Good Friday!

We are entering the space in between. The three days after Jesus was crucified but yet to rise. The three days His disciples had been told about, yet did not understand.

Can you imagine the time the twelve spent with Jesus, the miracles they saw, the conversations they had, and now, after His descent down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, Jesus spent the week trying to explain His coming death, washing their feet, teaching them how to love one another so all will know the love of the Father, promising a ‘helper’ in the Holy Spirit, speaking of a betrayer and denial….it must have all felt so conflicting! We want to think they should have understood, after all, they heard it from the literal mouth of Jesus!

Today is Good Friday. The day, all those years ago, that Jesus was arrested, beaten, and crucified. Just before His arrest He had gone to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. The hour of His death was upon him, yet Jesus prayed, first for Himself that the Father would be glorified together with the Son in his finished work on earth. Next He prayed for His beloved disciples, that God would keep them, fill them with joy, protect, and sanctify them. Last, He prayed for us, all believers. Jesus was about to be lead off to die a most horrible death, and spent His last free moments praying for all who would ever believe in Him through the Word of God, that we would be made perfect in Him, that through us the world may know the Father sent the Son, and that we may know God loves us as He loved Jesus. (John 17)

After Jesus prayed, the troops arrived, Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, and He was arrested. Jesus was taken to the High Priest, Peter denied Him three times just as Jesus predicted, and then He was taken to Pilate, where He was questioned. Pilate, although he did not like Jesus, found Him to be not guilty and attempted several times to release Him, but the people would NOT have it. Remember, just a few days ago they all hailed Jesus as King, laying their clothes and palms in front of Him as he triumphantly rode the donkey colt into town, and now they shout “crucify Him” over and over until Pilate, afraid to go against the mob, washed his hands of them and gives them Jesus. (John 18)

So, He was beaten, mocked, and nailed to the cross. The skies went dark over all the earth for three hours as the Father turned His face away. His perfect Son took on the sins of the world, then Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished” and breathed His last breath.

In His innocence He hung there and died for my sins, and yours, so that we might have the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins, as He says in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. This redemption is only made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

His body was lovingly taken down from the cross, wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb, where a stone was rolled in front of the heavily guarded opening.

It seemed the story was over. The disciples mourned in hiding, the women prepared oils and spices for His dead body, and because of the Sabbath, they waited.