Thanks to my friend and Pastor, Pastor Ken Hicks of Heights Community Church for writing this!
John 18:1 – 19:42
This Friday, in A.D. 33, was one of the most brutal deaths in all of history. In Jerusalem, the Son of God will be executed.
Remember, last night they were in the Garden in Gethsemane, where Jesus (and supposedly the Disciples) was praying. This morning, they wake up to the ruckus of Judas showing up w/ the soldiers, and ultimately coming over and giving Jesus a kiss. [how many of us will allow ourselves to get so close to our enemies that they can give us a kiss?] As the soldiers go to take Jesus, Peter allows his anger to get the best of him. He pulls a sword and literally chops the ear off of one of the soldiers.
Can you imagine the scene? And Jesus now performs what at last in the moment was His last miracle [aside from raising from the dead on Sunday]. He reaches over, the soldier had to have been screaming and in pain, and Jesus puts his ear back on. WOW … what would that have been like for Malchus [the soldier]? They start hauling Jesus off, and the Disciples begin to scatter.
Jesus is led to the house of Anna, a former High Priest, who again questions Him about His teaching. And once again, Jesus does not move the needle for them. And so off they take Jesus to the home of Caiaphas, where the trial quickly gets underway. Morning is coming, and they need a guilty verdict by daybreak for sure. They really can’t seem to make their case stick, and Jesus is literally silent.
So Caiaphas simply asks Jesus, “I adjure You by the living God, tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” [Matthew 26:63]
And Jesus responds in a way that sealed the deal. “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” [Matthew 26:64]
As the sun comes up, Judas had taken his own life. Peter is distraught w/ grief and the feeling of failure, and Jesus had already begun to endure the beating at the hands of the Temple guards. The council pronounces Jesus Guilty of blasphemy. And their sentence: DEATH. But DEATH was capital punishment, and could only be carried out by the Romans.
So off they go to Pilate, where he questions Jesus and finds no guilt, and so the political game of chess begins right? Back and forth they go … and regardless of the fact they had not evidence of guilt nor did they have the authority, ultimately Jesus is on His way to the cross.
He is whipped, beaten, flogged, and w/ almost no energy makes an effort to carry the cross up the hill to Golgatha. Falling along the way, Simon the Cyrene is chosen to help carry it the rest of the way. Mocked the entire way, including His time hanging on the cross, Jesus was faithful!
We sing in the song, “He became sin, that knew no sin, so that we might become, His righteousness.” Shortly after 3:00 pm, Jesus is exhausted, and asks for 1 last drink, and then into the Hands of His Father, He commits His Spirit.
In an interesting detail, when it was time to take Jesus off the cross, it wasn’t His family [or even the Disciples] who came to get His body. It was Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus [members of the Sanhedrin]. They quickly wrapped Jesus’s body in a sheet and lay it in a nearby tomb.
THOUGHTS/INSIGHTS/ENCOURAGEMENT:
GOOD FRIDAY?
Just the very name brings a restlessness to my Soul in many ways! JESUS, God’s only, perfect Son, who came to Earth to live a Perfect life, suffer a Brutal Death … and then on Sunday (I don’t want to jump ahead too far in the week) would be raised to live again just as God promised … BUT TODAY, was it GOOD?
Last night, He was betrayed by a GOOD FRIEND! Many of us have had that experience, and we know how painful that can be in our soul. THEN, in the middle of the night, they put together this Trial to try to convict JESUS, and couldn’t seem to find enough evidence to do so. At a last resort, they allowed the Crowd to decide, and again, JESUS is BETRAYED in a sense. The same crowd that was shouting Hosanna and waving Palm branches on Sunday is now ordering His execution! Crucify Him they shouted! REALLY?
And THEN … then I look in the mirror and realize how often in my life I’m just like the CROWD! I don’t like it! I try not to be! But I’m not perfect, and I fall oh so short so often too!
So today, they would mock Him and place a Crown of THORNS on His head! “Oh, so you want to be the King of the Jews? Well then here’s Your crown!” They had Roman Soldiers whip and brutally beat Jesus to an extent that many people would actually die simply from the flogging. Then Jesus would walk the Hill to Golgotha, carrying His beam until He literally had nothing left, and finally lay down on that Cross and be Crucified.
Whew, even as I type that, I’m in tears! To think that God would love ME that much?
They would mock Him on the Cross, and interestingly enough, even as Jesus was dying on a Cross, He was still loving and ministering to others!
His conversation w/ the Criminal on the Cross next to Him was so significant! If you believe that I am the Son of God sent to be the Bridge and Payment for your sin, and you acknowledge your Sin before God, “Today, Jesus said, YOU WILL BE w/ ME IN PARADISE!”
Jesus was still loving people all the way to His last words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
I cannot even imagine the complete exhaustion for everyone on this day! Tonight, Jesus would be taken down off the Cross, and laid in a borrowed tomb.
REFLECTION:
For us, many know the end of the story! We know today is Friday, but Sunday’s Coming! I would plead w/ us to not jump to Sunday just yet!
Would you pause today, and just rest in God’s Presence? Ask Father to help reveal some places in our life that we have been like the CROWD.
As God brings those things to our mind … REMEMBER the PRICE Jesus had to pay for us to be restored! It was EXPENSIVE!
And then, truly seek God’s Forgiveness, be renewed in our Spirit and know that it is indeed this opportunity for us that made today GOOD FRIDAY. We didn’t and don’t deserve it for sure!
Thank God for the kind of LOVE that would Sacrifice His Only Son for you! [and me].
PRAYER:
God, I am so humbled, that You would allow Your Son to experience the full measure of Your wrath, deserved for ME! Your perfect Son became Sin, so that I could experience Righteousness!
God, I have been the Disciples. I have scattered when things got tough! I have sold You out for less than 30 pieces of silver. I have denied knowing You at times when it might not have been convenient for me. God, forgive me!
Allow me to experience the Righteousness You Son so provided and allow me to live from You everyday.
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