Sometimes on Christian holidays it’s hard to sort through all the fluff and fun to remember what we’re really celebrating. I think sometimes the stories become so familiar to us that we become desensitized to them. We can hear phrases like “Jesus died” without it eliciting the same emotion in us that a loss of a loved one creates.
Today is Good Friday. The day we commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion and death at Calvary – the day that changed everything.
Jesus died for us.
But there’s so much more to dying and death than that one last breath. Jesus knew his death would come. Imagine the anxiety, fear and heartache that accompanied the days before his crucifixion. Not only would his body endure agony, but his mind was tortured as well. The Bible describes Jesus as being “sorrowful and troubled” in the days before his death (Matt. 26:37). He had full knowledge of what was to come and he chose to walk forward in obedience anyways. He was God, yet chose to endure unimaginable amounts of pain and suffering for me.
His body was whipped and punctured; he was scourged before he was nailed to the cross. This beating ripped through his skin, through his muscles, exposing his bones. And then he was forced to carry on his mangled flesh the very beam he would be nailed to. After he was crucified, blood flowed from his torn flesh as people all around scoffed and mocked him. Death slowly ripped through his body hours before his final breath, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He suffered death on a cross – the most humiliating and painful death sentence available.
And he did it for me. For you.
So Jesus didn’t just “die,” here one moment, gone the next. He was beaten, mocked, tortured and put to death undeservingly. He chose to sacrifice himself so that we might be set free. Jesus died because of sin, but not his own. He was sinless, perfect. And so it is finished. This Good Friday, lets take a step back to truly recognize the sacrifice that He made. Jesus’ agonizing death was always a part of God’s salvation plan. We are free; we have hope. “The man Jesus Christ laid death in his grave.”
