Good Friday - Crucifixion
The day started with an early morning arrest, escalated with mock trials, and ended with the most shocking execution in history.
Transcript
Very few days have truly changed the world. Here are some examples:
How well do you remember from high school history? The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started… World War I.
I think of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. (There’s my Oppenheimer shout-out.)
Maybe the moon landing (but that one doesn’t count because it was faked).
Or, the most important date in human history—Dec. 13, 1989 – The birth of Taylor Swift.
In 2006, author Hywel Williams identified 50 Defining Events in World History. Fifty days across 2,500 years. That’s just 1/200th of a percent. That’s how rare these world-changing days really are.
But in one weekend, about 2,000 years ago, there was not 1, not 2, but 3 days that changed the world. Three days—Friday to Sunday—that had such a profound impact on humanity that we’re still talking about it today.
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. These are the three days on which Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead.
Over the next three weeks, we’ll examine each of these days, why they happened, their impact on the world, and, more importantly, their impact on you.
Connection to the Apostle’s Creed
Before we dive into Friday, I want to make a connection for you. Every week, we’ve been reciting the Apostle’s Creed. In the middle of the Creed are the following lines:
He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead.
That’s what this series is all about. My hope is that after these three weeks, you’ll have a greater understanding and appreciation of those 25 little words.
Events of Good Friday
Today, we’ll start with Good Friday, the day Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed. Let’s start with a quick overview of the day’s events:
Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested by the Jewish leaders.
He is sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.
Jesus is condemned, beaten, and forced to carry his own cross to the execution site.
He is crucified and dies.
And a few of his followers bury his body in a tomb.
There is a lot more that the Bible records, but those are the core events.
Scripture repeatedly says that these events HAD to happen. Why? Why did it have to go down like this? What possible good could come of all that injustice?
Two Big Ontological Questions
To answer that, we have to get philosophical. Is your brain ready for that?
There’s a branch of philosophy called metaphysics, which deals with the fundamental nature of existence and reality.
There are a handful of big metaphysical questions, such as
What is existence?
Why are we here?
What’s the problem of life?
What’s the solution?
Today, I want to focus on the last two: What’s the problem? What’s the solution? Understanding these two questions unlocks the significance of Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday.
Every religion, every worldview, and every life philosophy has answers to these two questions: What’s the problem? What’s the solution?
Right now, YOU have answers to these two questions buried somewhere in your psyche. It’s been formed, or malformed, by your culture, family of origin, consumed media, and religious background (if you have one). But you have answers.
Various Answers to These Questions
So does every world religion. Let’s look at the first question: What’s the problem of life? Here’s a quick survey of the answers from the major world religions.
What’s the problem?
Judaism says it’s a broken relationship between God and humans.
Islam says it’s ignorance that leads to disobedience to Allah.
Hinduism teaches that it’s attachment to the material world.
Buddhism says it’s suffering.
Christianity calls it sin.
Many of these answers have significant overlap. Whether you call it sin, disobedience, wrongdoing, evil, injustice, or unethical behavior, most world views can agree, at least in part, on the problem.
But the answers to the second question—What’s the solution?—vary considerably. That’s way anyone who says that all religions are fundamentally the same doesn’t really know the religions. Because the answers to the problem vary widely.
And not all the answers in every religion or worldview are created equal. In fact, many have fundamental flaws.
Here are a few examples.
Let’s start with Old Testament Judaism.
God gave the Israelites the sacrificial system to provide for the forgiveness of sins. The problem was that was only temporary. You had to keep coming back to the temple—every week, every month, every year.
Let’s look at Hmong Shamanism. Some of you know this well because your parents or relatives are shaman.
Your daughter gets sick. You call a Shaman. They enter the spirit world, and the spirits tell them what you must do to appease them.
But there are problems with this as well:
Like the Israelites, you have to keep going back, each time something bad happens.
It can be costly, whether you have to pay the Shaman or maybe kill a cow.
You live in fear. You never know if you’re going to do something to offend the spirits.
Turnabout is fair play. Let’s talk about American Culture.
The American Dream promises that anyone, regardless of their background, can achieve success and prosperity through hard work. You can do anything and be anything you want to be.
But most of us know that’s simply not true, especially for women and people of color. There is systemic racism, disparities in education and health care, a wage gap between men and women, unfair housing practices against the poor, and so much more.
Lastly, let’s talk about Postmodernism.
You know, “There is no absolute truth,” or simply, “You do you.” Postmodern’s solution is to abandon conventional wisdom and pursue your own meaning, purpose, and success.
But now, as we move into a post-postmodern world, we see that it’s deeply flawed. What happens when an Israeli truth conflicts with a Palestinian truth? How can you truly point out injustice if everyone is doing what feels right to them?
I would even argue that nobody actually believes in pure postmodernism. That’s because we’re all appalled by evil—school shootings, blatant racism, abusive corporate greed. Then there’s cancel culture and online shaming. True postmodernism doesn’t allow for any of that.
Christianity’s Answer to the Question
Every worldview has some flaws. And that’s where Christianity’s answer to the metaphysical problem is life is fundamentally different than everything else out there, and I would argue is a better answer than the worldview you might be living by.
What if you could get rid of the endless repetition of the Old Testament sacrificial system?
Or the fear and cost of Shamanism?
Or the individual guilt responsibility of America?
Or the moral anarchy of postmodernism?
What if there was a better way?
There is… and it happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross on Good Friday.
How? How does it answer the question of the problem of a broken world and broken people better than any other worldview?
God’s Love and Justice
Let’s begin with God’s love and justice.
God’s love is best captured in the most famous Bible verse, John 3:16:
“For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s love for the world, God’s love for you, motivated him to send Jesus to die. But why did Jesus have to die? That’s because of God’s justice. Wrongdoing has to be punished. If not, he wouldn’t be a just God.
We all understand this. It’s why we get upset when we see injustice due to a person’s race, gender, orientation, or class. We want punishment for wrongdoing. We want justice in our world. So, wrongdoing, what the Bible calls sin, has to be punished.
Love and justice. This is where other worldviews get interesting.
Old Testament Judaism emphasizes justice. The penalty for sin was paid by the shedding of animal blood.
Hmong Shamanism also leans heavily on justice. It’s a very transactional process between the family, the Shaman, and the spirits.
American individualism favors love—love for self and individual rights and love for country.
Postmodernism takes love to an extreme by saying, “Love is love,” and you can’t impose your rules on anyone else. As a result, it is difficult to rationalize justice in this schema.
But God’s solution—Jesus dying on our behalf—satisfies God’s justice by punishing sin, but it also satisfies God’s love by returning us, his beloved creation, into right relationship with him.
The Atonement
And all of that happened on Good Friday in what the Bible calls atonement.
Atonement means to pay a debt or repair a wrong. The word itself comes from Old English, meaning “at-one-ment.” Atonement makes us “at one” with God by restoring the relationship between God and us that had been disrupted by our sin.
If you hurt your spouse or friend, you can atone for it—i.e. make things right—by apologizing, acknowledging their pain, or buying them Chipotle (with guac; this is no time to cheap out). But on an existential level, something much more than extra guac is needed.
Let me explain spiritual atonement with four theological terms.
First is sacrifice (or for you theology nerds, it’s called expiation). This is the removal of our sins. Jesus Christ took our sins on himself and died as a sacrifice for us.
John the Baptism calls Jesus, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Hebrews 9:26 says, “But he [Jesus] has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Atonement in Jesus’ death removed our sins.
Second is propitiation. This is the removal of God’s wrath. By dying in our place, Jesus removed the wrath of God that justice says we deserve.
Romans 5:9 says that: "Since we have now been justified [made right with God] by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!"
Atonement in Jesus’ death removed our sins and removed God’s wrath.
The third term is reconciliation. This is the removal of our separation from God. Jesus removed the sin that separates us from God, thereby bringing us into right relationship with God.
Colossians 1:21-22 describes it like this: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”
Pastor John Piper summarizes it like this: “The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.”
Atonement in Jesus’ death on the cross removed our sins, removed God’s wrath, and removed our separation from God.
Conclusion
That’s what happened on Good Friday, and that’s why that day changed the world.
No other worldview, no other religion, no other life philosophy can offer a solution that is as comprehensive, as restorative, or as loving as Jesus dying on your behalf.
He is better than the Old Testament sacrificial system. He is the perfect sacrifice once and for all.
He is better than Shamanism because he paid the price, he battled the spiritual realm, and he gives you assurance in him.
He is better than American individualism because we can’t do it ourselves, no matter how hard we try. We can’t fix our selfishness. We can’t free ourselves from fear. We can’t cleanse our guilt. But Jesus can.
And he is better than postmodernism because in God we find perfect fulfillment. We can discover who and whose we were meant to be.
All you have to do is believe in Jesus. You can try believing in something else, but nothing offers a better solution to the problems of this world or the problems of your heart. than Jesus.
So, I close with the same call that the Apostle Peter made to the crowds in Acts 3.
“Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
Do this, and maybe today can be a day that changes your world.
Christianity is the only one that provides a comprehensive and final solution to the problem of evil in the world and in you. And I would hold that up against any other belief system or worldview. There’s nothing else like it.
