Good Friday
Notes
Transcript
The Dual Suffering of Jesus
The Dual Suffering of Jesus
Isaiah 53:4–9 (ESV)
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
We Christians know this day as the the day of our Savior Jesus suffering on the Cross. The Cross, I think you will agree with me there is no other symbol that Christians are known by better than a cross. Look around there are crosses everywhere. I would be shocked to see less then a dozen crosses at every church in America. You see crosses on steeples of Churches like the light on a lighthouse. People wear their golden crosses. We even have a Christian flag and the main symbol on it is a cross. We acknowledge the cross and we do it with good reason.
Our Savior suffered such a fate on good Friday we can barely imagine.
He sat in fervent prayer with His father, worrying to the point that he burst little blood vessels in his head sweating blood.
He was betrayed by a disciple, a friend, a brother that led to Jesus being arrested falsely.
He had to sit through a mock trial where His fate was decided before the trial began.
He was mocked.
He was sent to punishment to appease a crowd.
Then he was tortured. Whipped to the point of death.
He was made to wear a robe and a crown of thorns to mock the fact that He was king. That also caused him more pain.
After being punished He was judged again. For nothing! The people chose a criminal named Barabbas. A man so terrible that Pilate only used him because Pilate thought no one would want Barabbas free over Jesus.
He was forced to carry a cross on His already mutilated back up a hill, surrounded by people that a week before claimed to love him and worshipped HIm. Who spit on him, called him names, beat on him.
He was stripped and humiliated and then nailed to the cross to die.
His father God turned away from Him.
I know how hard it can be to hear those things, we Christians know that story all to well. We remember it every good Friday and Easter Sunday. We have the 4 Gospels that all give us accounts of Jesus death. I grew up watching movies like the greatest Story ever told and Jesus of Nazareth. While attending Bible college my friends and I were in the theater opening night when the Passion of the Christ came out. I even have a doctors report where an actual physician created a medical report of what Jesus body would have went through that good Friday. We know what Jesus went through, And we should know it. We should remember it not just on good Friday but every day. Yet I believe that we forget the full scope of His suffering.
It’s understandable for us to think about and remember His HUMAN suffering even though it’s hard. The simple answer is because we are human so we can at least a little bit comprehend what His human body must have went through.
What we can’t comprehend is the fact that while Jesus was 100% human He is and always has been 100% God also. And He suffered in a way that is beyond us as God.
Just a reminder, Jesus is the only perfect being in History.
The Bible says so….
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is a small sampling of verses that talk about Jesus being without sin. While Jesus went through everything we went through. Fear, worry, Joy, Sorrow, he was 100% human, but even though we know His humanity was complete He never sinned. Not 1 time. Then in an amazing act of selflessness Jesus took all the sin and He put it on His Shoulders. Suffering in a way that we can never even try to understand. And Jesus did that so we can have Salvation.
I read Isaiah because it is the perfect example of Jesus and His suffering.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All of His suffering both human and as God taking our sins was from us deserves our remembrance and extreme gratitude. and our praise at the very least. This Holy Friday. This good Friday we need to look at the Cross and remember the suffering that our Savior went through. Not just the human suffering he went through but also the suffering that he went through as God taking the Sins of the world upon Himself. And we as Christians say thank you.