There is a single day in history that has meant more to me than any other. More than the dates of my own birth, my own marriage, my high school or college graduation, the birthdates of my children – the Friday that Jesus willingly approached death on that cross over 2,000 years ago, was the single most important day in my life. And I didn’t even recognize it for most of my life.
Like many other people around me, walking around in blindness, I failed to acknowledge the significance of that historical event and it’s offer to humanity.
In the Gospels, we know that Jesus set out resolutely to Jerusalem, (Luke 9:51). He was intentional and deliberate to fulfill God’s plan for salvation, for us! He KNEW what He would have to endure. He KNEW ahead of time that He would be betrayed, denied, mocked, spit on, beaten, and crucified. And yet, He went – spreading the good news of God’s kingdom and teaching His disciples how to do the same.
Jesus celebrated that year’s Passover feast with His disciples. The feast celebrating the Exodus commencement – Israel’s miraculous redemption story from Egyptian bondage. Exodus, the event that included the ten plagues that God inflicts on Egypt when Pharaoh won’t let God’s people leave to worship Him. That plague that caused the death of the first-born son in each household, except for those households covered by the blood of a sacrificial lamb – the Angel of Death passed over those houses. That event frees the nation of Israel from Egypt and leads them through the Red Sea and to Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and enter into a covenant relationship with the God that saved them.
But now, Jesus tells His disciples at this celebration… This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
He KNEW that our own miraculous redemption story was about to get tough. Before His betrayal in the garden, Jesus withdrew from His disciples to pray.
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Luke 22:42-44
We hear that Jesus ‘took on’ the sins of the world… Not just the time Peter might have fibbed a little about paying the temple tax or the denials Peter made the next day, but all of it – Cain slaying Abel, the neighbor women cooking a child to eat during a famine, David orchestrating Uriah’s death, the people who ‘are just doing their jobs’ as they turn on operations in the gas chambers, the murders, the rapes, the physical and verbal abuse we sling at one another. The stealing of a loaf of bread to feed our family or the destruction of someone else’s property because we’re angry or envious. What about the bitterness we carry because we can’t or won’t forgive someone? The lies that come out of our mouths even when we’re just repeating lies that we’ve heard from someone else, did he take those, too? What about our sharing deceptions that are culturally acceptable, but contrary to Scripture? How about our continuing to ignore Him and His sacrifice because in our sinful pride, we think we know better? Did He need angels to strengthen Him when He took on my lies… my sins… my prideful, willful disobedience and denials?
Was His anguish and His sweat like drops of blood because of the weight of my sins? 💔 (I remember how heavy they were before I brought them to Him; the guilt and shame led me to anguish, too.)
Oh Lord Jesus, my savior, my king, your love is amazing. Thank you for being the Lamb of God that shed Your blood to remove my sin. Sometimes, I think I can just barely grasp why I need an eternity with You in Heaven, because I don’t know how long it will take me to get off my face once I’m in Your presence. 💞And then, you remind me, I’m already there. 💞
The wages of sin is death and You, Jesus, paid a debt you didn’t owe, because I owed a debt I couldn’t pay.
YES!!! THAT was a GOOD FRIDAY. And so, is today.