T Minus 2 Days and Counting: Good Friday of Passion Week
You’ll find the events of this day in: Matthew 26:47-27:1-61; Mark 14-15:37; Luke 22:47-23:56; John 18:1-19:42
Read Matthew 27:1-61
Why do we call something good when the events are bad? Good Friday is the traditional name given to the day of Passion Week when Jesus was crucified. It is a dark day, but it is a good day. Good in the sense that the Son of God came to take away the sins of the world.
There are many who wrongly think that Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus and the death that he took upon himself. What we actually celebrate is not the crucifixion, but the resurrection. We take what is called Good Friday to focus upon the acts of the crucifixion. Why are these crucifixion events so crucial to our faith?
The crucifixion was the atonement for our sins.
Matthew tells us, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out…My God, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46).” The act of giving up his life for our sins was the willingness to take the penalty and punishment for us. The Scriptures, from the beginning, teach us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (see Hebrews 9:22). Why did blood need to be spilled? Because life is in the blood (see Leviticus 17:11). Our sin is costly, and the highest price one could pay was life. For the Old Testament worshippers they were taught that a literal scapegoat (as we would call it) could replace their own lives (see Leviticus 16:5-10; and Hebrews 13:11-12), and that by offering up an animal life they could literally put their hands on the head of the animal and it signified their placing their sins on the life they were about to offer up in sacrifice (see Leviticus 4:24). Jesus, once and for all, became the better sacrifice for our sins (see Hebrews 10:1-18). He took the position of our scapegoat, and the Father laid upon him the sins of the world (see Isaiah 53:6).
The crucifixion removed our separation from a Holy God.
Matthew records a phenomenal event that happened the moment Christ gave up the ghost (that’s old terminology for death), “And behold, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).” This symbolic act of God would not have been lost on anyone familiar with the lengthy Old Testament teachings surrounding the Temple. When I say Temple I mean to reference what is often called in the Bible the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, and eventually the permanent structure that Solomon would build for Israel. Essentially, other than location and building materials, the point was the same. The Temple was a place in the Old Testament where God met with the people. He used priests and it was extremely formal, but it was where a holy God met with a sinful man. Without it, there could be no fellowship between the two entities.
When you read Exodus you may be familiar with the narrative about the escape from Egypt, but the latter half of the book is literally a lengthy discourse on how the Temple is to be constructed, organized, and displayed. The entire book of Leviticus shows what the worshiper brings into the Temple. Why such detail? God intends to teach his people the true and lasting way of salvation. Because we are stubborn, it took going through the elementary teachings to get us to the point that we recognize Christ as savior of the world (see Galatians 3:23-24). The old laws were meant to tutor us to the source of salvation. Ironically, the Jewish leaders were showing their elementary mindset on spiritual matters when they failed to see Christ.
We are not to fail to see it. When you read that the Temple curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the outside worshiper, you know that this is not coincidence, but the hand of God. The Temple had a curtain that was meant to separate. Only the priests daily could go into the Holy Place and offer sacrifices for sins, but only the High Priest could go into the next chamber…the Most Holy Place, and offer forgiveness of sins (and then only one day a year on the Day of Atonement - Leviticus 16). It was the curtain that separated those Holy and Most Holy places that was torn. What did that teach? That now, in Christ Jesus, there is no longer separation. Hebrews labors to teach us all of this, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24).”
When I reflect on all that bible truth, I see why this is a good day! Today you have the opportunity to reflect and proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. I hope that it makes for a really good day thinking about the good news.
Going Deeper:
The events surrounding Friday are plentiful. There is the betrayal narrative in the garden, the denial of Peter and many other significant moments. Read through the texts and reflect on how in the darkness, God was using it for good.
What do you know about the Old Testament sacrificial system? Can you point what you know to Christ? If not, take time to study Hebrews.
