Good Friday

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Dr. Chris’ Easter Blogs 2023

Week 3Good Friday

I want to highlight some key points about Jesus on Good Friday.The soldiers led Jesus from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem to the house of the High Priest,Caiaphas. His house has been discovered in recent times, and you can see the “pit” where Jesuswas probably held overnight and whipped. I have been there to see it and it is a humbingexperience to think of what Jesus suffered there.Jesus let them lead Him like a lamb, as Rick Renner explains in Sparking Gems from the Greek.Jesus demonstrated that they were not able to take Him by force, but that He allowed Himself tobe led. He explains that they led Him away, in the same way that one would lead a lamb with arope around his neck. This is probably what the soldiers did with Jesus – put a rope around Hisneck and led him down the path, just as Isaiah had prophesied (Renner. 2003. 232). Jesus onceagain acted as a lamb.Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of theBlessed?’ Jesus said, ‘I AM. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand ofthe power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothesand said, ‘What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy!What do you think?’ And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death (Mark14:61–64).When Jesus answered, He said that He was God, and they said it was blasphemy. Jesus was notcondemned to death because of anything He did. It was because of Who He said He was!He was then taken to Pilate. So, Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no fault inthis Man” (Luke 23:4). Pilate found Jesus guiltless and in doing so, he actually declared Jesus asa spotless lamb – THE Spotless Lamb. His declaration made the proclamation for Jesus to bedeclared without fault or defect – just like what was needed for the Passover lamb. What Pilatesaid was prophetic. If Pilate had ordered the crucifixion of Jesus, it would have been anexecution. Instead, the Jewish priests asked for Pilate to give Jesus to them, which he did. Thismade Jesus’ death a sacrifice because the priests offered sacrifices. This is a key fact inunderstanding the sacrificial death of Jesus.They beat Him, whipped Him until near death, mocked Him and injured Him until He wasterribly disfigured. They put a crown of thorns on His head. But through it all, He remained as alamb. His reaction to all the punishments He received was prophesied in the Book of Isaiah.He was oppressed and He was afflicted,Yet He opened not His mouth;He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,So, He opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:7; author’s emphasis).

In fact, all of Isaiah Chapter 53 is a prophesy about the death of the Lamb of God. Psalm 22does also. Here are a few verses from Psalm 22 that show the accuracy of this prophesy. Thewords Jesus spoke on Calvary are from Psalm 22.Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Andabout the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani?’ that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Some of thosewho stood there, when they heard that, said, ‘This Man is calling for Elijah!’Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on areed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijahwill come to save Him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up Hisspirit (Matthew 27:45-50).Before Jesus died, there was great darkness over the land. Jesus experienced a great separationfrom His Father. One man (Adam) created this separation, and one man (Jesus) had to win itback.These words “it is finished” are recorded in John 19:30 in the Greek accounting term –“tetelestai.” This is a declaration that everything has fully been accomplished. This debt wasaccomplished between God the Father and His Son. It was a perfect covenant. Jesus was thePassover Lamb that was slain. He was God’s perfect substitute.Jesus chose when to die and at the precise moment that the Passover Lamb was slain in theTemple. Jesus was the perfect substitute at the perfect time. God came down to earth andbecame the Passover Lamb on exactly the same day and at the same time when the sacrifice hadoccurred – for centuries. Those past Passover lambs simply foreshadowed Jesus. The ninth hour(3:00 in the afternoon) has had a long-standing meaning in the Jewish faith, so they should haveseen this as another sign that Jesus was the Messiah. This was at the same location of MountMoriah (and the exact time of the ninth hour), where centuries before, Abraham was willing tosacrifice his son, Isaac, at the direction of the Lord.

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