Song for Good Friday ...

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"

This was the cry from the cross as Jesus took all the pain and injustice of human sin and failing to himself. 

Today's song is 'Iridescent' by Linkin Park, from the album 'A Thousand Suns'.

The whole album is one of repentance - not for the petty personal sins which we struggle with day to day - but for the sum of human sin which cumulate into global injustice, violence and war.

The album begins and ends with the lyric,

"God save us everyone

will we burn within the fires of a thousand suns

for this sins of our hands

the sins of our tongues

the sins of our father

the sins of our young"

When I hear 'Iridescent', I picture Christ on the cross.

When you we standing in the wake of devastation

When you were waiting on the edge of the unknown

And with the cataclysm raining down

insides crying "Save me now"

you were there impossibly alone.

And then the cry "It is finished" as the whole cosmos is transformed in an instant, with the impossible death of the Son of God.  This greatest moment of sacrificial love embraces the moment of ultimate risk as he gives up his spirit, and enters the unknown.

And in a burst of light that blinded every angel

as if the sky had blown the heavens into stars

You felt the gravity of tempered grace

falling into empty space

No one there to catch you in their arms

Christ, both human and divine, draws the whole of human failure to himself,

experiencing the desperation that it brings, and as he dies, it dies with him.

But there is more.

As the song develops, it moves beyond the desolation which Christ suffered,

and begins to demand a response from me.

Do you feel cold and lost in desperation

you build up hope but failure's all you've known

Remember all the sadness and frustration

Let it go!

The challenge is for me to take what He has done for me, and let him take my sins away - let him take my hurts and fears - let him take the pain of everything I have ever done, and let it die with him, so that I am free to live a new life.

This for me, is Good Friday, and this is my song for today.