Good Friday: The Christ is Dead

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6

We come in our Christian liturgy of Passion Week to Good Friday, the day that we pause to examine and reflect upon the crucifixion and death of Christ. Let us spend some time looking today at the what, when, how, and why of Christ's crucifixion and death.

What? Luke 23:46 tells us plainly: "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last." What happened on this Good Friday, around 2,000 years ago? Plain and simple: The Christ died. The Messiah, the Son of God, God Incarnate, died.

When? Chronologically, we would say that Christ died around the year of 32 A.D. But theologically, we would say that Christ died at the very time God had appointed it since before creation. Galatians 4:4 says, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son." The death of His Son was appointed and willed by God the Father (see Isaiah 53:10), and it happened at the very hour it was destined to happen.

How? So often we think that Jesus merely died on a cross, and that was all, but it was more than that. In the physical realm, Jesus was beaten (Luke 22:63), flogged (John 19:1), stricken by the hands of men (John 19:3), given a crown of thorns (John 19:2), crucified (Luke 23:33), killed (Luke 23:46), and buried (Luke 23:53). In the social realm, he was denied by his friend (Luke 22:54-62), mocked (Luke 22:63-65), convicted and accused unjustly (Luke 22:66-23:16), delivered over (Luke 23:18-25), and blasphemed (Luke 22:65, 39). But most importantly, in the spiritual realm (of which we often forget), he was sorrowful (Is. 53:3), bearing of our iniquities (Is. 53:6), and, most importantly, enduring the wrath of God on our behalf (Mark 15:34, 2 Cor. 5:21, 2 Pet. 3:18),

Why? We are led to ask one question and one question alone in response to all of this: why? Why did Jesus, the only completely innocent man the world has ever known, give himself up to death? Why did the Father allow his Son to be beaten, flogged, stricken, crucified, killed, and buried? John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Romans 5:8, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Christ died because he loved the world. God sent his son to die because he desires that we believe in Him and dwell with him eternally. There is only one reason that God would do something so foolish as to die and to send his son to die: because he loved us.

But what do we do in response to this? Answer: everything. What do I mean? Let me tell you. Jesus gave up his life for us in his body on a cross. He paid the ultimate sacrifice that we might live. Therefore, the only fitting response to him giving up his life for us is for us to give up our lives fpr him. We ought to repent of our sins always and run to a God who died a horrible death for us. We ought to behold and adore him, realizing that not even one drop of his blood was deserved. Every single agony that Jesus endured is what we should have endured from now into eternity, yet he bore it for us. The only correct response to this is a love towards God that shows itself in sacrifice. God set the pattern for us in his death on a cross. Surely we ought to give up our lives in obedience to him.