Good Friday: Jesus was...

As Christians, the crucifixion of Jesus is an integral part of our faith and is something we are reminded of weekly through the taking of communion in church. Still, we often do not take the time to grasp the details of what Christ had to suffer to pay the penalty for our sins. Since Jesus was fully God and fully man, he endured emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual pain.

 

Even before Jesus experienced a severe amount of physical suffering, he was completely drained emotionally.

 

Jesus was abandoned…

After beseeching his disciples to stay awake and pray with him, Jesus reappears to find his closest friends fast asleep in his time of need (Luke 22:45). Immediately after that, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:48), a symbol of friendship and honor, and Jesus is led away and brought to the high priest. While there, Peter, the only one of Jesus’s disciples brave enough to follow, denies his Savior three times (Luke 22:61). Think about a moment when you felt alone. Maybe a friend has not texted you in a while, or your family did not attend an important event. Imagine what Jesus must have felt in this moment to have his followers, whom he has spent every day with for the past few years, leaving him in an instant, at the point where he needs their loving support the most.

 

Jesus was mocked…

After Peter’s denial, scripture says, “And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head” (Matthew 27:29-30). Here is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, who is being spat on and scoffed at by the very people he came to save. Though they dress him up like a king, he is treated as a criminal.

Jesus was rejected…

When Pilate finds no fault with Jesus, he asks the crowd, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:17). The crowd, who only six days ago welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna, replies, “Barabbas.” The rejection of His people must have produced tremendous pain for Jesus Christ. The same people who had eagerly waited for their messiah for centuries condemned him to death. [1] 

 

After enduring being abandoned, mocked, and rejected, the Messiah has to encounter physical suffering as well.

 

Jesus was beaten…

Scripture tells us, “Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him” (Luke 22:63-65). This form of beating would not only be physically painful but mentally taxing as well. Not being able to foresee the blows coming would leave anyone feeling disoriented and in shock. Someone might suggest, “Well, Jesus is God and he can see everything, so did the blindfold really impact his ability to see?” While this is true, as I look at Jesus’s character I find that he was not someone who would spare himself pain. He could have seen through the blindfold, just as he could have commanded the angels to take him down from the cross, but he didn’t.

 

Jesus, feeling emotionally and mentally drained, went through the most brutal form of torture known to man. Crucifixion was made to produce the maximum amount of pain in a slow and public way.

 

Jesus was crowned…

Unlike many Crucifixions, Jesus’ started in a painful and humiliating way. The Roman guards, after mocking him, dug a crown of thorns onto his head (Mark 15:16). After this brutal encounter,

 

Jesus was flogged (John 19:1)...

Flogging is a gruesome way of torture that consists of Jesus' clothes being stripped with his hands tied to a post above his head. He was whipped with a scourge (short, heavy leather thongs with two balls of lead or iron attached near the ends) several times almost to the point of death. However, this was only the first step of seemingly endless torture.

 

Jesus was burdened…

While Jesus' back was ripped, bleeding, and swollen, the Centurians came up to Jesus and made Him carry his cross up a steep mountain. Imagine carrying two pieces of wood that weighed anywhere from 75-125 pounds up a mountain. This would be very difficult in full health and was almost impossible for Jesus who in human form fell under the pressure of this task and had to have someone else carry it for him. (John 19:18)

 

Jesus was nailed…

Once he finally got up the mountain and to the sight of his Crucifixion, the soldiers nailed him to the cross (Matthew 27: 35). Six-inch thick nails were placed between his joints and ligaments on his hands and feet so they could bear the body's full weight. Just to breathe Jesus had to push his body up on the nails in his feet.

 

Through all this, Jesus never got off the cross or made the soldiers stop harassing him. Jesus even refused the spoiled wine which was said to be a pain reliever so he could endure the greatest suffering.

 

Jesus was forsaken…

After all this physical pain caused by the Roman people, Jesus went through the worst part of the day. And Jesus in pain cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27: 46)

 

Through all the suffering and pain that Jesus endured, spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical, He never got off the cross even when he could. But why?  

 

Jesus was fully God as he was beaten, and knew exactly who was beating him. Jesus was fully God when he was hanging on the cross and could have easily taken himself off. Jesus was fully God when he was being whipped and could have made it stop. Jesus was fully God, however, he was also fully man and felt the pain of the crucifixion. He felt betrayed and he felt alone just like we do sometimes. 

 

Jesus suffered deeply because he loved us deeply.

 

Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to undergo torture, mocking, and beating in human form so that we could one day live with him in eternity. He did so much for us, so we should remember his sacrifice not only on Good Friday; it should be at the forefront of our minds every day.

"At the Cross" by Andy Stinson
 

I wait,
And time ticks past.
I gaze,
Made silent by the sight.
I watch,
As soldiers meticulously move
Executing each terrible, torturous task.
I gasp,
Still life lingers in His fragile, broken form.
I flinch,
As blow by blow,
Nails bite deep through flesh to find wood. 
I stand
As He is lifted high,
Silhouetted 'gainst the sky which He has made.
I weep
As His cry echoes deep in my hardened, calloused heart.
I wail,
As He screams 'it is complete,
Finished, final, said and done.'
I fall,
As the sky turns inky black
And the sun and moon and stars forget to shine.
I kneel,
As worlds collide,
And time ticks by;
What once bound, no longer seems to hold.
I bow,
For part of me is gone,
Kept forever on Calvary's painful peak.
I wait,
At the foot of the cross, to begin my journey home.

The poem At the Cross by Andy Stinson gives the reader a different perspective from which to view the crucifixion. As it is written in first person it seems as if the reader is the one there in that moment, witnessing Christ’s death. Doing this makes the event more personal and evokes much more emotion. The author seems to emphasize Christ’s suffering in this moment and wants the reader to join in by understanding and feeling what he went through. This poem is designed for the reader to view this moment as if we were there, witnessing it through our own eyes. 

Music

Loneliness by Adrian von Ziegler

The song Loneliness by Adrian von Ziegler encapsulates the feeling of utter loneliness. The solo piano with only a few chords makes the song somber. When we first heard this song we thought of the exact moment when the clouds turned dark and Jesus said in (Matthew 27: 46) “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”