lots, had a crown of thorns forced upon and pushed deep into His skull, carried a cross up a hill on His torn shoulders in complete exhaustion, had large nails driven into His wrists and feet in which He was hoisted into the air to tear more flesh to gain a breath, forgave a thief and welcomed him into paradise with Him, gave His mother to John to take care of, was pierced by a spear, given a sponge of gull and vinegar offered as His last drink (a mixture to dull His senses that He refused)…and still in His final moments He looked out into all the world and asked the Father to forgive them.
An Upside Down Kingdom indeed.
Emily was born on Good Friday in 1982 (April 9) and graduated to heaven right after Christmas in 2023. Last year, Emily did a special reading from Isaiah on her 40th spiritual birthday , which you can watch here (6:00 minute mark). Her beginning of life and death were opposite of when we celebrate the birth and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s quite incredible in the way that He brought Emily into the world on such a day and brought her back to Him on the latter. As someone who was a writer and appreciated poetry herself, Emily might even find it poetic.
The beautiful and amazing thing about Good Friday, a Friday that should be named anything but “good” considering everything that occurred, is that Jesus saw Emily when He made the journey to the cross that day. He saw her sin and suffering, just as He saw yours and mine. He knew the suffering she would endure in her time walking this earth and He knew what you and I would face as well.
We all know that the story didn’t end on Good Friday! In God’s “Upside Down Kingdom”, the story doesn’t end at suffering and death, but with Resurrection. The gates of hell could not prevail and Jesus’s perfect sacrifice obtained the keys to our salvation and the curtain of the temple that physically and metaphorically symbolized our separation from God was torn in two! Praise to our Heavenly Father that also in His “Upside Down Kingdom” we can obtain His gift of Salvation through our faith and submission to Him and enter His presence. This is what Easter is all about.