Scripture Reading: John 18:28-40, John 19:1-42, Psalm 103:10-11
In his book The Cross of Christ, theologian John Stott poses the question: Who killed Jesus? Who was it that delivered Him to be crucified on the cross? Was it Judas, who handed Jesus over to the religious leaders? Was it Annas and Caiaphas, who handed Him over to Pilate? Was it Pilate and his cowardice that led to Jesus’s demise, or was it the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus’s wrists and feet to the cross? Who killed Jesus? Who is ultimately responsible for His death?
Is it us?
Was it not my sin, your sin, and that of Pilate, Judas, the religious leaders, and every generation that came before us and will come after us that nailed Jesus to the cross? Well, yes, it was. But it was not our sin alone. For as Stott quotes Octavius Winslow saying, it was “not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy;—but the Father for love.”
In today’s reading, I see the Father’s love in every instance that the Apostle John takes a moment to remind us that the events surrounding Jesus’s death were to “fulfill the Scripture.”
To fulfill the Scriptures, Jesus garments were divided (John 19:24).
To fulfill the Scriptures, Jesus made His descent to death with the words, “I’m thirsty” (v.28).
To fulfill the Scriptures, none of Jesus’s bones were broken (v.36).
Though it may seem that Jesus was being passively shuffled from the hands of Judas to Annas to Caiaphas to Pilate and the Roman soldiers, God was in control over it all.
We also see the heart of Jesus too. When every last word in the scriptures concerning Him was fulfilled, Jesus laid down His life. He drank the sour wine, definitively proclaimed His work finished, and decisively “gave up His Spirit” for love (v.30).
Beloved, at the cross, we not only see the magnitude of our sin. We also see the magnitude of God’s love. We encounter a God who uses His wisdom, power, and glory to ensure that everything works out in accordance with His will for our salvation.
Written by Yana Jenay Connor
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3 thoughts on "Good Friday"
Im astonished at how Jesus can lay his life down voluntarily for the same people who were turned against him, the crowd around him watching his life seep away and the people throughout history to now who he continues to lay his life down for. Perhaps it is because I am trying to frame this act through human eyes, but this was the turning point in history, the point that turned him from a fantastic man with the ability to perform.miracles to the Son of God, and there was no way of denying it after this!! Thank you Jesus!
❤️
“What I have written, I have written.”
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Pilate’s words are so very profound, aren’t they?