Good Friday

GOOD FRIDAY

Today is Good Friday, 7th April 2023. It is a holy feast called Passover in the Old Testament.  Christ is our Passover lamb. 

Today is a day set aside in the Christian year for the church worldwide to mourn the brutal rejection and violent crucifixion of Jesus.  God made His appeal to us through His Son Jesus but we did not recognise Him. The majority of the Jews most certainly did not. This day can only be called good because of the Sunday that follows it. The Sun of righteousness rises. This makes Friday not only a day of despair and darkness in the depths of our human depravity but also a day of hope as we see the inexhaustible lengths to which God's redemption can reach.   

Jesus as I join you on this journey to Calvary give me eyes to perceive you in the shadows of my circumstances, faith to believe in your perfect plan, and grace to receive new mercies today.  

This is a holy moment.   Silence in heaven. 

"And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem."

Mark 15:37-41(ESVUK)

Throughout this holy week, I have meditated on Mark's account of Jesus' crucifixion.  Today, I have reached its climax, fixing my eyes on a Saviour who selflessly sacrificed everything for me.

Jesus's long night of trial and a morning of torture, concludes in a morning execution.  It all began in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was betrayed by a kiss.  Judas may be the obvious villain here but he certainly was not the only villain.  While Jesus prayed for the strength of His will in prayer, Peter sharpens his sword, John snoozed, and James was distracted in his mind and wandered.  Not a single one of the disciples was able to remain present with God who is ever-present to us.  

Jesus was betrayed loudly by one and betrayed quietly by many.  And I have also followed suit at times.  Yet it is for these traitors, and me, that He now goes on to die.  Jesus was reckless in sacrificial love for all those reckless in self-love. 

When Jesus cried out in a loud voice and gave up the ghost, He 'breathed His last.'  It signified His great strength and ardent affection, and His unrelenting passion with which He did it; to teach us that in everything we do for God we do with the utmost vigor and strength with our whole heart and soul and with the uncompromising surrender of our self to the Father's will. Though our speech may fail, if God is the strength of our hearts then we can cry with a loud voice like Jesus did and it will not fail.  Christ was really and truly dead.  His soul had now departed to the spirit world and had left his body like a lump of clay.

Jesus, thank You that as I behold You on the cross today, I'm reminded that Your love always has and always will outpace my betrayal and failures.  AND That however subtle or dramatic my betrayal maybe it has been paid in full.   Jesus, you paid the price of our sin in full.  That is an awesome thing to do and a wonderful revelation.  Only love would do that.

So, I choose to rejoice in your compassion today and join with the ancient praise of all God's people in the words of the Psalmist:

I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to my enemies  but have set me in a safe place. (Psalm 31: 7-8, NLT).

Jesus, I name those in my life that don't know You, those who are yet to behold You on the cross, paying the debt for their sin.  May Your love call out to them today, and may I make myself available as a vessel for Your pursuing, ardent love.

As I return to the passage I listen afresh to what Your Spirit will speak to me through the word.

As I read this passage I am struck by the painful rejection Jesus faced from His own people, the Jews.  But standing in contrast to the betrayal and abandonment of His male disciples, a number of women stood by Jesus when the cost was the highest.  While it is the twelve who appear most frequently in the Gospels, Jesus' female disciples are every bit as present.  The men were not to be seen at all and the mob was outrageous. Jesus was uncommonly empowering to women in His time and culture, breaking countless social conventions to hand men and women together the keys to His kingdom. Jesus is the liberator of women from male oppression.

As I recall the stories of these women over the three years previous, I wonder if perhaps they stand by Him because they experienced His love most deeply.  

Some of these women stood at a distance in grief. Mary Magdalene was one.  She had been a patient of Jesus, healed, and therefore owed all her comfort to His power that had rescued her from the evil possession of seven devils.  In her gratitude, she could never do enough for Him.  Mary was the mother of James and Joses.  James the Little (Jacobus Parvus) and was so-called, as he was little in stature like Zacchaeus.

This Mary was the wife of Cleophas or Alpheus, who was the brother to Joseph who was married to the virgin Mary.  Therefore she was the sister-in-law to the Virgin Mary.  Salome was also a disciple of Jesus and was at the crucifixion.  This Salome is not to be confused with the daughter of Herodias who asked for the head of John the Baptist. Salome was known as the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John, two of the twelve disciples of Jesus.  These women had followed Him from Galilee, though they were not required to attend the feasts as the males were; but it is most probable they did.  They came with the expectation that His temporal Kingdom would now be set up and hoped they would in some way be beside Him.  Now they see Him on a cross and not a throne and all their hopes seem to be disappointed.  That is because  Jesus is showing them His kingdom is not of this world.  Jesus must have been greatly comforted by His female followers, who were loyal to the end.  Men need good women like this.

Interestingly, the centurion who was in charge of overseeing the execution of Jesus was convinced and confessed that Jesus was the Son of God.  He said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!" This he said in honor of Christ and to shame those that had abused him.  One thing that brought about this conviction was how Jesus so cried out and was willing to give up the ghost.  What satisfied the centurion in this?  Firstly,  he had observed that the one that had the strength to cry out so loud was yet immediately willing to give up the ghost.  That surprised him.  Secondly, he had seen how he had suffered unjustly and that he had had a great deal of wrong done to him. Jesus had suffered unjustly for saying that he was the Son of God.  But what Jesus said was true.  The centurion realised Jesus truly was the favourite of heaven, the beloved of God, a divine person and had every reason to say so; and for whom the almighty power of heaven was engaged and honoured him at his death and frowned upon his persecutors.  Therefore, our Lord Jesus in the depths of  His humiliation and suffering was the Son of God and declared so with power.  For the Centurion there was no denying it.  

Father, on this Good Friday, I ask you to show me my faults - the people I have wronged, the sharp words I have spoken, the selfish thoughts I've entertained - hidden and public, dramatic and subtle.  Forgive me my sins and help me forgive those who have and will sin against me.

And now the Lord who is faithful to forgive and who loves me says in 1 John:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John:1:9, NIVUK).

Blessed Lord thank you for your sacrifice for me.  Thank you for saving me and healing me. There are no words to describe your unfathomable love.  I honor you Jesus my Lord and Saviour, who is the Christ.  Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah to both Jews and Gentiles. We are all one in Christ alone.

Shalom Shalom

Sharon

Written 7th April 2023