Good Friday

Hello everyone, thank you for tuning in to the Shepherds Church podcast. Today, we're gonna be doing two special readings for our Good Friday service. The first is going to be from from Fleming Rutledge's book called the crucifixion Understanding the death of Jesus Christ and we will be reading from pages 89 to 95 in order to understand the brutality of the Roman cross.

When we have finished with that We will read Isaiah 53 in its entirety and Then for a few moments, we will examine What it is that Jesus Christ has done. So I'll begin with Fleming Rutledge's book and she begins with this example of an electric chair.

The Brutality and Public Shame of Roman Crucifixion

She says it is formidably difficult to understand the cross today in its original context. After 2 ,000 years in which it has been domesticated romanticized idealized and misappropriated. Occasionally a modern interpreter struggling to find some correspondence that can be grasped by people today Will compare the cross of Roman times to the American electric chair.

This is an inadequate analogy for a number of reasons as we shall see. But we can learn a few things from it. Imagine revering an electric chair. Imagine using it as the focal point in our churches. Hanging small replicas around our necks carrying it aloft in procession and bowing our heads.

As it passes by. The absurdity of this scenario can be readily grasped but another might help us. For instance the electric chair when it was still used was almost always used for executing the lowest class of criminals a majority of them black.

With no powerful connections or other resources. Similarly the Romans virtually never used the cross for executing people who had occupied high positions and never for Roman citizens. Another point of contact is the contradictory response of revulsion and Attraction familiar to anyone who has ever slowed down to gasp at a wreck on the highway.

Even the most fastidious person when confronted by a photograph of an electric chair and let alone the real thing Will experience a sort of disturbing fascination. There have always been people who specialized in coming to cheer and applaud Executions when they take place whether they were lynchings hangings or electrocutions.

This is what undoubtedly happened on Calvary when Jesus was nailed to the cross and left there to die. Crowds of people then as now took pleasure in reviling the one who was being put to death and When they became bored with this pastime, they went safely home to the comforts of their house.

And gave the victim no further thought. But there are very important differences. Electrocutions were at least theoretically supposed to be humane and quick but crucifixion as a method of execution was specifically designed to intensify and prolong agony.

In This sense the cross was infinitely more dreadful than the electric chair. Odious though. The chair was. Another difference is that the person to be electrocuted is permitted the dignity of a mask or a hood.

Presumably so that the privilege of the face would be protected. Most important of all electrocutions took place indoors outside of public view With only a few people permitted to watch. Crucifixions on the other hand was supposed to be seen by as many people as possible.

The basement resulting from public display was a chief feature of the method. Along with the prolonging of agony it was a form of advertisement or public announcement. This person is the scum of the earth Not fit to live more like an insect than a human being.

The crucified wretch was pinned up like a specimen. Crosses were not placed out in the open for convenience or sanitation, but for maximum public exposure. Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had as its express purpose the elimination of Victims from consideration as members of the human race.

It cannot be said too strongly this was its function. It was meant to indicate to all who might be toying with the subversive idea that crucified people were not the same Species as either the executioner or the spectator and were therefore not only expendable But also deserving of ritualized execution.

Therefore the mocking and jeering that accompanied crucifixion Were not only allowed but they were a part of the spectacle and programmed into it. In a sense crucifixion was a form of entertainment. Everyone understood.

The specific role of the passerby was to exasperate the dehumanization and Degradation of the person who had been thus designed to be a spectacle. Crucifixion was cleverly designed we might even say Diabolically designed to be an almost theatrical Enactment of the sadistic and inhumane impulses that lie within human beings.

According to the Christian gospel the Son of God voluntarily and purposefully absorbed all of that Drawing it into himself. Anyone seeking to interpret Jesus's crucifixion must decide whether or not to include a clinical description.

Since the New Testament writers are conspicuously silent about the physical details It is legitimate for us to ask whether it is suitable or helpful to introduce them. On the other hand people in the New Testament times had all seen crucifixions and did not need a description.

The evangelist and other New Testament writers were able to assume a familiarity with the method that is unthinkable to us today. Most of us have never even come close to seeing anyone tortured to death for this reason as Martin Hengel writes.

Reflection on the harsh reality of crucifixion in antiquity may help us overcome The acute loss of reality which is to be found so often in present theology and preaching. The early theologian origin called Jesus's death the utterly vile death of the cross.

Cicero the great Roman statesman and writer referred to crucifixion as the supreme penalty Exceeding burning and decapitation in gruesomeness. Some rudimentary knowledge of what was taking place will help us understand these terms.

The first phase of a Roman execution was scourging. The lictors the Roman legionaries assigned to this duty used a whip made of leather cords To which small pieces of metal or bone had been fastened. Paintings of the scourging of Jesus always show him with a loincloth.

But in fact the victim would have been naked Tied to a post in a position to expose the back and buttocks to maximum effect. With the first strokes of the scourge skin would be pulled away in the subcutaneous tissue exposed.

As the process continued the lacerations would begin to tear into the underlying skeletal muscles. This would result not only in great pain, but also in appreciable blood loss. The idea was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death.

It was common for taunting and ridicule to accompany the procedure. In the case of Jesus the New Testament tells us that a crown of thorns a purple robe and a mock Scepter were added to intensify the mockery.

The condition of a prisoner after scourging just prior to crucifixion would depend upon several things previous physical condition the enthusiasm of the lictors and The extent of blood loss. In the case of Jesus these things cannot be known, but the fact that he was apparently unable to carry the crossbar would indicate that he was probably in a severely weakened state and He may have been close to circulatory shock.

Those being crucified were then paraded through the streets exposing them to the full scorn of the population. When the procession reached the site of crucifixion the victims would see before them the heavy upright wooden post permanently in place To which the crossbar would be affixed by a mortise and tendon joint.

The person to be crucified would be thrown down on his back Exasperating the pain of the wounds from the scourging and introducing dirt into them. His hands would be tied or nailed to the crossbar. Nailing seems to have been preferred by the Romans.

Ossuary finds have given us a clearer idea of how this was done. 2 ,000 years of Christian iconography. Notwithstanding the nails were not driven into the palms which could not support the weight of a human body but into the wrists.

The crossbar was then hoisted on to the post with the victim dependent upon it and The feet were tied or nailed. At this point the process of crucifixion proper began. Victims of crucifixion lived on their crosses for periods varying from three or four hours to three or four days.

Passive exhalation Which we all do thousands of times a day without thinking about it becomes impossible for a person hanging on a cross. The weight of a body hanging by its wrist would depress the muscles required for breathing.

Therefore each exhaled breath Could only be achieved by a tremendous effort. The only way to gain a breath at all would be by pushing oneself up from the legs and feet or By pulling oneself up by the arms either of which would cause intense agony.

Add to this primary factor the following secondary ones. Bodily functions. Uncontrolled insects feasting on wounds and orifices. Unspeakable thirst muscle cramps. Bolts of pain from the severed median nerves in the wrist.

Scourged back scraping against the cross. It is more than any of us are capable of fully imagining. The verbal abuse and other actions such as spitting and throwing refuse by the spectators. Roman soldiers and passerby's added the final touch.

The New Testament shows us life lived between two worlds. The Roman in the near Middle Eastern Crucifixion was noxious enough in Roman eyes. Palestinian attitudes would have found it perhaps even more so.

Middle Eastern cultures today still have an acute sense of personal honor lodged in the body. An Amputation Administered as punishment for instance would be seen as much more than just physical cruelty or permanent Handicap, it would mean that the amputee would carry the visible marks of dishonor and shame for the rest of his or her life.

Anything done to the body would have been understood as exceptionally cruel. Not just because it inflicted pain, but even more because it caused Dishonor. Furthermore the passion accounts reflect in part a very ancient ritual of humiliation.

The mocking of Jesus the spitting and scorn the inversion of his kingship and the studious dethronement with the crown of thorns and purple robe would have been understood as a central part of the total rite of infamy of Which the crucifixion itself is the culmination.

A final aspect of crucifixion not widely noted is That a crucified person gasping and heaving on a cross is forced to be his own executioner. He is not even allowed the perverse Dignity of having another human being corresponding to himself who hangs him or decapitates him.

He dies truly and completely alone With the weight of his own body killing him as it hangs causing his own diaphragm to suffocate him. This concludes our special reading of Fleming Rutledge's book the crucifixion and Now I want us to turn to the pages of the Old Testament scriptures.

Isaiah 53 and the Suffering Servant

I Passage of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. And I want us to take what we've now learned from Rutledge's Examination of the crucifixion and I want us to see how 700 years prior to that The great prophet of Israel foresaw everything that Jesus would go through Isaiah 53 who has believed our message and And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of the parched ground. He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. No appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and Like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourgings we are Healed all of us like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

So he did not open his mouth By oppression and judgment. He was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of his people To whom the stroke was due His grave was assigned with wicked men yet.

He was with a rich man in his death Because he had done no violence Nor was there any deceit in his mouth, but the Lord was pleased to crush him Putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering he will see his offspring he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand and As a result of the anguish of his soul He will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge.

The righteous one my servant will Justify the many and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allow him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he himself bore the sin of many and Interceded for the transgressors.

This is Isaiah 53. Today we understand as As being Good Friday and we don't think about Good Friday as being good because of the events that actually happened. The events were brutal and Awful, we think about Good Friday because of the purpose behind it.

The Cross, the Wrath of God, and Our Sin

Silver lining that was happening amid the deepest darkest clouds That had ever enveloped the planet in some ways his humble birth His humble appearance and his humble upbringing served to increase the shocking nature of the events that happened on That Good Friday day.

The one who was wrapped in the radiance of God's immutable glory for eternity was now humble lonely despised rejected stricken and smitten. The One who fashioned our human hands was now being attacked by them and pierced by them.

The one who had heard the angelic choir singing now listened as we threw insults Upon him and it actually does us no good to distance ourself from the damning destructive events of that day Though not physically present.

It was our sin that brought about this tragedy and in some ways You and I were there in our sin. We were there yelling crucify him. We were there mocking him spitting in his perfect face and going home to forget that he ever existed.

Every conscious sin that we have ever committed against the law of God as Well as every unconscious judgment or thought that has ever creeped upon our consciousness. Put him on that cross. And perhaps the most shocking facet of this entire display is the fact that God was pleased to do it.

It says that he was pleased to crush him. Pleased to wound him pleased to put him to grief. Because if that grief came about then he could become a guilt offering for the people of God. That is why it pleased the father.

Instead of the innocent animal being slayed for the wicked the one and only true son of God hung bludgeoned for our trespasses and It was more than physical brutality. There was even a more awful component to all of this one that we can scarcely imagine that we must briefly describe on that day.

It pleased the father to pour out every sin every blight every defilement That was stored in the cup of his wrath and to pour those out on his perfect spotless son. The spiritual weight of that moment cannot and should not be understated.

In an instance Jesus felt something far worse than the physical brutality. He felt for the first time in his Eternal existence what it meant to be forsaken by God in his last words He cried out my God my God.

Why have you forsaken me? Which was not intended to be a question, but actually a quotation of Psalm 22 in that moment Jesus knew exactly what was happening to him, but the weight of it most certainly overcame him.

Jesus Christ Willingly was abandoned so that you and I might be found. He was crushed so that you and I could be made well. And it pleased the father to do so the Sun set on that awful day. Just like it had on any other.

Easter Hope and the Empty Tomb

The crowds dispersed and went home and forgot the tragedy that they had just seen the lictors Cleaned their weapons and went back to normal everyday life. His body was taken down and thrown into a borrowed grave to be forgotten.

But this was not his end 2 ,000 years from those tragic events. We still remember him and we remember him because of his rising from the dead on the third day Easter Sunday morning. We remember him because the grave was empty.

We remember him because he appeared to many people. We remember him because the Holy Spirit came and indwelled his first followers who wrote the New Testament Documents that we now read and celebrate and follow and Cling to while we wait for our Savior to return.

Good Friday was the heaviest and darkest day that humanity had ever experienced. But the light shines most brightly against the darkest canvas. For on the third day the greatest event in human history occurred our Savior Jesus Christ rose from the grave and This Sunday, we will celebrate that together in our online gathering until then you are loved.