(I’ve seen versions of this story in different forms many times over the years. Some insist it is true, others are adamant that it is a legend. Either way, it is a good read for Good Friday.)

There once was a bridge operator who had a young son whom he dearly loved. They were inseparable. The young boy often asked to go with his father to watch him work – to watch him raise and lower the draw bridge, allowing the boats to pass under or the passenger trains to cross over. One day the father relented and allowed his son to come with him.

“Stay here at a safe distance,” the father warned the boy, “while I go and raise the bridge for the coming boat.” The boy stayed where his father had left him and watched the bridge as it slowly lifted up in the sky. Suddenly, the boy heard the faint cry of an approaching passenger train – coming quite a bit sooner than had been expected. The father, up in the control room, could hear neither the whistle of the train nor the warning cry of his son.

The boy saw the train racing closer and closer, and he started to run along the platform to reach his father. Knowing there was a lever he could pull near the operating gears of the bridge, the boy ran to the door in the platform and tried to lower himself down to reach the lever. Losing his balance, he fell in to where the gears came together and was caught.

The father looked down just in time to see his son fall down into the hole in the platform. Then he saw the fast approaching train. In horror, he realized that if he didn’t start lowering the bridge immediately, it would not be down in time for the train to pass safely. The train would crash into the river below killing hundreds of innocent people.

The man was faced with an unimaginable dilemma – race to save his son at the cost of hundreds of lives, or sacrifice his son to save the passengers on the train.

He made the only choice he could and pulled the lever to lower the bridge. In spite of the noise of the descending bridge and the oncoming train, he still heard the anguished screams of his beloved son being crushed to death between the gears of the bridge.

The father ran to the platform as the train was passing by. Most people on the train simply ignored the man crying on the platform. Others looked out of the window and stared, totally oblivious of the unspeakable sacrifice that had just been made on their behalf. They gave no other thought or concern to this man who had just given up what was most precious to him so that they could live.

He cried out “What’s the matter with you people? Don’t you know? Don’t you care? Don’t you know I’ve sacrificed my son for you? What’s wrong with you?”

No one answered. No one heard. Few even noticed hin.No one seemed to care. And then, as suddenly as it had happened, it was over. The train disappeared moving rapidly across the bridge and out over the horizon.

The story is powerful and emotional. Yet it offers only a glimpse into the intense love our heavenly Fsther did in sacrificing His Son for the sins of the world. Unlike the story, where the son died as the result of an accident, the love of God is demonstrated in Jesus willingly sacrificing His life for the sins of mankind. He died so that we might live. Now and forever. It had to happen this way, Jesus dying covered in the intense darkness of all of our sins. His sacrifice gave us life.

Like those folks on the train, many in our world are oblivious to the sacrifice that was made to give them life. Some choose to ignore, others give it a passing glace from time to time, like Christmas and Easter, but nothing more. But some will hear and see and be led by the spirit to believe that Jesus did it all for them, resulting in forgiveness of sins and a new life with God forever.

We know how the story continues. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave, conquering death’s power over us. So even as we grieve the death of Jesus today,  we celebrate everday His life, His obedience, His sacrifice and crucifixion, His body broken and blood shed. because Jesus overcame death and the grave through His resurrection. Moreover, like Jesus, we too shall rise.

Sunday is Coming.