In this video and podcast we travel back in time to witness the crucifixion of Jesus and see it in its historical context. Stand in the crowd and listen to the strange verbal exchange that takes place. Witness the supernatural darkness that descended. This journey back in time will change your understanding.
VIDEO LINK: What’s So Good About Good Friday?
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TRANSCRIPT
As we approach Easter, there is a question that is sometimes asked, particularly by people who are not regular church-goers: What’s so good about Good Friday? Have you ever wondered that? It seems a bizarre celebration that Christians undertake this time each year; the commemoration of a slow and torturous death of some poor bloke 2,000 years ago on a Roman cross. It’s quite a gruesome celebration, isn’t it? So in this video and podcast, I want to explain why this particular event, the death of Jesus on the cross, is arguably the best thing that has ever happened in the history of our world. And to do that, I need to take you back to that scene.
We’re going to jump into a time machine and travel back 2,000 years to a hill just outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, which means “the place of the skull”. The top of this hill was a favourite spot for the Romans to execute people, because the crosses could be seen from Jerusalem.
Golgotha was a short distance from Jerusalem: less than a kilometre. This Roman execution site was a bare rocky outcrop at the top of a hill not far from the Jerusalem city gates. This meant that most people in Jerusalem could see the crosses from their homes and as they went about their daily lives in the city. And these executions were a vivid reminder to the Jews that they were under Roman rule and that you defied the Romans at your peril.
As our time machine arrives at the top of Golgotha on this particular day, we find three crosses with three men nailed to them. A small crowd is gathered nearby, watching the dreadful scene unfold.
In many ways, there is nothing unusual about this scene. Nothing noteworthy. After all, the Romans crucified many thousands of people during their reign.
For example, in AD73, they crucified 6,000 people from an entire town in Gaul who had been part of an uprising against Rome. The crosses were placed at regular intervals along a 120 kilometre stretch of road called the Appian Way which ran between Capua and Rome. And the crucified bodies were left hanging there for months as a warning to anyone who dared to defy the might of the Roman empire. And that was just one event. So the Romans crucified a lot of people!
So, there was nothing unusual about these three crosses on this particular day on this particular hill. It was business as usual for the Romans. And people in Jerusalem looking across the valley to that scene on the top of the nearby hill on that day would simply have thought, “There’s three more poor blokes being crucified by the Romans.”
For the small crowd who had gathered around these three crosses and who were observing the scene up close, there was nothing noteworthy about the bloke in the middle, apart from a strange sign that had been nailed to the top of his cross which read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. It was meant to mock him.
So was a weird, twisted crown of thorns that had been crudely fashioned and pressed down into his skull so that blood now ran freely down his face and neck. But apart from those two things, the bloke in the middle looked like any other ordinary Jewish man.
As we stand there watching, having travelled back in our time machine, we see that all three men are now suffering terribly. As the hours tick by, their breathing becomes more laboured. This is because their lungs are slowly filling with fluid. Their diaphragms are beginning to cramp, as are their legs. This is because in order to breath they must now thrust themselves upward, pushing against the nails in their feet to free up their diaphragms so that they can suck in one more breath before collapsing back down again and hanging from the nails in their hands once more. And as this process continues, the pericardium, the protective membrane around the heart is slowly filling with fluid, compressing and restricting the heart, so that their pulse becomes thready and rapid, their hearts barely able to pump sufficient blood around their tortured bodies.
Make no mistake about it, crucifixion was a slow, painful, torturous way to die.
But as we stand there watching this grim scene unfold, a strange conversation takes place between the three dying men. As we lean in to listen more closely, we hear one of the men ridiculing and abusing the man in the middle.
“You reckon you’re the King of the Jews? What a joke! If you’re so great and mighty, why don’t you jump down off your cross and save yourself! And while you’re at it, save us too! Come on, show us your power Jesus! Let’s see how great you are now!” (paraphrase of Luke 23:39).
It’s a cruel barb, mocking and ridiculing Jesus. The Roman soldiers at the foot of the cross laugh and join in, adding further crude, mocking comments. In response to all this, Jesus says nothing. He merely thrusts himself up again on his nail-pierced feet to take another gasping breath before collapsing back down again.
But then, while these cruel words are still hanging in the air, the man on the other side of Jesus speaks up. He addresses the man who has just spoken and it is evident from his words that they are known to each other, that they are fellow criminals of some kind.
“You have no right to say that!” he says to his mate. “Don’t you fear God? This man has done nothing wrong, unlike us. We deserve this death, but he is completely innocent.” (Luke 23:40-41).
It is a strong rebuke, but also a striking admission. We don’t know exactly what these two men have done, but it must have been pretty bad for this guy to admit that they both deserve the death penalty. Make no mistake about it, these are two very bad men.
This man’s words are also a remarkable claim about Jesus. He declares that Jesus has done “nothing wrong” – and he is absolutely right. Jesus was completely innocent: not only completely innocent of any crime, but also completely innocent of any personal wrong doing at all. Elsewhere, the Bible states that Jesus had never committed a single sin. He had never broken any of God’s commandments. Never lied. Never cheated. Never taken anything that wasn’t his. Never committed a selfish action. Never uttered a hateful word. Never entertained a lustful thought. He is the only person in history ever to have lived his whole life in perfect obedience to every one of God’s commands.
Hebrews 4:15 declares, “He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he was without sin.”
So, while you and I stand there looking at this scene, we see three blokes who don’t look very different from one another physically. But when God looks down at this scene, he sees two blokes who have broken his commands countless times, and one bloke who is perfect. He sees two blokes who have lived in rebellion against God and one bloke who has loved God with all his heart, mind and soul all his life. Two blokes who deserve to die, and one bloke who doesn’t.
And somehow, this second criminal senses this, and rebukes his mate. But then he turns his head toward Jesus and makes a bold request.
“Jesus, please remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42).
It’s an incredible request to make because Jesus looks nothing like a King at this point. He is beaten, bruised and bloody, gasping for breath and barely clinging to life. In the hours prior to his crucifixion he has been blindfolded and punched repeatedly in the face by the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Then the Jewish guards took him and beat him up even more (Mark 14:65).
Soon after, the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, had him scourged – whipped with a multi-tailed whip with bits of sharp bone tied to the ends which would have ripped strips of flesh from his back and chest (Mark 15:15).
Then the Roman soldiers took him back to the Praetorium, their barracks, where they spat on him, beat him with wooden rods and stuck a crown of thorns in his head (Mark 15:16-20).
Only after all that, did they march him to the place of execution to crucify him. And by that time, Jesus was so weak from all the beatings he had taken and from the blood loss from his scourging, that he couldn’t even carry his own cross, but partially collapsed on the way to Golgotha.
And so now there he hangs, a bloody mess, bruised and battered and barely clinging to life. He looks nothing like a conquering King!
And yet, despite all this, the second criminal looks past the outward appearance and sees in Jesus a King who is about to take up his throne over a great Kingdom, and he says, “Jesus, please remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
It’s a statement of great faith! It’s obvious that this man knows about Jesus. He knows the claims that Jesus has previously made about being the Son of God and the Saviour of mankind. Perhaps he has even heard Jesus preach on several occasions. He has heard Jesus speak about the coming Kingdom of God and his offer of eternal life to all who trust in him. He may even have witnessed some of the extraordinary miracles that Jesus did which proved his claim to be God in the flesh.
And so, now, as this undeserving criminal looks at the beaten and bloody Jesus, he chooses to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be; that he is the great King over all the earth and that he can, indeed, save anyone who trusts in him.
And he is absolutely right! Jesus is the true King of this world and the Saviour of mankind. In fact the Bible reveals that he is none other than God in the flesh, who came to earth and became one of us in order to show us the way back to God and to rescue us from our lostness. The first verses of John’s Gospel declare the divinity of Jesus:
“In the beginning was the Divine Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Divine Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-4)
It’s a huge picture of Jesus we are given in those verses. The Creator of the universe and its divine ruler comes to Earth and takes on human form in order to save us.
And, somehow, here on this desolate hilltop, this dying criminal has come to believe this about Jesus. Perhaps not in the full-blown theological nuance that the biblical writers later came to understand the nature and identity of Jesus, but this dying criminal does here express his simple belief that Jesus is the divine King who will continue to reign in heaven even though he is about to die here on earth.
But I also want you to notice that not only is this criminal’s comment to Jesus a statement of great faith, it is also a statement of repentance. It’s a plea for mercy; a request for clemency. “Jesus, remember me” he says. He is asking to be a part of Jesus’ eternal Kingdom: to be accepted into heaven. He is asking for forgiveness. He is begging for mercy; mercy that is clearly undeserved and unmerited.
As we stand there hearing his plea for mercy, someone in the crowd laughs and mutters, “It’s a bit late for that, mate!” Others in the crowd join in the laughter. But then something extraordinary happens. Jesus says something that is completely unexpected and even shocking. He turns his head towards this dying criminal and says:
“I promise you, today you will be with me in paradeisos.” (Luke 23:43) Paradeisos is one of the first century Greek words for heaven – for the place where those who are favoured by God will abide in a state of joy and perfection after they die. “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
It’s an extraordinary promise, given to a very bad man. And almost immediately we hear mutterings in the crowd. “Outrageous! How dare he!” And we must confess, we feel a similar sentiment.
How can Jesus let a self-confessed baddie, a hardened criminal, into heaven? How can Jesus possibly forgive this man his horrible crimes – crimes that even the man himself admits deserve the death penalty? And here’s where we get to the crux of the issue and the heart of this story – the thing that makes this crucifixion scene stand out from the thousands of other crucifixions that the Romans carried out.
The reason why Jesus is able to forgive this man’s sins, to forgive his evil and wicked deeds, is because of what is happening to Jesus on the cross even as these words are being spoken. Because as Jesus hangs there dying, he is being punished by God for that man’s sins and, in fact, for the sins of all mankind.
You see, the crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t a tragic and unfortunate end to an otherwise promising career. It was the very reason why he came to earth. It was the heart of Jesus’ mission. He came from heaven to earth, the Son of God taking human form, so that he could ultimately die in our place on the cross, taking our place and being punished for our sins, so that we could all be forgiven.
The prophet Isaiah writes:
Isa 53:4-6 “He (Jesus) endured the suffering that should have been ours. It was because of our sins that He was wounded, beaten because of our rebellion. Now we are forgiven by the punishment He suffered, restored to God by the blows He received. All of us were like sheep that had gone astray, each of us turning away from God, but God made the punishment that we deserve fall on Him.”
The death of Jesus on the cross was the most extraordinary substitutionary death. The perfect, sinless Son of God, dies in our place, punished for our sins, so that we can be forgiven! And as we stand in the crowd watching this scene unfold, we are meant to see ourselves up there on the cross. We may point the finger at that criminal and say he deserves to die, but so do we. All of us have sinned. All of us have ignored or rejected God. We have broken his commands again and again. We have lived selfish, self-determined lives and turned our backs on the God who made us.
The Bible says “All have sinned and fall short of God’s perfect standards” (Romans 3:23) –and a few chapters later it also says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). There is God’s assessment of allof us – sinners who deserve to die.
But on the cross of Jesus, God does the unthinkable. The unexpected. The inexplicable. After pronouncing his verdict over us all and declaring the death penalty, he comes down from heaven and punishes Jesus, the divine Son of God, in our place.
1 Peter 2:24 says: “Jesus carried our sins in His body on the cross.”
It’s as if Jesus had a flip-top head and as he hung there, dying, God the Father poured into Jesus all the sins of mankind – every sin that has ever been committed and ever will be committed – every act of evil and hatred and abuse and violence and injustice. During those hours as he hung there, Jesus literally became FULL of sin – not his own sin, but ours.
And then God did something even more unthinkable. He poured out upon Jesus the full fury of his wrath for all the evil and all the wickedness of mankind. The full wrath of God was unleashed upon Jesus as he hung there, dying upon the cross.
If you ever have any doubts about God not caring about the evil in our world, if you ever entertain any thoughts about God being indifferent to the injustice and hatred and violence and abuse that takes place in our world, if you ever start to think that God is doing nothing about it and HAS done nothing about it – think again. Look to the cross of Jesus. Because God is furious at all the evil that takes place in our world, and the full force of his fury was poured out upon Jesus on the cross. Jesus suffered God’s fury in our place, so that you and I don’t have to.
You see, the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross wasn’t merely physical; there was a spiritual torment that he underwent as he was punished in our place. And that is why the historical records indicate that a terrible supernatural darkness descended upon the world as Jesus hung dying upon the cross. So much so, that the people around the cross drew back in fear. (Luke 23:44-45)
And not only is this supernatural darkness recorded by the Gospel writers, it was also reported by Thallus, a first century Greek historian and later by the Roman historian Sextus Julius Africanus. In fact, Africanus quotes Thallus’s first century report of the oppressive supernatural darkness and then adds his own comment, disputing the claim by some that it was a mere eclipse of the sun. He infers that the darkness had a supernatural cause rather than a natural one. (Africanus, Chronographiae, Fragment 18)
And all of this, the spiritual punishment that is being poured out upon Jesus for the sins of the world, is what lies behind the extraordinary promise that Jesus gives to this hardened criminal. He is able to offer him clemency because even as he speaks these words of forgiveness, he is dying for that man’s sins and being punished in his place. And so Jesus effectively says to him,
“Later on today, while everyone else in Jerusalem is sitting down to dinner and chatting about the day’s events, you are going to be with me in heaven, completely forgiven.”
And that, friends, is what is SO good about Good Friday. In fact, calling it “Good Friday” is an understatement. It’s not just good, it’s absolutely brilliant, isn’t it? In fact, I reckon we should rename it “Fantastic Friday”! Because I’ll be honest, I can’t think of a better thing that’s ever happened in the history of our planet. As a result of what Jesus did on the cross on that day, people like you and me can walk straight into heaven and be forgiven for everything we’ve ever done.
But only if we do what this bloke did – the second criminal.
I want you to notice, firstly, what he didn’t do.
He didn’t jump down off his cross and start doing a whole lot of good deeds to make up for his bad deeds. He had no chance to turn over a new leaf. No chance to do some community service to make up for his crimes. He just hung there, dying! This overthrows the whole false concept that salvation is all about doing enough good stuff so we deserve to go to heaven. The whole point of Jesus’ crucifixion is that NONE of us deserve to be saved! None of us can make it on our own merit. We are ALL undeserving. That’s why Jesus had to die to save us.
But the criminal DID do two things. And they are the same two things we all need to do if we want to be forgiven.
Firstly, he asked for mercy, and secondly, he trusted Jesus as His King and Saviour. He couldn’t do very much at all, but he did do those two things, and in response Jesus effectively said to him, “That’s all you need to do. That’s all you can do. Now, I’ll do the rest. And today you’ll be with me in paradise.”
It’s an amazing promise! It’s salvation by grace alone, simply by placing one’s faith in Jesus.
But the other thing I want you to notice is that Jesus only gives that promise to ONE of the two criminals. They were both baddies; so bad that they both deserved to die. But only one of them is forgiven. And the reason lies NOT in the fact that one was better than the other, because they both seem as bad as each other. The difference simply lies in their different responses to Jesus.
The first criminal mocked and ridiculed Jesus. He abused him. In fact, I want to suggest to you that he treated Jesus the way many people treat Jesus today. They treat him like a bit of a joke. They use his name as a swear word. They treat him as a complete irrelevance and they ignore his claim to be their King. They effectively say to Jesus, “I don’t need saving, I don’t need you in my life, I am the king of my own life. I don’t need anyone to tell me how to live.”
And the great tragedy is that people who continue to say that to Jesus today, who refuse to ask for forgiveness and reject his claim to be their King, will one day have to pay for their sins themselves. They will be excluded FOREVER from the eternal Kingdom that Jesus now reigns over. So you see, the only thing that will keep people out of heaven today is continuing to reject Jesus after all that He has done for us.
The truth is, neither of these two blokes deserved to go to heaven. But the second criminal has been in paradise for 2,000 years now, and it’s only just beginning. On the other hand, the first criminal has, according to the Bible, been excluded from that kingdom for 2,000 years in a place of punishment which the Bible says is both real and terrifying, and it’s only just beginning too.
Do you know what I wish I could do? I wish I could get these two blokes to come back here today and talk to you. I reckon I know what at least one of them would say. The second criminal would urge you to do what he did – to make your peace with God, to turn to Jesus while you still can.
But the first criminal? I’ll be honest, I don’t even know if he’d be capable of saying anything. But if he could, he would probably say something like, “Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistake I did – don’t laugh in the face of grace – don’t thumb your nose at God’s offer of forgiveness.”
You see, in God’s eyes there are only two types of people in this world. Not good and bad, not those who deserve to go to heaven and those who don’t. Just sinners who are forgiven by the grace of Jesus and sinners who aren’t.
Which one of those are you? Have you done what the second criminal did? Have you responded to Jesus in simple faith and repentance and received from him the forgiveness that he died to give you? And if you haven’t, what’s stopping you?
What better time to do it than this Easter, when we celebrate the event that made it all possible.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me has eternal life. But whoever rejects me will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” (John 3:36)
It can’t be any clearer than that.
This Easter, let the story of Good Friday be your story too. Reach out in simple faith and repentance to receive the forgiveness that Jesus is offering. And as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday, you will be able to join with Christians all over the world in rejoicing at the sure hope of eternal life that Jesus has purchased for us.
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