Good Friday 2021

 This is the passage I read this Good Friday morning in Matthew 26:

"Then Jesus *came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and *said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”

"And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40 And He *came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

"He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.”

The last clause in the 44th verse caught my eye: “Saying the same thing [to the Father] once more.”

Three times within only a few minutes, Jesus implored His Father to take the cup He was about to drink away from Him. Clearly, Jesus REALLY didn’t want to die on that cross. He was “deeply grieved, to the point of death.”

It’s not that He didn’t want to rescue us from Satan’s grip. It’s not that He didn’t want to ransom us back to the Father. It’s not that He didn’t want to be our substitutionary atonement. A week before the Passover and His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples: “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” (John 12:27-28)

No, Jesus knew His life-purpose. But the very human Jesus also knew what lay ahead of Him at the whipping post, and ultimately on that cross. He’d seen many others hanging from crosses along the roads leading into Jerusalem. Crucifixion was a favored method of execution by the Romans. And the human Jesus recoiled at what He knew would be His fate in only a few more hours – unless the Father took that cup from Him.

With that reality stuck in His mind, the Lord agonized so desperately that the capillaries along His skin ruptured and appeared as sweat droplets of blood (a rare but well-known physiological condition known as hematidrosis).

Three times He begged His Father to change the plan. Three times.

But the plan did not change because it could not change. And so, He got up off His knees and gave Himself to the mob who’d arrived to arrest Him.

I hope you will take a few moments on what is left of this Good Friday to reflect on that somber scene in the Garden. Think a while about what God-in-the-flesh did for you because He loved you so much, because He wanted to rescue you, because He wanted to redeem you – so much so that He willingly laid aside His life to be your substitute on that cross.

Which reminds me now of an old hymn:

What a wonderful, wonderful Savior,

Who would die on the cross for me!

Freely shedding His precious lifeblood,

That the sinner might be made free.

He was nailed to the cross for me,

He was nailed to the cross for me;

On the cross crucified for me He died;

He was nailed to the cross for me.

And so I say, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.

Amen.