A WORD FOR TODAY, April 15, 2022

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Peggy Hoppes

unread,
Apr 15, 2022, 11:32:48 AM4/15/22
to awordf...@googlegroups.com

We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.

 

Blessings. Peg

www.awordfortoday.org

 

A WORD FOR TODAY, April 15, 2022

 

“You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.” Colossians 1:21-23, WEB

 

Why do we call this day “Good Friday?” How could something so horrible be called good? The form of capital punishment used on Jesus was cruel and painful. The criminal was beaten, humiliated, hung from a cross, and left to suffocate. If they took too long to die, the soldiers broke their legs so that they could not push upward with their feet to get a breath of air. They were not given water to drink, but rather vinegar that was sometimes laced with poison.

 

Good Friday is part of what we call The Three Days. It began the evening of Maundy Thursday and then continues through the evening of Easter Sunday. A vigil is held Saturday night which counts down the moments until sunrise, recalling the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament as the Christians waited for the rising of the Son of God to new life. Ancient Christians baptized new believers at the end of the vigil so that they could partake in the first Communion after the Resurrection.

 

After the Passover meal, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples to pray and wait.  Jesus asked very little of His disciples over the years they were together, but at this final hour He asked them to stay awake with Him and pray. Three times Jesus found them sleeping, unconcerned about things to come. For them this was a night like any other night. Jesus asked them to pray, not for His well-being but for their own. They needed the strength that was gained through a close personal relationship with God to get them through the events of the next few days. They needed to be in prayer so that they would not fall into temptation. They would face anger, fear, confusion, and doubt, leading them to do something stupid or lose all hope just like Judas whose despair led to his destruction.

 

Jesus prayed in that garden, asking God if there were not some other way to accomplish the work to be done. But even at His moment of greatest anguish when His prayers brought sweat that was mingled with blood, He submitted Himself to the good and perfect will of His Father.  “Not my will, but yours be done.” 

 

A large crowd was led by Judas into the garden in the dark of night with torches and swords. They came to take Him away as if He were a traitor, leading a rebellion against them. Peter had one of the two swords the disciples carried with them and he used it to strike one of the servants.  Jesus stopped that foolishness, for how could twelve men with two swords defeat such a crowd? Jesus touched the ear of the servant and healed him, then went willingly with the crowd to His trial and death. 

 

Those hours were grueling. Peter denied knowing Jesus. The guards mocked and beat Him. Caiaphas brought forth false witnesses, Pilate washed his hands of the matter, and the priests goaded the crowds into a frenzy until they cried out for His crucifixion. The disciples disappeared into hiding, afraid for their very lives. 

 

Jesus was forced to carry His own cross until He could no longer stand under the weight. The Roman soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry it to the hill for Him. The women followed, weeping for their beloved Master and friend. They did not understand that this was His hour of glory. This was not a time of darkness but of light. This was the culmination of God’s love and mercy, the moment when the wages of sin, meaning death, would be defeated for all who believe in Him. 

 

At the Skull, the place of crucifixion, Jesus was nailed to the cross. He spoke little during these hours, but every word was powerful and meaningful for those who heard. He spoke the words of David from the psalms, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” This means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This psalm was the anguished prayer of a righteous sufferer, one that did not call for the Lord to avenge the wrongs done. He then said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Though we see this as His darkest hour, for Jesus this is the hour of His fulfillment, when death was defeated so that life could reign. That life is found in forgiveness for all our sins.

 

One of the thieves ridiculed Jesus, telling Him to save them and Himself. The other asked Jesus to remember Him in His Kingdom. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”  The world grew dark as the sun stopped shining. The curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. God would no longer live in a box for the Jews, but would bring life to the world through the death of His Son. 

 

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus’ time was closing quickly. It would not take Him days to die. They would not need to feed Him poison or break His legs. Jesus was here by His own free will and would die at the moment He chose. Many of the people who had gathered began to grieve over what had happened. A centurion proclaimed, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Jesus turned to His mother who still lingered at the base of the cross. She was with John, the beloved disciple. He said, “Dear woman, here is your son. Here is your mother.”  From that day forward, John took Mary into His home and cared for her.

 

 “I thirst.” He once again turns to the words of the Psalms, speaking not only of the physical need for something to drink, but the utter loneliness He felt at that moment. David wrote in Psalm 22:15, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of the earth.” Then Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He gave up His spirit. 

 

The hour of His sorrow, pain, and humiliation was over, but it would last for several days for the disciples. They would grieve the loss of their beloved friend and teacher. They would fear for their lives. They would try to make sense of it all.  How did this happen and why? What would they do now? Should they just return to their old lives and forget these past few years? Nothing was as it should be, nothing was right. Oh, LORD, where are you?

 

In today’s scripture passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul reminds us why He did this: we were separated from God our Creator and Father. Jesus died to reconcile us to Him. He makes us holy and blameless before our God, an impossible task except for the one who is holy and blameless. He did this so that we would be made new, given faith to live as we were created to live, to dwell in the hope that God promised for us from the very beginning of time. He did this because He loved us so much He was willing to do anything to make us right again.

 

This is a compilation of all the Gospel stories about the arrest, trial and death of our Lord Jesus Christ as taken from Matthew 26:36-27:56, Mark 14:32-15:41, Luke 22:39-23:49, John 18:1-19:37.  Each writer gave his own perspective of the story, while remaining true to the event. For a fuller understanding of the depth of Jesus’ love for us, for what He did that day so long ago, read each of the Gospel accounts in their entirety. And may you have a blessed Good Friday, a day that seems so bad, but is so good.  For without the Cross, we can never have Easter.

 

 

 

A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday.  A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org





Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages