As we awaken to another Good Friday, believers across the world prepare to commemorate the agonizing crucifixion of Jesus that led to his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. The journey from life to death and back to life remains, for all time, the greatest story ever told, one that altered the course of civilization. And with it came a crucial point sometimes cast aside by those who choose to bypass the sorrow of Good Friday and wait to celebrate the joy of Easter.
“Together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” That verse from the Book of Romans (8:17), expressing the cost of genuine salvation, should be top of mind on this day. The suffering for believers across the American landscape, more than 2,000 years after Jesus walked the earth, may be limited to slights, insults, and derision. But at Calvary, the man who declared himself God incarnate suffered an unspeakably gruesome death ordinarily reserved for those adjudged to be the worst people on earth. And he did it all for the sake of saving the souls of those who confess how far they have fallen short of God’s glory and place their faith in him for redemption.
The 23rd chapter of Luke lays out the gory details of Good Friday: “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.” The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
The Unspeakable Horror of Good Friday
As described in detail in the book The Refugee from Heaven, Jesus was tied to a pillar and flogged with the Romans’ scourging whip, which had iron balls tied a few inches from the end of each leather thong on the whip. Sometimes, sharp sheep bones would be tied near the ends. The metal weights served to cause horrible contusions, and the leather of the thongs cut into the skin. The sheep bones were also made to deepen the lacerations into the skin. After only a few lashes, the depths of the cuts would reach into muscle tissue. “As each [stroke] cut across the Master’s torn shoulders, small particles of His Sacred Flesh fell from the knotted leather whip-knots to the pavement, which was now covered with His Precious Blood.”
Through all the suffering and mockery, Jesus never lost sight of his mission on earth. He was to die a criminal’s death, rise again, and thus demonstrate what God was offering to those who embrace the sacrifice of his son: eternal life in the presence of God. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” he cried out, signaling his compassion even for those who would mock, torture, and crucify him.
As outlined in Romans 5, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Indeed, believers are beneficiaries of the greatest gift ever offered, one that humans can receive not by their works, but only by the unmerited mercy and grace of God. And only by encountering the depth of Jesus’ suffering on Good Friday can we fully appreciate the magnitude of its meaning on Easter Sunday.
