Why is Good Friday Good?

"It is finished!" -John 19:30, HCSB

It is finished. Que se termine. 它完成. она будет закончена. Il est fini. Consummatum est. それが完了しました. يتم الانتهاء من ذلك. 그것은 완료. Está consumado.

One could say that these may be the most important words in the entire Bible. Out of everything that Jesus said in His ministry, these three words may just be the most impactful, the most loaded, the most beautiful words that came out of His mouth. This is the climax, the highest point, in the entire plot and story of the Bible.

As He hung on the cross, He was not only experiencing the physical side of the crucifixion. Yes, He was in physical pain, but the spiritual pain was much worse. As hung on the cross, He took the burden of the wrath of God on Himself.

I once heard Jesus' taking God's wrath like this explained like this: imagine that we are in a canyon. A small river is trickling through, the product of a dam upstream. That dam is holding back a massive river that would flood the canyon if the dam broke. Needless to say, we don't want to be here when it breaks. Regardless, we throw rocks at it. I mean, it's a huge dam. How could it break?

One rock we threw hit another rock in the wall of the canyon, which in turn caused a group of larger rocks to become unlodged and fall into the dam.

 A crack runs up the middle, splintering across the facade of the dam. Time has worn the dam thin, and it is breaking. Suddenly, the river behind blasts through the cracked dam. The pressure was too much, and the river busts through.

We have since walked a little way downstream from the dam. We hear a loud noise, and turn to see a wall of water headed toward us. This deadly, overwhelming flood will destroy us, and it is our fault that the flood is headed for us.

We start to run, but there really is only time to turn away from the water when we hear a massive roar. Afraid to turn, we run a bit, but then realize that we are not dead yet. We turn around and see that there is no more wall of water.

Instead, a massive hole has opened up in the ground, creating a waterfall. The ground took the death from us and absorbed it all.

This is our story. God's wrath was bearing down on us, punishment due us because of our provocation and rebellion toward Him. Yet, instead of the death we deserved, Jesus took the punishment. He took the full wrath of God: not just my punishment, but also the punishment for you, our families, our friends, the guy across the table from me at the library...everyone. He took it all. Sin and death were defeated forever, all because Christ took the punishment for them away from His people.

If you have believed in Christ and confessed in Him as Lord and Savior, it is finished. There is no more punishment due to you, and there is no more power that sin can hold over you. Jesus took care of that. It's over, it's through, it is finished.

If you have never put your faith in Him, do so today. Feel free to trust in Him as Savior. None of us deserved for Him to die, but out of grace, mercy and love, He did it anyways. He took the punishment. Now it is up to you to accept Him as Lord and Savior and follow Him.

They call today Good Friday, the day that Christ died. But why is today good? Because it is finished.

He Didn't Ask Anything He Wouldn't Do Himself

"...and He went out, bearing His own cross." -John 19:17, ESV

The Christian walk is hard. No one every said this was easy, and if they did, they lied to you. As with growing in any relationship, our relationship with God also takes quite a bit of effort. When Jesus commanded His followers to "deny himself and take up his cross and follow me," He wasn't insinuating that to be a walk in the park.

To deny yourself means to put aside your desires. To pick up your cross means you must give yourself up, even be willing to die. To follow Jesus logically means that you aren't following anything else.

Money. Sex. Drugs. Power. Popularity. Spouse. Relationship. Grades. Success. Gossip. Work.

None of it but Jesus.

But here's the thing: He's not asking you to do anything He wouldn't do Himself.

He denied Himself, as Lord of the Universe, Creator God of all and Ruler of everything, to come to earth as a man. Not even an attractive or cool man, but as a servant, an average-appearing man.

He followed God, doing not His will, but that of the Father (Mark 14:36). He served and did whatever the Father asked of Him, following whatever He said.

And then He took up His cross. Literally. The ultimate giving up of Himself occurred on Calvary. He gave it all. He bore the cross across His bleeding, scourged back and was nailed to it.

Jesus was our ultimate example. If we are to follow Jesus, if we are truly Christians, we will look to His example. We will deny our "rights" and desires, in order to adjust to His. We will follow what God is leading to do, regardless of the other places we could go. And we will pick up our crosses, taking whatever punishment is needed in order to keep Christ first in our lives.

Jesus was the ultimate example. Will we follow suit?

Two Criminals and Red Pictures

 

"Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at Him: 'Aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!'

But the other answered, rebuking him: 'Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!'
 
And He said to him, “I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.'” -Luke 23:39-43, HCSB

Yesterday, we discussed the critics of Jesus that were underneath Him, laughing at Him and His position. Today, we look at the stance of two people, both condemned to death.

There were three crosses standing at Golgotha on Good Friday. One, the one in the middle, held Jesus. However, the two men flanking Him to His right and left were merely common criminals.

One guy (who I will call Rafael) was also mocking Jesus, questioning His power, but also calling on Him to save him from His predicament. Rafael almost seems to buy into the truth about Jesus, yet won't totally believe in Him until Jesus proves Himself, all for the benefit of this criminal. All in all, he won't believe that Jesus is who He says He is until something happens to help himself. Rafael wants what is best for Rafael. 

The other guy (let's call him Eric), meanwhile, calls out Rafael for mocking Jesus. He even goes so far as to admit Jesus' innocence, and supports a lifestyle of fearing God. We then see Eric asking Jesus to remember him when Christ goes into His kingdom, and Jesus tells him "today you will be with me in Paradise." Eric is saved from eternal death.

As I read this story, I was also thinking about the debate over whether the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender) community should be able to marry whomever they want. Some argue that religion should have no voice in the arena of government, while others claim that we should only have the Bible. Some claim that gay rights are the new civil rights, and some claim that they are not related at all.

Many of my Christian brothers and sisters have been rebuking those who support the marriage of same-sex couples. They have essentially been playing the part of the Eric, calling out the Rafaels for failing to fear God.

There is good in this. As long as rebuke is done with grace and gentleness, it is good to call people to turn from sin. A quick reading of any one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) will show that Jesus regularly did this. It is biblical and right to call for people to repent of their sinful lifestyles.

However, Eric did something that many Christians tend to forget in this debate. He admitted his wrong past. He told Rafael that they were both guilty and deserving of death.

Christians, we are not more righteous in our lives than any other "sinner." We are not above the LGBT community. If you would like to look through the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus regularly ate and hung out with the "sinners," the people that the over-righteous Pharisees shunned for their lifestyles.

Back then, it was tax collectors and prostitutes. Now it's lesbians and transsexuals. Same story, different roles.

I am not supporting a gay/homosexual lifestyle. I believe that the Bible condemns such a lifestyle, and that all who live like that should repent and come to God. However, Christians, we are not to cast stones and beat people down and act like we have it all together. We're sinners, too. We also once (and many still act as such) were living self-centered, self-pleasing lifestyles of the flesh.

We are a broken race, we humans. Gay, jealous, lustful, hating, drunk... the list goes on. Whichever sins have defined your life have made you just as guilty before God as anyone else. That's why we all needed grace, the undeserved gift of Christ's death for us on a cross. It was on that cross that He took the wrath of God for all sin: homosexuality or judgmentalism. Let's show love and grace to all, and show everyone the nature of God in our actions and with our words.

We must point people away from themselves and their selfish, sinful desires, yes. But if we point ourselves instead of pointing to Jesus and His greatness, we're failing at our rebuke and are sinning ourselves.

Call to repent, Christians, but in doing so, don't forget that someone once had to call you to repent. Otherwise, you'd still be dead in sin, too.

For more of my thoughts on this, check out these two posts I wrote a while back from my unChristian series, which was about how Christians are often viewed, and how Christians should act instead:

unChristian, Part Three: Antihomosexual
unChristian, Part Six: Judgmental

Jesus: Mocked and Dying, Ultimately Loving

"He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has put His trust in God; let God rescue Him now—if He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am God’s Son.'" -Matthew 27:42-43, HCSB

Jesus wasn't in the best spot here, y'all. He had been beaten, stabbed, dehydrated, whipped, slapped, pushed, shoved, and oh, by the way, nailed to a wooden cross. His breathing is becoming harder and more difficult. His legs ache, lactic acid in His calves building up from holding Himself up. His hands are throbbing in excruciating pain from the bones in His hands, shattered as a nail went through them.

Meanwhile, the crowds around Him are mocking Him. They are jeering at His condition, laughing at the fact that He is dying. They questioned His power, His authority, His trust in God, how much God loved Him and what exactly His relationship with God was.

And isn't that the case today? Do people not question His ability to save others? Haven't you heard people who doubt His authority as King of all? Don't people scoff at His power over this realm? Don't people question whether or not He was the Son of God, or even a deity at all? Could He have saved Himself?

Thank God He did not save Himself!

It wasn't that He couldn't save Himself, it was that He wouldn't, in order to save us instead.

It wasn't that God didn't love or want Jesus, but rather that God wanted and loved us, too.

It wasn't that Jesus wasn't God's Son. No, no it definitely is not because Jesus isn't God's Son. But, praise be to God above that He wanted and desired many sons and daughters, not just One.

"For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" -Romans 5:7-8, HCSB

We didn't deserve the death of Christ. We are not good or righteous; we are sinners. Yet, to show His love for us, Christ, Jesus Christ, died for us. He died so that sinners could become sons and daughters of God.

So the next time people are mocking Jesus, praise Him. Praise God that He would sacrifice Himself, that He would kick His Son to the curb, that He would die for us. Praise be to God, the God who died in order to love the unlovable!

We're All Just Actors in God's Blockbuster

"So Pilate said to Him, 'You're not talking to me? Don't You know that I have the authority to release You and the authority to crucify You?'

'You would have no authority over Me at all,' Jesus answered him, 'if it hadn't been given you from above.'" -John 19:10-11, HCSB

Allow me to set the scene: Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate, the ruling Roman governor over the area. The Jews, out of their hate for Him, have brought Him to Pilate for execution. They have appealed to the governor, implying that Jesus' death would halt a revolution in the land. Pilate, of course, wanted to avoid such a revolution, but had trouble finding fault in Jesus. Besides going against the teaching of the Jews and causing trouble for them, Pilate saw nothing He had done wrong. And yet, as Pilate asks Jesus to defend Himself, Jesus stands silent. Pilate asks Jesus if He is from God, and Jesus stands silent. Pilate asks Jesus if He is the King of the Jews, and Jesus stands silent.

For those that know me well, you know I'm a pretty big Tom Cruise fan, and at this moment, I picture Pilate as somewhat like Jerry McGuire. I can almost hear Pilate yelling, "Jesus, HELP ME HELP YOU!"

And finally, Jesus speaks.

Jesus proceeds to inform Pilate that without God's giving Pilate his governmental seat, Pontius would have zero authority over Him. In all honesty, Jesus is still implying that Pilate lacks authority over Him in the grand scope of things, but in this moment, in Jesus' manhood, in Jesus' hour, the time had come.

It all had to happen. God had predetermined the time, place, and yes, even the people that would lead to Jesus' death (Acts 4:27-28). Pilate's authority over Jesus in this moment was merely the orchestration of God's grand plan to bring redemption to mankind. The death of Christ, with its purpose of providing freedom from sin for man, was planned from the beginning. Our salvation in Christ wasn't a coincidence or a fall-back; it was plan A and worked to a T.

Pilate would, in fact, help Jesus in the exact opposite way that he thought he could. By allowing the death of Christ, he was the man who ultimately made the crucifixion possible. Yet, without God's work, Pilate is nothing in this story. Without God's doing, Pilate may have never even been governor, much less the one with the decision to either kill or save Jesus.

All authority in earth comes from God. Let us not be blind to this like Pilate, assuming that our authority is self-made. God is the director of this show; we are merely actors playing our parts.

Do You Want to Get Well?

"When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to get well?'" -John 5:6, HCSB

I was reading John 5 this morning, and I came across this verse in my reading. It comes from a story about a man who was sick. This sick man was living in an area around a pool that moved every now and then when an angel made the water stir. This stirring of the water announced that the angel had been there, and the first person into the pool after the angel would be healed of their ailment.

Not surprisingly, this pool was constantly surrounded by sick people. I mean, think about it: if a pond could cure what ails ya, wouldn't this pond be constantly surrounded by people?

This man was one of those people. Yet, he was so sick that he couldn't get up and go to the pool when the angel came. Thus, for 30+ years, he remained sick. That's when Jesus walked up and asked him the question that I quoted at the top of the post: "do you want to get well?"

This got me to thinking: does Jesus ask everyone this? Everyone in the world is a sinner, and we are all sick with sin. We walk about in the world, sinning, and Jesus asks "do you want to get well?"

If you do not know Christ, you can get well. Your sin can be removed. Your addictions, your sins, your bad habits; they can all be removed by Christ. Put your faith in Christ, and accept the gift of grace!

And you, Christian, don't think you're out of the woods. How many Christians are battling with sins? How many Christians are hiding a porn addiction? How many Christians are gossips? How many Christians walk around arrogant, lying, hating, cheating and lusting after the world?

If you are a Christian, you should know that Christ has called you to a different life. Put away the life of the flesh and let the grace of God work in your heart. You may feel trapped in a cycle of sin, but He can heal you of that. The question is: do you want to get well, or are you content to lay around, sick in sin and worldly desires?