Today is Good Friday. A horrific day in history. But a good, good day because of what was accomplished through that horror…
Something happened that day that changed all of history. It changed individual lives and destinies. It tore something apart in order to create something beautiful. It killed something to bring life. The enormous and monstrous pain endured on that day, brought healing. It was a day of exchange – the bad taken, the good given…
As I was reading different passages of the day of Jesus’ death, I was struck once again by all that He did for us. Because of love and nothing else.
-He was misunderstood and falsely accused. All of the people who should have believed in Him didn’t. And they accused Him of lying about who He was – the Son of God.
-He was abandoned by His closest friends in His deepest hour of need. He asked them to stay awake and pray and they just couldn’t do it. Peter denied even knowing Him – three times.
-He was betrayed by one of His own followers. Judas sold his friend out for 30 pieces of silver.
-He wept passionate, heartbroken tears on His knees in a garden, knowing what was coming and what the incredible cost would be.
-He was mocked by the soldiers who arrested Him. “They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and then wove a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ ”
-He was abused. “They spit on Him, and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again.” They whipped and flogged and beat His exhausted body to a pulp. They hit Him in the face again and again and again. They shoved a crown of huge thorns into His skull. They made Him carry His own cross.
– His freedom was traded for the freedom of a condemned murdered, Barabbas. People chose a murderer over Jesus.
-He hung on a cross between two criminals (one of whom received His salvation that day), bearing the same shame as guilty men.
-He was ruthlessly nailed to a cross to die a brutal death of eventual asphyxiation.
But this was the greatest horror and most excruciating thing of all –
– He took on the sins of the entire world, of you and of me, from all past and all present and all future generations, all the sins I have done and will do, and hung there on a cross with the horrid weight of all of that darkness and pain on Him. And consequently, His own Father had to turn His back on Him in His darkest moment, until His final words were spoken – ” It is finished”.
“It is finished. It’s done. It’s complete. I have paid the price, the ransom for Your children. The curse of darkness has been conquered. Death has been destroyed. Sin has lost its power. The reason that I came to earth has been accomplished. It is finished.” And then He breathed His last.
Good Friday. A day like no other that ever has been or ever will be. A day that changed our future and removed our plight. That offered forgiveness and a relationship with God. A horrible, very good day..
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
