Holy Week | Good Friday

INTRODUCTION

Holy Week (or Passion Week) begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Resurrection Sunday (Easter Sunday). These are some of the most sacred days on the Christian calendar. I will release a blog post each day this week for you to use as a devotional guide. These posts will contain Bible readings, critical explanations of the text, devotional thoughts, and a prayer. So, please join me as we examine what Jesus was up to during Holy Week.

View previous posts in this series:  Palm Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

GOOD FRIDAY

You can read about Friday of Holy Week in the following passages: Matthew 27:1-61, Mark 15:1-47, Luke 23:1-56, John 18:28-19:42.

On Thursday night, the Jewish authorities—the Chief Priests and the Sanhedrin—arrested Jesus and performed hidden trials in the dead of night and into the early morning. Ultimately, they make the decision to have Jesus crucified, an act that Pontius Pilate would have to commission. Pilate struggles over this decision. He tries to convince the Jews that Jesus doesn’t deserve death, but unable to do so, he gives in to their demand.

Jesus receives a severe beating, a scourging. The soldiers mock him by giving him a purple sash as a robe and by creating a crown of thorns and forcing it into his head. Jesus then carries his own cross, most of the way, to Golgotha. The soldiers lay him down and nail his hands and feet to the cross. They raise up the cross, fixing it into a hole in the ground. And Jesus hangs there. Sentenced to death by asphyxiation—driving the lungs of oxygen—and blood loss. After six hours, he dies.

As men have observed before, “Never before has more been lost and gained at the same time.” Jesus, the Son of God, perfect and blameless, receives the death sentence. His followers, and the many Jews of Palm Sunday’s welcoming, were dumbfounded. He was supposed to be the king who overthrew Rome. Even though Jesus had told them multiple times that he would suffer many things and rise on the third day, they did not understand the moment. 

Little did they know, Jesus hung there with the sins (past, present, and future) of all God’s people laid upon him. When he cried out “Tetelestai!”—It is finished!—he had something far deeper and more significant on his heart: sin is defeated. The wrath of God is poured out on Christ, so that the righteousness of Christ can be poured out on all who come to him.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS AND A PRAYER

We call it “Good Friday” because the greatest good that the world has ever seen happened when Christ carried our sins to the cross (John 15:13).

Block off a time today to read Isaiah 53. Meditate on this passage. Think about the purpose of the Suffering Servant—to bear God’s wrath for you. Confess your sins to the Lord and thank him for the gift of forgiveness and eternal life through the death of Jesus.

PRAYER
Heavenly Father, thank you for the Suffering Servant. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place. Help me to never take for granted this—the greatest—act of love. Help me to walk in this newness of life, as I look each day to Jesus Christ. I love you, Lord. Amen.

For further learning, check out this video on Friday of Holy Week by The Gospel Coalition.