Why did they crucify Jesus? Because it was a part of God’s eternal redemptive plan, for starters, but what did they write down in their court records? What was His crime? He was King of the Jews.
Jesus attests to this identity, as does Pilate, and later, the Roman soldiers. The magi came to Bethlehem, seeking Him by this title, and it was the written charge against Him as He hung on the cross (Matthew 27:37). He wasn’t the king the Jewish people expected, nor was He the king they wanted. When “Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ He answered him, ‘You say so’” (Mark 15:2). He made no defense because it was His very person that offended, His Kingship itself is an offense to every sinful heart. The Cornerstone is the stumbling block, the rock of offense. They mocked Him as He hung on the cross, but their tongues unwittingly confessed Him as “Messiah, the King of Israel.”
In his letter to the Romans, the indictment that Paul brings against unbelievers is not that they do not know the truth, but that they know it, and yet suppress it: “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Though He came to humanity in flesh and blood, “he was despised, and we didn’t value him” (Isaiah 53:3).
Pilate and the Jewish people did not need more evidence of who Jesus was in order to believe. They rejected the evidence that was right in front of them. Indeed, when at the end “Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last,” even this testified to who He is in such a way that when the centurion witnessed His death, the soldier said, ‘“Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:37,39).
Each Lenten season, the Church remembers the long journey Christ walked to the cross. Each year, we encounter the same evidence, the same professions of Jesus’s Messiahship, the same hardened hearts that do not like the truth before them. The goodness of Good Friday is that Christ came to redeem blind, deaf, and rebellious people just like us. He came to bear upon Himself the guilt of our sin:
“He was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds” (Isaiah 53:5).
The goodness of Good Friday is that because He walked silently to the cross, like a Lamb to slaughter, not protesting the punishment meted out upon Him, we have hope. He was rejected by God that we might be made acceptable to God, a people for His own possession. This was the promise given through Jeremiah: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). See as the centurion did, the truth that is already before our eyes, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and He has purchased our salvation! Thanks be to God!
He was crushed for My iniquities, pierced for My transgressions. He did it for ME. Overwhelmed with with gratitude and so, so humbled. Thank you, Jesus.
I recommend the EasterNow app! It sends you notifications throughout the day of what would’ve been taking place thousands of years ago on the days of Holy Week. So humbling and truly gives perspective to the significance of this sacred time. Blessings!
I read this Good Friday lesson at 9am. Mark 15:25. Whoa. God’s timing is so cool.
Me too!! With my neighbor lady friends via Zoom! So cool!!
He walked intentionally to the cross. For me, for us. He IS our God and we ARE his people. Certainty in an uncertain time. Thank you Lord. Truly He IS the Son of God. Bless you all!
“Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38)
I still can’t get over this image. The curtain, what separated the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, the moment Jesus took his last breath, was torn into two. No longer are we separated from God. We have free access to the presence of God! And not by anything we’ve done. I love that it specifies from top to bottom: from God to us.
Praise the Lord we are no longer separated. We are forgiven and free, chosen and loved, our sin remembered no more.
This image has always been so powerful to me and I’m so grateful that we have that kind of access.
I imagine Jesus seeing and feeling the weight of EVERY SIN. From what we may not think is that bad to the most horrific. Not only did He endure the physical pain, mocking, and being spat upon, He endured rejection and separation. The Bible says that he was beaten so badly, He didn’t even look like a man! We can’t even truly know what He endured. May I be undone when I think of His sacrifice, and may I be changed by His work instead of living as I still do
Jesus bore the cross to make a way for sinners to be redeemed.
My sin held Him there.
A copy of the 10 commandments hangs on the wall. I was rereading them and realized, in my lifetime, I have broken a lot of them, not just once.
Mark 15:15, “wanting to satisfy the crowd,” – sometimes my sin was a result of peer pressure.
Other times, most times, self-centeredness.
I wondered, when Jesus cried His last, and the centurion knew He was the Son of God, was it His words…
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus cried out, “I thirst,” human thirst, overcome with suffering.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God cannot look upon sin and Jesus was bearing it all. . Anguish cried out. Certainly it is the tremendous mercy of God that took my sin and made this sinner His child, washing me clean. Covering me with His righteousness alone.
Maybe, it was Jesus words, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” that convinced the Centurion
Or finally, thankfully, “It is finished.”
Thank you Jesus.
We know the truth, yet we reject it. Wow, that really hit me today, especially. Two of my children reject the truth, and it hurts my heart deeply. I cry out to the Lord for them daily. Yet I know that they know what the Truth is. They must separate themselves from the family in order to reject the Truth, because in their hearts, they know the Truth but are willingly going their own way. This Good Friday has painted a picture for me of what my own heart does every time I go my own way. How many times do I turn from Jesus, insist on my own way, even though I KNOW the Truth? We KNOW it yet REJECT it. Lord, I pray for my own children who are actively rejecting You. I pray that You will push back the voices of the world that they are listening to (just like You pushed back the waters of the Red Sea) so that they may hear Your still small voice, the voice of Truth. It is my sincerest prayer today.
The good news is that the Lord is pursuing us all even when we run away and reject Him. Praying that our merciful Lord will make their hearts like good soil, to receive His word and run into His loving arms filled with so much grace!