Good Friday

This morning, we're going to be reflecting as we've already, I guess, started on part one of a two part story. We call part one Good Friday. And on Good Friday, we reflect on the death, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Now whether you've been a Christian for a long time or a short time, or none of the above, you might have heard of this phrase, Jesus died for us. But if I was to ask you to explain that to me, how would you?

What's your understanding of that phrase? What does it mean when Christians say Jesus died for us? Well, you might say it's a sacrifice. Yes. Okay.

But what does that mean? Some people might say it's a payment for our sin. Okay? But who paid what? Jesus died for us.

Christians claim is the most important statement in all of human history. But how do we understand it? This morning, we're going to be looking at the story all over again. And like we just sung, once again, we come to that place. Once again, we look at the cross.

And we're going to be doing that by looking at the account we find in the gospel of Matthew. So if you have your Bibles with you, and it doesn't matter if you don't because we're gonna have it on the screen as well. If you have your Bibles, let's turn to Matthew 27. Matthew 27 and we're going to start reading from verse 32. As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There, they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there.

Above his head, they placed the written charge against him. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Two robbers were crucified with him. One on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at Jesus, shaking their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself.

Come down from the cross if you are the son of God. In the same way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, I am the son of God. In the same way, the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?

Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing there heard this, they said, he's calling Elijah. Immediately, one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, now leave him alone.

Let's see if Elijah comes to save him. When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rock split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

They came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those who were there guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, surely he was the son of God. Many women were there watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

So far the reading. Now there are four accounts of this event that we find in the Bible. There are accounts from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them tells the same story from Jesus' birth to his death and resurrection. Each of them tells the same story, but each of them has different flavours.

When the gospel of Matthew is compared with the other accounts of Jesus' life, we actually find a few unique differences, unique trends. One of the strongest emphases in the gospel of Matthew is a very strong orientation back to the Old Testament, which was the history of Israel, which was the history of God's dealing with Israel, his people. For Matthew, it was very important to prove that the promises of the Old Testament about the Messiah, the one who was going to come to save Israel and the world, those promises had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Matthew presents the life and the teaching of Jesus as a fulfillment of the ancient promises that were made to Israel. So it's no surprise then that when we come to the account of the crucifixion here, we actually see Matthew bringing out an Old Testament concept.

And that concept was a curse. A curse. Now a curse in Israel's understanding wasn't some sort of magical jinx, some sort of voodoo thing that we see in Hollywood or James Bond movies or whatever. A curse was the direct intervention of God to punish evil. Jesus, having been severely flogged and beaten at this point, was told to take his cross and carry it to the place where he was going to be crucified.

But because he was so weak, because he was so dehydrated, and presumably so close to death already, he couldn't physically do it. So we read that on their way there, they forced a man called Simon of Cyrene to take this cross, to carry it to this place of Golgotha. The Bible and Matthew's account makes it very clear that Simon was forced to do this. He didn't want to do it because no one wanted to carry a cross. You see, for the Romans, the cross was a disgusting form of the death penalty for common criminals.

Not even Roman citizens got crucified. It was a second class thing. It was for dirty Jews. It was for filthy barbarians. So no Roman would have wanted to carry that thing.

For the Jews, it was not very different. For the Jews, to be crucified was the worst kind of thing to do to someone. Because of Jewish custom and in a similar sense, I guess even today with Muslim custom, if you were to die, the person to be buried was to be buried as soon as possible to maintain dignity and respect for that person. Crucifixion, however, meant that a body was often left hanging up there as a billboard to say, if you don't follow the Roman Empire, this is how you're gonna end up. For the Jews, it was the ultimate humiliation.

For the person, the deceased, but also for their family and friends. Simon of Cyrene, a Jew, would have hated carrying that thing. It was an accursed symbol. But Simon is forced to do this and he leads Jesus with the rest of the army behind them to Golgotha, a hill outside of Jerusalem. Now Golgotha was at a close intersection of many many people coming to Jerusalem.

And so they placed it strategically there so that everyone could gawk. It was like the billboards we see on the M1 coming down or going up. And gawk they did. We see that the crowds who came past hurled insults at this man. It was a spectator sport.

The crowd who had personally convinced the authorities to send Jesus to his death hurled abuse at Jesus as well, saying things like, you said you were the son of God. Well, step down from that thing, son of God, and show us that you are the real deal. While all of this is happening, people started noticing, however, that the sun had started to disappear. A darkness came across Jerusalem. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, the Bible says, which for us is from midday, from 12:00 to 03:00, it was dark.

At midday, when the sun should be at its brightest, when the sun is right above our heads, it was dark. And for three hours, hanging on the cross, Jesus yelled out in despair, Eloi, Eloi, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The people jeered and laughed. He finally realizes that he's not as great as he thought he was. God doesn't want anything to do with this low life scum.

Others thought he was calling to Elijah because Eloi sounds like Elijah. They said, let Elijah save him. Let Elijah save him. After someone took a sponge of wine vinegar, soaked it in the wine vinegar and gave it to Jesus, Jesus cried out one last time and gave up his spirit. In John's account, in John's story of the crucifixion, John actually says what Jesus cried out in those last moments.

Jesus said, it is finished. Something truly terrifying happened then. The earth started shaking. People were running for cover. Some witnesses at the temple who were worshipping because it was Passover would later say that because of the earthquake, the heavy curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom.

Others claimed that their relatives who were godly men and women came back to life. Even a centurion, a Roman non believer said in astonishment, surely this was a son of the gods. And then it was all over. All the commotion, all the noise, all that had been raised about this man, all the hope that had been placed in this man was done, was finished. At his darkest hour, at his darkest hour, this man himself cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Christ, you see, did not die a martyr that day. He did not die a martyr that day. He died infinitely more humbly, a common criminal. But the good news, friends, is this is not where it ended. Part two of the story is yet to come.

Sunday is just about to come. There was a magnificent meaning to this death. The life of Jesus did not come to nothing. The life of Jesus did not have no meaning. In fact, this moment was a crowning event of his ministry.

The reconciliation of man with God. Matthew paints in painful detail the final moments of Jesus' death, aiming to highlight the accursedness of Jesus. Wanting to force the picture into our faces that he didn't abandon God, but God abandoned him. He was a man condemned to hell. In this story, in this central masterpiece of the story, Jesus' own words reflect this.

My God, why have you forsaken me? In that painful moment, Jesus sensed the abandonment of God the Father. Jesus' words reflect that even in that dreadful moment, however, He didn't abandon His faith in God. He still cried out to God. In despair, at the point of death, He did not throw away His dependence on God, but clung to His faith even in His dying moments.

My God. My God. Why? Why have you forsaken me? You see, Jesus could understand that Judas would betray him for 30 pieces of silver.

Jesus could understand how Peter would deny him three times to save his own skin. But Jesus couldn't understand that You, oh my Father, would forsake me. This is the worst kind of abandonment. No one wants to be forsaken by God. I can tell you that.

It's worse than anyone else's abandonment put together. This was experiencing hell itself. This is a separation of a soul from God. Jesus was not merely punished by death. He was not merely disciplined by flogging.

Those things He could handle. Jesus was abandoned. When we talk about Jesus being punished for our sins, we dare not think that he merely died on a cross. We dare not think it. Dying on a cross is one thing, but being separated from God, it is truly horrific. We know that God is love.

We know that God is life. God who created all that is good. All that makes our lives worthwhile. To be separated from that God is almost unimaginable. Christ didn't simply die on a cross.

He took complete abandonment from his heavenly Father for you. And it just so happened that it happened on a cross. Jesus was forsaken. And the people then thought it was forsaken by simply dying on a cross. It was forsaken by simply dying this painful death.

The Romans thought it was a humiliating death for a second class citizen. The Jews thought it was an undignified end to a life. But Jesus was completely and utterly forsaken by God the Father. God not only forsook him to die, but God turned His back on Jesus completely. And in that moment, Jesus experienced the curse of hell itself.

An existence away from God. That is what Matthew wanted to emphasise. That is what Matthew so vividly wanted to push into our faces. This was a curse from God. Many years later, the apostle Paul, who was a man who came to a life shattering realisation of God's love, who came to a huge conversion, wrote about what happened here in this death of Jesus.

In Galatians 3, he writes that every single one of us have come under this curse of hell. The abandonment of God. He quotes the Old Testament which says that cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. In other words, God's purpose for us, God's purpose for humanity, is that we live in a way that God designed for us to live. God's requirement of us.

Not to cheat on our spouses. Not to hurt those who are made in God's image. Not to murder, not to steal, not to lust for money or power, but to be thankful for what we have, not to be prejudiced against other people. All of these principles He gave to humanity so that humanity may flourish, so that humanity may have life, real life. But Paul says, whoever does not or cannot uphold these requirements face the curse of eternal separation from God.

They have no place in God's kingdom because by their actions, they show that they have no place for God. They will be forsaken. They will be forsaken all the good that God wants to give them. But then Paul adds this, but Christ redeemed us from the curse of this law by becoming a curse for us. Notice what happens here.

We who are under the curse of separation from God because of our inability to love God, to love Him with all our hearts, with all our lives. We are under this curse. That curse is fair and squarely on us. But on the cross, this curse is placed on Jesus. Jesus redeems us, which means Jesus buys us back from this curse by becoming a curse for us.

What sacrifice? What love? He did it all for those who are His. That means for all who believe. For all who believe, the curse has truly been removed.

The curse which is eternal separation and forsaken us from God. The cross reveals to the seemingly good people. That's us. That our goodness is not good enough. When you believe in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, you place your sin upon that cross.

Your curse becomes His curse and He bears it for us. And He takes that eternal curse and gives us life that He has with God. Jesus Christ felt the full weight of God's curse and suffered the horrific horror of it. Eloi Eloi, Lama Sabachthani. He died a thousand deaths as He suffered eternal damnation for us.

That's what it means to be completely forsaken by God. We all deserve that death. We deserve to be forsaken by God because we at one point or another have forsaken God. But the Bible promises us this, that through His death, which we are reminded of today, Jesus has brought many sons and daughters to glory. If you've struggled with this, if you've struggled with keeping yourself committed to God, if you have struggled against yourself, if you've been your own worst enemy, if you have undermined your own happiness and fulfilment in God, today is a good day.

Today is an excellent day. Jesus promises that He can change your heart. Jesus promises that He can give you new life. You see, you can change the things that you do. You can change the things that you say, but only Jesus can change your heart.

When we understand what happened on the cross, the sin in our lives are dislodged from us. It is ripped out. It has no holding place in us. The fact that Jesus had to die for me, helped me of my pride and my self centeredness. The fact that Jesus was glad to die for me has given me assurance in the face of my deepest fears.

The death of Jesus may seem grim. It may seem repulsive to those who don't realise its true significance. And I dare you to turn on National Geographic this weekend. You'll be seeing a lot of Jesus. But seeing it from a different perspective.

For some, it's a repulsive subject who don't realise its significance. But to those who have accepted His redemption, to those who have been set free from sin's chains, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ is truly precious. The cross is God's last word on the curse of sin. There Satan is judged. Their sin is killed.

Pride is put to death. Their lust is frozen. Self interest is slaughtered. Because of Jesus' death. Sin cannot have the last laugh.

God sat in silence while the sins of the world were placed upon His son. Why have you forsaken me? God Jesus crying. God was silent. Was it right?

No. Was it fair? No. Was it love? Yes.

Today we celebrate this love that has conquered death. This love that pursued us relentlessly. This is Good Friday.