Good Friday
"Then came the Nazarene! He as nearly dead. Every few steps he staggered as if he would fall. A stained gown badly torn hung from His shoulders over a seamless under-tunic. His bare feet left red splotches upon the stones. An inscription on a board was tied to His neck. A crown of thorns had been crushed hard down upon His head, making cruel wounds from which streams of blood, now dry and blackened, had run over His face and neck. The long hair, tangled in the thorns, was clotted thick. The skin where it could be seen, was ghastly white. His hands were tied before Him. Back somewhere in the city He had fallen exhausted under the transverse beam of His cross, which, as a condemned person, custom required him to bear to the place of execution; now a countryman carried the burden in His stead. Four soldiers went with Him as a guard against the mob, who sometimes, nevertheless, broke through and struck Him with sticks and spat upon Him. Yet no sound escaped Him, neither remonstrance nor groan........"
So wrote the author of Ben Hur as he tried to get to grips with the events surrounding the suffering and death of Our Lord.
I want tonight to focus on the suffering and death of Christ.
Firstly let it be understood that the Lord suffered all of His earthly life. Here was the Servant King, the Lord of Hosts, the Sinless one in daily contact with sinners. The perfect one in a sin cursed world. He suffered continuously the outrageous attacks of Satan, the hatred and unbelief of his own chosen people. The loneliness of this is beyond human comprehension. His suffering grew worse as Good Friday drew closer until it reached it climax in his death when all the wrath of God against sin bore down upon him.
He suffered in body and soul. Much attention is paid as in the quotation from Ben Hur, to the physical suffering of Our Lord, but he suffered in his soul. Do you remember in the garden how he agonized. We are told that his soul was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.".
His sufferings resulted from various causes. Let me quote to you from Berkhof's systematic theology.
"in the last analysis all the sufferings of Christ resulted from the fact that He took the place of sinners vicariously. But we may distinguish several proximate causes, such as: (1) The fact that He who was the Lord of the universe had to occupy a menial position,even the position of a bond-servant or slave and that He who had an inherent right to command was in duty bound to obey. (2) The fact that He who was pure and holy had to live in a sinful, polluted atmosphere, in daily association with sinners and was constantly reminded of the greatness of the guilt with which he was burdened by the sins if his contemporaries. (3) His perfect awareness and clear anticipation, from the very beginning of his life of the extreme sufferings that would as it were overwhelm in the end. He knew exactly what was coming and outlook was far from cheerful. (4) Finally also the privations of life, the temptations of the devil, the hatred and rejection of the people and the maltreatments and persecutions to which he was subjected."
But there is more for his sufferings were unique. The sufferings of Jesus were not purely natural but as the result of a positive action by God. We cannot but take seriously the words we find in Isaiah, they are worthy of deep meditation if we are to truly understand what Christ suffered today and indeed if we are to understand our own part in it. Isaiah 53 verse 6
"BUT THE LORD MADE THE PUNISHMENT FALL ON HIM, THE PUNISHMENT ALL OF US DESERVED."
and at verse 10, "It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness."
and at verse 11, "My devoted servant , with whom I am pleased will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them."
And of course He died. Now what do mean when we say that Jesus who is God died?
Firstly of course we think of physical death. The separation of body and soul. The Bible says more than this about death. Let me quote again from Berkhof, "Death is separation from God. Man separates himself from God by sin, and death is the natural result. But it is not in that way that Jesus became the subject of death since he had no personal sin. in this connection it should be borne in mind that death is not merely the natural consequence of sin, but above all the judicially imposed and inflicted punishment of sin. It is God's withdrawing Himself with the blessings of life and happiness from man an visiting man in wrath. It is from this judicial point of view that the death of Christ must be considered."
What Berkhof is saying in simple language is this: God pronounced judgement and Jesus bore the penalty. Jesus went to the chair as it were for the crimes of another. He did this voluntarily. The Heidelberg Catechism says, "all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life, He bore, in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race."
All of this culminated in the death on the cross. Physical and eternal death experienced intensively and so he cries out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me".
"But he endured the suffering that should have been ours,
the pain that we should have borne,
Because of our sins he was wounded
beaten because of the evil we did
The Lord made the punishment fall on him
the punishment all of us deserved
He was treated harshly but endured it humbly
he never said a word
like a lamb about to slaughtered
like a sheep about to be sheared
he never said a word
he was arrested and sentenced and led off to die
and no one cared about his fate
He was put to death for the sins of our people
he was placed in a grave with evil men
he was buried with the rich
even though he never committed a crime
or ever told a lie.
The Lord says,
It was my will that he should suffer
his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness
My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased
will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them
He willingly gave his life
and shared the fate of evil men
He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven"
So prophesied Isaiah.
It was God Almighty who did this........the King of Kings, the Creator.
He did it all for one reason and one alone. He would like you to give your life to Him that he might enjoy your company forever. He did because he loves you and would like you to love him too.