Reading for Lent
Good Friday (1)
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help us to imagine the agony of the cross that Jesus had to endure on Good Friday for us. Please open our minds, hearts, ears, and eyes to understand, feel, see, and hear from You. We thank You for giving us the stamina to continue this far into the Gospel of John, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
John 19:1-22
Verses 1-4, 1 So, Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him. 2 The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. 3 They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him. 4 Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”
Reflection
Jesus had been arrested and illegally tried under Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate. Under Jewish law, it was illegal to have court hearings on festival days like the Passover.
Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent wanted to free him but the crowds demanded Pilate to free Barabbas instead.
Pilate gave in to the mob’s demand, and handed Jesus to the soldiers.
The soldiers ridiculed, mocked, and flogged Jesus. They put a twisted crown of thorns on His head, robed Him with a purple robe, slapped, and even pretended to worship Him.
Pontius Pilate went out to pronounced again that Jesus was innocent.
Verses 5-9, 5 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!” 6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. 9 He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
Reflection
Pilate came out and said, ‘Behold the man’, which in Latin is ‘Ecce Homo.’ Again, and for the third time, Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent..
The Jews protested that Jesus deserved capital punishment according to Jewish law because He blasphemed God by claiming to be the Son of God.
Pilate was afraid and asked Jesus where he was from but Jesus refused to answer him.
Verses 10-11, 10 Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”
Reflection
Pilate responded that he had the power to crucify or release Jesus but Jesus refuted the claim.
Only Jesus Himself had this power, John 10:18.
Jesus destiny was not determined by Pilate.
John 10:18 a (NKJV), ‘’No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again.”
Verses 12-13, 12 At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!” 13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.”
Reflection
Pilate wanted to release Jesus but he gave in to the pressure of the Jews when they said, Caesar would be offended if he released Jesus.
Pilate took Jesus and sat Him in the judgment seat, called The Pavement, or ‘Gabbatha’ in Hebrew.
Verses 14-16, 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” 15 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!”16 So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.
Reflection
At the 6th hour or 6 am, Roman time, on the preparation day of the Passover, Pilate proclaimed to the Jews, ‘Behold your King.’
The Jews should out, ‘we have no King but Caesar.’
Under tremendous pressure, Pilate finally condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion.
Jesus was pronounced innocent by Pilate three times and was never convicted.
Verses 17-22, 17 He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”, 18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20 Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.”’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Reflection
Jesus was taken to Calvary, the Place of a Skull or Golgotha in Hebrew. They crucified Jesus in Golgotha between two criminals to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 53:12.
Pilate nailed a signage to the cross in Hebrews, Latin, and Greek, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’
The Jews demanded that the signage be changed, but Pilate refused to give in to their demand.
By this, Pilate had proclaimed Jesus to be King of the Jews..
Isaiah 53:12 (NIV), “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.”
Application
Jesus was charged with framed up charges, tried illegally under a kangaroo court, found innocent by Pontius Pilate, was not convicted, and yet was condemned to death.
He died that death that He did not deserve. He died for sins that He did not commit. He died in our place to set us free from sin and to give us eternal life. His death substituted for our death. This is the Good News of the Gospel.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for taking us back to Calvary through the eyes of apostle John who witnessed this event 2000 years ago. Thank You that on Good Friday, the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed on Calvary as the perfect sin offering for the sin of mankind, in Jesus’ name, Amen
