O Lord My Rock and My Redeemer: Contemplation on Good Friday and Easter
Christy Loi reflects on the hope that Good Friday and Easter Sunday brings the Christian today and for all eternity.
Celebration of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is often separated into two distinct focuses, with opposite emotions being reflected within each service. The dark sombreness of Good Friday, the bright rejoicing of Easter Sunday. This year, however, I found the two services melding into one reflective whole where I could sit within the tension that is often the reality of a believer’s life. The grief over battles looming, yet joy over the war being won. God’s holy justice requiring payment for our sins, God’s holy mercy covering us with Christ instead.
As we sang “Jerusalem” on Friday, I was struck once again by the contrast of Christ Himself — the Word made flesh and through whom creation itself is held together — who for love of the Father, humbled Himself to not only endure life in this sin-cracked world, but also to go through the worst of its deaths in order to demonstrate His power over all and redeem us back to the Father…“See the king who made the sun and moon and shining stars, Let the soldiers hold and nail him down so that he could save them.”
As Pastor Oliver brought us through Psalm 31, I was reminded that I can not only look forward to the ultimate victory, but that I can also find comfort in current circumstances, even when they do not change or when answers to my prayers are not the ones I yearn for. I can sit, grieving yet hoping, because of who God is. I can demonstrate trust by following Christ’s example even as He entrusted Himself in the midst of His suffering to the Father.
Having lost two relatives to cancer last year and another recently being diagnosed, I was reminded that Christ has experienced everything, too, as we read Psalm 31 on Friday and John 11 on Sunday. Having become fully human, He experienced all the loneliness, grieving, and suffering of this broken world. So, when the Son entrusts Himself to His Father, I know that I, too, can rest in the same way. When I am overwhelmed or hurting, I can choose to trust in His promises because He is a faithful God who makes and keeps His promises. Resting in God’s character and trusting in His work must be the ultimate comfort because He is the ultimate surety – He stakes His promises on Himself, and He Himself is sure.
I so appreciated the choice of the song “O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer” because it encapsulates so well the hard waiting while yet holding on to the character of our good God.
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
Strong defender of my weary heart
My sword to fight the cruel deceiver
And my shield against his hateful darts
My song, when enemies surround me
My hope, when tides of sorrow rise
My joy, when trials are abounding
Your faithfulness, my refuge in the night
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
Gracious Savior of my ruined life
My guilt and cross laid on Your shoulders
In my place You suffered bled and died
Because the future of God’s children is secured through Christ’s victory, we can not only look forward in faith, we can also look forward in hope despite current circumstances remaining unchanged. We can grieve at the brokenness just like Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but we can have peace because someday all tears will be wiped away. We can say, “For He has made marvellous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city” (Ps 31:21) because the war has been won.
In addition, because it’s the God of Israel who gives power and strength to His people (Ps 68:35), we can be strong and let our hearts take courage, hoping in the Lord (Ps 31:24). We can be fortified in patience and strength because they are not of us but from Him. His throne is secure and so our place at His feet is, too.
As “Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul” says:
Yet, gracious God, where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust
As Pastor Eugene Low reminded us on Sunday, at the end of it all, ultimate peace – reconciliation with God – has already been accomplished by Christ through His death and resurrection. Colossians 1:19-20 states, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” With this eternal perspective, we can rest in His peace because His peace is perfect. Not only that, but we can also fully trust His wisdom in whatever answer He has ordained. We can wait because death is not the end, nor sin the final reality.
We can wait in this tension — this “not yet” — because of Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, and Christ’s victory.
We can rejoice because Christ paid the price of holy justice in order to lavish holy mercy upon us.
Praise God: “mercy trumps justice every time.”