Good Friday Pinata. Yes, an Easter Pinata.
Hello Good Friday.There is no denying it.Jesus didn’t just slow bleed off the Rugged Cross. He burst open the gates of hell and paid for my life….my husband’s life….the life of my little ones. He paid for your life. He paid for those we love deeply and those we find it sort of difficult to love freely. He paid for everything on this Good Friday. It's hard to comprehend, but Jesus paid for us all. How on earth do you explain that kind of exuberant Love? How do you experience the fullest measure of who and what the Hound of Heaven is? How do you express an unending, unrelenting Grace moved to death for our good kind of Love? How do you possibly place a visual for your children, heck - for yourself, of the force it took to burst open the gates of Hell, take back the keys of Life and spill out Redeeming Love?Several years ago I felt like we needed to have a better visual than just to talk about it…..felt like we needed a piñata. Yes, I said a piñata. I realize it isn’t the grit and gross nature of force, but it gives a kid appropriate expression with opportunity for Joy uncontained. For the past three years we have split open an Easter Piñata on Good Friday. Thought I’d give you a bit of a background on where this started and the way God intersected my life at Walmart when I was just a mom stumbling along to buy a piñata and attempt to give us a small expression of Jesus splitting open Hell to save our lives. But also include the revelation He didn’t just stop at the broken sacrifice of his body, He spilled out wide a river of Blood and Water that danced with the succinct Promise of Everlasting and Abundant Life.The first time I went to Wal-Mart to buy our Easter piñata there was a woman next to me in line and of course noticed my large piñata oddly bought on Good Friday morning. We chatted for a brief moment and she told me about a scene on America’s Funniest Home Videos of a mom that didn’t know you had to fill it with candy before you had the kids whack at it. Well, you guessed it…the kids smashed that thing to high Heaven and not a single tootsie roll, double bubble, bouncy ball, necklace or jolly rancher popped out…oh, the horror…total mom fail. {Bless her heart, I feel for the woman}Can you even imagine the utter despair of those kids when they wacked, smashed and gave every ounce of effort to crushing the outer barrier to all their candy dreams only to find it to be an empty promise?Can you track with me the direction this story should take with our spiritual hearts? I think we get running the reactionary speed of life and we forget the force Heaven fought against Hell that lonely Good Good Friday when all went black and Jesus surrendered His soul for our lives. We separate ourselves from the potency of Love’s Fury when driven by the compulsion of Heaven to buy back our Lives. The earth fell dark for three hours that eerie moment on the Splintered Cross.Storms. Earthquakes. Silence. Oh, the unreserved silence of Golgotha. When we take the bread we remember Jesus’ Body broken for us. When we take the cup we remember Jesus’ Blood poured out to cover our sin. However, may we be so powerfully unearthed by the staying power of Jesus on that lonely day. He stayed on the Cross and never for one moment did He slow bleed. His blood like a Roaring River burst from His torn flesh and Jesus spilled out LIFE and the blessing of Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever, and ever. Amen” When His body was fragmented and His blood surged from His side….Jesus didn’t forget the Promise. He didn’t only fill, He spilled…freely. He not only broke, wacked, shattered, thrashed, pounded, outstripped, shamed the devil and defeated death for us….He spilled out paragons of promises, pearls, treasures, jewels, valuables of Life and fruit. He ripped the veil from top to bottom and opened the gift of Communion Forever. He didn’t forget to fill His brokenness with Heaven’s promises.Jesus split Hell wide open so New Life could spill forth. So, today my Trotter tribe prepares to shatter our Good Friday Piñata to high heaven so that we can celebrate the plunder of Heaven spilling out of Christ’s death. And we remember the force of Friday and the silence of Saturday because as Beth Moore tweeted today, “Hordes of hell salivated in that angry sky to see their big win. God put them to open shame. It’s a Good Good Friday.” TODAY God humiliates the ploy of hell. Saturday we wait. Sunday we celebrate! Read my original Easter Pinata post HERE
