A
Good Friday Message
Reading: John 19:18
“Where
they crucify Him.”
“Where” The Place Calvary
“They” The people Hebrew
Jews
“Crucified” The punishment Roman form.
“Him” The Person Immanuel.
I
want to speak today about the how and why of Calvary’s Cross which is the
message of Easter.
One. Where - the place – Calvary,
John 19:18-19; Luke 23:33.
18 where they crucified Him, and two
others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the centre.
19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put
it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE
JEWS”
John 19:18-19 (NKJV)
33 And when they had come to the
place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the
right hand and the other on the left”
Luke 23:33 (NKJV)
Only
once is the word “Calvary” found in the Bible, here in Luke 23:33. In
all other places it is called “Golgotha,” the place of the skull. Calvary was a
place of execution, a site outside of the walls of Jerusalem, probably not far
from the city gate and close to a highway.
Men
did not want the Christ (the Son of God) in their holy city, the holy child of
God, was not wanted in Jerusalem, Jerusalem the holy city of God, had no place
for God’s son. In view of the highway for all to see, for all to stare and to mock,
Jesus died near the roadway, no wonder He said “I am the way, the truth, and
life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14:6. Many of the
early Christians were call “people of the way.”
Two. They - the people -
Hebrew Jews, John 19:14-15.
14 Now
it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he
said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
15 But they cried out, “Away with Him,
away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your
King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”
John 19:14-15 (NKJV)
Not
only was Jesus not wanted in God’s holy city, but He was not wanted by God’s
holy people either. When Pilate cried out “Behold your King,” the people
cried “we have no King.” Even Pilate saw that Jesus was the King of
Israel, but the people rejected their King.
Men
fail to know their King, and they reject the King of Kings. The hardness of men’s
hearts is still hard to the Easter message; and the gospel of grace, and still,
they cry “away with Jesus.”
Three. Crucified – the
punishment - Roman form.
Crucifixion
was the death penalty under Roman law, first the prisoner was surged with the lash.
Jesus was mocked, beaten about the head, passed between two rows of soldiers
and badly whipped, till the flesh on His back was ripped away.
Then
a “Crown of thorns,” was placed upon His head, the King of Kings, went to
Calvary wearing a Crown of thorns. From the Garden of Eden and the fall of
mankind, thorns and thistles have been a sign of sin. Yet the thorns of ruin,
became the “Crown of Redemption.” Thorns came by man’s sin, so it was a good
sign of man’s redemption when Jesus wore a “Crown of thorns” on Calvary’s Cross.
After
this the prisoner carried his own cross outside the city walls, to a place of
execution. At Golgotha, there the prisoner was stripped naked, and nailed to
his cross, the cross was lifted and dropped into a slot in the ground, with a
great pain to the prisoner.
Death
often came by heart failure, because of the strain of hanging there for hours.
Jesus broke His heart for us. Death was hastened by the breaking of the legs
(but not in Jesus’ case). Sometimes a fire was lit beneath the cross that its
fumes may suffocate the victim. Crucifixion was a slow and painful death,
lasting up to two days. Then the body was left in a shallow grave or devoured
by beasts.
Four. Him - the Person -
Immanuel.
“Behold
the man” says John 19:5. See the man of Galilee, the
man called “the Christ,” see your “Saviour.” But see also the Godman revealed to
men. “Come see a man that told me all things that I ever did” said the
woman at the well. The Godman, Jesus Christ, which knows all things, which sees
all things, yet forgives all things I ever did.
See
a man with a heart of love and understanding. See God among men, a man without
sin, but who became sin for us. See the “Man of sorrow and acquainted with
grief, rejected by men.”
Conclusion:
Good
Friday comes every year, and we celebrate Easter. Because it speaks of our
Salvation freely given, but a Salvation of great cost and suffering. The how
and why of Calvary is, Jesus loves you and me.
