What's so Good
about Good Friday?
When they take the Son of God and put Him to death, why is that
considered good?
Because when He died that horrific tortured
death on Calvary, He took the punishment due us for our rebellion against God.
It was good for us. Was it good for Him?
When He arose from the dead, on Easter, He proved that what He said was true.
He had been predicting these moments to His followers for a couple years and
they did not believe Him.
Until He did it.
The Bible says, "… who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God." (Heb 2:2).
So if Jesus came down from
Glory, endured the cross, and went back to Glory, what was His net gain?
Us. We were the joy set before Him.
We
are the bride He travelled to a far land to obtain (like Jacob did, among other
examples).
Granted we're not the finished product, yet, but if we cooperate with His plan,
He sees something in us He wants to spend eternity with.
I'm good with that. That's good.
I want to share a cool thing with you.
If you're not a Christian, please listen anyway, because it never hurts to
have a little information about what those whackos around you believe.
There is this dusty old document that was found in a cave near the Dead Sea in
Israel around 1948. Various copies have been found elsewhere. You could also
find it in an old dusty book on your coffee table in some cases. But the fact
that it was in that cave for over a couple thousand years is important. It
means that what it describes was not written after the fact.
It
starts out: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
I believe it was written after a vision in the night that it’s author David
had.
David was the King of Israel, and God had, in no uncertain terms, promised
David that his line would be on the throne of Israel forever. He was so shaken
by what he saw in his vision of the future that he wondered why God would allow
him to be placed in that position and why God would break His promise to him.
Let’s review that Vision as recorded in that dusty old document few people are
aware of.
Sounds like a real conspiracy theory, eh?
My God, My God, why have You forsaken
Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
5 They cried to You, and were delivered;
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.
11 Be not far from Me,
For trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls (inmates have always called the guards “bulls”), Strong bulls of
Bashan have encircled Me.
13 They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me;
O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
20 Deliver Me from the sword,
My precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth
And from the horns of the wild oxen!
You have answered Me. Psalms 22:1-21
My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Many Christians have been taught that, as He was crucified, Jesus was crying
this out to His Father in heaven, because the Father could not bear to look on
Jesus, our scapegoat.
That He was separated from the Father.
That Jesus was accursed (made a curse) and the Father could not be in
fellowship with Jesus because it would violate His holiness. Because Jesus was
carrying the penalty of the sins of the world.
Give me a break.
Christians
like to say that God would never leave us or forsake us because the Bible says
that, yet we are willing to believe that He once turned His back on His only
Begotten Son.
To believe He once left and forsake Jesus leaves the notion that He could do
the same to us.
It’s
always bothered me to think that the Father would look away from, or forsake,
Jesus while he hung on the cross. It
makes no sense unless you are willing to believe some other things that make no
sense.
When I’ve talked to some pastors about this, they weren’t willing to buck the
orthodoxy, the story they were taught, that the Father looked away. They say
that the Father (God) couldn’t look upon Jesus because he was made sin. If
that’s the case, well, how could Jesus carry that sin if he was God, much less
be made sin, or sinful.
Then they would say the one inexplicable thing to justify their position.
That for a moment, Jesus was not God.
Seriously.
When I asked, “How long?”, they did not know. But it had to happen because
Jesus as God could not be made sinful.
<<
1 Corinthians 12:3 >> Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.
Let’s
work this out. And it’s important. Just as important as the notion that Jesus
beat the devil on the cross, not in hell, not in the grave. The fight was over
on the cross. Anything else is heresy.
Think about that when you sing a song in church about the battle being in the
grave. But I digress….
It’s
important to believe that Jesus paid the price on the cross as the sinless
sacrifice, as God, not a momentary not-god.
He
carried the sin, He carried the curse. As God in human flesh.
This
did not catch the Father by surprise. Jesus and the Father had this worked out
since before the universe was created, and at the last minute The All-Powerful
Ruler of More than the Universe flinches?
No. I believe that the Father had steeled Himself for this moment and watched
the sacrifice take place.
To not watch would be dishonorable.
If the Father and the Son (who with the Spirit are referred to as the
"Godhead" in perfect unity) ever separated, I believe the universe
would crumble.
As you read the gospels, particularly John's, you see that the Pharisees (some
of them, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, were good guys, by the way)
were asking Jesus for a sign that he was the Messiah. He continually answered
them that when they saw Him lifted up, that would be their sign.
John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of
man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as
my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I
do always those things that please him.
As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Here
He is, lifted up in front of them. He's surrounded by "strong bulls"
(prison slang for guards), and the crowd is taunting Him. It's the scene
predicted in Psalm 22 .
Then He quotes the first verse of Psalm 22.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
This is
called a "Remez". It's a teaching tool.
When someone says “We the people..” you finish it in your head.
When someone says “In the beginning..” you finish it in your head.
If you are a Jewish scholar and someone says, “My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?”, you finish it in your head.
When they hear this verse, they remember the rest of the Psalm.
The Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign.
He said that they would have it when the Son of Man was lifted up.
(Remember that joke, "Here's your sign."?)
Can you imagine the look on their face when they get it?
This death on this cross by this man was predicted hundreds of years ago.
Here was their sign.
The ramifications are huge.
Do you get it?
These people did:
https://stream.org/did-god-abandon-jesus-on-the-cross/
