April 18, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Expiration

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Opening Prayer

Lord, Good Friday is a very hard day to manage without Your help. I wait in openness before You.

Read John 19:28-37

[28] Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” [29] A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. [30] When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. [31] Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. [32] The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. [33] But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. [34] Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. [35] The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. [36] These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” [37] and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright &copy 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.&reg Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Jesus had fought the good fight, and, despite what the soldiers, the politicians, and the howling mob before him think, he has succeeded, he has done his work” (William Willimon).

As John (35) recalls the final moments of Jesus’ life, several memories clamor for his attention. He recalls the humanity of Jesus. It was a real human being who endured this cruel execution. He was thirsty (28) and given a coarse wine to drink. When the soldier confirmed his death, by spearing his chest cavity, blood and water flowed out, a sign of a pierced pericardium (34). The human Jesus had not been substituted, as some teach, by a less-than-human spirit. Here was a real human dying for other humans.

John recalls the sacrifice of Jesus. Several details lodged in his mind. The wine-soaked sponge he was given was skewered on a hyssop plant (29). Then, unlike the other victims, whose legs were broken to prevent them from supporting themselves and to speed their deaths, “they did not break his legs” for Jesus was already dead (33). John stresses it took place on “the day of Preparation” (31,42), and these details link to the Passover story (Exod. 12:22,46). John tells us that in surrendering to death, Jesus was offering the perfect Passover sacrifice, which would secure the liberty of all believers from the oppression of sin, the Law, Satan and death itself.

He recalls the triumph of Jesus. Jesus died not with a quiet whisper but a shout of defiance on his lips (Mark 15:37). His final word, tetelestai (“It is finished” or “paid in full”; 30), was unforgettable. It meant more than that his suffering was over. It meant that the battle was won. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus had been battling with the forces of darkness, ignorance, falsehood, prejudice, sin and Satan. Now the battle was behind him and, while the representatives of those forces no doubt thought they had triumphed, the truth was quite otherwise. His cry, “It is finished,” meant the victory was his.

Apply

Jesus spoke seven sayings from the cross (Mark 15:34; Luke 23:34,43,46; John 19:26,27). Use them this Good Friday to meditate on his sacrifice.

Closing prayer

Loving Father, as I contemplate Your Son’s death on my behalf, I desire to follow the way of the Cross. Without You enabling me, it will not happen.

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