“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
-Mark 15:34
Who can fathom what is taking place here? The eternal tapestry of the Trinity is being torn as Jesus “becomes sin for us,” taking the weight of humanity’s rebellion. “He Himself bore our sins in His body,” Peter tells us. And the sight of the sins of all redeemed humanity on His Son caused the Father to turn away in disgust and fury.
Here at the cross, Jesus did not just bear our sin; He bore the wrath of God that was directed at our sin. All of God’s holy anger at our lies, our lust, our anger, our envy, our murderous strife, our God-ignoring, self-exalting ways was focused on Jesus in those hours. “It was the will of the LORD to crush Him,” Isaiah observed seven hundred years earlier. The crushing blow that should have fallen on us—and will fall on all who do not fly to the cross for refuge—fell on Jesus that dark afternoon.
On the cross, the infinite and eternal Son of God bore the infinite and eternal punishment that our sins deserve. Hell broke into the present and consumed Jesus. Here we hear the cry of the damned, the cry that should have been ours: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This cry was on Jesus’ lips so that it would never be on ours.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Read or listen to the song, “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us”
Read the poem, “Satisfied” by Brendan Beale (http://blog.dailyverseonline.org/2009/04/satisfied.html)
Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday Meditation- Part 3
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.”
-John 19:26-27
This is yet another surprising encounter on the cross. Mary, we are told in Mark 6:3 and other places, had other sons and daughters. In the customs of the time, it would have been the responsibility of the other sons, in the event of the oldest son’s death, to care for their mother. But Jesus turns this custom on its head and entrusts his mother, not to his brothers, but to John, one of his closest disciples.
The reason for Jesus’ strange words is found in John 7:5- “Not even his brothers believed in him.” Later, of course, Jesus’ brothers would come to believe in him, and even author the biblical books of James and Jude. But here at the crucifixion, they are still unbelievers. Jesus does not want to entrust his mother to his unbelieving family, and so he gives her a new family: a family of believers, the church.
Jesus here is establishing the primacy of a new family, the church. He had alluded to this in Matthew 12, when his mother and brothers were outside wanting to talk to him. “Here are my mother and my brothers,” Jesus said, pointing to his disciples. “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
EXTEND THE LESSON
Spend some time praying for your family members, especially any who do not know Jesus.
-John 19:26-27
This is yet another surprising encounter on the cross. Mary, we are told in Mark 6:3 and other places, had other sons and daughters. In the customs of the time, it would have been the responsibility of the other sons, in the event of the oldest son’s death, to care for their mother. But Jesus turns this custom on its head and entrusts his mother, not to his brothers, but to John, one of his closest disciples.
The reason for Jesus’ strange words is found in John 7:5- “Not even his brothers believed in him.” Later, of course, Jesus’ brothers would come to believe in him, and even author the biblical books of James and Jude. But here at the crucifixion, they are still unbelievers. Jesus does not want to entrust his mother to his unbelieving family, and so he gives her a new family: a family of believers, the church.
Jesus here is establishing the primacy of a new family, the church. He had alluded to this in Matthew 12, when his mother and brothers were outside wanting to talk to him. “Here are my mother and my brothers,” Jesus said, pointing to his disciples. “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
EXTEND THE LESSON
Spend some time praying for your family members, especially any who do not know Jesus.
Good Friday Meditation- Part 2
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
-Luke 23:43
How costly are Jesus’ words on the cross! Grace to a thief, purchased at the cost of His own blood! I’m so thankful for this encounter, recorded for us in Scripture, because it shows more than practically any other story how much our salvation rests on grace alone.
This thief had done nothing to earn Paradise. In fact, he had earned the very opposite: a slow, painful execution. The other thief, on the other side of Jesus, had earned, deserved, and was getting the very same. But there was one difference, and it wasn’t this thief’s inherent goodness, or promise to follow Jesus: it was faith.
In that moment, hanging on the cross, he saw Jesus for who He really was. And his words were surprising: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Now THAT takes a lot of faith to say to a bloody, dying man. Looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, nobody would think, “Here’s a King about to inherit a kingdom.” Even Jesus’ own disciples had fled. But this condemned thief saw the glory of what Jesus was doing, and though all circumstances pointed to the contrary, he realized the truth: the Messiah was hanging next to him.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Read or listen to the hymn, “There Is A Fountain”
Jesus’ words to the thief are his words to you if you trust him. Read Revelation 21:1-7 and meditate on the Paradise prepared for you.
-Luke 23:43
How costly are Jesus’ words on the cross! Grace to a thief, purchased at the cost of His own blood! I’m so thankful for this encounter, recorded for us in Scripture, because it shows more than practically any other story how much our salvation rests on grace alone.
This thief had done nothing to earn Paradise. In fact, he had earned the very opposite: a slow, painful execution. The other thief, on the other side of Jesus, had earned, deserved, and was getting the very same. But there was one difference, and it wasn’t this thief’s inherent goodness, or promise to follow Jesus: it was faith.
In that moment, hanging on the cross, he saw Jesus for who He really was. And his words were surprising: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Now THAT takes a lot of faith to say to a bloody, dying man. Looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, nobody would think, “Here’s a King about to inherit a kingdom.” Even Jesus’ own disciples had fled. But this condemned thief saw the glory of what Jesus was doing, and though all circumstances pointed to the contrary, he realized the truth: the Messiah was hanging next to him.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Read or listen to the hymn, “There Is A Fountain”
Jesus’ words to the thief are his words to you if you trust him. Read Revelation 21:1-7 and meditate on the Paradise prepared for you.
Good Friday Meditation- Part 1
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
-Luke 23:34
This is astonishing mercy. Having been beaten, tormented, falsely accused, betrayed, and now nailed to a cruel instrument of execution, with soldiers gambling for his clothing and the watching crowd mocking in derision, Jesus utters these unexpected words: “Father, forgive them.”
I would probably have been consumed with bitterness and anger, overflowing from emotional pain and physical agony. When I stub a toe, I am likely to lash out. How much more so with the pain of crucifixion! But Jesus doesn’t lash out, and here in his first word from the cross, we see the mystery of mercy.
Here at the cross, we see the enormous cost of the forgiveness that falls, unbidden, from Jesus’ lips. Jesus is asking the Father to forgive them, at the cost of His own life. Think back to the other moments of mercy in Jesus’ life: the woman caught in adultery, the words of forgiveness to the paralytic, and more. All of those were only possible because of what is happening here. The only way the holy and just God could say to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more,” is because the condemnation would fall on someone else. The only reason Jesus can say to the paralytic, or to any of us, “Your sins are forgiven,” is because of the costly price paid at Calvary.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Read Isaiah 53
Read or listen to the hymn, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”
Pray for those in your life who you struggle to forgive. Then give them a call and work it out.
-Luke 23:34
This is astonishing mercy. Having been beaten, tormented, falsely accused, betrayed, and now nailed to a cruel instrument of execution, with soldiers gambling for his clothing and the watching crowd mocking in derision, Jesus utters these unexpected words: “Father, forgive them.”
I would probably have been consumed with bitterness and anger, overflowing from emotional pain and physical agony. When I stub a toe, I am likely to lash out. How much more so with the pain of crucifixion! But Jesus doesn’t lash out, and here in his first word from the cross, we see the mystery of mercy.
Here at the cross, we see the enormous cost of the forgiveness that falls, unbidden, from Jesus’ lips. Jesus is asking the Father to forgive them, at the cost of His own life. Think back to the other moments of mercy in Jesus’ life: the woman caught in adultery, the words of forgiveness to the paralytic, and more. All of those were only possible because of what is happening here. The only way the holy and just God could say to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more,” is because the condemnation would fall on someone else. The only reason Jesus can say to the paralytic, or to any of us, “Your sins are forgiven,” is because of the costly price paid at Calvary.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Read Isaiah 53
Read or listen to the hymn, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”
Pray for those in your life who you struggle to forgive. Then give them a call and work it out.
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