Liberty University celebrates Easter with message of trust, God’s redemption in Good Friday Convocation

Gathered on Friday morning in the Vines Center for a Good Friday Convocation before observing Easter Sunday, Liberty University students heard a moving message from Vice President of Spiritual Development Josh Rutledge about God’s eternal goodness and the call for trust that He makes to his children.

The morning opened with a time of worship led by the Liberty Worship Collective and a reading of Isaiah 53 by President Dondi E. Costin.

The Friday before Easter Sunday is widely called “Good Friday” (sometimes “Black Friday”) by Christians, which Rutledge said could be seen as “the most paradoxical name in all of human history” given that it was the date of Jesus’ crucifixion.

“How can the worst suffering ever endured by a human being be called good? How could the greatest injustice ever inflicted on somebody be called good? It’s not that the suffering itself — it’s not that the pain itself — is good, but rather it’s what God did through it,” Rutledge said. “What the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. The suffering He endured, the death that He experienced, was the very means by which our redemption was purchased. God took the darkest day in human history, and He turned it into the greatest, most triumphant day.”

He said this concept is known to a room of Christians, like the Vines Center full of students he was speaking to, but he noted that this acceptance has “a catch.”

“Good Friday is about more than just what God did 2,000-plus years ago; it still speaks and reaches through the pages of human history, and Good Friday demands a response from those who would dare to call it good,” he said. “It demands an answer to this question: Will you look at the suffering of Christ and call that good, but not trust that same God with your own (suffering)? Will you take the good procured from Christ’s suffering but not trust that God could transform your own? How you answer that question is the hinge of the door on which faith swings.”

“Will you trust that same God with… your story and your pain, no matter what it is?” he added. “If you and I will do that, then surely our lives will be marked by the joy, gratitude, hope, and expectation that God will be who He says He will be in our lives.”

Throughout his message, Rutledge used a personal story of when he experienced the death of his father and the opportunity to adopt twin babies in a span of just a few weeks. Sitting in his father’s bedroom while his father was still alive, Rutledge received a call from the adoption agency he and his wife had been in contact with. Rutledge’s initial thought was to screen the call, seeing it as not the time to answer as it would add even more emotions to an already disappointing and dark day. However, seeing the call as an opportunity to see God’s will, Rutledge answered and scheduled a meeting between him and his wife and a teenager pregnant with twins.

On a Sunday two months later, the Rutledge couple was gifted their children, Ruthie and John.

“What (God) gave me in His kindness was my own little taste of resurrection,” Rutledge said. “He answered my own little Black Friday with new life on a Sunday.”

Looking back, Rutledge remembers that he almost didn’t answer the agency’s call, and he compared that to the calls God makes that sometimes go unanswered.

“What pain must there be in the heart of God when His children screen the call, when they reject the blessing, when they slap away the outstretched hand that promises life and resurrection and redemption and transformation,” he said. “What pain must there be in the heart of God when His children refuse to trust Him? The hand of God is still extended, and it still offers to you redemption for the darkest day in your life, and it promises life no matter how many times you’ve slapped it away.”

“I plead with you today: do not be found on the last day (of your life) as one who screened the call,” he said in closing. “Grab hold of the outstretched hand and trust it. On that day, our trust will be proven as true because God will have proven definitively and once and for all that He really is that good.”

Friday morning’s Convocation is one of multiple celebrations of Easter scheduled on Liberty’s campus this year. Now a beloved tradition among local alumni and their families, The Office of Alumni Relations will host a free Easter egg hunt at the Indoor Football Practice Field, happening on Saturday, April 19, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. (registration is now closed). Also on Saturday, Campus Recreation is hosting its own egg hunt on the trail system of Hydaway Outdoor Center with prizes, candy, and giveaways. On Thursday, April 17, the Office of Commuter Life created a digital hunt, encouraging students to follow clues posted on social media to uncover their treats.

On Thursday morning, 12 students from the School of Music were honored with the opportunity to lead worship at the White House Staff Easter Service as part of the White House’s weeklong Easter celebration for Holy Week, hosted by the newly established White House Faith Office. The worship preceded Easter-themed messages from prominent Christian leaders, including President of Samaritan’s Purse Franklin Graham, Senior Pastor of Free Chapel Jentezen Franklin, and Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office Paula White.