A curtain of darkness descended over the midday sky as the
One who said, “I am the truth,” hung on a tree.
Jesus knew this would happen – the religious leaders had
long before rejected the truth. When Jesus cleansed the temple, they demanded
of Him, “Who gave You the authority to do this?”
“I’ll tell you,” He promised, “if you answer My question
first. ‘Was John’s baptism from heaven or of men?’”
The leaders conferred, but not to discover the truth, only
to find a politically expedient answer. “If we say ‘from heaven,’ He’ll ask us
why we didn’t believe. But if we say, ‘of men,’ the people will stone us
because they’re sure John was a prophet.”
“We cannot tell You,” they responded.
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these
things,” Jesus replied, and the curtain descended over their hearts.
But when darkness engulfs us, we seldom find comfort in
walking away. The leaders couldn’t just turn their backs on the truth – they had
to kill it. They had to kill Him so they nailed Truth to the tree.
Did truth die that day? No. God died so truth wouldn’t have
to. God couldn’t close His eyes and pretend the evil in the world wasn’t so
bad. God told the truth: evil was killing us. Then He died for us, taking the
full weight of our sin on Himself so that we would no longer need to carry it.
The world may look black today, but when we peer through the
curtain, we know there is hope. The story doesn’t end on Good Friday.
