CHRIST OUR PASCH IS SACRIFICED FOR US Why is today different from other days?On the sixth day of creation, God made man - now, on the sixth day of the week, Friday, "Behold the Man" - the true ADAM - beautiful and perfect. God Himself has come to save us. It is no coincidence that the word "Evangelion" means not just "good news" - but the news of a scout sent before the army to announce the victory of a King in battle. The King has returned to Zion - and we are Jerusalem - but when did He ever leave?Pass back through the ages to the six hundredth year before Christ. Overlooking the city of Jerusalem stood a prophet: the final one who was to see God - or so he thought; for upon a hill above the burning slaughter stood the man Ezekiel. As the armies of Babylon swept in, he looked to the sky. The heavens began to open above the smoking battlefield. The Glory of the Word of the Lord was leaving. That holy mystery of God's presence, which had been in His Temple for hundreds of years, was beginning to fade away. GOD was passing from the earth, because of the relentless emptiness of fallen humanity. The eternal creator of the Cosmos has given final sentence from His true throne. The verdict is: Guilty - but He has taken off the robes of a Judge, and put on the loving death of a friend. Why did He have to finish all things by dying? Well, why does a woman push her friend out of the path of an oncoming car, or why a husband takes a bullet aimed at his wife? Only because we were steeped in death, by sin, did He plunge in to rescue us. One death tramples down all Death. Upon the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah - the Law and the Prophets - had appeared within the glory of CHRIST. Now, upon the Mount of Calvary, History itself arrives at its summit. Ezekiel saw what seemed to be the Lord's last appearance to Zion forever - and thus, the end of His promises of mercy - but God, departing to the great light in eternity, promised that an exile was about to begin - but it would end in seventy years, and they would be brought back by His arm, for He is holy and faithful. They then departed into slavery.One hundred years later, the return to Israel was long finished. A prophet called Daniel saw, however, that something was wrong. The ruins of the Temple felt empty. Babylon was far behind them - and yet God was silent. There was emptiness, mirroring the silence of the idols that had always overtaken Israel. Daniel then realized that the Lord had ended Israel's exile, but that God had gone into exile from His own people - as He had promised to those who would ignore His Law and His love.The prophet fell down and begged God to have mercy. The Lord came, yet this time not in glory or fire, but sent an angel with a message: "It is not yet finished. Do not fear; I will come again. Your exile was but seventy years, but the true exile is seventy years times seven" Fullness. Exactly 490 years later, Mary descended to Bethlehem for the census. She carried the promise of ages: the answer to all questions that every philosopher, artist, and scientist has ever asked. She bore the immortal Son of God in her womb, fully clothed in our human nature. The hope of Daniel - and of every man, woman, and child in human history - was about to come true.No one could have guessed that this man, called YESHUA, was the fulfillment of all the prophets and the promises of GOD: the Lord strong and mighty Himself, appearing in our armour! Up to this moment upon the Cross, He had not demanded that the eternal gates lift up to let Him into His rightful kingdom. He first had to lift all human nature on to Himself.Within the broken shell of the man on the Cross, the war that had been ongoing for so long was about to be won. See beyond the quivering, tortured body of the man - and look upon God. When He had tasted the full brutal force, pain, and bitterness of our sins, of our yearning, of our lonely human nature calling out for its Father - then, and only then did He say those longed-for words. We have no reason to fear death, loneliness, or worthlessness - for IT IS FINISHED.The Son of God, the center of the Cosmos, is the true temple. Those who put faith in Him and live in His Victory today - almost two-thousand years on - are built anew upon the Eternal Rock which created heaven and earth - which is our foundation-stone: for He is God Everlasting - broken for us. He who had no beginning and has no end - makes all things new. He who encompasses the Cosmos with a single Word was Himself encompassed by the wood and nails of our cross.All time looked forward to this moment. All that has occurred since looks back to it, for in the final seconds of the Old creation, all time and space truly held its breath. The New Creation was about to begin. Let us glorify and thank our God, imploring the LORD to lighten our faith in this unsurpassable moment of joy & proof of His existence and faithfulness. As always with the infinite God, however, there is more. As we hear the final word from our Lord, let us think of Him as the author and finisher of not just our faith, but of human history... and of the whole Cosmos. Today is suspended upon a tree He who suspended the Earth upon the waters. Today the King of Angels is decked with a crown of thorns. Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling, and lift itself above all earthly thought. For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God, comes forth to be our oblation, and to be given for Food to the faithful. Before Him come the choirs of angels with every principality and power; the Cherubim with many eyes, and wingèd Seraphim, who veil their faces as they shout exultingly the hymn: Alleluia! We worship You in Your passion, O Christ: Show us Your glorious resurrection. AMEN.