In the ancient Roman Empire, the Romans used various tortures and terror in order to control various colonies of the empire. Of the different tortures, crucifixion was the most excruciating (the word excruciating comes from the word “crucifixion”) of them all – with medical precision to avoid any major artery, the Romans nailed the completely naked person on big wooden cross, slowly draining the his blood, usually for days, when the person would scream and moan in pain. They put these crosses high on mountains and also near city gates, to put them on display to send a public message. This, my dear brothers and sisters, is how Jesus has chosen to die for us.

 

As we will all went through the scriptures of crucifixion at the Good Friday service earlier today, we will read an article on Good Friday by Haug & Walker instead:

 

Devotion Reading: Good Friday, “Journey to the Cross” by Haug & Walker

 

Today is called Good Friday, which is not really good because “good” is too neutral a term.

 

The events of Good Friday are the ultimate paradox—at once atrocious and wonderful, scandalous and beautiful, the worst kind of hate and the best kind of love. On this day we were convicted and pardoned, condemned and freed, cursed and blessed.

 

It was the darkest day. Many who had followed Jesus up to now fled from the events of Friday. And those who stayed to watch wept in horror: the phony trial, the mob that cried out for the blood of the man who was unbending in the weight of their demands and expectations. The brutal beating, the savagery of the soldiers, the grueling walk through the city he had entered to cheers just five days before. Finally, the nails pounded into flesh, the tortured body slouched over, the naked man died as his enemies jeered.

 

To his disciples – those that had forsaken everything in order to follow Jesus – this day was anything but good. This man, in whom they had put all of their hopes, was hanging dead on a tree. This was the death of their faith, the crushing of all their hopes for a new kingdom, and the end of all they believed in. Or so it seemed.

 

As his followers laid Jesus in the tomb on that same dark day, Easter Sunday lied in wait for them, but on Friday they couldn’t see it. They couldn’t see the defeat of death, the glory of the resurrection, or the advancement of God’s kingdom. They couldn’t see the whole story. There was no way around Good Friday, only the way through—through pain and death and burial.

 

It is the same for us; we cannot get around this day. We must go through the pain and death and burial to get to the resurrection. We must go through the darkness of Good Friday to get to the light of Easter.

 

God is a God of light: darkness cannot survive in his presence. We, who have dark hearts full of sin, should tremble at this fact. But Jesus, who was completely good, cloaked himself in the darkness of our sin and stood under the wrath of God for us. On the cross, he was destroyed and cut off from his Father. It was to have been our fate. On the first Good Friday, in the midst of our darkest hour, God did not cut us off. Jesus Christ, our true light, plunged himself into the darkness so that we might live in the light.

 

We can go through the darkness of this day because Jesus went through it before us.

 

He is saving us and bringing about our everlasting joy, in a way only God could have chosen. Easter is not far away

 

 

Devotion Questions

 

• Imagine if you were one of Jesus’s disciples, mixed among the crowd watching Jesus’s crucifixion, how would you feel? The shock of seeing your teacher hanging on the tall, big cross? Sorrow in seeing His pain, his body broken apart and his blood dripping from all the puncture wounds? Fear you might be caught and prosecuted? Doubt in seeing the son of God tortured by human and seemingly cannot do anything to save himself? Can you imagine how dark this day would be if you were Jesus’s disciple?

 

• What happens to all the teachings by Jesus to his disciples in such dark hours? What about the fact Jesus has predicted his own death before, and that also he would resurrect? They all forgot about Jesus’s promises when they were fixated on the shocking scene in front of their eyes. How about ourselves? What has been the darkest hour in our lives? Did we also forget God’s promises for us in the Bible? How weak is our faith, when we face storms we lose sight of Jesus’s promise and easily fall into the raging sea as Peter did.

 

• Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, and all promises were broken on this very dark day when Jesus died, the happiest day in human history – the Easter Monday was just around the corner. Our God is a God of light, and darkness cannot defeat Him. Are we going through any darkness in our life today? Do we have confidence that by faithfully following God, relying on God, He will guide us out of darkness?