Good Friday Meditation
THE FIRST
SAYING——LUKE 23:34
"Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
THE SECOND
SAYING——LUKE 23:43
"Truly I
say to you today; You will be with me in paradise."
THE THIRD
SAYING——JOHN 19:26-27
Jesus said to
his mother: "Woman, this is your son." Then he said to the disciple:
"This is your mother."
THE FOURTH
SAYING——MATTHEW 27:46 & MARK 15:34.
"My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? "
THE FIFTH
SAYING——JOHN 19:28
"I
thirst."
THE SIXTH
SAYING——JOHN 19:30
"It is
finished"
THE SEVENTH
SAYING——LUKE 23:46
"Father,
into your hands I commend my spirit."
READING 1: Luke
23:33-37
THE FIRST SAYING "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
do." Luke 23:34
Jesus of Nazareth is looking down from the cross just after he was
crucified between two criminals. He sees the soldiers who have mocked,
scourged, and tortured him, and who have just nailed him to the cross. He
probably remembers those who have sentenced him - Caiaphas and the high priests
of the Sanhedrin. Pilate realized it was out of envy that they handed him over
(Matthew 27:18, Mark 15:10). But is Jesus not also thinking of
his Apostles and companions who have deserted him, to Peter who has denied him
three times, to the fickle crowd who only days before praised him on his
entrance to Jerusalem, and then days later demanded his crucifixion?
Is He also thinking of us, who often forget him in our daily
activity?
Does he react angrily? No! At the height of his physical suffering,
his love prevails and He asks His Father to forgive! Could there ever be
greater irony? Jesus asks his Father to forgive, but it is by His very
Sacrifice on the Cross that mankind is able to be forgiven!
Right up to his final hours on earth, Jesus preaches forgiveness.
He teaches forgiveness in the Lord's prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us" (Matthew
6:12). When asked by Peter, how many times should we forgive
someone, Jesus answers seventy times seven (Matthew
18:21-22). He forgives the paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:3-12), the sinful woman who anointed
him in the home of Simon the Pharisee (Luke
7:37-48), and the adulteress caught in the act and about to be
stoned (John 8:1-11). During the
Institution of the Last Supper, Jesus tells them to drink of the cup:
"Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:27-28).
Reading 2: Luke
23:38-43
THE
SECOND SAYING "Truly I say to you
today; You will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43
Now it is not just the religious leaders or the soldiers that mock
Jesus, but even one of the criminals, a downward progression of mockery. But
the criminal on the right speaks up for Jesus, explaining the two criminals are
receiving their just due, whereas "this man has done nothing wrong."
Then, turning to Jesus, he asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your
kingdom" (Luke 23:42). What
wonderful faith this repentant sinner has in Jesus. He believes that this dying
man is Messiah who will rise and come again. Not one of the disciples had such
a faith at that time. Ignoring his own suffering, Jesus responds with mercy in
his second word, living out his own beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy." (Matt 5:7)
The thief had asked to be remembered at the time of Jesus’ second
coming and his kingdom, but Jesus says: “Truly I say to you today: You will be
with me in paradise”. He did not need to wait for the future second coming to
know your eternity. Jesus gave him the assurance that very day of his place in
the future kingdom at the Lord’s return. Paradise is a Greek word for garden.
The garden of Eden was a paradise, a place of perfection and fellowship with
God. God’s kingdom will be an earth restored to perfection, a place of
fellowship with God and man, and of harmony in all creation. (Isa 11:6-9)
The promise to the thief is again about forgiveness, this time
directed to a sinner. Just as the first word, this Biblical expression is found
only in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows his purpose by giving hope to a
repentant sinner - such generosity to a man that only asked to be remembered!
This expression offers us hope for salvation, for if we turn our hearts and
prayers to Christ and accept God’s forgiveness through him, we will also be
with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God on earth. "Behold I make all
things new" Rev 21:5
Reading 3: John
19:25-27
THE THIRD SAYING "Jesus said to his mother: Woman, this is your son."
Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother." John 19:26-27
Jesus and Mary are together again. At the beginning of his ministry
in Cana they are together, and now at the end of his public ministry at the
foot of the cross. John is the only one to record our Lord's mother Mary at the
cross. The Lord refers to his mother ‘woman’ at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and
in this passage, recalling the woman in Genesis
3:15, the first Messianic prophecy of the Redeemer, “born of a
woman”. (Gal 4:4).
What sorrow must fill Mary's heart! How she must have felt meeting
her son as he carried the cross on the Via Dolorosa (the sorrowful road). And
then she had to watch him being nailed to the cross. Once again, a sword
pierces Mary's soul: we are reminded of the prophecy of Simeon at the
presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple (Luke
2:35).
The loved ones of Jesus are with him in John's Gospel. There are
four at the foot of the cross, Mary his mother, John - the disciple whom he
loved, his mother's sister Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. He
addresses his third word to his mother Mary and John, the only eye-witness of
the Gospel writers.
Jesus again rises above the occasion as he cares for the ones that
love him. The good son that he is, Jesus is concerned about looking after his
mother. Honor your father and mother was
a prime commandment in God’s law. Jesus perfectly fulfilled this.
Reading 4: Matthew
27:45-49
THE FOURTH SAYING "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.
This was the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and
Mark. Both Gospels relate that it was in the ninth hour, after 3 hours of
darkness, that he cried out this fourth word. The ninth hour was 3.00 pm in
Judea. Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the Messianic prophecy of the suffering
servant of the Lord (Isaiah 53:12, Mark 15:28, Luke
24:46). After the fourth Word, Mark related with a horrible sense of
finality, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last" (Mark 15:37).
The anguished tone of this expression is in contrast to the first
three words of Jesus. He feels separated from his Father. This cry is from the
painful heart of Jesus who felt deserted by His Father. We know the Father
would not forsake him. The Father is ever faithful to His own, but Jesus felt
forsaken. In the garden of Gethsemane, in his anguish, the Father sent an angel
to strengthen him. Now in his anguish on the cross there was no angel openly
appeared. In Hebrews 5:7 we learn that he cried to the one who could save
him from death and “was heard”. He knew his death would be a temporary “three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, but should he fail this final
test, and not continue in submission to the Father’s will, he would perish, die
for ever. The Father did hear his cry so he did continue faithfully to submit,
and so he conquered death. But he felt forsaken, even his companions, the
disciples, had "all left him and fled" (Matthew
26:56, Mark 14:50). As if
to emphasize his loneliness, Mark (15:40)
even has his loved ones "looking on from afar." Jesus is now all
alone, and he must face death by himself.
But is not this exactly what happens to all of us when we die? We
too are all alone at the time of death! Jesus completely lives the human
experience as we do, and by doing so, frees us from the clutches of sin.
This fourth Word is the opening line of Psalm
22, and thus his cry from the cross recalls the cry of Israel, and
of all who suffer. Psalm 22 makes a striking prophecy of the crucifixion of
the Messiah at a time when crucifixion was not known to exist: "They have
pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones" (22:16-17). The Psalm continues: "They
divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots" (22:18).
There cannot be a more dreadful moment in the history of man as
this moment. Jesus, who came to save us is crucified, and he realizes the
horror of what is happening and what he now is enduring.
It is in his conquering of sin that the Divine plan of his Father
will be completed. It is by his death that we are redeemed. "For there is
one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ
Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
"He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that,
free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been
healed." 1st Peter 2:24
Reading 5: John
19:28
THE
FIFTH SAYING "I thirst." John 19:28
The fifth word of Jesus is his only expression concerning his
physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the
scourging, the crowning with thorns, losing blood on the long walk through the
city of Jerusalem on the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha, and the nailing upon the
cross, are now taking their toll.
The Gospel of John first refers to thirst when Jesus meets the
Samaritan woman at the well. After first asking for "a drink," he
answers the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to
eternal life" (John 4:13-14).
This passage implies there is more than just physical thirst.
Jesus also thirsts in a spiritual sense. Like the blessed of Matt 5:6, he “hungers and thirsts for
righteousness”. Psalm 63:1 sums up both the physical and spiritual thirst
our Lord experienced.” O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul
thirsts for thee, my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no
water is;”.
He is indeed in a spiritual wilderness, surrounded by wickedness
and hatred. He thirsts for righteousness; he thirsts for love. He thirsts for
the love of his Father, who has left him unaided during this dreadful hour when
he must fulfill his mission all alone. And he thirsts for the love and
salvation of his people, the human race. Jesus practiced what he preached:
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends." John 15:12-13
Reading 6: Luke
18:31-33
THE
SIXTH SAYING When Jesus had received the wine, he
said, "It is finished;" and he bowed his head and
handed over the spirit. John
19:30
The Gospel of John recalls the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb of Exodus 12 in
this passage. The soldiers offered wine on a sprig of hyssop to the Lord.
Hyssop is a small plant that was used to sprinkle the blood of the Passover
Lamb on the doorposts of the Hebrews (Exodus
12:22). John's Gospel related that it was the Day of Preparation,
the day before the actual Passover, that Jesus was sentenced to death (19:14) and sacrificed on the cross (19:31). John
continues in 19:33-34: "But when
they came to Jesus and saw he was already dead, they did not break his
legs," recalling the instruction in Exodus
12:46 concerning the Passover
Lamb. He died at the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon), about the
same time as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. Christ became
the Paschal or Passover Lamb, as noted by Paul: "For Christ our Passover
lamb has been sacrificed" (1st Corinthians
5:7). The innocent Lamb was slain for our sins, so that we might be
forgiven. It is now finished. The sixth word is Jesus' recognition that his
suffering is over and his task is completed. Jesus is obedient to the Father
and gives his love for mankind by redeeming us with His death on the cross. In Luke 12:50 he
uses the same word “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am stressed
until it is accomplished (finished).”
What was the darkest day of mankind, became the brightest day for
mankind. He had fulfilled the law.
And the Gospels as a group captured this paradox. The first three
Gospels narrated the horror of the event - the agony in the garden, the
abandonment by his Apostles, the trial before the Sanhedrin, the intense
mockery and torture heaped upon Jesus, his suffering all alone, the darkness
over the land, and his death, starkly portrayed by both Matthew 27:47-51 and
Mark 15:33-38.
In contrast, the passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John expresses
his Kingship and proves to be his triumphant road to glory. John presents Jesus
as directing the action the entire way. The phrase "It is finished"
carries a sense of accomplishment. In John, there is no trial before the
Sanhedrin, but rather Jesus is introduced at the Roman trial as "Behold
your King!" (John 19:14). Jesus
is not stumbling or falling, but the way of the Cross is presented with majesty
and dignity, for "Jesus went out bearing his own cross" (John 19:17). And in John, the inscription at
the head of the cross is pointedly written "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of
the Jews" (John 19:19).
Reading 7: Luke 23:45-46
THE
SEVENTH SAYING Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Luke 23:46
The seventh word of Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke, and is
directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies. Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 -
"Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord,
faithful God." Luke repeatedly pleads Jesus' innocence: with Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14-15,
22), through the repentant thief (Luke 23:41), and immediately after his death
with the centurion - "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he
praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).
Jesus was obedient to His Father to the end, and his final word
before his death on the cross was a prayer to His Father.
It is God who gives our breath, (Gen
2:7), and on death that breath (spirit) returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Jesus commits that breath
to the Father, knowing that the Father would return it three days later. In the
words of Psalm 104: “You take away
their breath (Hb. ruach = spirit), they die and return to the dust. You send
forth your breath (‘ruach’) and they are created” Jesus finishes the work the
Father had given him to do. "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal
life." John
3:16
Prayer
Jesus, thank You for modeling forgiveness for me. I don’t deserve it, but I’m so grateful that You give it to me freely. Thank You—Thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross and for Your relentless love. Today, I want to reflect on what Your death on the cross means, and accept Your love for me. God the Father, this Good Friday meditation be a blessing for all of us. All this I ask and receive from YAHWEH in your name. (AMEN) 🙏
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