The Cross - How do you make sense of something that made no sense?

Talk about making sense of the cross! The one you followed for three years, your teacher, your friend, – and someone you considered to be God’s son – has just been crucified. You and the other disciples are huddled in the upper room in shock. Everything you thought Jesus was going to do, everything you believed about the Messiah, all died with Jesus on the cross.

That night nothing made sense, especially not the cross!

It couldn’t make sense to them – without the resurrection. And even with the resurrection, it still took them a while. The initial reports of the women that Jesus had risen were not believed – even Peter and John’s account were viewed with skepticism. When Jesus himself appeared to them in the upper room, they thought he was ghost!

“When Jesus died, all the hopes his early followers had about him and for him died, too. The one they thought would redeem them, the one they called “Messiah” and “Son of God,” was now dead. So when they experience the resurrected Jesus – or, in the case of the gospel writers, heard about the resurrected Jesus – they realized God was up to something they had never, ever expected. It took them a while – and I mean a long while – to figure it out, but ultimately they were convinced that Jesus’ death and resurrection changed everything.” (Page 12, “Making Sense of the Cross”)

Imagine you were there Good Friday evening - that you didn't know the end of the story.  How would you feel?  What questions would you have for God?