“Good Friday”
The day seems so counter to what many of us reading the gospel accounts would consider “good.” The final leg of Jesus’ mission has come and there is but one more step to go. Jesus has been delivered over to the chief priests, who will soon hand Him over to the Romans and by midday, crucified.
All of the gospel writers record the events of Friday. Some of them go in greater detail, showing more of Jesus’ suffering with the Jews, and others with the Romans. John, a witness of much of what happened gives vivid detail on Jesus’ treatment in the hands of both the Jews and Romans.
As Thursday night rolls into Friday morning, Jesus goes before the High Priest who leads an unlawful trial in the middle of the night. Jesus is then handed over to Pilate where they are hoping he will find Jesus guilty of insurrection. Pilate finds no guilt in Jesus, but determines this to simply be a local issue involving two Jewish sects.
But there story turns, and the horror of the day is revealed. Pilate fears a revolt by the people and delivers Jesus to be crucified. In John 19, Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. But in their eyes, they have a local celebrity and will enjoy their time with Jesus. They mock and torture Jesus long before He is ever forced to carry His cross. John tells us the Roman soldiers flog Jesus— no doubt this being the infamous Roman scourging. Often times, those who are held in Roman custody would not survive such treatment. Because Jesus was the supposed “King of the Jews” the Roman soldiers fastened a crown made of thorns, place it on Jesus’ head, and given a purple robe to wear. Purple would have been a color for royalty. He is then taken before the crowd to be displayed, and here the crowd demands He be crucified.
Jesus is then forced to carry His own cross to Golgotha, and there He would be nailed to the cross, hang there for a time, until the full weight of sin was borne in His body. It is at the end, John tells us that when all had been accomplished, Jesus exclaims with a final word of victory, “it is finished.” Jesus yields His spirit, dies and completes the mission long planned in eternity-past. Sins have been atoned, redemption is made for God’s people.
Good Friday is good because God took the worst possible thing, Jesus being crucified, and brought about the greatest possible good. At the moment of Jesus death, in Matthew 27:51 the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. That curtain symbolized the seperation between God and man. At the moment of Jesus’ death and the words “it is finished” the seperation between God and man was removed. Jesus’ death removed our sins and any and all barriers that separate us from God.
The grace of God on Good Friday is displayed in the terrible, horrific, beautiful, victorious cross of Christ. Jesus takes our place, becomes our substitute, bears our sins in His body and casts them away, never to be seen or recalled in again.
This day, at the end of our work week and all the busy things of life—remember the price that was paid for you. Jesus’ victory on the cross accomplished much, and it was all for your sake. He was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities and by His stripes, we are healed. May Jesus Christ be praised.