There is a lot more to Good Friday than meets the eye. Good Friday isn’t just a day to get off work and take a break. It is the day our Savior gave up His life for us. Good Friday is the day that He was turned over to Pilot for questioning. Pilot asked the crowd which one they wanted to release after he found nothing wrong with Jesus. The crowd chose Barabbas. It is the day that Jesus died for all of mankind on the cross to save us from the punishment hat we rightfully and justly deserve- eternal damnation in Hell for all of the sins we have committed.
Jesus who had done nothing wrong had to decide to willingly and lovingly give up His life for us in the most horrific beatings. The beatings He took are more than any Hollywood depiction could ever allow us to see. Even Mel Gibson’s movie the passion of the Christ doesn’t do the real beatings that Christ received, justice. No matter how gruesome the beatings were, it doesn’t even come close to the real beatings our Lord and Savior received.
Mathew 26:15-30 recounts some of the events leading up to Jesus’s death. 15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him. 19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered.22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!”23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”
Jesus went through what He went through on good Friday in order for us to have the opportunity to have salvation and a chance for eternal life with Him in Heaven. How cool is it to know that He took our punishment upon Himself and suffered whipping, bleeding, and ultimately, death for every single one of us on the cross? No one but God has ever been that generous in our lives. Jesus knew even before He was born that He would end up dying on the cross. To think that He went to the cross and died for us with love on His mind, and He did it willingly. That must have taken Him a lot of courage.
He even prayed in the garden that the cup of sorrow would be taken away from Him, if it was God’s will. But He knew He would have to die to save all of us. He died so that each one of us could become clean again and become right with God. He offers us eternal life and eternal salvation with Him and His Father freely.
Mathew 26: 38—39: 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus was so stressed out in the garden that he sweat blood. No other human being in history has been that stressed to the point of sweating blood.
God knew Jesus had to die for the world’s sins. He knew He even had to turn His back on His only son until He died. Jesus even said in Luke 23:46 “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”. In Mathew 27:46 he said “my God my God why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus who had done nothing wrong had to decide to willingly and lovingly give up His life for us in the most horrific beatings. The beatings He took are more than any Hollywood depiction could ever allow us to see. Even Mel Gibson’s movie the passion of the Christ doesn’t do the real beatings that Christ received, justice. No matter how gruesome the beatings were, it doesn’t even come close to the real beatings our Lord and Savior received.
Mathew 26:15-30 recounts some of the events leading up to Jesus’s death. 15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him. 19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered.22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!”23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”
Jesus went through what He went through on good Friday in order for us to have the opportunity to have salvation and a chance for eternal life with Him in Heaven. How cool is it to know that He took our punishment upon Himself and suffered whipping, bleeding, and ultimately, death for every single one of us on the cross? No one but God has ever been that generous in our lives. Jesus knew even before He was born that He would end up dying on the cross. To think that He went to the cross and died for us with love on His mind, and He did it willingly. That must have taken Him a lot of courage.
He even prayed in the garden that the cup of sorrow would be taken away from Him, if it was God’s will. But He knew He would have to die to save all of us. He died so that each one of us could become clean again and become right with God. He offers us eternal life and eternal salvation with Him and His Father freely.
Mathew 26: 38—39: 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus was so stressed out in the garden that he sweat blood. No other human being in history has been that stressed to the point of sweating blood.
God knew Jesus had to die for the world’s sins. He knew He even had to turn His back on His only son until He died. Jesus even said in Luke 23:46 “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”. In Mathew 27:46 he said “my God my God why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus gives us the first true example of dying for the ones He loved more than Himself and even more than life itself. Even the verse from John 15: 13 “ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
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