PASSION WEEK: Good Friday

Good Friday – the last day of Jesus’ life on earth before His resurrection. God’s ways are truly above our ways, but the good that came out of Jesus’ death saved our souls for eternity. What Satan and man meant for evil, God meant for good.

Animal sacrifices were ‘types’ or ‘foreshadows’ which pointed forward in time to Jesus’ sacrificial death. Before Jesus, sins were in fact “passed over …” (Rom. 3:25) even when sacrifices were faithfully offered. What actually blotted them out (covered them) was not the animals’ blood (Heb. 10:11), but by faith, the blood of the sinless Son of God to which the sacrifices pointed. God stored up His punishment of those sins, as well as believers’ past, present and future sins, and poured it out on Jesus to fully satisfy His righteousness and justice. The sacrifice of Christ becomes effective through the faith which appropriates it.

The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head. The crown of thorns was used to mock Jesus. Yet, He who was crowned with thorns suffered on our behalf and has been crowned with glory. They used both a robe and this crown to present Him as a king, and then mistreated Him before putting Him to death on the cross.

On the cross, a sign hung over His head charging Him with His alleged crime: “King of the Jews.” John 19:20-21. “So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews,” but rather, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”‘ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.'” The Jews protested the wording, but Pilate refused to change it. The words are both an accusation and a statement of fact regarding His identity.

Though He was offered something to dull the physical pain, Jesus refused. He chose to face the pain of death head on.

Two prisoners were crucified alongside Jesus. One mocked Him, but the other said, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:39-43).

Amidst the most cruel, unfair, unjust, and painful death a human body could endure, Jesus chose to respond in grace to the criminal beside Him and to place John as caretaker for His own mother. “When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother’” (John 19:25-27).

It was about noon when darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. Luke 23:44-46

Jesus was taken down from the cross, wrapped in linens, and placed in a tomb.

Summary of day’s events: