Good Friday 2020
Matthew 26:20-25
Passover would have been an expected event for Jesus’ disciples, but the events following this Passover would be anything but. Even though Jesus had told them two days before that He was to be delivered up and crucified, the gravity of the situation had not set in yet.
Worse than a cold arrest, worse than a kidnapping, Jesus was to be delivered up in the most backhanded way possible: betrayal at the hands of one His friends. Shocked by Jesus’ claim that the betrayer would come from Jesus’ chosen confidants, each disciple took a turn asking Jesus if he would be the turncoat.
Judas, already betraying Jesus, asks the question: “Rabbi, is it I?”
Not “Master.” Not “Lord.”
“Rabbi.”
Teacher. A teacher Judas had learned nothing from. But before we pick up stones to throw at Judas (not to minimize his guilt; Jesus didn’t), have we done this? Knowing who Jesus is, seeing Him work in the world, seeing Him change the lives of others—have you ever thought of Him as merely your “teacher?”
A teacher from whom you can learn. A teacher whom you can ignore if you so wish. A teacher whom you can betray for the right price.
Assuming it’s not an actual thirty pieces of silver, what or who have you betrayed Jesus for?
Matthew 26:69-75
Peter has a reputation. Many of us share it: he had the ability to speak quickly without thinking. He had done so earlier in the Passover evening: “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will not be made to stumble.”
Jesus knew better. The rooster wouldn’t even have time to greet the dawn before Peter showed his strength…or the lack thereof.
Peter, the leader of the apostles, a pillar of the church. Even he failed.
“Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny You!”
Yet Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus would face a group of armed men and proceed with His mission. Peter denied Jesus in the face of two servant girls and some unarmed courtyard bystanders.
Every single Christian who has ever lived has, at some point, talked a big game and then fallen on his face.
Are you comforted knowing that Jesus was courageous for you? You have failed by fearing that which is smaller than God, and you will fail again. But Jesus never has. He had courage enough for all of us.
Matthew 27:31-43
Isn’t this Scripture surreal?
The last time Israel met with God on a mountain, they were terrified and begged Moses to go up for them. They begged for a mediator in Deuteronomy 5: “Please, Moses! You go up for us, because we’re afraid we will die if we enter God’s presence!”
But that was a different day and a different mountain.
This time they didn’t have to beg for a mediator; He was before them. This time they didn’t hesitate to go up the mountain to God; they mocked Him as He walked up it Himself. This time they were not afraid of God’s wrath; they were bloodthirsty with wrath of their own. Then they begged to not go up; this time they taunted Him to come down.
In Exodus 24:11, God invited the elders of Israel to meet Him on a mountain, and there He fed them and fellowshiped with them. In Matthew 27:31-43, the elders of Israel sent Jesus up a mountain and offered Him nothing but sour wine and gall.
Didn’t Jesus deserve better than this? Why would the Father subject His Son to this humiliation? Couldn’t Jesus have come down if He wanted and answered the taunts of His detractors?
Yes, Jesus deserved better.
Yes, Jesus could have come down at will.
The key is that He didn’t.
The Father sent His Son to die for you. And Jesus did this—all of this—willingly. For us.
Because we didn’t deserve better.
We couldn’t come down from our penalty, no matter how much we willed it.
Jesus took our place.
The King took our cross.
Matthew 27:45-54
These verses describe the most important event in the universe's history.
Why Christmas? Why did the word become flesh and dwell among us? Why grow up and experience toddling around and learning to walk? Why experience colds and adolescence? Why endure the banality of human existence among men and women who have no clue who you really are when you’ve spent all of eternity past being recognized as God by the holy angels of heaven itself?
Because only flesh can die. Death as a substitute for us was the one thing that God as spirit alone could not accomplish. A spirit cannot die on behalf of flesh. Only flesh can do that.
Jesus took on flesh so He could die. His prayer in the Garden confirmed this: there was no other way, so the cup could not pass from Him.
In these verses, as you see Jesus breathe His last, you witness the unthinkable: You watch God die.
Not fall asleep. Not swoon.
There are those that will tell you one of those things happened on the cross. They didn’t.
He died. A real, painful, humiliating, human death.
But as He died, the curtain in the temple ripped from top to bottom. As He died, the earth quaked. As He died, death lost its grip on the saints of old. As He died, some Romans believed.
What about you? Do you believe?
These verses describe the most important event in the universe's history. But they also pose its most important question: “Was this man truly the Son of God?”
Think carefully. There’s nothing more important than your answer.
Matthew 27:57-60
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