Good Friday
A very bad day for Jesus was a very, very good day for you and me in the invisible landscape.
The Friday before Easter is called Good Friday, not because all the cruelty poured out on Jesus was good, but because what he accomplished for his followers is very good.
A VERY VIOLENT DAY FOR JESUS
You can read the chain of events in Matthew chapters 26-27. At the very beginning he predicted his crucifixion. He had been telling his disciples for a while that he would be dying for his people.
John 10:11 & 17–18 (ESV): “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. . . For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
In the 24 hours that led up to the crucifixion Jesus voluntarily submitted to some of the most difficult circumstances anyone has ever endured. He was betrayed by one of his close disciples to the religious leaders for 30 pieces of silver. He was arrested on false charges and all of his friends abandoned him. They brought him before the religious leaders in a sort of kangaroo court and they tried to get people to lie so they could bring false charges against him in order to execute him. They spit in his face, and punched him, and slapped him. In the meantime, one of his very closest disciples and friends, who had just sworn that he would never deny knowing Jesus, denied him, not once, but 3 times! Then they took him before the Roman governor because the religious leaders didn’t have the authority to execute him on their own. They needed Pilate’s help.
Pilate was reluctant, but yielded to political pressure as the clamoring crowd yelled louder and louder, “Crucify him!!” So Pilate had him flogged with a lead-tipped whip ripping the flesh from his back and limbs to appease the crowd, and then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
As if Jesus’ day hadn’t been bad enough, the Roman soldiers decided to have a little fun at Jesus’ expense:
Matthew 27:27–31 (NLT): 27 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29 They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. 31 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
Lest you think Jesus has suffered enough, think again, his ordeal continues. Even after they drove nails through his hands and feet and lifted him up there between two criminals who were also being crucified that day, people continued to walk by, mocking and shaking their heads. Suspended there above the earth with all of his weight bearing down on those three nails, he suffered for hours.
At noon, the whole earth became dark until about mid-afternoon when Jesus gave up his spirit and died.
It was a very bad day for Jesus.
JESUS’ ASSIGNMENT
Do you remember in the Scriptures we read at Christmas, how the angel appeared to Joseph and said of Mary, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:21). Jesus had an assignment before he took on human flesh and was born and placed in a feed trough (manger) in that stable on that exceptional day when he entered our world as one of us. His assignment was to save his people from their sins. Jesus kept telling his disciples he was going to die for his followers and rise from the dead on the third day.
John, the disciple who lived through all of this and was an eye witness to the resurrection, later wrote in a letter to one of the congregations he loved: “He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.” 1 Jn 2:2.
A VERY GOOD DAY FOR SINNERS
At the moment Jesus gave up his spirit the Bible has a very short sentence that has HUGE implications for you and me:
Matthew 27:50–51 (NLT): Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
The curtain in the temple that kept ordinary sinners like me and like you from walking right into the Holy of Holies, the place in the temple where God’s presence dwelt over the mercy seat. Where only priests, who had been purified from their sins, could go only one day a year. That curtain that kept us out of God’s presence was torn in two so that we can now enter God’s presence! The temple was a tall building and the Bible says that curtain was torn in two from the top to the bottom to prove that it was not human hands that ripped that curtain open. It was ripped open by God, because his Son had opened a way for you and me to walk into the Holy of Holies and have a relationship with God.
Hebrews 10:19–20 (NLT): And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
Jesus’ own words: “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jn 15:12-13. If you are wondering if anyone loves you, just look to the cross.
________________
If you want to dive deeply into the meaning of the cross check out John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ. (Link) Description: "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?" With compelling honesty John Stott confronts readers with the centrality of the cross in God's redemption of our pain-filled world.