Good Friday

As we approach Good Friday, a story to share with all of you... ...


It is hard for us to fathom what the depth of God is like, but let me tell you a story about human love that just might get to it. A woman came to see a world-famous plastic surgeon names Dr. Maxwell Maltz. She came to see him about her husband. She told the doctor that her husband had been injured in a fire attempting to save
his parents from a burning house. He could not get to them, and they were both killed. And his face was permanently burned and disfigured. He had given up on living and had gone into hiding. He would not let anybody see him—not even his wife.

Dr. Maltz told the wife not to worry. He said, “With the great advances in modern medicine, I am confident that I can restore his face.” She explained to the doctor that her husband would not let anyone help him because he believed that god had disfigured his face to punish him for not rescuing his parents. (What an awful load to carry.) She then made a shocking request: she said, “Doctor, I want you to disfigure my face…so I can be like him. If I can share in his pain, the maybe—just maybe—he will let me back into his life. I love him so much, and I want to be with him; and if that’s what it takes, then that’s what I am willing to do.”

Now Dr. Maltz could not agree to do this, but he was moved so deeply by her determination and her love for her husband that he got her permission to talk to her husband one last time. He went to the man’s room and he knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He knew the man was inside, so he called loudly from the door, “I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me, so I have come to tell you that my name is Dr. Maxwell Maltz, and I am a plastic surgeon. And I want you to know that I can restore your face.” There was still no response. So he knocked again and cried even louder, “Please come out and let me restore your face.” But again there was no answer. Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man what his wife was asking him to do, “She wants me to disfigure her face…to make her face like yours in hope that you will let her back into your life—that’s how much she loves you. That’s what she wants for you. Will you let me help you?”

There was a brief moment of silence; and then, ever so slowly, the doorknob began to turn. And the door was cracked open, and out of the darkness of the room, a disfigured man came out into the light for a new beginning and a new life. He was literally set free and brought out of his hiding and given a new start because of the
depth of love of his wife. That is a dramatic expression of human love in a small way that describes God’s great love for us. We human beings have had the potential of our lives scarred and disfigured by our sin. Our relationship with God is broken and, no matter how hard we try, we cannot fix this on our own. We cannot forgive our own sin. We cannot heal the disfigurement of our soul and lives. We cannot mend the broken relationship we have with God and with others; but God has done this for us. He loves us so much that He was willing to become like us and suffer for us at the Cross.