Good Friday
Mark
15:16-32
When
you see the nails piercing through Christ’s hands, believe surely that it is
your work. When you see His crown of thorns, believe that it is your evil
thoughts.—Martin Luther (1483-1546), leader of the Reformation in Germany
The
spectacle of the crucifixion of Jesus was hideous. No language can express how
awful and how diabolically evil it was that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God,
was being put to death by torturous crucifixion. This was one of the cruelest
deaths imaginable; the physical agony to be endured was unimaginable. But Jesus
was put to death this way. As Mark records, “It was nine in the morning when
they crucified Him” (Mark 15:25).
Jesus
had been mocked and beaten bloody by soldiers. The soldiers had “dressed Him up
in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on Him”
(Mark 15:17). Humiliation with pain and torture—all for the innocent Son of
God.
These
horrible things were done to Jesus by others. But theologically, Jesus went to
the cross for the sin of the world, which includes the sin of you and me. The
old spiritual asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Our answer
has to be, “Yes, we were there.” “I was there.”
From
today’s The Sanctuary for Lent 2017 by Donald K. McKim.