The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. – John 12:23
My first thought is, “You’re being vague again, Jesus. I mean, there are 24 of them in a day, so which hour are you talking about? It seems like a big deal, this hour, I don’t want to miss it.”
Ah, but slow down. This is Jesus talking, the one who’s always redefining what we think we understand, like who’s first and last, rejected or loved, judged or forgiven, powerful or weak.
So, it’s safe to say this hour Jesus mentions isn’t the 60-minute variety. Apparently, THE Hour isn’t found on a timepiece. It’s big, this Hour. It’s an event or, more specifically an event made of events. Wrapped up in the “Hour” are all the hours of the story before us—cross, tomb, Resurrection.
That’s quite an hour. And remove any, well, hour of that Hour, and it’s diminished somehow. The cross and Easter are one great movement of love and grace. In his suffering AND in his Resurrection, the fullness of Christ’s glory is seen.
I think I can safely predict that our attendance will be higher on Easter than on Good Friday, because, of course, we want to hear that wonderful word of life. Yet, without Good Friday, the power of Easter just isn’t the same.
In one sense, Good Friday is the completion of Christmas. In the cross we find the full meaning of “Emmanuel,” God with us. Jesus shares our human existence, including the realities of pain, injustice, and the ultimate mystery—death. He is with us in all the messiest parts of life, including its end.
Only after the shock of Good Friday, the burial of the lifeless body, the sealing of the tomb, and the quiet grief of Saturday—in other words, only after the end that is always the end in this world—only then can we fully experience the surprising cosmos-changing joy that is Easter morning. This is God’s last and greatest redefinition. The end isn’t the end. Yes, there is life; yes, there is death …………. And yes, Easter.
The one who forgave, who loved, who sat at table with sinners and embraced lepers, who paused with children, who walked in poverty and mixed with the powerful, who refused to give in to hatred or resort to violence—he is the one raised from the dead. God has defined Jesus’ way as the way of triumph and life eternal.
Over the coming days, you and I will share the story one more time, marking the hours that are the Hour that redefines all our hours and everything we know.
With you in Christ,
Mark