This week we've been talking about the events of Holy Week
and really, everything leads up to today:
the day that we know as Good Friday.
After Pontius Pilate had condemned Jesus to be put to death,
he was led outside of the
city where he would be crucified.
If you know anything about ancient crucifixions,
you know that it was probably one of the most
painful and cruel ways
to put a person to death that has ever been devised.
A person who was crucified didn't die from injury or blood loss.
No, as they hung there from that cross,
the weight of their body compressed their lungs
making it impossible for them to breathe.
And so every time they needed air,
they needed to be able to push themselves up with
their legs just to be able to get a gasp of air.
Well, eventually after struggling for hours,
or maybe even days, they eventually got too
weak to be able to push themselves up and eventually
they suffocated.
It was brutal. It was agonizing.
It was inhumane.
And so it's no wonder that the Romans used crucifixions,
not just as a method of execution,
but as a method of intimidation.
As people walked by and saw
those criminals suspended between Earth
and heaven, Rome was
sending a very clear message.
This is what happens to anyone who dares to disobey.
And yet as we think about the events of Good Friday,
it may be easy for us to become so
focused on the physical agony that Jesus endured, that,
we forget the significance of it all.
And so, thankfully, the Gospel writers and Jesus himself
make sure that we don't miss it.
And I want to focus, specifically, on two of the things
that Jesus said while he was hanging there on that cross.
First of all, at a certain point in the afternoon,
in a very loud voice Jesus cried out,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Why would God forsake his own son?
Well, it's because sin
separates people from a Holy God.
And on that cross Jesus was paying for,
Jesus was being charged with the sins
of the whole world.
Jesus' death on the cross isn't just a sad story.
It isn't just a gross miscarriage of justice.
It isn't just one more example of people with power
oppressing someone with none.
No, on that cross, Jesus was being charged with,
Jesus was making payment for,
the sins of the whole world.
And that leads to the second thing that Jesus said that I want to focus on.
Right near the end of his life, Jesus asked for a drink so that his,
his mouth could be wet.
And he could muster up one last little bit of strength
to be able to say as loud as he possibly could,
"It is finished."
Payment complete.
It our sin is pictured as this
mountain of debt before God, then
Jesus simply didn't make the down payment
so that the debt collector would get off of our back.
He didn't lower the interest rate
so that we could be able to afford the monthly payments.
No. Jesus paid the whole thing.
Every last cent.
So, did it work?
Was Jesus right when he said "It is finished"?
You might remember that earlier in the week I mentioned how in
the Jewish legal system
every testimony needed to be established
by two or three witnesses in order for it
to be valid and certain.
And it's interesting to note how often in Jesus' life he
applied that principle.
He would say something about himself but then he would also appeal
to his Father in Heaven
as his second witness.
And on that cross,
just before he died, Jesus did that one final time.
He cried out, "It is finished."
Paid in full.
And then the very last thing that he did
was he entrusted his life
to his Father in Heaven.
He committed
that final verdict
to a second witness.
And as we know,
just a few days later,
the Father in Heaven
would say exactly the same thing.
See, as we remember Good Friday today, we don't
spend our time pretending for the next
48 hours that we don't know how everything turned out.
No, in fact the only reason we remember Good Friday
in the first place is because we do
know how it turned out.
You might say that we look at Good Friday
already with our Easter Sunday goggles on.
On Good Friday, Jesus entrusted that final verdict to
that second witness.
And on Easter Sunday, God the Father said
exactly what his Son had said on Friday afternoon.
"It is finished."
The truth of our forgiveness is absolutely certain.
And that explains
what has happened.
As I mentioned, in those days the cross
was this symbol of, not just torture and pain
and agony but, intimidation.
As people saw those criminals
they were supposed to look away and get back
to their dutiful, obedient lives.
And yet Jesus' crucifixion has changed everything.
Now that cross is a symbol of beauty.
We hang it up in our churches
and in our homes and around our necks.
We look to that cross rather than looking away from it.
In fact, it's just as Jesus predicted.
He said that when he was lifted up,
when he was suspended there between Earth and Heaven,
he would draw all people to himself.
Why?
Well, because of the two things that Holy Week teaches us.
Everything that Jesus went through, he went through willingly.
And everything he went through,
he went through for you.