Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this historic day which is still shaping our world, 2000 years after it happened! Many people call this “Good Friday”. It’s the day which honors the memory of the violent crucifixion of Jesus Christ. So I have these questions for us:
1. What does this day mean to you?
2. How is Good Friday affecting your part of the world, wherever you live… today?
3. How has YOUR life been affected by what this day memorializes?
All four Gospel writers give us their perspective of what happened on this day. Matthew gives us lots of unique detail, looking at this day through the eyes of a Jewish man who had given up his tax collecting business and followed Jesus closely for several months. Matthew gives us some very graphic descriptions.
The movie “The Passion of the Christ” was based largely on Matthew’s account of this unique, world changing, horrible day. If you’ve never watched that movie, while it’s very, very graphic, I urge you to view it, as it will give you, I believe, an accurate understanding of what happened to Jesus on this day.
Mark, was likely a young teenager on this day, but he was fascinated by Jesus. Perhaps he’d made every effort to be part of the crowds whenever Jesus was in Jerusalem, where Mark lived. There’s one very interesting statement in Mark’s account of this day, which many Bible scholars believe is “autobiographical”.
Mark wrote of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Judas, one of the 12, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests…Going at once to Jesus, Judas said “Rabbi”…the men seized Jesus… then everyone deserted Him and fled. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.“ (Mark 14:43-51)
Many believe this young man, fleeing naked into the night, was Mark, running back home, hoping to sneak back into his mother’s house without being noticed! Now watch this my friends. Into that same home came the Apostle Peter one night, a few years later. Peter had been imprisoned and he was scheduled for execution because he so boldly preached of Jesus. But Peter was freed by an angel that night, and Peter ran directly, in the middle of the night, to the home of this Mark, where his mother Mary had called a prayer meeting and many people were gathered praying for God’s intervention in Peter’s injustice! (Acts 12:12)
At this same time, the Apostle Paul had come to Jerusalem, bringing a large financial gift from the Christians in the city of Antioch, Syria for the Christians in Jerusalem, who were under great persecution and experiencing a famine in their region. (Acts 11:27-30) As their visit was concluding, the Apostle Paul, then known as Saul, and Barnabas, were spending an evening of prayer and fellowship at this same home of Mark and his mother Mary.
They asked Mary, if they could invite her son Mark, to accompany them on their first missionary journey! Evidently she said yes, and this young man Mark, who had fled into the night from the Garden of Gethsemane a few years before, went with Barnabas and Paul to take this Gospel of Jesus to places where the name of Jesus had never been heard! (Acts 12:25-13:5)
Years later, this Mark traveled with the Apostle Peter on his missionary journeys, and thus Mark wrote his brief account of Jesus both based on his own teenage perspective of Jesus, as well as what he learned from both the Apostles Paul & Peter in his travels with them.
Dr. Luke never saw nor met Jesus, but he traveled with the Apostle Paul for several years, and personally interviewed many of those who were Jesus’ closest friends, as he was then led by the Holy Spirit to write his account of Jesus’ life. (Luke 1:1-4)
As a Greek physician, we can imagine Dr. Luke wrote of the horrible beatings Jesus experienced, His crucifixion, His death and burial and His resurrection, from the perspective of a doctor who had traveled much of the Roman world with Paul and heard Paul preach, repeatedly, the powerful Gospel of Jesus, which of course is all rooted in the events of this Good Friday.
And then there’s our friend John. No one knew Jesus like John. The past three days we’ve looked briefly at the extensive 5 chapters John gives us about Jesus and His disciples in the upper room that Thursday evening. John alone gives us the words of the powerful prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples recorded in John 17.
When the other disciples all fled into the night as the soldiers grabbed Jesus in the Garden, John, along with Peter, followed the soldiers and Jesus to his trials that night. After Peter denied Jesus and stumbled shamefully into the shadows, John was the only disciple who continued, faithfully, to follow wherever they took Jesus that night, watching all the horrible things which were done to Jesus.
By Friday morning, John went and found Mary Magdalene, and Mary Jesus’ mother, and he brought them to the public place where Pilate asked the people what they wanted done with Jesus. “Crucify Him” was their shouted demand! John tried to comfort the Mary’s as they watched Jesus sentenced to death by crucifixion and given His cross to carry.
John and the Mary’s followed the crowd, all the way to Golgotha, and John was there, at the foot of Jesus’ cross, comforting Mary His mother and Mary Magdalene, all through that horrific Friday, till the emaciated, dead body of Jesus was finally removed from that cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, both Pharisees who had believed in Jesus.
John and the Mary’s followed them as they took Jesus’ body to Joseph’s tomb in the garden, and then finally John took the women to the home where they were staying these Passover days in Jerusalem. And then John went to grieve alone. None of them had any idea what the future would hold…for them, for Jesus, or for the world!
My “Walking with Jesus” friends, I feel led to spend both today and tomorrow, looking at the record these four Biblical writers give us of that ‘Good Friday’. Of course the only reason this Friday is “good” is because what Jesus accomplished in His atonement death, makes it possible for God to forgive us of our sin / save us from our sin condemnation / reconcile us back into relationship with Holy God / adopt us into His family / place His Holy Spirit within us so we live in vibrant relationship with resurrected Jesus every day here on earth / and give us God’s assurance that at the moment our earthly bodies die, our souls and spirits are immediately ushered into God’s presence in heaven.
All this God accomplishes in us IF we have trusted in Jesus Christ and the truth of what HE accomplished this ‘Good Friday:!
So let’s walk with Jesus through this horrible night. John writes: “When Jesus had finished praying, He left (the upper room) with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side was an olive grove…Now Judas who betrayed Jesus knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples.” (John 18:1,2)
Their heads were spinning. These men who had been with Jesus for several months, had experienced a Passover meal like never before. The things Jesus had said, about Himself, about the Holy Spirit, about the mission God the Father had sent Him to accomplish on earth, about their future relationship with Jesus. It was all beyond their ability to comprehend, at least right now. They had so much to think through.
Matthew tells us Jesus left 8 of the disciples as they entered the garden, asking them to wait there and think about all He had told them, while He took Peter, James and John further into the garden. Jesus had a special relationship with these three, and what He told them was shocking, even for them: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” (Matt. 26:38) ‘Overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’? They’d never heard Jesus say anything like that before!
As they watched Jesus go further into the garden, alone, I wonder if Peter nudged John and asked him ‘what do you think Jesus meant by that? We’ve just had a wonderful time together in the upper room, why is He now in such agony? What am I missing here?’
They had much to think about… all that Jesus had said in the upper room, and the prayer He had prayed over them was profound, and now this soul shaking, urgent request to keep watch with Him in this peaceful garden of prayer?! What does it all mean? They didn’t understand, in fact they didn’t have the foggiest idea what Jesus was experiencing, wrestling with, battling that evening! Jesus’ soul was experiencing something GOD had never experienced. Now think about that friends!
Then Jesus went even further into the garden where He, the Son of God again met with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus needed clarity from the Father and strength from the Holy Spirit as the battle raged. Satan was determined to stop this Redemption plan of God and hold the human race in our sin bondage, condemned to eternity in hell. Matthew writes: “Going a little further into the garden, Jesus 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.” (Matt.26:39)
Let’s sit quietly in the garden shadows… do you understand the agony Jesus is experiencing in this moment? He can see everything of all eternity past, everything! He fully understands what is brewing in the minds of Judas, the religious leaders, Pilate, Herod. He can see all that will happen to Him over the next few hours… every whip lash, every fist punch, every curse thrown at Him, every lie told about Him, all the rejection and hatred poured on Him like an avalanche...from people He created, as the author of their lives, and especially from Jewish leaders of the Hebrew people He has rescued over and over for more than 2000 years.
But worst of all, Jesus knows what the Father must do if humanity will be rescued. God the Father must place on Jesus, God the Son, ALL the sin, all the wickedness, all the evil of the human race if Jesus will fully become our atonement sacrifice. And then God the Father must pour out His justice, His judgment on our sin, our rebellion, our wickedness, our evil. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23) Jesus will have to die in our place. But there’s more, Jesus would have to experience “PERISH”! He would have to experience the separation sin causes as it separates us from God.
Jesus, God the Son, would have to experience being separated from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Nothing in all eternity, past, present, or future comes close to this horrific reality! But it is the price for my redemption and yours and any/every human being of all time! That’s why Jesus is in such agony, as He prays in the garden. Dr. Luke records: “And being in anguish, Jesus prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood…” (Luke 22:44)
Jesus is returning to His disciples now and finds them sleeping. He aroused them and said “Rise, let us go! Here comes My betrayer!” Look, over there, it’s a crowd coming to the garden. Torches, swords, clubs, anger, hatred. That looks like Judas leading the group, do you see him? And look, he approaches Jesus, embraces Him as a friend. And then suddenly it all breaks loose. Fists are flying, swords and clubs are swinging, a riot has broken out. Jesus stands quietly watching. Some of His disciples run into the night. Peter grabs a knife and swings wildly, striking a man cutting off his ear!
But look, Jesus stoops down and picks up the mans’ severed ear off the ground, and then Jesus reconnects the ear to the man’s head as though it had never happened! Overwhelmed everyone stands in stunned amazement for a moment. Then one of the guards lunges forward, grabs Jesus and they haul Him off into the night like a criminal! John and Peter wait for a moment, and then they follow the mob from a distance. Where will they take Jesus? What will they do to Him?
The Garden of Gethsemane grows quiet again. Jerusalem, Israel, the Roman empire is settling in for the night, preparing for a Passover night’s rest, oblivious to what has just transpired in the Garden. Peter and John are talking as they walk. Why didn’t Jesus fight? Why didn’t He call for angels to fight for Him? Jesus had said to Peter “Put your sword away. Don’t you think I could call on my Father and He will at once send more than 12 legions of angels to help Me? But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matt. 26:52-54) What must happen? Why? Do you understand it my friends? Do you understand WHY Jesus had to suffer, had to die, and had to be raised from the dead. . .IF there is any possibility that you and I could be saved from our sin and restored into the wonderful relationship with God for which we each have been created?
May I urge you to spend a few moments listening to the audio Bible of Matthew 26:36-75 and consider what you would have done if you had been there that night?
Today’s Scripture is Matthew 26:36-75.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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