Passion Week: Good Friday

“And with Him they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.”—Mark 15:27

It was the holiest of days. Knowing that God in flesh was reconciling a sinful world to Himself is beyond unfathomable. That Jesus—the eternal Son of God, Creator, Sustainer, and eternal Word, who is the purest of the pure, the second Adam, and in whom is the fullness of Deity—could be crucified by His sinful creation extends past the limits of our finite reasoning.

He had had an exhausting night. Fresh off having observed the Passover Seder with His disciples in the upper room, He went with them to Gethsemane where Jesus poured out His heart to God in prayer as His disciples slept on. But their brief respite gave way to anger and fear as Judas arrived with Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus and take Him away. They all fled that night, leaving Jesus utterly alone. Perhaps no one was hurting more than the bold and zealous Peter. Just a few hours before, He had pledged that He would die with Jesus. But zeal all too often flees in the face of fear and self-preservation. What could make Peter deny Jesus? A group of Roman soldiers? The Pharisees and Sadducees? No, a simple servant girl’s question was all that was needed.

Betrayed and abandoned, Jesus endured the kangaroo courts of the religious and secular leaders of the day: Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin (the religious ruling body), Annas, Pilate, Herod, and Pilate again, all acted as the judges and juries against God’s Son. No charges could be proven. There was only the call for death by crowds spurred on by cruel jealousy and sanctimonious hypocrisy. One of the greatest slights and indictment of guilt by the crowds is seen in their desire to free the horrid Barabbas. Jesus was the righteous man who would give His life as a ransom for many. But Barabbas was the unrighteous man who got his life as a reward for others' hypocrisy.

Jesus was tried and convicted, though no charges could be proven. He was then flogged—a cruel and horrific punishment whereby the condemned was tied to a post and beaten with a leather whip, which was interwoven with pieces of bone and metal designed to tear into the skin and tissue, often revealing bones and intestines. Frequently, floggings proved fatal.

After being flogged, He was led away to be crucified. But before Calvary, the soldiers wanted to have one last bit of fun. They gathered the whole battalion before Him, stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. The mockery was not yet complete as they twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and a reed in His right hand as a staff. In mockery and in jest they knelt before Him as they would a Caesar, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29). Then they spit on Him, took the reed from His hand and struck Him on the head with it (Matthew 27:30). Their game over, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes back on Him and led Him away to be crucified (Matthew 27:31).

He made His way to Golgotha, barely able to walk, exhausted, beaten, and in great pain. When Jesus could no longer carry the cross, Simon of Cyrene was drafted to carry it for Him. Arriving at Golgotha, they crucified Him between two thieves.

Jesus' suffering and humiliation would have been immense. Stripped naked and crucified as an enemy of Rome, the degradation was not yet complete. Pilate placed a sign above His head written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. There was to be no mistake—Jesus was a king. And although the declaration was motivated by sinful mockery, it would prove to be the ironic sign of majestic and divine victory.

Jesus was and is the King. He died that Good Friday in order to provide us with redemption. We all deserve the wrath of God, but Jesus took God’s wrath upon Himself. He endured the shame and humiliation for us. It was through the cross that God reconciled us to Himself and it is through the mystery of the cross and what Jesus did that we are saved.

Let us all pause for a moment and think about what Jesus did for us. He went to the cross to pay the price for our sins, to be our substitute and to do what we could not do—pay the perfect price for sin and satisfy God’s holy wrath. It is only through Him that we are saved—let us marvel at His unfailing and enormous love. Amen.