Good Friday: Three Views From the Cross

Good evening; and welcome to our Good Friday service. Twice a year it is common for churches to gather on special times - Christmas Eve and Good Friday. Some churches will add other special days in there, but these two seem to hold extra importance for the church. Christmas Eve looking forward to and celebrating the birth of Christ, the coming king and Good Friday looking back on and celebrating the death of Jesus (pause).

Celebrating the death of Jesus. celebrating? Is that the word you would think of when you think of the cross? Or would you have expected or maybe even preferred me to say mourning the death of Jesus? Yes, death does and should bring sorrow, grief, and mourning. But this death - Jesus death - should be celebrated. There is a reason we call good Friday good!

Last Sunday we started this three part series I’ve titled God’s plan. We began a few days back looking at Jesus entrance to Jerusalem on a Donkey and we saw that God’s plan is SLIDE X Intentional, unexpected, and redemptive, but we left that message with a bit of a cliff hanger; we left it unresolved not describing how God’s plan is redemptive. So we’re going to do that to day, this is part 2 in this series which will culminate Sunday morning as we see how God’s plan, Jesus resurrection, changed everything!

But first, let me pray.

If you have a Bible and want to follow along you can turn to Luke 23. While you do let me catch us up to speed. Sunday we looked at Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem. We are at the celebration of the passover, during which all Jewish men who live within 20 miles of Jerusalem are expected to travel to the Temple to make their families sacrifices making them right with God. Along with those required to come, many men brought their wives and children, and many other men and women from outside of the 20 mile requirement chose to make the pilgrimage either out of authentic respect and piety or out of tradition. But the city would have been crowded!

As Jesus approached we saw the disciples sent to get him a donkey and her colt so Jesus could ride into town fulfilling the prophesy of Zachariah 9. That same day Jesus went to the temple and ran out the people who were trying to sell animals for the sacrifices, he overturned the tables of money changers and merchants alike he declared,

“40 He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.””

You can imagine the priest weren’t happy. The religious powers of the day attempted to catch Jesus in traps, tricking him into blasphemy and proving himself a false prophet - but they had one problem… he wasn’t a false prophet, he was the true Messiah, the true savior, part of the triune God! He thwarted their every attempt.

Jesus kept teaching during this time, he told parables about the coming Kingdom, he encouraged people to keep giving to the temple, but also to pay their taxes, he challenged some various Jewish groups beliefs, he dropped plenty of hints quoting prophesies and psalms that he was the promised savior. And as a result of all this as well as his previous few years of ministry - the chief priests and scribes did what any good God fearing people would do… they started to plot a way to execute this man… (pause) that was a joke, please, don’t follow the priest’s example here!

A few days pass and Jesus and His disciples are celebrating the passover meal together during which two important things happened. The first - Judas, one of Jesus twelve - departed the group to betray Jesus over to the chief priests. And Second Jesus instituted a tradition we continue to this day and will partake of tonight before we leave - Jesus introduced the sacrament of communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper.

After dinner Jesus and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives to pray. In Luke we are told this was usual, not uncommon, a practice Jesus had apparently done before, one Judas could have anticipated. Thus Judas leads a mob to arrest Jesus, likelly members of which had been in the same crowd only days before shouting Hosanna! The mob takes Jesus, essentially a citizens arrest - this man is disrupting the peace… with his quiet prayer in the Garden, with his napping disciples.... Jesus is taken and given a trial before the religious leader and then the social/political leaders - and then killed - and that’s where we’re going to focus here tonight.

Now - just for perspective I wanted to put this time frame together for you. Note - I didn’t create it, someone else did the heavy lifting for me - but this blew my mind when I first heard it. SLIDE X

4:00am - Jesus is taken to the high priest, Caiaphas, and the council of elders. They were seeing proof that Jesus could be put to death and We are told in Matthew and Mark that they failed, even with false witnesses. Then in Mark 14 we see the high priest ask

“Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?” They all condemned him as deserving death.

Now - IF - Jesus wasn’t God, if Jesus wasn’t the messiah - they would have been right to call Him a blasphemer - BUT since Jesus IS God, they commited the greatest wrong they could have, declaring the Son of God a liar and condemning Him to death.

6:00am - The mob takes Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor over the land of Judea - who hears their argument and declares

“I find no grounds for charging this man.””

They keep griping and Pilate sends them on to Herod, who was the Roman appointed ruler of Galillee who also happened to be in Jerusalem, likelly for the passover as he too was a Jew.

Jesus is quickly brought before Herod who was excited he wanted to see a miracle - Jesus didn’t play along and just let them jear, beat and mock him - eventually Herod had enough and sent him back to Pilate.

Pilate wanted to release Jesus - three times he tried to offering to beat him first if that would help - but the mod wouldn’t have it - they wanted Him dead - so finally Pilate gives in - he lets a criminal, a murderer, walk free in place of sending Jesus to the cross.

8:30am, four hours after Jesus was brought before his first trial, Jesus is beaten - again - and along with a man named Simon of Cyrene who they apparently picked off the side of the road - Jesus and the cross that is to be his execution - make their way to Golgatha - a hill on which he was to be crusified.

9:00am - Jesus is hung out to die.

Five hours. Five hours stood between when Jesus saw his first trial and hung on a cross to die… hows that for swift injustice? As I Was writing this summary I kept wanting to chase rabbit trails - I think I could do almost a years sermons in this last 12 hour period from the last supper to the cross - maybe that will be a series for another day. in three hours time - by noon - Jesus will hang dead. And we’re going to spend the rest of today in that last hour. We’re going to see a single discourse between Jesus and two people who see the world very differently from Him. We’re going to see three views from the cross.

If you have your Bibles, I mentioned earlier you could turn to Luke 23, if you haven't done so you can do so now. We will be in verses 32-43.

“32 Two others—criminals—were also led away to be executed with him. 33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. 34 Then Jesus said,

“Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.”

And they divided his clothes and cast lots. 35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: “He saved others; let him save himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 An inscription was above him: This Is the King of the Jews. 39 Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him:

“Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40 But the other answered, rebuking him:

“Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 And he said to him,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”