THE WAY OF THE CROSS
They’re hurting him. Make them stop," cried 4-year-old Caitlin as she watched the Easter cantata. She stared w\wide eyes as Jesus was beaten, mocked, & crucified.
Earlier she had danced and sang as Christ healed the brokenhearted, forgave sins, and provided for the poor. But now as she watched the sacrifice needed to do all of these things, she didn’t try to hide her horror. "Mommy, they aren’t being nice." "I don’t like this." It’s okay Caitlin Jesus will be okay its just pretend
But maybe we can learn something from Caitlin We shouldn’t move too fast to Easter Blowing right past Good Friday
Two thousand years ago, it wasn’t pretend. Stop for a moment and ponder that thought. There was a day in history when this crucifixion was very real.
Do you smell the sweat on Jesus’ skin after a long night of prayer and pleading with His heavenly Father? Do you allow yourself to hear the buzzing of the flies as they crawl on the Savior’s wounds?
1. Consider the way of the cross for Jesus
Jesus knowing what was coming has been to the garden He sees the enemies assembling, knows the evil to come Struggles to the very core of his being asks for another way
But then embraces God’s way
And that way includes being publicly humiliated Taken from his friends none of whom stand with him Peter grabbed the sword and took off a soldier’s ear. Peter was more than willing to fight, but not to give up. It was silly and beneath him Tried before a jury who already has it’s mind made up Crucify him
He is surrounded by shady characters Soldiers rip away his clothes and gamble for them He is beaten almost to death then God sees the son surrounded by two sin
As Jesus hung on the cross, persons at the foot of the cross made statements that made sense from a human perspective. “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Then we will believe you.” Sounds like a pretty fair proposition on the surface. But the problem was that Jesus had already proved who He was over and over again. Those at the foot of the cross that were making those statements had no interest in placing their faith in Jesus. Bible doesn’t record it, but I can hear others at the foot of the cross saying things like, “What a waste! He was such a good man. He had so much to teach us. He healed so many people. And now He hangs on a tree, dying as a common criminal.
Feeling abandoned and alone. But sees even more the two thieves covered in sin
Cry of abandonment
Psa 13:1-4 NIV How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
2. But it is called “Good” Friday
What’s so Good About it?
good (good) adj. bet’ter, best I. a general term of approval or commendation 1. suitable to a purpose; effective; b) producing favorable results; beneficial
The amazing thing about Good Friday is that it was - and is - part of the “good” declared by God at creation. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV). The fall was not good; sin, disobedience, suffering is not good. But God’s purpose in creation, and the redemptive drama that ensued, was – and is – good.
Some talk of suffering God knew humans would experience by creating them & giving them free will, so God has placed a burden on human life. What is less noticed is how God always knew of Good Friday. In the rapture of creation, the cross loomed large. Yes, there would be suffering, but none more so than for God Himself.
C.S. Lewis writes: God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing – or should we say “seeing”? there are no tenses in God – the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a “host” who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and “take advantage of” Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.
What an ultimate “good” this must have been; declared at creation, consummated on Golgotha. But it wasn’t a good designed for God; there is no good to be added, or deficit to be addressed, in His being.
It was a good for us.
Many books portray the heart of God toward us as a lover pursuing the beloved. Soren Kierkegaard, who first fashioned the popular analogy. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist – no one dared resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him, or course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For its only in love that the unequal can be made equal.
Yes, this is the heart of God, and He is on just such a mission. But the deeper truth lies in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. We are not a beautiful maiden. There is nothing becoming in us whatsoever. Instead, we are desperately criminal, and the only rescue grace would bring would demand storming the Bastille in which we are rightfully held. This is precisely what He did. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8-9, NIV),
It was one of those news stories that just makes you sick. A 10 year old boy had a father who stuffed tissue in his T-shirt, covered the boy in lighter fluid and then set him was alledgedly set afire by his father doesn’t that just disgust you? How much more God feels that after all his law is being broken. His children are being abused
The question is not couldn’t God just look over sin? Instead it is how in the world is forgiveness an option
Sin is not an unfortunate slip or a regrettable act, it is defiance against God
The thief’s ravings, his cursings his greed his sin, all now covering Jesus, what nauseates God now covers his son.
“The cross is the one place on earth, where in a moment of time, we see the eternal love of God.” (Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, p. 312).
Crowd cringes at sight of blood on their skin God laments over darkness in their hearts
Alfred Plummer wrote, Jesus “was held, not by the nails, but by His will to save them” (Plummer, An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Matthew, p. 397).
In Mel Gibson’s Movie, “The Passion of Christ” there is an obscure detail in the crucifixion scene that probably goes unnoticed by most people, but it is a detail that says so much. When Jesus is being placed on the cross, the camera comes close to watch as a large spike is positioned in the middle of Jesus’ hand. Then, a mallet comes into focus, and a rugged hand swings it to drive the spike. Those are all things you expect to see. But there is something you don’t see. You never see the face of the one who drives that nail. You never get a glimpse into the eyes, or heart of the one who so assuredly pounds away until the spike has passed through Jesus’ flesh and comes to rest in the wood of the cross. You might be interested to know that the person who plays that role in the movie is the director himself, Mel Gibson. But why does he never show the face of the one who put Jesus on the cross? Why does he not give us the identity of the one who had the gall to put the Son of God to death? He didn’t show us that face because that face was his. It was ours. We are the ones who put Jesus to death. It wasn’t the Romans. It wasn’t the Jews. It was our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross.
Stuart Robinson says ‘Jesus modeled what it means to have a missionary heart in coming to earth, to seek us out. His cultural sacrifice, of giving up heaven to save humanity, is the apex of missionary strategy. If He could give up the glories of heaven, we could give up Western dress, Western views of gender roles, and Western ways of thinking to reach the people for whom Jesus died.”
Sacrifice will cause others to believe you. “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39) “Jesus, remember me . . .” (Luke 23:42)
And that’s an even better story. And it’s the one story that the world does not already have, and most needs to hear.
