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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective. Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. 2 ,000 years ago, Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross. The night before Jesus was crucified, he had his last supper with his disciples.
And then they went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. As Jesus was praying, the Bible says he sweat as it was great drops of blood because he was tortured over what was going to happen the next day.
And it wasn't the fear of the physical torture that he was going to undergo, but it was in fact knowing that he would receive in himself the wrath of God for the sins of his people. Jesus Christ was arrested.
He was taken into several unjust courts until he finally faced Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate sought to release Jesus because he did not see in him any guilt that deserved death. And even after trying to include Herod in getting Jesus away from him, he finally conceded to Jesus' death.
Before this, Pilate tried to satisfy the bloodlust of the crowds by having Jesus scourged. Now scourging is an awful thing. Something that's hard even for us to imagine. Some have seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, and The Passion of the Christ received its R rating quite possibly because of the scourging scene where Jesus' body was ripped apart by the flogging of the Roman soldiers.
And as graphic as this movie was, it does get much of this particular event correct. The way that the Romans would flog someone who was condemned as Jesus was, would be by taking a whip, which had on its ends pieces of metal and bone and rock sewn into the leather tails of the whip.
And they would take that whip and strike it across the back of the guilty individual. And as they struck it across the back, it would bury itself into the flesh and it would pull pieces of the flesh away from the person with every strike going down and back.
And as Jesus was beaten, his back opened up and the wounds receiving the feeling of being exposed to the air around, this was not enough. His blood pouring from his body from the flogging was not enough.
So, Pilate again conceded to his death, though he tried to, in a political maneuver, wash his hands of the situation. He turns Jesus over to be crucified. A cross beam is laid across Jesus' back and he begins to make the walk to Golgotha, the hill of the skull.
As Jesus was making his way, he fell under the weight of the cross beam. He could not carry it. He'd been beaten already, almost to death, and therefore his strength was failing him. So, the scripture says, Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross of Jesus in his place.
And Simon did so. And so they get to the hill. The cross beam is laid down. It is placed in a position where Jesus can be laid across it. The open cuts on his back are now exposed to the certainly unsanded wood.
And now the splinters of that wood is digging into his back. Jesus' arms are pulled apart, one in either direction. A metal spike is taken, placed onto his flesh, and he is stapled to the cross beam. With the spike, one on his right side and one on his left.
His feet are then crossed underneath him. A single spike is placed upon the top of his foot and driven through both feet, attaching him to the cross. The cross is then lifted up and dropped into a hole in the ground, where all of the weight of the crucified Savior is bearing down on those three nails.
Jesus is now suspended between heaven and earth. As he is hung on these nails, the weight of his body begins to pull tightly onto his chest, essentially creating asphyxiation. It is cutting off his air to breathe.
He presses down on the nail in his foot to lift himself up. He breathes in and then exhales as he breathes out and does this over and over, particularly in the times when he speaks from the cross. The Bible says Jesus spoke seven different statements from the cross.
And so you can imagine the absolute difficulty it would have been to press up on that singular nail, take in enough air to speak, and then in sheer exhaustion allow the weight to pull down again against the nails that hold him up.
And there he is, exhausted, bleeding, dying on the cross. Jesus is dying. In his final moments, after many hours of agony, Jesus cries out a single word, Tetelestai. Tetelestai is the Greek word and it means it is finished or it is paid in full.
It is accomplished. It is done. And at that moment, the Bible says Jesus gave up his spirit. So here we have the story in shortened form of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Good Friday.
Why in the world would Christians call something like I just described good? And why would we look at this with any form of positive language to call it Good Friday? Well, the answer to that is relatively simple.
We call it good not because of the horrific pain that our Savior suffered, but we call it good because he suffered for us. This is the reality. Jesus Christ suffered on the cross for us. And remember this, the suffering physical that he experienced on the cross was only a picture of the suffering that he would endure from the hands of his Father.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was experiencing the wrath of God for our sins. 700 years before Jesus went to the cross, the prophet Isaiah wrote about this event. And he says this, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And by his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.
So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief.
When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offering. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide with him a portion with the many. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong.
Because he poured out his soul to death, was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This, my friends, is why we call this Good Friday.
It was the will of the Lord to crush his son. Because in crushing Christ, he would not have to crush us. Jesus willingly took the punishment for us, that we might be counted righteous in him. And therefore we proclaim with loudest voice, this is indeed Good Friday.
Thank you for listening today. I pray it has been an encouragement to you. I'm Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist. May God bless you.
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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior. He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him.
May God be with you.