What's Good about Good Friday?
Notes
Transcript
Good morning everyone, and welcome to our Good Friday breakfast. I’m so happy you’ve come to share in this time of fellowship. Have you ever wondered why it’s called “Good Friday”? Because if you think about what we’re commemorating today it doesn’t seem very “Good” does it? Because on this day nearly 2000 years ago our savior Jesus Christ was beaten and nailed to a cross. He was crucified at about this time, 9am, between two criminals. Let’s read one of the accounts of this crucifixion as it is found in Mark 15:21-39
And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Who could be blamed for reading this account and wondering how any of that could be called “Good?” God sent His only Son to earth and we crucified Him. Not only that but He was beaten and maimed. It was common practice at the time to have a condemned criminal carry the crossbeam to his place of execution, and Jesus was so horribly beaten that He couldn’t even manage to do it, so they had to force a passerby to do it for Him.
The thing is though, that what happened on that cross, as horrible as it was, really was good. See the cross was not an avoidable tragedy. It wasn’t just a rejection of God’s son and a miscarriage of human justice. It was all part of the plan. You can see that in just how many passages of Old Testament Prophecy are fulfilled even in this short passage. I chose Mark for this morning because I wanted to be brief and Mark’s account is the shortest. Yet even in Mark’s 18 verse account of the crucifixion we have five prophecies about Messiah fulfilled.
In Psalm 69:21
Psalm 69:21 (ESV)
They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
fulfilled in Mark 15:36
And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”
2. Psalm 22:18
Psalm 22:18 (ESV)
they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
fulfilled in Mark 15:24
And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.
3. Psalm 22:7
Psalm 22:7 (ESV)
All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
Fuflilled in Mark 15:29
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
4. Amos 8:9
Amos 8:9 (ESV)
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
Fulfilled in Mark 15:33
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
The sixth hour is noon by the Jewish practice of the time.
5. Psalm 22:1
Psalm 22:1 (ESV)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
Referenced in Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
See if it hadn’t been part of the plan than Jesus would never have been crucified. Think about what we believe about who Jesus is. We believe that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. That means that they nailed God Himself to that cross on that (literally) dark day. Could they have done that if it wasn’t God’s Will? Of course not! That’s what they don’t get when they mock Him and say to Him “He saved others, let Him save Himself.” HE could have saved Himself! At any moment He could have simply got off that cross, or summoned an army of angels or burned up every person who opposed Him with fire for heaven.
So why did He stay on that cross? He stayed on that cross for you and for me. He stayed on that cross as an act of love. Jesus said in John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
We often quote this on remembrance day, but Jesus here is speaking primarily about Himself. Consider His following words in John 15:14-15
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Did you catch that? Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends… I have called YOU friends. He’s laying down His life for us. We were the ones who were supposed to die, because of our sins. So if our sins earned us the death penalty and He paid that penalty for us, than it was our sins that held him there just like the song says.
So on this Good Friday when you think of the striped and scarred body of Jesus, and the gruesome death on the cross I want you to look at it and say “it is very good.” Because Jesus did that for you.