4-11-22<\/p>\n
By the reliable accounts, both historical and Biblical, there were few people gathered on the Jerusalem hill called Golgotha (\u201cthe Place of the Skull\u201d) around Passover when three condemned men were put to death. Roman centurions, mostly; and scattered relatives of the criminals. Even friends generally were afraid to be present, as the condemned were outcasts sentenced to die by the most heinous manner the Romans devised \u2013 bodies nailed and hanging on wooden crosses \u2013 and guards likely were looking for associates of the criminals.<\/p>\n
This day we now call Good Friday. Accounts differ about the name\u2019s origin: an evolution of \u201cGod\u2019s Friday,\u201d or Good because it was, in fact, good that Jesus died for our sins.<\/p>\n
As \u201cfully man and fully God,\u201d He could have halted the execution. He could have caused Pontius Pilate and the Jewish Elders to drop dead instead of their engineering His arrest and trial and torture. He could have summoned ten thousand angels to halt the crucifixion, and swept Him from the cross.<\/p>\n
But instead Jesus submitted. It was, after all, the main reason for the Incarnation \u2013 why God became man and dwelt among us; why He fulfilled prophecies in uncountable ways; why He proved His divinity by wisdom, by miracles, by healings. Why He had to die.<\/p>\n
In fact, for all intents and purposes, Jesus did not avoid, but figuratively climbed up that cross.<\/p>\n
I have noted that experts consider crucifixion to be one of the most torture-laden forms of execution. Beyond the pain of spikes driven through the limbs, and hundreds of splinters slicing the body that hanged on the cross, the crucified victim actually died of suffocation, as the weight of their sagging bodies, and pericardial fluids, choked the heart and lungs.<\/p>\n
Under Roman justice, the condemned usually were beaten or<\/em> crucified, not both. Jesus was bound, whipped, tortured, spat upon, beaten about the face and kicked; and had a crown of thorns thrust on His head. He was flogged with the Roman whips that had sharpened bones or filed metal tips on the thongs, so with each of many scourges, the skin was shredded. Jesus was made to carry His heavy cross (the patibulum to which His wrists would be nailed) through Jerusalem\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n When on the cross He suffered yet more. When He said He thirsted, a sponge with vinegar was thrust in His face. A mocking title was affixed over His head. He was goaded to save Himself, since He claimed to be the Son of God. I have written that the worst part of His suffering that Good Friday might have been the fact that His disciples, who had lived with Him for three years and seen the evidence of His divinity\u2026 deserted Him; hiding, not even around the foot of the cross.<\/p>\n Among the few there was His mother, Mary. \u201cBehold your son,\u201d He was able to say to her. Through tears, their eyes met.<\/p>\n If you and I could have been there, we would have seen how few people were present. Some artists, and recent movies like The Passion Of the Christ<\/em>, actually have presented an accurate depiction of the ugly hill, the forsaken site, the three crosses (other condemned criminals on either side), the centurions, and scattered onlookers.<\/p>\n In a real sense, however, you and I were<\/em> there. We, and all of humankind, were there during Holy Week, in fact. We would probably have welcomed Jesus on what we now call Palm Sunday; and we probably would have been part of the crowd several days later screaming for His crucifixion. Do you think you would have been any different than the average people in the city, driven to frenzy by lies, hate, and the leaders\u2019 persuasion? The effects of “Cancel Culture” are not new.<\/p>\n Also, we probably would have denied, betrayed, and deserted Jesus just as the Disciples did. I received mail after I recently wrote that. \u201cNot me!\u201d some wrote\u2026 but even Peter, who had spent a thousand days at Jesus\u2019s side, yet swore three times to officials that he didn\u2019t know this \u201cJesus.\u201d<\/p>\n No, you and I virtually were there, because when we sin, we offend God and justly deserve punishment. A perfect God cannot welcome us to His Heaven except that we are sinless\u2026 and that is what we become in His eyes when we accept Jesus\u2019s substitution. A \u201cGood\u201d and loving plan of salvation for us\u2026 all the more exquisite when we realize the agony God designed by having His Son take upon Himself all the sins of the world. But in the meantime every sin is a nail through Jesus’s hand.<\/p>\n It is no stretch to picture ourselves as present during Holy Week; gathered around the foot of the cross. We were there. We can imagine, quite easily, that this miracle-man, the Son of God, looked down from the cross, and through the ages, at each one of us.<\/p>\n He meets our eyes. He knows us.<\/p>\n And we look up. We meet His eyes. Do we know Him? There are times in our lives we have avoided His gaze; we too have denied Him, even betrayed Him. He has knocked on the doors of our lives, and we have not always answered or let Him in.<\/p>\n But He offers forgiveness. All He has ever asked is that we believe He is God\u2019s son and \u2013 as we see \u2013 is the sacrifice for our sins. And that He will be raised from death. His Blood, which we see in this imagining, is the payment for our guilt. This Calvary scene is, rather than awful, one of love \u2013 joy unspeakable and full of glory.<\/p>\n You have heard this: We ask Jesus how much He loves us; He says, \u201cThis much!\u201d and spreads His arms wide; and then they nail those arms to the cross, and He dies.<\/p>\n An old Negro Spiritual recreates the scene, and the urgent message to our souls:<\/p>\n Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
\nWere you there when they crucified my Lord?
\nOh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
\nWere you there when they crucified my Lord?<\/em><\/p>\n