Easter: Good Friday Service
What if love was greater than the darkest night? What if the reality that God’s love for us in Christ truly is far greater than any darkness, pain, or loss we might experience in this life. What might we need to do then? On that first Easter Jesus was showing us his love in a way that we had not encountered it before. This is where we get to stare God right in the face, seeing what God has done for each of us in love. On that first Good Friday Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, betrayed by one of the disciples Judas with a kiss & for 30 pieces of silver, taken before the Sanhedrin, falsely accused & bound by oath to answer the question on everyone’s lips “Are you the son of God?”They knew the answer, so now get to put into place what they had schemed to do for so long. Jesus is abandoned by his disciples disowned by Peter, and finally brought before Pilate . As we read in Matthew 27:11-12
11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied.
Pilate has an understanding of the person Jesus is, and yet he is still he’s someone who makes a poor judgment call. When faced with a crowd he keeps on giving the decision back to them, knowing they were after his death, verse 15-18
15 Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" 18 For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.
Further on in verse 21-22
21 "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor. "Barabbas," they answered. 22 "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked. They all answered, "Crucify him!"
There are times when things are not right, and at those times we feel really uneasy about something and we can’t just seem to put our finger on what that is. Pilates wife is totally uncomfortable with what is being played out for Jesus, so she sends a note for Pilate to have nothing to do with it, as her dreams were troubled and painful, and of one things she’s certain about Jesus is that he’s innocent and not deserving of death. Her efforts have little effect on the outcome of this day. As Pilate seeks to shift the blame on the crowds, as it is on his say so Jesus will die at the hands of Roman soldiers, even though the members of this crowd will ask for the blood of Jesus to be on their heads. What we notice is that there is a culpability on everyone in what occurs, and that no one comes away without guilt in his death. The question is why did Jesus become one of us to come and die on a cross? When our struggle is how we throw ourselves at the world, or facing hardships and troubles, when we feel the pressure to act in ways we aren’t comfortable in, or live our lives by comparing them to others, and so observing the sufferings and shortcoming of others, or wronging others or being sinned against ourselves; even facing up to testing or the temptations of life that reveal who we really are. In all of this mess we get to see the clear view of what God is doing right here at the cross with the distance of time on Christ’s crucifixion. It is easy enough to read these words of the Bible and not be touched with their force or barbarity. Lets be blunt crucifixion was brutal, painful & utterly degrading. Jesus was scourged, meaning his back would have been raw. He was forced to carry his cross to the hill of Golgotha, and placed on the cross he had nails driven through his hands and feet. The only way you could breath on a cross, was to push your body weight onto those nails in your feet and hands. This is why the soldiers went through breaking the legs of the criminals either side of Jesus to hasten their death. Crucifixion was a horror to behold. The question is why does it all come down to this? Verse 45-46
45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The Son of God who had enjoyed a perfect unbroken relationship with God bears our sins so that we may be forgiven, this cry of Jesus was in fact a verse from Psalm 22. That while what he says looks so dark, this Psalm is gripped with despair and abandonment. Jesus waits for vindication even amongst this hideous agony; Jesus is sovereign over even the timing of his death, and at the moment when Jesus is experiencing the abyss of his alienation from the Father, and being mocked by those he came to serve he yields up his life a ‘ransom for many’. Jesus became one of us and is now forsaken in death is the place in which the extraordinary reasons comes out as he cries out in a loud voice and gives up his spirit
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
What we learn is there is something wrong with each and every one of us that from God’s point of view, we not only need someone else killed in our place in order to be forgiven; we need to be transformed in order to be fit to live with.[1] As Jesus is forsaken in death He reaches to us with a mercy we have to respond to, and at the very moment of Jesus’ death
a number of events occur that it is as if the very fabric of the creation itself is being torn apart. The curtain in the temple in Jerusalem suddenly rips apart from to bottom revealing the Holy of Holy, so tearing away the veil of the temple that his death will be a sacrifice for sins once and for all; secondly the earth also shakes and the rocks split as Jesus is abandoned
bearing the guilt and shame of our sin; and thirdly extraordinarily holy people from long ago
people long since dead who looked forward to the day God would conquer sin & death
are broken out of their tombs so that even the centurion in charge of the crucifixion responds
“Surely he was the Son of God!” The question is how do we respond to the death of Jesus. Do you trust God? As we know God never minimizes the temptation we face in life and maybe we identify with some of those who saw it; maybe we’re like the women who were watching, or like those who follow Jesus; or maybe some of us here are like the many who mocked him, or the 2 thieves crucified with him, with the one who despised Jesus and the other who asks Jesus to remember him in Paradise; or like the centurion you see Jesus is the Son of God the question is how are you touched by his death today? We are given a comprehensive view of the redeeming God, as through the death of Jesus for us God does what we cannot do ourselves. We can be courageous to go to the hard places of our lives, ask for forgiveness, name our sin, shame and rebellion, seek the tender mercy of God to forgive us is the promise God shows us through Jesus’ death on the cross.
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 30/3/18
[1] David Powlinson. “Unconditional Love” The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume XII • Number 3 • Spring 1994. P47.