A “Fixer’s” Heart–and the Good News of Good Friday

By Jerry McCorkle

I was watching a movie the other night about a father who loved his son deeply.

When the son began going through struggles, the dad went to extraordinary lengths to try to fix the situation so his son wouldn’t have to experience the pain.

And I thought, that’s been me.

I’ve spent much of my life trying to be a fixer—especially with my children. I want to smooth the path, solve the problem, and remove the difficulty.

But the truth is, sometimes my fixing probably didn’t help. In some ways, it may even have kept them from learning the strength and wisdom that come through hardship.

Yet as I reflected on that impulse—the desire to fix what is broken—I realized something this Easter season.

My broken attempts to fix things are really just a small, twisted reflection of God’s heart.

You see, our Heavenly Father looked at our condition—the brokenness of the world, the weight of our sin, the separation between Him and us—and He knew something: we didn’t just need a little help. We needed to be truly fixed.

And so He did something extraordinary.

On Good Friday, the Father sent His Son to the cross. Jesus willingly stepped into our suffering and carried our sin so that the deepest problem in our lives could finally be repaired.

Not because the cross was easy.

Not because suffering is good.

But because through the cross, our sin was paid for, our relationship with God was restored, and the deepest brokenness in us could finally be healed.

That’s why we call it Good Friday.

God didn’t just try to fix things.

Through Jesus, He actually did.