Our beloved nation still continues to remember its Christian history. So we celebrate Good Friday as a public holiday. We remember the day Jesus died.
In Australia, we value our public holidays,probably because they are being whittled away. You can’t have them if they fall on the weekend, for example. But we still celebrate ‘Good Friday’ as a nation. But what is so ‘good’ about Good Friday?
We just had a reading from Luke’s Gospel. Luke, a first century researcher and historian, recorded these events for us. We have just read about the events that makes Good Friday ‘Good’.
But at first glance, the events of Good Friday were not good at all. It seems like the first Good Friday was a day that brought out the very worst from human beings: jealous plotting and conspiracy, a terrible miscarriage of justice, mockery and abuse, torture and death, and to top it all off, a violent judicial murder. These are not the values for which we wish to be known as a nation. Surely, we are not yet so corrupted to call all this ‘Good’.
In Australia we value justice and a ‘fair go’. We certainly didn’t see this on the first Good Friday! So where is the ‘good’ in ‘Good Friday’?
Luke has been building up to these events since chapter 9. Jesus prophesied that these things would happen to him. Jesus had asked the disciples, ‘And you, who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, 'The Christ of God'. And Jesus sternly commanded them not to say this to anyone, and said:
The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised up. (page 33)
This execution wasn’t carried out in a corner. There were many there to witness it, either to mourn or to mock. And some of those who mourned were the daughters of Jerusalem.
Jesus has spent his last week in Jerusalem. He has been teaching in the temple courts. And one of the things he has been teaching, even before he entered the temple, is that Jerusalem will be destroyed. Jerusalem will destroy Jesus, because that’s what Jerusalem does to all it’s prophets. But Jerusalem itself will be destroyed. And the temple, whose massive stones and beautiful adornments so amazed the disciples, will lie in ruins, not one stone remaining on another. Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles have been fulfilled.
And so now, as Jesus sees the women weeping over him, he bids them weep for themselves. For by rejecting the Christ, the beloved Son whom God had sent, Jerusalem was a doomed city. It did not recognise the time of its visitation. And Jesus is warning them that terrible days will come, where even their children will be treated with same cruelty. And in AD 70, Jesus’ words were fulfilled, when the city of Jerusalem, and the magnificent temple, 86 years in the making, was reduced to ruins.
But we see that Jesus is not alone when he suffers. Two criminals were also led out with him. And this fulfils a prophecy spoken 700 years before. The prophet Isaiah said, in chapter 53:12:
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus had himself quoted from this passage in the upper room at the last supper. He was considered as one of the outlaws.
Earlier in this chapter, Luke has already recorded that the crowd had the choice. Pilate had offered amnesty to only one man: Barabbas, the insurrectionist and murderer; or Jesus, the one who went around doing good and healing people and freeing those under the power of the devil, because God was with him. And of course, they asked for Barabbas. The righteous man is condemned, and the wicked goes free, because Jesus is numbered among the outlaws.
James and John had earlier asked for the places at Jesus’ left and right hand when he comes in his kingdom. But as the king of the Jews is crowned and lifted up before the people, those places are to be occupied by two criminals.
When Jesus was taken before Herod, Herod mockingly dressed him in shining clothes and ridiculed him. For the Herod family could never tolerate any rival. But no longer does Jesus of Nazareth even have the dignity of clothing. Roman procedure was to humiliate the condemned person by stripping naked those about to be crucified, to add to their humiliation. And so the soldiers divided Jesus' clothing by placing bets, and the people stood by watching.
And all of this fulfils king David’s words in Psalm 22, written a thousand years before.
Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psalm 22:16-18)
And once Jesus is in place, with the placard above his head-'This is the King of the Jews'-all that remains is to taunt and mock him. The leaders made fun of him, ‘He rescued others, let him rescued himself, if he is the Christ’. The soldiers mocked him. The offer him bitter wine, an undrinkable drink, and say, ‘Rescue yourself, if you are the King of the Jews’. Luke records that even one of the criminal mocked him: 'Aren’t you supposed to be the Christ? Save yourself and us.' And all of this mockery is of course in fulfilment of Scripture. For in Psalm 22 David had also written:
All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him." (Psalm 22:7-8:NIV)
Such mocking is ironic because of why Jesus had given himself up to death. For the night before he died, Jesus had redefined the Passover meal. It was no longer about the 'exodus' that occurred 1400 years ago, but about a new 'exodus'. It was not about the Old Covenant, but it was about a New Covenant. It was not a covenant ratified in the blood of bulls and goats, but one written in the blood of the only Son of God, a precious lamb without blemish or defect. It wasn’t about bulls and goats taking away sins. This 'exodus' was about Jesus’ body and blood that was given ‘for you’.
Jesus was saving others by not saving himself. As Peter would say later, ‘Christ died for sins, once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God’ (1 Peter 3:18 NIV). He was, on the cross, taking the penalty that our sins deserved. He was bearing the wrath of God in our place. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. Death and hell became his portion. As Paul would later say, ‘He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him’ (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). Or again, ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since then we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him?’ (Romans 5:8-9 NIV). Or as John said later, ‘This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin’ (1 Peter 4:10 NIV).
So it was by not saving himself, that Jesus was saving us. It was by submitting to death, even the death of a cross, according to the will of his Father, that the Son made atonement for our many sins. As Isaiah says, ‘We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him, the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6 NIV).
Matthew and Mark record that both criminals mocked Jesus. Undoubtedly this was true. But as is Luke’s want, he will record for us something extra, something that highlights God’s love for the outcast, the rejected, the sinner. And just as only Luke records for us the love of Jesus to the sinful woman in Simon the Pharisees house, or the extravagant love of the Father to the prodigal in the Parable of the Two Sons, or the salvation of the despised tax collector, Zaccheus, or the parable of the Pharisee who asks for nothing and the tax collector who goes down to his house justified because he received the propitiation and mercy that he asks for, so only Luke also records for us a wonderful story. Because of Luke, we have a marvellous story of a dying man who met the Messiah in the midst of mockery.
Both criminals crucified next to Jesus entered into their last hours mocking the Son of God, but one of them repented. And at some point during his mortal agony, this condemned and dying criminal changed his mind about Jesus. And he also changed his mind about himself. So Luke tells us what no-one else does, that one criminal repented, while the other continued his mockery.
And so as his fellow criminal abused Jesus saying, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be the Christ? Rescue yourself and us’, the repentant criminal rebuked his fellow.
Have you no fear of God? After all, you are under the same death sentence. Yet, we are here justly. We are receiving what we deserve for our actions. But he has done nothing wrong.
The repentant criminal stopped justifying himself. He stopped blaming the world, or society, or his parents, or whoever else he thought he could blame. He takes responsibility, and fesses up and says, 'No, what is happening to me is just. I deserve this death. I deserve to be tortured and executed in this barbaric way.' He changed his mind about himself and about Jesus. For that is what repentance is.
And friends, we too need to change our minds about ourselves. For we are under the same sentence as this man. We too are under the sentence of death. We are dead men and women walking. Our corridor might be a bit longer, our walk might be a bit more pleasant, but each of us is heading to the grave. And the bible tells us there is a sure and certain reason for this. ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23 NIV). We die because we sin. Our inevitable and oncoming death (unless Jesus returns first) is God’s verdict on our sinful lives. The Bible tells us that there is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. There is no one who does good, no, not even one (Romans 3:10-12 NIV). You are not good, I am not good. Only Jesus is good. When God looks into the human heart he sees that the inclination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil all the time even from childhood (Genesis 6:5, 8:21). That’s you and me.
And if death is not bad enough, there is worse to come. Man is destined to die once, and after that face judgment. We will face God, and have to give an account for our lives of rebellion lived rejecting and ignoring God. And it is Jesus himself who warns about hell as the punishment reserved for our wickedness.
They say there is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. And as this criminal looked at his oncoming death, he said, ‘We are being punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve’. But that dying man also saw something else as he hung up there on that first Good Friday. Not only did he see clearly his own guilt and sin, and not only did he see clearly Jesus’ sinlessness and innocence, but through the blood and mockery and nudity, he saw that Jesus’ was a king. He saw through the gore to the glory. This is why he said, ‘Jesus, please remember me when you come into your Kingdom’.
Here is a miracle upon miracles. This dying criminal realises that Jesus is in fact the king of the Jews. The sign above his head, intended for mockery, actually got it right. And Jesus will come into his Kingdom because he is the king of God’s kingdom.
And for Jesus, there was no crown, without a cross. There was no glory without shame. And this criminal seemed to understand this. He was able to look beyond what his eyes saw, and to see the glory of God in the face of the crucified Christ.
Do you? Do you see the cross of Christ as the glory of God. Can you see a king in the midst of the blood and guts and gore? Is the dying crucified Jesus a figure to be mocked, or worshipped? Is he to be taunted, or pleaded with? Is this message, the message of the cross, foolishness to you, or life itself?
Christians believe the brutal condemnation of Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago is the only way of salvation? Others believe it is an idiotic message parroted by idiotic preachers.
What about you? Is this message the power of salvation for you? Are you someone, who, like this condemned criminal, sees the glory of Christ in the cross, and sees beyond what his eyes see, but looks to Jesus with the eye of faith.
If so, then pay attention to what Jesus’ promises this penitent criminal. Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise!’. What awaits this sinful dying wretch, the crucified criminal? Not the hell which he deserves, not purgatory, about which the bible says not a word, but paradise, heaven, and Jesus.
This criminal will take it immediately: hence, 'today'. And he will take it in communion with Jesus his king and Christ, hence, ‘you will be with me’. He goes to be with Jesus, which is better by far.
And friends, this is the hope for all who see that Jesus is the Christ, and put their trust in his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins. Here is a conversion in extremis, a death bed conversion. The penitent thief showed true repentance. True repentance can be late. But be warned, it is said that late repentance is seldom true.
Why don’t you repent now, and avoid the last minute rush.
Are your sins scarlet? With Jesus, they will be whiter than snow. Are they more than the hairs of your head? With Jesus, they are put behind God’s back. Are they a burden to great for you to bear? With Jesus, that burden rolls away, and we have rest and forgiveness.
How can Jesus say such things? How can Jesus make such a sure and certain promise? After all, that criminal was a self-confessedly wicked man. How can Jesus say, ‘Oh well, you are forgiven?’ The answer lies in what Jesus was doing as he hung up there. And the events that occurred as Jesus died tell us what Jesus’ death achieved.
Darkness
Luke records that at midday on the first Good Friday, darkness came over the whole land. It was dark from 12 noon till three in the afternoon. Darkness during the day is a symbol of God’s judgment. In the exodus, God sent darkness on Egypt for 3 days. Now for three hours, God sends darkness over Israel as the Son of God dies. It is not just a symbol of God's judgement on the wicked judicial system, although that might be part of it. The darkness marks God’s judgement on Jesus himself. He who knew no sin was becoming sin for us. Jesus was bearing the punishment for the sin of the world.
Temple Curtain torn
Then at the point of Jesus’ death, ‘the curtain in the temple was torn down the middle’. The temple was basically a building that said, ‘Stop, you cannot come close to God’. You couldn’t come into the temple if you as a man had a bodily discharge, or if you as a woman had a period. All kinds of things made a person unclean. And even if you were clean, you still couldn’t approach God. If you were a non-Jew, you could only go into the court of the Gentiles, but no further. If you were a woman, you could go no further than the court of the women. Only ritually clean men of Israel could go into the courtyard of Israel to present their sacrifices. But they could not go into the temple itself. That was only for the priests. Nor could lay people go into the inner room, the most holy place, the holy of holies. For the temple had a curtain that separated the most holy place from the holy place. Into the most holy place, the holy of holies, only the high priest could go. The high priest of Israel could go in there only once a year, on the day of atonement. And he could do so only after offering sins for himself. And he went there to make atonement for the sins of the people.
But when Jesus died, that curtain was ripped down the middle. Elsewhere we are told that the tear was ‘from top to bottom’. In other words, God did it. God ripped the curtain down the middle.
What does all this mean? Well, as the author to the Hebrews teaches, Jesus is our high priest. He went through the real, heavenly temple. As he was dying on the cross, he was making atonement before God himself in the real holy of holies. He was the lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. It was his body that was the real temple. It was his blood that was the blood of the covenant. It was his death that was the real atoning sacrifice. And now through the death of Jesus Christ, all who have put their faith in Jesus Christ and obey him as Lord have access to God. We can now approach God, because of what Jesus did. As the author to the Hebrews says:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22 NIV)
With the death of Jesus Christ, the stone and wood temple was obsolete. It had served its purpose. It has now gone the way of the typewriter, the phonograph, the turntable, the gestetner, the floppy disc, travel by horse and cart, and other obsolete and outmoded technology. And then the Romans came along in AD 70 and demolished the temple. They were just cleaning up the mess. Jesus had already rendered the temple obsolete. And the Romans were simply the council clean up, taking away the rubbish.
For Jesus’ body, risen and now located at the right hand of God, is our temple. Jesus’ body is the place toward which we pray. Our prayers are answered because we pray through Jesus. That is why Jesus’ death ripped the temple curtain in two.
Committed to his Father
The last words of Jesus Christ that Luke records are ‘Father into your hands I entrust my Spirit’. Jesus committed himself to the one who judges justly. In other words, Jesus hung on to the fact that he was innocent. He was indeed the king of the Jews, the Christ and the Messiah. And he looked to God his Father to vindicate him. Human justice had completely failed Jesus Christ. He knew this would be the case. Yet he also looked to God to overturn the perversion of justice of the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and Herod.
In saying, ‘Father into your hands I entrust my Spirit’, he was appealing to a higher court, to God’s court. And in three days God would deliver his verdict. For the resurrection of Jesus Christ was his vindication and his justification. In three days, Jesus Christ will be declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead.
Death could not hold him down, because the wages of sin is death, but Jesus was sinless and innocent. He must be vindicated by being given indestructible resurrection life. And so Jesus last words, in to your hands I commit my Spirit, point to his mighty resurrection three days hence.
None of this is to say that Jesus did not have human testimony to his innocence. Neither Pilate nor Herod found Jesus Christ guilty of anything worthy of death. The repentant criminal added his testimony to theirs. And here at the very end, two others give their testimony.
The centurion who led the execution party had seen the whole thing. He had opportunity to see Jesus and to hear him as he spoke from the cross. And his conclusion is recorded by Luke. ‘This man was truly the righteous one’. Here is the gentile executioner glorifying and praising God because of Christ.
And the centurion gives us a heads up as to what will happen afterwards. For the news about Jesus' kingship and his death and resurrection for forgiveness will go out from Jerusalem.
In fact, Luke wrote a whole other book to describe how the message spread throughout the Roman world. And the centurion reminds us of the non-Jews, those who are far off, who will give glory and honour to God because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death. They will confess Jesus the holy and righteous one, who died not for his own sin, but for others.
The other was Joseph of Arimathea, a Jewish leader and member of the ruling council. Joseph’s inactions and actions spoke louder than his words. For he had not joined with the unjust verdict of the Jewish ruling council. And he bravely went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then he laid it in his own tomb.
Here were two very different men: an outsider to God’s people and an insider, one who lifted his hand against Jesus, and one who would not, a Gentile and a Jew. And both say, ‘Jesus was innocent'. ‘Jesus was a righteous man’. Jesus did not die for his own sins. For whose sins did he die? He died for ours. This is what makes good Friday good.
Allow me to close with some ancient words. They are not words from the bible, but they are words written around AD 150. They are the words of a Christian disciple, Mathetes, to Diognetus, as he thinks about the death of Jesus.
How surpassing is the love and tenderness of God! In that hour, instead of hating us and rejecting us and remembering our wickedness against us, He showed how long-suffering He is. He bore with us, and in pity He took our sins upon Himself and gave His own Son as a ransom for us – the Holy for the wicked, the Sinless for sinners, the Just for the unjust, the Incorrupt for the corrupt, the Immortal for the mortal. For was there, indeed, anything except His righteousness that could have availed to cover our sins? In whom could we, in our lawlessness and ungodliness, have been made holy, but in the Son of God alone? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable working! O benefits unhoped for! – that the wickedness of multitudes should thus be hidden the the One holy, and the holiness of One should sanctify the countless wicked!’[1]
This writer clearly believed Good Friday was good because the innocent died for the guilty. May you praise God today for the death of Jesus Christ with the same sentiments.
[1] 'The Epistle to Diognetes', in M Staniforth and A Louth, Early Christian Writings (Penguin: London, 1987), 147-8.