Good
Friday.
The day
of Our Lord’s suffering, passion, and death.
There are
not words enough to do justice to the pain and suffering and glory of this day.
However,
using very few words, the movie, The Passion of the Christ gives incredible
visuals of the torment and suffering that our Lord experienced all because of
His love for us.
This is
another day that contains so much detail and depth.
Barabbas
was chosen to be released over Christ.
This
choice was so that the Lord’s will would be carried out.
And the
passion of Christ begins.
Christ
was chained to a post and scourged.
His body
brutally beaten with cruel weapons.
Weapons
that sliced His sacred skin.
Weapons
that when thrown upon His body took a hold of His flesh
and
ripped it off of His body.
And He
went through this because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
A crown
on thorns was placed upon His head.
Actually,
people believe that it was more of a cap of thorns.
The 2
inch thorns were forced into the sacred head of Our
Lord.
Blood ran
down His face joining with the rest of the blood that covered His body.
And He
tolerated this all because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
Jesus
carried the cross to Golgotha .
The heavy
physical burden.
The wood
rubbing against Christ’s skin, irritating it even more.
The dirty
wood shoving splinters through Christ’s bloody ripped skin.
He falls
on the gravel three times.
The
gravel pushing up through the gaping wounds all over His body.
The
burden of the cross falling down with our blessed Lord.
He
carried His cross all because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
When
Jesus reached the place called Skull, He was rudely placed upon the cross.
Nails
that are thought to have been 7-9
inches long were hammered to Jesus’ feet and His hands,
just below the wrist.
A block
of wood was fastened to the cross under Christ’s feet which left His knees
slightly bent.
“Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The nails
driven through His hand and wrist area did not break a bone but they are
thought to have hit a major nerve that controlled movement and feeling of the
shoulders.
Because
of the strain on the nerve, Jesus lacked the ability to lift up His head to
breathe.
To be
able to breathe, Christ had to put force on His feet that were nailed onto the
block of wood so that He could force the rest of His body up to breathe.
He went
through this pain because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
The
soldiers mocked Jesus and made fun of Him.
They told
Him that He should save Himself.
And He
could have.
He is
God.
He can do
anything.
But He
chose to stay on the cross.
Obedience
brought Him to the cross
It was
love that kept Him there.
His love
for YOU.
Love kept
Him on the cross.
Staying
on the cross showed extreme humility.
His love
brought about humility.
He
humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
Jesus was
crucified between two criminals.
One on
His right.
One on
His left.
One
criminal joined in with the soldiers in mocking Jesus.
The other
one repented of His sins and asked for Christ’s forgiveness.
Confession.
Right
there.
On the
Cross.
“Amen, I
say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise .”
He
instituted the sacrament of confession and is gracious enough to forgive us of
our sin because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
Mary
standing at the foot of the cross.
Her pain
inexpressible.
Her
motherly desire to reach out and help her son was a desire like no other.
But She
could do nothing.
It was in
this moment that Her fiat was required to be a silent one.
Her yes
had to be quiet.
She could
only pray.
And then
listen to Her son when He said,
“Woman,
behold your son.”
He would
not leave His mother alone.
He will
not leave us alone simply because
HE.
LOVES.
YOU.
At about ,
The hour
of mercy,
in Jesus’
great pain and agony He cried out to His father,
“My God,
my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Jesus
then proceeded knowing that His time was almost finished and said,
“I
thirst.”
He was
given some wine on a sprig of hyssop.
This
completed the fourth cup of the Passover from the night before and Jesus said,
“It is
finished.”
Thus,
that line has many meanings.
The
Passover was now finished.
Christ’s
time on earth was almost finished.
The suffering
on the cross was almost finished.
Jesus
cried out in a loud voice,
“Father
into YOUR hands I commend My spirit.”
Jesus
bowed His head and died.
The earth
quaked and people came to believe.
“Truly
this was the Son of God!”
“This man
was innocent beyond doubt.”
This man
was innocent.
Yet He
was obedient to the point of death on a cross so that we might live.
Truly He
loved us.
Truly He
loves us.
And truly
He always will.
He gave
His life for us.
The least
we can do is live our lives for Him.
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*The
blog posts for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday were written on
2011. The original Good Friday blog post can be found here.
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