Today is Good Friday. It is the day we remember Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.It is one of the most Holy Days of the year. In my estimation (its my personal opinion) Good Friday is the second most important day on the Christian calendar behind Easter and ahead of Christmas. Although, I need to say that ranking these days is somewhat silly. It is not really about the individual days, but about what happened on those days.
We call it “Good” Friday. Why do we call it good? Our Lord died upon the cross. What is good about that? It is good because Jesus died for us. Jesus predicted his death and when the angels said, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7) It is good because it is good for us.
So we call it good, but is that an adequate description of this day? You come home after a long difficult day and your spouse asks you, “How your day was?”
Your response is “good.”
They reply, “just good?”
You say, “Yep.”
What you are implying here is that your day was not all that good. My point here is that good might just be too ordinary term to describe this day. Maybe we should call it Great Friday or Incredible Friday. It’s not just good, it is more than that.
When we think about it, it really was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross. Jesus could have come down off that cross at any moment. As powerful as the Roman army was, they were no match for the Son of God. Acts 2:23 says Jesus was handed over to death by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. The only thing that held Jesus on the cross was his love for you and his obedience to the Father.
Crucifixion was an incredibly cruel and demeaning form of execution. It was typically done along a major road leading into the city. It was done publicly to serve as a deterrent against crime. Most importantly for the Romans it served as a deterrent against revolutionaries rising up to challenge their authority.
The cause of death in crucifixion was typically suffocation and cardiac failure. A more complete description can be found several different places online. Here is a link to one such article. All I can say is wow.
Tonight at Lord of Life, along with many churches in many different places, we will remember the 7 words (or statements) of Jesus on the cross. Each of these words hold special significance and meaning. They tell us something new about Jesus’ character and his sacrifice.
Please join us at 7pm at the corner of LaFox Rd and Rt. 38.
