Today every person in the world goes to the foot of the cross, like it or not. Christianity is the largest faith in the world. The devoted look with awe at the cross, and those who reject and despise the cross who look with disgust. Yet here we are.

Whatever your belief about Jesus, there is one part of the story that lies so much at the core, people tend to accept it without really thinking about it. Jesus died for sin, as it says in 1 Peter 3:18 - "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." 

It's an awe-inspiring truth considering who Jesus is. According to Scripture,

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him 

• All things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.  
• And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 
• And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  

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." - Col 1:15-20 (ESV)

Jesus is not only our Creator-God, but has become part of creation. The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus, and to reconcile all things to himself through him. The implication is that God himself became part of this fallen world in order to reconcile what was already his to himself. 

Basically, humanity fell so far, we became subject to eternal punishment. We came to the place where the Holy and Perfect God of the universe Judged us unworthy of bearing his image, and deserving of his eternal wrath in hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' - Mark 9:48 (ESV). We bristle at such punishment for all eternity, because we see it as so harsh for some people who don't seem to have done anything quite deserving of such awful punishment. 

But that's just it. It's not about the harshness of the punishment. It's about the heinous nature of our sin. It's a critique of humanity, and in fact, a critique of me. And you. God considers you to have gone so horribly wrong that you deserve such heinous punishment. In fact, In exacting such punishment, God maintains his holiness in this righteous judgment. 

It is a devastating critique of each one of us.

But God is not only Righteous and Just. He is also Loving and Merciful. So we see, in Colossians 1:20, that God was not only willing, but pleased to send his Son Jesus, and through him to reconcile us to himself, by making peace with us by the blood of his cross. 

Jesus took our punishment. That's the story of Good Friday. We deserved the harshest punishment anyone could imagine, and that punishment was absolutely right. But God loved us, and took the punishment in the person of Jesus in our place. 

The Good of Good Friday is God.

Today is the Thursday before Good Friday, Commonly known as Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word Mandatum, or Mandate. It’s an old word that means “command.”

The command of Maundy Thursday is found in John 13:34. It comes after the disciples had eaten together, and just after Jesus washes his disciple’s feet.

Scripture says, starting in verse 31, “When he” (Judas) “had gone out, Jesus said,

"Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”

And dropping to verse 34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

It’s a new commandment, to love one another. Is this a new commandment? I can go way back to the time of the Exodus, in Lev 19:18, and find the command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” In fact, the Old Testament is filled with loving commands about showing mercy, about justice. Are these new?

The apostle John also talks about the Old-New nature of this command in his first epistle. In 1 John 2 John writes,

“Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.  At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.  Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.  Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” 

So, the commandment to love is an old commandment, but it is one made new in the light of the Savior’s love for us. The Savior who is Glorified, and God, who is Glorified in Him, reflecting perfectly the image of God.

This is a love that, though it comes from the One who is God above all, yet he washes the feet of His sinful disciples. Though this love comes from the righteous life giver, yet it comes from him who laid down his life for us, when we were dead in trespass and sin. This love comes from the one who goes to prepare a place for you, though he came to dwell where he had no place to lay his head.

We know what happened next on the cross - that great sacrifice, when Jesus became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. The disciples had no idea yet of the extent of the love Jesus had for them. But they knew Jesus wanted them to love each other, just as He loved them.

So on this Maundy Thursday, we remember the extent of his love, because we too have been given this old commandment made new, to love one another as he loved us.