Daily Lectionary Readings:
Psalm 22
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42
John 19: 28-42
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
(Please note that this is only a small portion of the entire Gospel reading for today. I suggest that you might want to read all of the text.)
The Death of Jesus
28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[d] 37and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[e]
The Burial of Jesus
38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.[f] 40Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
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We come to the end of our Lenten journey with today’s Gospel reading. The first few words of the passage sum up what we have been about these last few weeks: “…knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled,…” Jesus journey was no accident. He didn’t just stumble into the job of Messiah one day. He wasn’t just a mere human that God selected. No, he was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world and today—Good Friday—we see the culmination of his work and the fulfillment of the Scriptural promises of the Old Testament.
On Good Friday, our Lord and our Savior died upon the cross of Calvary for our sins. It was a one time sacrifice sufficient for all time. Our sins were placed upon him. The one that was fully human and fully God. He was the only one capable of paying the price of our transgression. With his words, “It is finished.” He bowed his head and died.
While God mourned, I am sure that Satan and his minions were leaping and shouting for joy. Their nemesis was destroyed. In their eyes, the Messiah hung there lifeless on his cross. He hung there naked, humiliated, beaten—between two thieves. The King of the Jews—was dead.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem the best of plans to me. After all, the hero is supposed to survive until the end of the movie. Isn’t he? God’s plan, though, was somewhat different than we could imagine. For God the hero dies at noon—on the day we call—Good Friday. I’m sure that at that point all creation moaned. The one that had been present when the foundations of the world were laid, now hung on a Roman cross dead and lifeless.
We call it Good Friday, yet in the back of our mind do we ask ourselves, “What Good can come from such an event?” On that day, without the hindsight we have today, there was no rejoicing. There was only sadness and defeat as those that followed their friend and master made their way back into the crowds and grieved with one another in the Upper Room.
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Prayer: Lord, do not let me overlook the enormity of your sacrifice. Do not let me forget your pain. Let me celebrate your loving sacrifice on my behalf.
