Good Friday

As we approach Easter this year, I want to encourage each of us to slow down long enough to think about what truly happened 2,000 years ago, specifically on what we've come to know as Good Friday. Now it was a good day, but it was only a good day on our behalf, but only because it was the worst day that God would ever experience. On this day, Jesus would do on behalf of mankind what we could never do for ourselves. The work and way in which Jesus would go about suffering on our behalf would be one of the most important things that would ever happen in history. So let's stop, breathe for a moment, rightly think, and then respond to what Jesus did on Good Friday. It's late, a cool spring night outside Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples make their way into a garden called Gethsemane. It's quiet. As they step through the silent olive grove, anticipation hangs heavy in the air. He turns to some of his closest friends and with anguish in his eyes says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here, keep watch. Jesus steps a little further through the trees and falls to his knees. His voice is strained. His heart is crushed with grief. He struggles to breathe from the weight of it. He cries out, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, yours be done. Sweat wrung from him like drops of blood pours off his face. He returns to his friends and finds them asleep. Despite his urging, they're unable to keep their eyes open. So he goes back to pray again. Twice more he cries out to his father, shaken by the thought of separation, painfully considering the weight of God's judgment that he was to bear, beginning to feel the immense weight of generations of sin pressing down on him.

And yet, totally surrendered, not my will, but yours. As he returns to his friends, he looks up and sees it, torchlight flickering through the trees, approaching footsteps, muffled voices, the clinking of armor and weapons. Judas, resigned and determined in his treachery, steps forward and betrays Jesus with a kiss on the cheek. Jesus looks Judas in the eye and quietly says, friend, do what you came for. Jesus of Nazareth, a soldier, demands. Jesus steps forward. I am he. The soldiers fall backward at the authority of the one who spoke galaxies into being. But Jesus doesn't run. In a panic, Peter draws his sword and with a swift and mighty swing cuts off a servant's ear. But Jesus stops him immediately. Put it away. Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me? And taking the ear in his hands, heals the man. The commander of heaven's armies gives himself up and allows the soldiers to bind his hands. With what courage they had now gone, the disciples run away in fear. And Jesus is led away to trial. ♪ Oh troubled Messiah You prayed through the night Unbearable sorrow The world on your mind Betrayed by the kiss of a friend You were taken By your own free will Rejected and disowned By those who came to heal

♪ Torches crackle against stone walls As Jesus is rushed through the streets In the dark of night To the home of the high priest The air smells like smoke and sweat The crowd gathers in the courtyard Jesus is set before a mockery of a trial Surrounded by accusers and false witnesses Each story contradicting the next In frustration the high priest finally stands and asks Are you the Son of God? The courtyard goes quiet as they anticipate his answer With the gentleness of a lamb and the authority of a lion Jesus answers calmly You say that I am A slap comes like lightning The crowd is a mix of seething rage And a cackling of cruel laughter Someone spits in his face One more strikes him again Finally they blindfold him And take him away to his next trial As the sun rises on the darkest day in history Jesus stands before Pilate, the Roman governor Pilate studies Jesus Trying to make sense of what he's been told And fearful of his wife's warnings The man before him certainly looks like no rebel Pilate finally asks the question

Are you the king of the Jews? You have said it, Jesus says Then goes silent No argument No defense The priests jeer and shout at him Continuing with their accusations Pilate turns to the crowd And in a feeble attempt to exonerate this man He declares his innocence But they only cry louder The same people that sang his praises In the streets of Jerusalem just days before Now beg for his death Pilate offers the choice to free a prisoner Jesus or the murderer Barabbas Give us Barabbas And what of Jesus, Pilate asks Crucify him, crucify him In an attempt to appease the crowd Pilate first orders that Jesus be flogged Stripped of your clothes You were mocked, you were beaten Made a king of fools A crown of sorrow Driven deep into your brow Yet you made no sound What you went through to love me I'll never understand What blows my mind away

You love me as I am The soldiers take Jesus back to the praetorium And prepare him for scourging Stripping him to the waist And tying him down in such a way That he would feel the full force Of every awful blow Then it begins Strike after strike Blow after blow The crack of the whip echoes through the courtyard In between the cries of agony As the flesh is torn from his back As if this torture isn't enough They form a wicked crown made from thorns And slowly press it down into his head They wrap a purple robe around him, laughing, and bow down and mock worship, then rip the robe from his torn body. It goes beyond punishment to shame and humiliation. Somehow, Jesus endures every moment without retaliation, without a cry for mercy. Now made raw and nearly unrecognizable from his scourging, Jesus is led back before the crowd. Pilate, hoping this would satisfy them, presents Jesus again, but nothing can be heard above the roar, crucify him, crucify him! So Pilate relents, and Jesus is led away to be crucified. They called for Barabbas, a king for a thief, parading your continents like rags through the streams. The wind blows through the streets, carrying with it the sounds of labored breathing as Jesus stumbles under the weight of the cross. The rough wood scrapes against his torn skin. He falls, and with great effort gets back up, each step more painful than the last. He falls again. Even so, his agony cannot compare

to the infinite love that propels him forward, love even for those that mock him from the roadside. As Jesus' strength fails, the soldiers grab a man named Simon out of the crowd to carry the heavy cross for him. Eventually, they reach Golgotha, the place of the skull, Calvary. The echo of the hammer resounds across the hill as the soldiers drive in each nail, one through each of his wrists, and one through both feet, piercing into the wood. Finally, the massive cross is lifted up and dropped abruptly into the ground, and the perfect Son of God hangs there between two criminals. The soldiers gamble for his clothes. The crowd mocks him. He saved others, but he cannot save himself. The criminal on one side jeers at him, while the other pleads for mercy. Jesus looks at him and says, today you will be with me in paradise. And at noon, the sky begins to grow dark. Draped with the weight of the world on your shoulders, as you climbed that hill, a burden far too great for flesh and bone to bear. You stretched out your arms as you welcomed those Roman elves. Your body frail, the very hands that shaped the world hung up to bleed. Lifted on high, crucified him who knew no sin, the Nazarene, the Son of Man, the Lamb of God, Emmanuel, given to God. When you went through to love me, I'll never understand. What blows my mind away is, you love me as I am. As each excruciating hour passes, Jesus struggles to breathe. He pushes himself up, all of his weight on his nail-pierced feet, just for a gasp of air. Blood continues to trickle down into his eyes, mixing with sweat and dust. Each breath becomes further from the last. His body trembles from pain, blood loss, exhaustion, and dehydration. And yet, he takes time to look down at the soldiers who nailed him there. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. A crack of thunder rumbles across the sky. A strange stillness falls on the air. The light itself recoils as if it were midnight. The horror of Jesus' suffering extends far beyond physical pain. As the full wrath of God is poured out on him, the weight of total judgment for the

sins of all humanity, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For the first time, the son is separated from his father. And from the agony of that distance, he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You're the sinner, grace to my soul, and death is defeated, now my sin is gone, and I'm blown away, I'm blown away, cursed by the weight of the world that you came to save. You took my place, your blood as rivers flowing freely to the ground. And yielding your spirit, you let out a holy cry, as you gave your life. Oh, and oh, your Lord, the Mass about to end now, oh my Jesus Christ. When you enter and love me, I'll never understand, what blows my mind away, and do it all again. It is finished. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Amen. TITLE CARD Recap Oh, the perfect Son of God in all His innocence Walking in the dirt with you and me He knows what living is He's equated with our grief Man of sorrow, Son of suffering Oh, blood and tears, how can it be That there's a God who weeps There's a God who bleeds Oh, praise the One who would reach for me Hallelujah to the Son of suffering Some imagine you are distant and removed But He chases down in merciful pursuit To the sin you will grace And the broken you will embrace And in the end the proof is in your wounds

Yes, in the end the proof is in your wounds Blood and tears, how can it be That there's a God who weeps There's a God who bleeds Oh, praise the One who would reach for me Hallelujah to the Son of suffering The Bible often calls us to meditate, to slow down, to rightly reflect. The Psalms even has these breaks in it where it says selah, which it means to ponder. Before you move on, really think about what you just read or heard, experienced. And I want to encourage us in these days as we move toward Easter to continue to think about what Christ fulfilled on Good Friday, what's going to happen in the silence of Saturday, and then be prepared as we move toward this Easter weekend, and specifically Easter Sunday, to rightly respond to the finished work of Jesus Christ.