Black Friday Values

You’ve eaten. You’ve watched a lot of football. You’ve napped. You’ve eaten leftovers. Today, you’ve shopped. “Black Friday” is one of the busiest shopping days of the year across the country. Sales for today will top almost every other day of the year. Stores have all kinds of specials. In my experience, some of the specials have only a limited amount of items, so you can easily miss out if you don’t go early enough! You will wait in line for longer amounts of time than normal due to the shopping frenzy. Is all of this sacrifice worth trying to find the values that are advertised? Some think so…others do not.

Getting up early and fighting with the crowds can cause you to be exhausted by the time you are all finished with the day. If you grabbed some good bargains, it was worth it. If you were beat out by other shoppers, you may feel like you wasted your day.

Those values are very tantalizing to your wallet. You’ve looked forward to them as this day grew closer. As the ads came out earlier in the week you really were looking at them to see what you could get at a great price, whether for a gift or for yourself.

I know it isn’t the time we think of the Resurrection of Jesus, as most are gearing up for the celebration of His birth. But, as I was thinking about the arrival of “Black Friday”, it made me think about the Resurrection.

Though we do not know when the birth of Jesus or the Resurrection actually took place, from a calendar’s perspective, we do know that the Resurrection was discovered on the morning of the first day of the week, Sunday. We also know that Jesus was buried on Friday, before sunset.

If you will recall the Bible informs us that there were three hours of darkness the day that Jesus was put on the cross (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44). These three hours were said to be from midday to 3:00 PM. Man’s sin was having its price paid and it was a dark time. Jesus paid the price for our sin, even though He had no sin (II Corinthians 5:21).

That Friday could easily be referred to as a “Black Friday”. It wouldn’t be named that because of the fact that people arose early in the morning to make it down to their favorite store to pick up a value. It would be named that for the darkness that was apparent when Jesus paid the price for our sins. It would be named that for the darkness that Jesus must have felt when He was forsaken by His Heavenly Father to pay that price for sin. It would be named that for the misery that His mother, biological family, and friends must have felt as they watched Him die.

But wait, that isn’t the end. We know that on Sunday He will be resurrected. We know that He will put the crushing blow to Satan. We know that we can now attain that membership into heaven. We know that this “Black Friday” is a day when the best value is found. The value is that even though we have sin in our life, Jesus died to allow us to be justified. We can see ourselves as guilty, but because of the value we obtained on this “Black Friday” we can see ourselves as “‘just as if I’d’ never sinned”. What a feeling! What a relief! What a day!

Most definitely, it was a “Black Friday” for Jesus. Who would want to be forsaken? Who would want to have to pay the price for someone else? However, it may be one of the best spiritual shopping days of eternity. The day that my sins were paid!

So, as you went out today to shop, was the sacrifice worth it? As we think back to the “Black Friday” that Jesus experienced, we can definitely say that His sacrifice was worth it!