Good Friday
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34 (NIV)
He stood alone, surrounded by hate. Blindfolded, they hit him, and mocked the man who, like a lamb, endured in silence. They rammed a crown of thorns hard down on his bruised and bloodied head and clothed him in a purple robe. All night he endured the abuse, the lies, being pushed and shoved from palace to palace.
Condemned to death, they scourged him mercilessly, until his back was raw and lacerated. Onto his shoulders they forced a heavy crossbar and prodded him along, until he collapsed on the dusty road to Calvary. There they stripped him completely naked, and flung him to the ground, onto the crossbar, and hammered large nails through his stretched flesh. Roughly they raised him up to hang on a cross between heaven and earth.
I listened, as an adult Sunday school teacher who happened to be a doctor went on to explain, in excruciating detail, the effect of all this on the human body. The weight of his body lurched forward, tore further into his hands and constricted his lungs, forcing him to push himself up on the foot bar to breathe. Hours later, just before Christ entrusted his spirit into his Father’s hands, his lungs filled with blood and fluid – the blood and water that flowed out of his side when a Roman soldier pierced his heart to make sure he was dead.
By the time our teacher finished I was trembling. I drove home that Sunday and sunk on to a couch. I covered my eyes and shouted out to God that this was too high a price for Christ to pay. We humans aren’t worth it. God, you should have left us to die in our sins. It was all too much …
Then a still small voice entered my head and turned my wretchedness to amazement, then to thankfulness, and then to joy. It was Hebrews 12:2 that spoke to me: ‘…For the joy set before him he endured the cross…’.
Prayer
Astounding Saviour, amazing Father, comforting Holy Spirit, your love is beyond compare. We don’t deserve it, but we drop to our knees, and stretch out our hands in speechless adoration, with hearts full of unending wonder. Amen.
Study by Christina Campbell
Christina Campbell attends the Glasgow congregation of Grace Communion International, where she is an occasional speaker.
Local congregation:
Gracecom Glasgow
St. Andrews West Parish Church
(Garnethill Room)
260 Bath Street
Glasgow G2 4JP
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am
Local congregational contact:
Ian Smillie
Email: glasgow@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church