Good Friday, April 3, 2026

Opening Scripture

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. Psalm 22 (selected)

Opening Prayer

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See, from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

John 19:1-37

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”  So this is what the soldiers did.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

Reflection  

Today’s passage is difficult to read. Most of us have had the harsh brutality of flogging and crucifixion graphically explained or depicted in a way that shocks and repulses. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ can move followers of Jesus like Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan can move Normandy veterans.

There’s a lot to consider in this text. In a cosmic sense, Jesus’ crucifixion was the fulfillment of prophecy and God’s ultimate answer to the problem of evil. Today’s Opening Scripture contains the anguished cry from King David quoted by Jesus on the cross. Equally fitting to the events of this day are the words of Isaiah from seven centuries earlier.

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:3-7).

Stoning by the Jews would have broken Jesus’ bones. Prolonged life on the cross would have resulted in broken bones by the Romans. Instead, Jesus was the only victim pierced and without broken bones, in fulfillment of God’s plan and in keeping with the Passover Lamb.

Perhaps Governor Pilate hoped to appease the Jews by flogging and mocking Jesus, but he had already relinquished his position of authority. He was complicit now in punishing an innocent man, and there was no going back. Matthew tells us that Pilate took a bowl of water and symbolically “washed his hands” of the whole affair, but Jesus had already declared his guilt (though the religious leaders were “guilty of a greater sin”). Barabbas the murderer was released, and Jesus the Messiah was executed.

How far the Jews had fallen from their humble beginnings as God’s “chosen people.” Two startling statements summarize their sorry condition. “We have no king but Caesar!” and “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). In AD 70, their words came true with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

In a tender and touching moment amid the tragedy, Jesus entrusted his mother to John’s care. Perhaps Mary’s other children were back in Galilee or were not yet believers. Regardless, “the disciple Jesus loved” and the women mentioned would remain together and forge a close bond in the coming days.

Jesus’ final statement – “It is finished!” (tetelestai) – is a declaration of victory. The word literally means “paid in full.” The work of redemption is complete! “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Flourishing Habit

Character and Virtue

[NOTE: You are invited to join us for a Good Friday service at 6:30pm this evening in the Sanctuary.]

The earthly powers that conspired to put Jesus on the cross didn’t realize that they were, in fact, serving God’s purposes. Jesus suffered and died willingly. He could have stopped the whole process at any moment. “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).

At some point during the course of events, Judas the Betrayer was consumed with guilt. As is so often the case, Satan – the destroyer and father of lies – uses and discards those foolish enough to do his bidding. When Judas realized the magnitude of what he had done, he was gripped with regret (but not repentance). Sadly, he killed himself.

“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:3-5).

Regardless of how things may appear, God is ultimately in control! He is continually working out His purposes all around us. In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby says, “When you see the Father at work around you, that is your invitation to adjust your life to Him and join Him in that work.”

You and I are part of God’s “Big Story” today. God’s grand plan of redemption is still being lived out in each of our lives. The daily decisions we make based on our identity “in Christ” – inspired by our love for and allegiance to King Jesus – form the character and content of our lives.

How is God developing your character so you can join Him in His work?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!