His Final Week on Earth – Good Friday

Today it is going to be 75+ degrees in Western Washington. Unbelievable! My wife has today off (so do I, supposedly) so we are going to get some yard work done.

I am one of those crazy people that raise dahlias. This year I will have over 40 different types of dahlias. I raise dahlias from tubers. At the conclusion of each growing season I dig up the tubers at the base of each plant, wash any dirt off of them, mark them for future identification and store them for the winter in shaved cedar chips. Around Easter I take the tubers out of storage and carefully divide them. I keep only 3 tubers from each type of dahlia and give the rest away.

The dahlia plant MUST die and the tubers be broken apart in order for me to spread the beautiful dahlias to my family, friends and even strangers. To put it in biblical terms, one must die so that many might live.

Today I will be planting my dahlia tubers. I will “bury” them (not in a tomb, but in raised garden beds). Christ rose from the grave in three days—it will take my dahlias about three weeks to break forth from the ground. On the day of Pentecost (fifty days past Easter) the Holy Spirit was poured out on Christ followers—impacting the people in Jerusalem for the festival (and every Christian since then). In about fifty days my dahlias will begin to bloom. Their magnificent beauty will impact all who see them.

The Christian faith (and my dahlias) is only possible because one was sacrificed, broken and buried. Today we think of Christ’s sacrifice. The only thing “good” thing about Good Friday is the forgiveness we receive from the sacrifice of Jesus, our sacrificed Passover lamb.