Isaiah 52:13--53:12
The Suffering Servant (Christ) is said to have made us righteous (v. 11). Comments by turn-of-the-20th century Christian businessman and Pentecostal missionary John G. Lake nicely explain this text: “The wonder is that Jesus purposed to make your heart and mine just as sweet and lovely and pure and holy as His own.” “All that Christ has is mine,” Martin Luther claimed (Luther’s Works, Vol. 17, p. 221). Famed medieval saint Catherine of Siena even more pointedly described the dynamics despicted in this lesson: “O eternal God, light surpassing all other light because all light comes forth from You! O fire surpassing every fire because You alone are the first that burns without consuming! You consume whatever sin and selfishness You find in the soul. Yet Your consuming does not distress the soul but fattens her with insatiable love... (In Her Words, p. 200).
Mark E.
Hebrews 10:16-25
I wonder why we call that Friday “good” when the Lord-of-all suffered a terrible, unbelievably painful death. If nothing else, that should show us how terrible our sins are! If there were even one sinless person on earth, then Jesus did not need to come! The horrible agony of the cross teaches us at least two things: 1) how great God’s love is for us, and 2) how horrible our sins must be to cause him to make that sacrifice. When we realize Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we can feel not only a wonderful sense of freedom from the punishment for our sins but also the “suggestion” that we take up our cross and follow him. There are still some crucifixions being done today in this world, but most of us don’t need to worry about that. When we read about the horrible, agonizing, long, drawn-out death you can suffer on a cross, it should give us pause to examine our faith to see how strong it is. I knew pastors in Nepal who were shot for their faith -- but bad as that is, it was still a much faster demise than on a cross.
Jesus put the law in our hearts and in our minds not so we can become good Pharisees trying to obey every word, but so that we will know how sinful we are and how no other sacrifice can free us. There were many animals sacrificed for each sin that was done, but then they went right on sinning and needed still more sacrifices -- over and over for the whole of their life back in Jesus’ day! But Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the one and only acceptable sacrifice for the heavenly Father. He made the last sacrifice that was needed, because it covered all sin from the beginning of time until today. If we believe and accept his sacrifice, then we only need the one sacrifice offered on that day so long ago.
Our next assignment is to encourage all our fellow believers. It is Christ’s church that gives you the opportunity to fulfill that assignment. Then we can pick up our cross and follow him. We find the support we need in our church to carry our cross, whatever it might be, but Jesus had to face it alone. Even his disciples fled!
One of the roles of a church is to encourage us to lay aside all the sin that clings to us, then to help others do the same, then to believe that our sins are forgiven -- especially when we come for the bread and wine which remind us what our forgiveness cost.
Bob O.
Hebrews 10:16-25
The prophetic words show that under the new covenant no place is left for the Levitical sacrifices. The Christian can therefore dispense with them without any loss. To be forced to give up their shadowy consolation is to be led to realize more practically the work of Christ.... Having established his theoretical view of the relation of Christianity to Judaism, as its complete fulfillment, the substances answering to the shadow, the writer of the epistle at once goes on to enforce the practical consequences of his conclusions. The privileges must be used: the duties must be discharged. The faith is not for speculation but for life. All the consolations of the Levitical system can be surrendered without loss; and they must be surrendered at once if they come in any way into competition with Christian obligation (Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, p. 317).
Frank R.
Hebrews 10:16-25
Hundreds of years ago on the south coast of China at the harbor of Macao, pioneer Portuguese settlers constructed a cathedral on a very high hill. They placed a huge bronze cross upon the front wall that stood starkly against the sky. They truly believed that this cathedral would weather time forever. But a typhoon came, and all but the front wall and cross was swept away as debris down the hill and into the ocean.
Centuries passed, and a ship was plunged against the coastal rocks and wrecked. Several passengers died, and others clung to safety on the remaining boards from the ship. One of the male passengers hung tightly onto the wreckage. He was moved up and down in the cresting of the ocean as the swells were moving. The man became disoriented and frightened and lost sight of the land. As he would crest on the swell of the waves he’d spot that cross, seeming tiny from a great distance. Finally Sir John Bowring, a political economist, linguist, governor of Hong Kong, poet, and hymn writer, was rescued. Later he wrote:
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round it head sublime.
When the woes of life o’er take me,
Hopes deceive, the fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me:
Lo! It glows with peace and joy.
Christ’s death on the cross on this Good Friday is a reminder that all of our sin, all of life that can crush us, all of our hopelessness can be transformed as we reach for the Christ who died for us! Rush to the cross and by his grace, his cross, his love we will be saved!
(story told in Kenneth Osbeck’s 101 Hymn Stories)
Derl K.
John 18:1--19:42
Most people aren’t aware that before the phrase “The Grateful Dead” was used by a rock band it was the title assigned to a whole class of folk stories about spirits who finally achieve rest when given a proper burial. Emotionally, there’s no question that proper care and burial of human remains is an essential part of most cultures, regardless of belief.
On Good Friday most of the attention is given, of course, to the trial, torment, suffering, and death of Jesus on the cross. But the burial of Jesus, one of the traditional Stations of the Cross, should not have happened. Following crucifixion, the bodies of the condemned were thrown into pits to be eaten by animals. It was as if the person never existed. This may be why archaeologists have discovered the remains of only one person who was crucified.
Which brings us to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who are part of a “Grateful Dead” story of their own. Despite the great risk involved associating themselves with a crucified corpse, and with no obvious reward (Jesus had not yet risen and his disciples certainly weren’t looking toward that), they come forward to care for the tortured body of Jesus. It’s all very public, including the very public picture of Nicodemus -- who so feared public opinion that he visited Jesus at night -- lugging a staggering amount of spices to the tomb.
Frank R.
John 18:1--19:42
Saint Augustine nicely captures the essence of the Good Friday story. He claims that only insofar as God’s power was concealed, “in his own goodness making good use of the wicked,” could he “transform the evil into the good” (Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 416). On the cross, he adds, “the Kingdom which was not of this world overcame that proud world, not by the ferocity of fighting, but by the humility of suffering” (Ibid., p. 425). An even older African theologian, Commodianus, calls the cross “the tree of life,” from which we can pluck all the good fruits we need to live (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 209). Eighteenth-century Italian mystic St. Paul of the Cross states even more directly what the cross can do in our lives: “The remembrance of the most holy Passion of Jesus Christ is the door through which the soul enters into intricate union with God.”
Mark E.
