“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” –1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

Before his last week on earth, Jesus ministered powerfully for at least three years.  Mark 5 contains the story of the demon-possessed man who, by verse 15, sat near Jesus looking nothing like he did when he was roaming the tombs, cutting himself, and out of his mind.  Because of Jesus’ healing power, this man didn’t look like what he had been through!  During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he healed and cured people.  He drove out demons and resurrected the dead.  He exercised control over nature.  He taught the truth, and he preached the gospel.  He did every one of these things on purpose with his mission on his mind.  Everywhere he went, lives were changed!

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” –Luke 4:18 (NIV)

As important as every single miracle is to the ministry of Jesus Christ, the most important purpose for his time on earth was to complete his God-given mission—to redeem all of mankind (Galatians 4:4-5)!   On Good Friday, nearing the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we remember the passion of Christ—the time before his crucifixion, his suffering on the cross, and his death.  The four Gospels give separate accounts of this time that each of us should read:  Matthew 26:36–27:56; Mark 14:32–15:41; Luke 22:39–23:49; and John 18:1–19:37.  Oh, what he went through to redeem mankind! 

As we read about the what, the when, the where, the how, and the why of Christ’s passion from over 2000 years ago, we reflect on the significance of Good Friday.  We don’t celebrate Christ’s suffering or take lightly what he went through to fulfill the law.  We remember it.  Jesus carried that cross bar up Golgotha’s Hill.  He was nailed through the flesh and between the bones of his wrists and his feet with three thick long iron stakes.  He was hanged in excruciating pain and agony until his death on the cross.  Oh, what awful price he paid for our sins!  I thank God I don’t look like what He went through!

They spit on him.  They mocked him.  They struck him on the head.  They stripped him of his clothes.   He was denigrated and humiliated.  He was beaten and bruised.  He was treated like a criminal and a slave.  All of this was before he was even crucified!  THEN they crucified him!  After hanging there in increasing agony, with the weight of his body pulling against those three iron stakes, and the pressure on his diaphragm making it difficult to breathe, Jesus was given sour wine, pierced in his side, and left bleeding and hanging to die a death he did not deserve.  I thank God I don’t look like what He went through!

I am being intentionally redundant here, because it is important that we do not gloss over what Jesus experienced on Good Friday.  As the innocent Jesus died a substitutionary death, he bore the sins of the world and suffered through a method of torturous execution usually reserved for the worst criminals.  The manner and method was necessary.  Only Jesus could have satisfied God’s demand.  Nobody else could have fulfilled the law but Jesus!  Only Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)! 

On this Good Friday, I thank God I don’t look like what He went through!  I also thank God that He went through it!  Without a Good Friday, Easter would not have its same meaning.  Without a Good Friday, there would be no Resurrection Sunday.  Without a Good Friday, we would surely be lacking in love, in hope, and in peace.  We would not have been saved! 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. –Ephesians 1:7 (NIV)