Good Friday: Head Held High

Good Friday: Head Held High

More than two thousand years ago, God’s plan of redemption altered the world forever. The power of sin and death was broken through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ that first Easter. Death was defeated. True life, spiritual life, God’s life triumphed.

And so we’ve embarked on a journey together through the events of Holy Week to come alive to God’s story, which transforms our lives and our world by His grace. We started our Holy Week journey with Palm Sunday and coming alive to Jesus’s life, which was above and beyond human understanding. Today, Good Friday, we will not look down in fear or defeat but hold our heads high as we focus on the cross and come alive to the sacrifice Jesus made. And then on Easter Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’s resurrection and come alive to His power to change our lives.

The life Jesus offers is reason to celebrate! It is reason to respond to God’s open arms and His invitation to draw near to Him. I’m so glad you are here on this Good Friday. It’s not easy Friday, but it is good as we continue to discover the life-giving truth of Holy Week and of God’s power to transform each one of us into a new creation.

It’s so difficult to look at death. I don’t know if you have ever been in the room when someone has taken their last breath, but you never forget it.

[Please use the following story as a guide and share a related story from your own experience.]

One of the first things I did as a full-time pastor at West Ridge was to go to the bedside of a young man in our church. All I knew was that a family who had visited our church was asking for a pastor to come pray for a young man who was in the hospital. I walked in to find a man in his early twenties who had been in a tragic circumstance and who was getting assistance from machines to maintain his life. I didn’t know what was going on. I met the family. They asked me to pray, and I did. When I said “Amen,” immediately the machines were disabled, and he breathed his last.

Almost a decade ago I did the funeral of a man in our community and got to meet his widow. This spirited Southern woman in at least her seventies told me that her favorite pastor was Joel Osteen and that I didn’t look old enough to be a pastor. After the funeral I received words of gratitude from the family and learned that this dear woman really liked me. So much so that a few years later I was called to be at her side. The whole family had been called in to be with Kate. She was getting the opportunity to say goodbye with all the humor and love she could still muster. I walked in to the hospital room, and she looked over at me and said, “I asked them to get you.” She just grinned at me and said that since Joel Osteen wasn’t available, I would have to do. I prayed with her and the family, and a few minutes later Kate stepped into the presence of Jesus. It was gut-wrenching. It was beautiful.

I’ve identified the body of my best friend. I’ve said goodbye to family. I’ve held the hands of members of this community as a conduit to help them say goodbye to a loved one in the moments of their passing.

It is in those moments of staring death in the face that we remember what is most important.

There is incredible tension on this day. We look at the cross, this most brutal tool of Roman execution, and we call it “Wonderful” and “Glorious” and “Beautiful.” We call the day of our Savior’s death “Good” Friday.

As difficult as it is, it is important to take a few moments to look intently at the cross of Jesus Christ. When the Apostle Paul considered the cross, he said it this way:

Galatians 6:14 ESV

14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

(esv)

(esv)

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

To look at the cross is to recalibrate your life around this one thing and receive the confidence that comes from knowing the God of the universe laid down His life for you.

I want to draw attention to a word in the verse I just read. It is the word boast. Far be it from me to have confidence in anything other than the cross of Jesus Christ. Let your motivation to live out your faith be that you will overwhelmingly conquer any obstacle because of the power of Almighty God, and this confidence comes from looking at this moment of unbelievable suffering.

The Greek word translated “boast” (or exult) literally means to “hold your head high.”

Hold your head high today and look at the cross of Jesus Christ.

We live in a look-down society. When you sit at a stoplight, pay attention to the other people at the light. They are not looking up, waiting for the light to change. They are looking down at their phones. We look down all the time. We look down at our computers. We look down to read, to text, to stand over a countertop and prepare a meal, and even to pray. So many of our daily activities and habits cause us to look down.

There are seventy trillion cells in your body that are a part of your life. And every single one of them is directly impacted by the condition of your spinal cord, and the curve of your neck is particularly important in this. Whenever you look down, you are compressing the spinal cord in a negative way. You are literally cutting off some of the function of your nervous system every time you look down.

One of the most powerful things you can do to correct this is to throw your shoulders back, tilt your neck back, lift your chin, and look up. This posture can literally help restore life to the body, and it’s the posture the Apostle Paul challenges us to have today in order to restore vital function. It’s a corrective measure that we take today to remind ourselves that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness.

Today we hold our heads high about nothing else than the cross of Christ. As we look at His life and what He has done for us, it allows us to recalibrate all the ways in which our lives have gotten out of alignment.

We don’t hold our heads high about the importance of our work. We don’t hold our heads high about our gifts or talents. We don’t hold our heads high about our contributions or accomplishments.

We follow the example of Jesus, who stepped out of heaven and made Himself of no reputation.

We look up and hold our heads high to . . .

John 1:29 ESV

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

(esv)

(esv)

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

What an amazing reference John the Baptist made when Jesus first came on the scene. Before He had performed any miracles of His public ministry or preached the first word of His first sermon, John knew what was coming.

John said, “Behold,” “See,” “Look Upon”; the word can even mean “Experience.”

Look upon the Lamb. The Lamb born in Bethlehem, the birthplace of every lamb who would be killed in an official capacity as part of Passover throughout Jerusalem.

Born to be the sacrifice. Born to be the price of our reconciliation back to God. Born to be the payment of our sins.

Hold your head high and look upon the Lamb.

Hold your head up high and look upon the One who ate with sinners and who welcomed outsiders. Look upon the One who said, “Let the little children come to Me . . . for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”[1] Hold your head up and look upon the One who never forced Himself on anyone, yet welcomed and listened to everyone. Hold your head up high while the Son of Man walks upon the water, calms the sea, casts out demons, and feeds the hungry. Hold your head up high and look as the blind receive their sight, as the lame learn to walk again, as disease is healed, and as those held captive to their sins are set free.

Hold your head up high and look at the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

In the same way that John the Baptist told us to behold Him, so did the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate:

John 19:5 NIV

5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

(esv)

(esv)

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

See Him. Experience Him. Look at Him now and remember this day that occurred not quite two thousand years ago.

He has been betrayed. He has been abandoned by His followers and denied by His closest friends. He has been whipped by the Romans. Contrary to what you may have heard, the Romans had no “thirty-nine lash” limit when they were punishing someone who was not Roman. Jesus was beaten until the Roman soldier holding the whip grew tired.

They twisted a crown of thorns and pressed it into His head. And then Pilate brought Him forward and told us to behold Him. After all of that, Pilate declared Him “not guilty.” Just a Friday morning of Roman mockery, but the crowd wanted more. “What do you want me to do?” Pilate asked. “Take Him away,” they shouted. “Crucify Him!”

I know we cannot physically see Him today, but as best as we can in our mind’s eye, we look up and look upon Him.

(esv)

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

How can we look back at such suffering and death and be filled with joy inexpressible?

Because it is personal. It was for me, and it was for you.

(nlt)

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

Battered and beaten. Abused and abandoned, with only one motivation.

(esv)

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

His execution was ordered, and He carried His cross through the winding, narrow streets. He could not bear the cross on His own, so the Roman soldiers commanded someone else to carry it along the path.

The Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, was filled with shops and patrons, crowded like at no other time of the year; during Passover, Jerusalem’s population would swell by over 400 percent. The intention was not just crucifixion but humiliation. They were setting an example for any others who might be tempted to rebel against the power of Rome.

And then His body was laid down and attached to the beams of the cross by Roman nails.

(esv)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The New Testament writers would reflect upon the cross of Jesus and declare our sins canceled with the pounding of the nails.

In His wounds is healing. It’s a beautiful mystery—that the streams of blood from the lashing and the nails and the thorns would cover my sins.

Even God the Father turns His head from the sin that accompanies the suffering, and Jesus is left alone to die.

And a few moments later, He finishes this work and breathes His last.

To hold His suffering in your heart creates overwhelming gratitude and humility. It is almost impossible not to bow your head in sorrow and reverence.

Yet today, this is what we came to see, so we look upon Him.

This is what the writers of Scripture talked about. This is the reason we boast. This is the reason we hold our heads high.

(esv)

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.”

We determine to know nothing else but Jesus and Him crucified. We put our trust in nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness.

Today we hold our heads high and look to the cross.

This instrument of death became the cornerstone of victory for our lives. That is what makes this a Good Friday. That is why you can hold your head high today!

Hold your head high as He declares you forgiven.

Hold your head high as He bears every sorrow and every grief and every pain.

Hold your head high as He removes your guilt, your shame, and your penalty.

Hold your head high as the One who knows you by name and declares you “fearfully and wonderfully made”[2] boasts over you with joy, rejoices over you with shouts, and loves you without limits.

Hold your head high and know that not only is the cross empty but the tomb is empty too.

Hold your head high and declare . . .

(esv)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Hold your head high for nothing else but the cross of Jesus Christ.

[1] (nkjv).

[2] (ESV).