We race through Easter.  A long weekend, a chance for a break.  Maybe a trip to church … but then again, perhaps not.  And to do that, we have to shield our eyes.  We have to avoid looking at the cross.  Because when you do, when you turn your eyes to Calvary, let me tell you, it’s something you just can’t ignore.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged and the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head and they dressed Him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to Him saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews’, and striking Him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look I’m bringing Him out to let you know I find no case against Him’. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

Pilate said to them, ‘Here, here is the man’. When the Chief Priests and the police saw Him they shouted, ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him’. Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves and crucify Him. I find no case against Him’. The Jews answered, ‘We have a law and according to that law He ought to die because He has claimed to be the Son of God.’

Now when Pilate heard this he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters and again asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you?’ And Jesus answered him, ‘You have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

From then on Pilate tried to release Him but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor’. When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement or in Hebrew Gabbatha.

Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, ‘Here is your king’. They cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him. Crucify Him’. Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ The Chief Priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor’ and he handed Him over to be crucified. So they took Jesus and carrying a cross by Himself He went out to what is known as The Place of the Skull which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

There they crucified Him and with Him two others. One on either side with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put it on the cross, it read ‘Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews’. Many of the Jews read this inscription because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

Then the Chief Priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write “the king of the Jews” but “this man said, I am the king of the Jews”.’ Pilate answered, ‘I have written what I have written.’ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took His clothes, divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took His tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, ‘Lets not tear it but cast lots for it to see who will get it’.

This was to fulfil what the Scriptures says, “They divided my clothes among them and for my clothing they cast lots.” And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile standing near the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.” 

When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loves standing beside her, he said to His mother, ‘Woman, here is your son’. Then He said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother’. And from that hour the disciple took her in his own home. After this when Jesus knew that all was finished He said, in order to fulfil the Scripture, ‘I’m thirsty’.

A jar full of sour wine was standing there so they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the wine He said, ‘It is finished’. Then He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.

Since it was the day of preparation the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath especially because that Sabbath was a great day of solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. 

Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with Him but when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead they didn’t break His legs. Instead one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and at once blood and water came out.

He who saw this has testified so that you may believe. His testimony is true and he knows that he tells the truth. These things occurred so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, “None of His bones shall be broken.” And again another passage of Scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

After these things Joseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission so he came and removed the body.

Nicodemus, who had come at first to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths according to the burial custom of the Jews.

Now there was a garden in the place where He was crucified and in that garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid and so because it was the Jewish day of preparation the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

It’s an amazing story. And I thought that on this day, the day that we call Good Friday, there was nothing to share with you, no words that I could possibly say that could come anywhere close to the power of this account. This Jesus, this Son of God who came to earth and became a man. Who grew up a Jew, who loved the loveless. He healed the sick, He blessed those who were cursed in this world, He taught those who didn’t understand, He liberated those who were captive. Arrested, beaten, tried and found guilty.

This Jesus who came for the people in that crowd, the people who just days had shouted Hosanna in the Highest as He rode into Jerusalem on that colt, the foal of a donkey. The people who now, whipped up by the religious leaders, bayed for His blood. These people are the ones that had Him crucified. Common, ordinary people. People in fact just like you and me.

And there He died, bloodied and beaten, the death that I deserve for my sin. The death that you deserve for yours. He died that we might live again. He died to give us a new life, a life where for all eternity we might be with Him where He is and behold His glory. For this reason Jesus came, to die for my sin and for yours that we may have access once again to God the Father.

To give you and me a new life. My slate wiped clean, completely clean. Forgiven by God. To give you a new life, your slate wiped clean, completely forgiven by God. But what a terrible price He had to pay this Jesus who knew no sin. In fact He became sin on that cross so that you and I might have a right standing with God.

Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. You are my friends, said Jesus, if you do what I command.

Friend, this story of Easter is simple and powerful and profound. May you be blessed, may you be blessed richly as you drink in His blood red message of Easter. They don’t call it the good news for nothing.