Week 4 - Death
“The Crucifixion
And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The Death of Jesus
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.”
March 8-14
Have you ever wondered why the church has, for many centuries, marked the day of Jesus’ death on the cross as Good Friday? What is Good about the condemnation of an innocent man, an impoverished itinerant preacher from Nazareth who is brutally executed via Roman crucifixion? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) What is Good about the voices of humanity rising in unison to shout “Crucify him, crucify him”? What is Good about the day the Lord of all history tasted the sting of death? What is Good about the day the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, cried out “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Friday is Good because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) It is Good because Jesus paid the price for your sin and my sin — “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6) — through his death on the cross. It is Good because of what Jesus accomplished through his substitutionary atonement — our justification: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) It is Good because we have been redeemed from the curse of the law: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by be- coming a curse for us — for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13) It is Good because Jesus’ work on the cross fulfills John the Baptist’s prophecy: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29) Indeed, Friday is Good because we can confidently proclaim The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, as in John Owen’s classic exposition of the saving power of the cross.
It was through death that Jesus ultimately conquered sin, death and hell. On Good Friday, the 500th since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, let us drink deeply of the awesome sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us meditate on the depth of God’s love for us as revealed in the substitutionary atonement: Christ died specifically for you and for me, in our place, for our sin. He paid the penalty that we rightfully deserve as the punishment for our wicked rebellion against a perfectly Just and Righteous God who hates sin. In his first Theses, Martin Luther declared: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Let us repent of our sins of commission and omission and find forgiveness in and through Jesus’ death on the cross. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
William Cowper, the English poet who suffered debilitating bouts of depression for much of his life, penned these poignant words after finding forgiveness in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt. May we remember and treasure the reason Friday is Good in the light of Cowper’s hymn:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains...
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away...Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more....
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die...
How are we to respond? Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24-26: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Jon Hoddenbagh
Questions to Ponder:
What do you need to repent from?
What do you need to put to death in order to follow Jesus more closely?
What idols of the heart (relationships, money, power, status, comfort, reputation) do you need to crucify?
What are you trusting in for salvation?
How do God’s infinite Justice and Mercy come together on the cross?