Good Friday. It would not have seemed good to anyone in the concentric circles that orbited Jesus on that day. There were those closest to him – Peter, James, and John. Then the rest of the twelve including Judas, family members, a larger group that followed him from place to place and helped support his ministry, the crowds, and, of course, those set on destroying him.
The morning had begun before sunrise with his arrest. Betrayal had born its fruit. The night before, just as the twelve were taking the bitter herbs of their Passover Seder in the upper room, Jesus had announced that betrayal was at hand. It only took a few hours for that prophetic word to be fulfilled. Taken to a kangaroo court before the High Priest and members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus had been accused by conflicting testimony so that Caiaphas, the High Priest, finally bound him by an oath to tell the truth. “The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ ‘ He is worthy of death,’ they answered” (Mt.26:63-66).The confession of who we was would, of course, seal his fate in the mind of the Jewish leaders.
From our perspective as Americans, we expect trials to be logical events with twelve somewhat detached jurists coming to a conclusion to be read with little emotion in court. But in this “courtroom,” the high priest tore his clothes. Feelings ran high and anything that smacked of blasphemy raised a tide of emotion rather than a reading of the findings. Think of scenes on the 6:00 news in the Middle East – funerals or demonstrations with people weeping, shouting, and wringing their hands. Think of flags being burned and crowds filling streets chanting for the death of the Great Satan America. Those scenes frighten Americans because they seem so unpredictable. So out of control. So emotional. Imagine those crowds surrounding Jesus who had been accused of blasphemy on Passover Eve when Israel was awaiting a deliverer and needed no one to be offending God by his words or actions. Suddenly the kangaroo court would take on a life of its own and spill into the streets moving toward the quarters of Pontius Pilate.
From there “Good Friday” spiraled downward. Jesus became a political football that would be kicked around the streets of Jerusalem – Caiaphas to Pilate; Pilate to Herod; Herod back to Pilate and Pilate back to the Jewish leaders screaming for blood. Beaten beyond recognition, Jesus was finally dragged up Golgatha and spiked to a rough and splintered cross. All of this occurred by about 9:00 in the morning. The shepherd’s flock had denied him and scattered into the night, except for John, the youngest. All were hiding in fear and wondering what would come next. This was not the triumphal coronation of The Messiah they had expected. Instead of glorious and powerful, this Messiah was broken and helpless. Why didn’t he call on the legions of angels he had spoken about? Why didn’t he call down fire on Caiaphas as Elijah had called down fire when facing the prophets of Bail? Why could he not heal is own wounds as he had healed countless others? Nothing seemed good about that Friday.
Darkness followed. Then death. His limp body was pulled from the cross and placed hurriedly in a tomb to avoid desecrating Passover. I am certain there was no hint of Passover joy in the rooms where the disciples huddled in disappointment and fear. However, as the old sermon goes, “It was Friday, but Sunday’s comin.”
Three days later, a dismal defeat was transformed into certain, unimaginable victory. The Passover Lamb rose from the ashes and the world has never been the same. In Exodus 6, Jewish scholars find four promises that are reflected by four cups of wine in the Passover Seder. These were almost certainly recited by Jesus in the Upper room. To Israel, God had said, “I will bring you out. I will free you from being slaves. I will redeem you. I will take you to be my own.”
Those promises are for us as well. He will bring us out of the Kingdom of Darkness. He will declare us to be free instead of slaves and take away our slave identity. He will redeem us by paying the price for our freedom. He will make us his as a groom takes a wife to be his own. Jesus is our Passover, by his blood spread over the doorposts of our hearts he has brought us out, set us free, redeemed us, and taken us to be his own. In so many words softly spoken in the upper room, Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you that seals a covenant I have made with you. Remember all this until I come again and be sure that I am coming again.” It was a very good Friday after all.
