Good Friday (Sermon)

The Last Supper is over, all the disciples are stuffed and sleepy, like most of us after a big Thanksgiving day meal, and Jesus calls another all-night prayer meeting. They made their way to the garden, one of their normal quiet places. Jesus took the Big Three (Peter, James, and John) along with him and asked them to watch and pray. Then, He prayed. Three times! He prayed hard, Father, take this cup from me . . .

(There was a story about a rhino that was being taken to the LA zoo. It was brought into the airport and a helicopter flew the cage over the city and set the animal down inside its new habitat. When the door was opened, however, the young zoologists were horrified to see the animal covered in blood. They hosed him off and began to look for cuts, but found none. About that time, a senior zoologist came to see what the commotion was about. He listened to the account, then assured them that the animal would be fine. It seems that the noise of the traffic has so upset the animal that it burst some of the tiny blood vessels near the surface. The animal, in its excited state, literally sweat blood. Here, we see Christ was so intense in his time of prayer that blood came out with his sweat.

As he finished his prayer, there came a light in the distance, several torches. And Judas came forward and kissed Jesus. Can you imagine, the Son of God, who taught his followers to love each other, betrayed with a symbolic act of love by one of his own disciples. Jesus was led away to a mock trial. He was beaten and mocked. They blindfolded him, and beat him, all the while telling him to prophesy. They plucked out his beard.

Then they took him before Pilate, who had the guards take and beat him. I’ve been told that it was customary to use a cat-of-nine-tails when beating a prisoner. In the place where he was beaten, they had a tall pole set into the floor, with a metal ring on the top. They would tie the prisoner’s hands with one end of the rope and throw the other end through the ring. The prisoner was then pulled up, so that he or she could only touch the floor by standing on the toes. And these guards were not satisfied with leaving welts, so they would tie bits of pottery and bone into the ends so it could grip into the flesh and tear. 39 lashes multiplied by the nine ends comes out to 351 stripes. The beating was often so brutal that they would have to turn the prisoner half way through so they wouldn’t kill him or her. When they were done beating the Lord, they took a heavy robe and pressed it into the bleeding wounds. They placed a Crown of thorns upon his head, pressing the sharp points down into the soft scalp, and when they had finished mocking him, they ripped the cloak off, tearing back open the stripes that had clotted with the heady cloak.

Christ went before Pilate again, and he was found not guilty. Yet unwilling to anger the Jewish leadership, the governor washed hands of Christ. The crowd cried out for blood. Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

So the sinless lamb of God was led off to be crucified. Crucifixion was first an act of humiliation, and secondarily a death by suffocation. Large spikes were driven into feet & hands. But the worst part was still to come.
Jesus said several things from the cross that we need to talk about. The first one was “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus forgave those who had killed him; he was willing to die for the sins of the very men that were crucifying him.

The next thing he said was to the thief: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Next, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” as God the Father turned away. You see, God the Father went back to beginning of time and took that first sin. Then he spun time forward and collected all the sins that have occurred or will yet occur before the end of time. And he placed all these sins upon His sinless son. The Father, who had been with the son since the beginning of time, turned his back. He couldn’t stand to watch.

Finally, Christ cried out “It is finished,” and then He died. The soldiers shoved a spear into his side to see if he was dead, and blood and water came out. The blood speaks of the New Covenant and Water of a new baptism. Medically speaking, the water and blood suggest he died of heart failure. Our sin broke the heart of our savior. It seems ironic that he was pierced in the side where Adam’s rib was taken and Eve was made. Through the children of that first couple, the sin nature was passed until it was conquered on the cross.

Jesus died and offered the final sacrifice for our sins on the Holy Altar in heaven. God the Father put one condition on this forgiveness. We must accept it as a free gift. We have all sinned and fallen short … and the price of your sin is death…(spiritual) God extends the gift of eternal life. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you can be saved.

If you have never taken the time to consider what Christ did for you on that first Good Friday, I would like to invite you to right now. He paid a tremendous price for our salvation, but it is all for nothing unless we accept it. As our pianist comes, this alter is open. If you need him, come and we’ll pray with you.