Good Friday - Crucifixion
The day started with an early morning arrest, escalated with mock trials, and ended with the most shocking execution in history.
Transcript
Today, we dive into a new series, our Easter series where we will be talking about the 3 Days that Changed the World. These are 3 important days that are foundational to our understanding of who and what we believe in so I’m glad that you are here. The 3 days that changed the world are Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday and in the next three weeks, we’ll spend a Sunday focusing on one of these days. Today, we’re beginning with Good Friday.
History of Good Friday
Now, Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter. This year it’s March 29th and it honors the day Jesus was crucified and died. Among many different Christian denominations and traditions, Good Friday is generally observed as a day of sorrow. Believers might fast or sacrifice something they enjoy like staying off social media, not eating meat, or not drinking alcohol. Others participate in doing good works to benefit those in need while others might hold a service to reflect on Jesus’ last moment. All these things are done to reflect Jesus’ attitude when he sacrificed himself for us on the cross. They highlight the suffering, service, and love of Jesus.
Now you might wonder, why do we call it Good Friday when it’s so sad? Or you might be wondering what makes Jesus’ death good. And if that’s your question, that’s exactly what we’ll explore today.
What is good about good Friday?
Before we dive in any deeper, let me paint a picture of what happened at the first Good Friday. To draw a connection, the Apostle’s Creed says something about it.
“He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead.”
On the eve of Good Friday, Jesus
Prepared the first communion for his disciples. It’s the same communion that we did today.
Loved his disciples by washing their feet,
Gathered a few of them to go pray,
While praying, experienced a great amount of stress causing him to sweat blood, which is a real medical condition called hematidrosis
Experienced betrayal from Judas, one of his 12 disciples
Disowned by Peter, another one of his disciple
Sent to the Jewish religious leaders for trial where he was mocked, ridiculed, and beaten.
On the morning of Good Friday, Jesus who probably got no sleep and didn’t have anything to eat or drink was
Sent to the governor for trial, but was found innocent
Beaten close to death
Sentenced to death because of the public pressure the governor felt
Forced to carry his cross, which weighed 100-150 lbs over a ½ mile distance to be crucified
And hung on the cross in public humiliation, and eventually died.
I’ve had some rough Fridays at work, but it does not compare to what Jesus experienced making me wonder, what is good about Good Friday? But Good Friday was necessary because it answers 2 important questions about life:
What’s the problem of life?
And, what’s the solution?
Every religion, every worldview, every perspective that exists seeks to answer these questions about our existence. Here are some of the problems that world religions see:
Judaism says it’s a broken relationship between God and humans.
Islam says it’s ignorance that leads to disobedience to Allah.
Shamanism says it’s our souls wandering from us so we need to bargain with the spiritual world to call the souls back.
Christianity calls it sin.
And while some overlap and share similar thoughts or ideas, their solution varies and differ. Most religions require you to keep on going back to rituals and ceremonies when things aren’t going well. Other perspectives demand you to do more or work harder. While others encourage you to do you.
The reality is that these solutions depend on us, who are limited in our knowledge and understanding of how the world operates. We will never discover a solution that can impact the entire world, but that’s where Christianity’s solution is different. What if you could end the countless rituals and ceremonies or individual responsibility or the idea that it’s up to you and only you? What if there was a better way? There is, and that’s what happened on Good Friday.
UNDERSTANDING OUR SITUATION
In order to understand what’s good about Good Friday, we have to understand a few things. First, God created the world and he saw that all his creation was good. We see this all in Genesis 1 and 2. Second, humans were led to believe that God wasn’t good by Satan, that God was holding back some of his goodness from humans, so they chose to disobey God. Their disobedience dishonored God causing a rift in the relationship. This is also called sin. Sin is everything we do that opposes God. The consequence of this is separation from God in all kinds of ways. We separate from him in proximity, in relation, in morals, in standards, even in existence. God exists eternally or forever, but sin separates us because it causes death. After Adam and Eve sin and are banished from the garden, Genesis 3:24 tells us that God places an angel to guard the Tree of Life, which provides life. Without access to the Tree of Life, humans experience death. We get this in Romans 6:23 when it says, “for the wages of sin is death”. So, the situation that we find ourselves in is separation from God. But here’s some good news. The rest of Romans 6:23 says this,
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We are separated from God, but the good news is that there is a solution and this is the beginning to understand why Good Friday is good.
Even in our disobedience, dishonor, and our separation from God, God finds a solution to bring us back to his plan and this is motivated by his love.
Romans 5:8 says this,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God’s love leads him to do something, and it also requires him to address what is wrong. Remember Romans 6:23?
“For the wages of sin is death”
We cannot ignore that part even though God loves us. God who loves is also holy so he has to hold both of the tensions together. Because humanity went against him and his standards, there is a consequence, which needs to be met and the consequence is separation. God’s holiness requires this consequence to be met, but the dilemma that some of us have is this. If God is loving, couldn’t he simply pardon this issue, maybe even pretend it didn’t happen? If God is loving, couldn’t he just ignore it?
Say if you absolutely knew that you were right about something important that impacted the well-being of another and you had no doubt, but they called you stupid and did something against that truth causing them to get hurt. Could you simply ignore it and continue to relate to them as if nothing happened? At the minimum, I think we’d utter “I knew it”, but if we pretended nothing happened, we would be hypocrites.
This is how we can understand God’s holiness. God has to address the issue and if he doesn’t it contradicts his holiness. God has to address that the consequence to our disobedience is separation. But here’s the thing, God is also loving and doesn’t want to be separated from us so he finds a solution for us. It’s not a matter of God being holier or more loving, but it’s a matter of both. Here’s what two theologians say about this. Wayne Grudem says this,
“It is not helpful for us to ask which is more important, however, because without the love of God, he would never have taken any steps to redeem us, yet without the justice of God, the specific requirement that Christ should earn our salvation by dying for our sins would not have been met. Both are equally important” (Grudem).
And Millard Erikson says this,
“He is not merely righteous and demanding, nor merely loving and giving. He is righteous, so much so that sacrifice for sin had to be provided. He is loving, so much so that he provided that sacrifice himself.”
ATONEMENT IS THE SOLUTION
So what’s God’s solution? He has to find a solution that reflects his holiness and his love for us. A solution reflecting God’s holiness is this according to Grudem,
“It wasn’t necessary for God to save anyone. He could have chosen with perfect justice to have left us in our sins awaiting judgment, but in his love, he acted. The atonement was not absolutely necessary, but God’s decision to save humanity made the atonement absolutely necessary.”
God could have chose to be separate from humanity and he would still be right, but because of his love for us he acted to find a way to pay a debt to repair the wrong. Now, normally, we expect the wrong-doer to come up with the solution, but here’s the amazing thing about God. He comes up with the solution and provides everything that is needed to make things right. God borrows this sacrificial system he established in the Old Testament where the religious leaders would take an animal with no defects. They would have the people lay their hands on the animal, which symbolized the transfer or removal of their sin and evil onto the animal and then the animal would be sacrificed to God. The animals did nothing wrong, but they died in place of the person because death was necessary to make things right with God. Now these sacrifices weren’t permanent. They would regularly sacrifice animals to be right with God, but God came up with a solution.
God offers Jesus as the substitutionary sacrifice for us. Jesus, who is also God, became human taking on all of the sins, and died as sacrifice for us. With Jesus’ death, it fulfilled God’s requirement. In theology, this is called atonement. Atonement means to pay a debt to repair a wrong. It atoned, paid the debt, and repaired the wrong that was required to fulfill God’s standard. But we have to respond to this solution and the key portion of how enter into this solution is our faith in Jesus. Earlier, Grace read Romans 3:21-26 to us. Let me read it again, this is what it says,
Romans 3:21-26, New Living Translation
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
Because God has shown us the way to be made right with him, we must have faith in Jesus. It is necessary because our faith in Jesus means we trust in God’s plan. It puts us back in a posture of honoring God, trusting that he is good and that his plans are good for us. Faith in Jesus realigns us to be obedient in his plans for us. And most importantly, it fixes our broken relationship with him. In theology, this is called reconciliation. We are no longer separated from him, but we are with him. Earlier, I mentioned how an angel guards the Tree of Life preventing humanity from eternal life. When we place our faith in Jesus, this is what happens. In Revelations 22 we’re given this image of what happens when hold onto our faith until the very end. This is what it says,
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
When we place our faith in Jesus and trust in God’s atonement, we will have access to the Tree of Life and the crop that comes from this tree provides healing from all curses for everyone. Not only will we receive healing, but we will see God’s face forever and forever. You see, Good Friday is good because when we are faithful in God’s holiness and love for us it changes our world because we live not for the day, but we live for eternity.
You/We
But what does that mean for us now? I’ll end with this. In Acts 3, this is what it says,
“Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
Do this, and your world can be changed to experience times of refreshing in your life. God promises that our burdens will be light, life will well up in us, and joy will carry us through even in our sufferings as we expectantly wait to be in eternity with God.
Let’s pray.