Day 6: The Day of Sacrifice

 

What’s “Good” about Friday?

It’s the 6th day of Jesus’ final week, the day that we call “Good Friday”.  For us, that day represents the supreme sacrifice that Christ paid so that we could have eternal life.  On that day the plan that God had set in motion back in Genesis 3 came to fruition.  For Satan, it was probably a day of celebration, thinking that he had won the victory.  Little did he know that his so-called “victory” was short-lived.

When I think about that day, I give thanks for the sacrifice that Christ made on my behalf, but I can’t help but think about how Jesus felt on that day.  We’ve all read the accounts or seen the movie depictions of the terrible beatings that He endured, and we’ve heard of the cruelty of the Romans’ method of capital punishment.  However, there are two other aspects of Christ’s sacrifice that I think we brush aside all too quickly.

As Thursday night drew to a close, Jesus spent time with His Father.  Even then, He knew what lay ahead.  As part of the Trinity, He knew the plan from the beginning.  He knew that a false arrest, an illegal trial, a cowardly conviction by one who knew He was innocent, beatings, and one of the most brutal forms of capital punishment all lay ahead.  While as a human being, all of that seems more than any human could endure, I think other aspects of the plan caused Him to beg that the cup be lifted and made His anguish so great that He shed drops of blood.

What could cause the Son of God to be so distraught? First, He knew that His sacrifice would require Him to bear the sins of the whole world!  When I sin, I know how those sins weigh me down. I know the anguish of feeling distant from God until I am ready to repent and seek His forgiveness.  I can’t imagine the agony of bearing the sins of all people for all time.  That is a burden that I don’t think any human mind can fathom.

That weight alone would be enough to ask that the cup be taken away, but an even greater burden, I think, was the knowledge that in bearing those sins, He would be separated from the Father for a time.  God is a holy God.  He cannot tolerate sin, so as His Son bore the sins of the world, He was forced to turn His back, leaving Christ to cry out from the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27: 40) As Christians, even a short separation, created by our own sinful nature, creates turmoil in our soul.  It is a turmoil that cannot be quieted until we repent, and our relationship is restored.   When Jesus paid our debt, both He and the Father experienced that excruciating separation, causing a pain that is beyond our understanding.  They willingly endured that pain for us – you and me! 

Where’s the “good” in Good Friday?  It is the day that God’s mercy, grace, and love were poured out on sinful, stubborn, unfaithful people so that God could restore them to Himself.  It’s the day that the Trinity endured separation so that the price for our sins could be paid in full.  It is the day that God defeated Satan for all eternity.

Thank God for “Good Friday!”

Matthew 26: 36 – 44; 27: 46

Mark 14: 32 – 39

Luke 22: 39 – 44

John 19: 28 - 30

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