Here
we are on what is called “Good Friday” a term believed to be a corruption of
the original “God’s Friday” the day God, in human form, took the place of
mortals on the cross.
Jesus
knew that obedience to the salvation plan would lead to this;
That
God would die in Jesus, on that day of darkness to pay the price for the sins
of the world. The Jewish mindset
throughout the Old Testament was cause and effect; Jesus’ faithful living
brought him to Paradise; but we get a clue that we, though unworthy, are invited
to Paradise by the grace, Unmerited favor) of God when Jesus turns to the
criminal on his right and, because he acknowledges Jesus as king, gets the
promise of paradise too.
The
system of paying for sins was already in place.
Yom
Kippur -
animals sacrificed
Jesus
entered
Passover
preparations would have happened as they happened for Jews this week.
They
waved Palm Branches, crying out for freedom and liberation, the Palm Branch
being the symbol of the last dynasty of self rule by Jews: the Maccabbees.
Jesus
would have come to what we call the Last Supper, treating it as a Passover
meal. The blessing he offered, and the
cups that were shared were certainly ones we would find in a Passover Seder.
But the New Covenant as Jesus claimed it, made this
the Last Supper to a Christian. How he
dreaded the pain he would endure; in the Garden he prayed that the task might
be given to someone else. When the
answer was clearly that no one else could do it, he accepted his fate.
What
Jesus endured was so torturous, that he understands all the pains, tortures,
rejections, and scorn that you or I might face.
Jesus was truly human.
What
Jesus gained was