Good Friday

Facebook Post- April 8, 2023

I have studied the history of scourging and the Crucifixion as well as the associated medical aspects extensively over the years. They were a horror of untold and indescribable suffering. This will not be yet another essay on that topic. While Jesus’ physical sufferings were far beyond what any of us could imagine, there is something more, something far greater that we may miss when we read about His Passion.

There are two points in the Passion narrative that cause me to pause. They stand out glaringly, they trouble me, and evoke strong emotions when I ponder these events. I feel anxiety and sorrow arise, I want to scream out, “Flee Lord, we are not worth it!” The first can be found in Matthew 26:36-46, the Garden Prayer, and the other is in Matthew 27:46.

After the Passover meal with His disciples, He retreated to find solace in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. I have been there and it is a beautiful place. Some of the olive trees present today are believed to have been standing during His time. You cannot help but be moved by the beauty and the serene numinous experience of that place.

When they arrived, Jesus had eleven of His disciples with Him; Judas was about his business of betrayal. Jesus left eight of the men at one location in the Garden and took with Him Peter, James, and John. These three were His closest friends and followers. He took them along undoubtedly with the thought of having emotional support, as well as their providing intercessory prayer. We are told He moved a short distance away and offered His own prayers. We immediately note that these are not what one would deem “normal” prayers. These were prayers of passion, pleading, they were fervent prayers laced with deep emotion. Three times He asked for “…this cup…” to pass from Him, and in Luke we find that Jesus was in such distress that His “…sweat became like great drops of blood…”

In the Old Testament “cup” is often used figuratively to refer to pending wrath, God’s wrath. I cringe at the thought of God’s wrath, the Creator of the universe pouring out His anger upon me. Three times He asked for the “cup” to pass from Him, but He sought God’s will rather than His own. This was not acquiescence; it was complete surrender to the will of the Father. Some have speculated that He asked for this because of the impending suffering He would endure at the cross. I disagree with this view. Jesus’ mission from the beginning of eternity was to sacrifice Himself to redeem mankind. Jesus knew what the Old Testament said of the “suffering servant” and all He would endure. He was fully aware that He would be beaten till He was unrecognizable as a man, and He knew that the instrument of His death would be the cross. While the cross was a device used for capital punishment, its main purpose was suffering, it served as a warning, the great deterrent. What Jesus did not know was what it would be like to be separated from God the Father. This was a mystery to Him and something He could not imagine. Throughout eternity and during His life as a Man, they had been One. Thus, I believe “the cup” was not referring to physical suffering at all, but rather His fear of being separated from the Father. God’s wrath is always directed at sin and Jesus would literally bear the “cup” and become sin in a few hours. When that occurred, God would no longer be able to look upon Him. It was this that He feared.

If we move forward to Matthew 27:45-50; Luke 23:44-46; Mark 15:25-37; John 19:28-30 we find that at the third hour of the day they crucified Him and between the sixth and ninth hours darkness covered the land. It was in these last three hours where His worst fears were realized. God turned away from Him. When He could no longer bear the separation, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” Every time I read those words, I feel them in my soul.

We cannot fully understand His suffering, much less what He endured being abandoned. Throughout all eternity He and the Father had been together, but in those final three hours on the cross the Father could not look upon Him. For the first time in His existence, He could no longer sense God’s presence, He was utterly alone. Forsaken. The closest we can come to feeling what He felt is to imagine our closest loved ones in our greatest time of need, in the midst of our greatest distress abandoning us. We look out to those we love for support, comfort, and reassurance, and discover they are not there. They have turned their faces from us. We are alone. Forsaken. We must remember that it was for each of us individually that He went willingly to the Cross, suffering the horrors of scourging and crucifixion, but even more devastating, the separation from His Father.

2000 years ago, Good Friday was a great day of sorrow. There was nothing “good” about this day for Him. All of the ridicule, the scourging, being beaten till he was unrecognizable, the mocking of the soldiers, the hate from the crowds. Oh, how my soul grieves for Him. With sorrow and an endless stream of tears my soul is rent for Him because my sin, my sin was what sent him there, my sin nailed him to that cross. I weep at my own responsibility of putting him there. It was me! I try to imagine the revulsion He must have felt when all the ugliness, the foul things, the atrocities I have committed came flooding into his mind penetrating his sinless soul. My sin. Mine.

But it was His love for me that kept Him there. It was His love for me that He willingly took my sins upon Himself and bore the penalty of them all. It was His love for me that caused him to willingly submit to suffering the greatest tragedy and suffering of all,

“My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?!”

C. Klingle