Good Friday

John 19:28-30 (NIV) Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 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. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Can you imagine being there to hear “it is finished.”  So many hopes had been dashed at those words.  Surely, many thought, this man was the Messiah who would deliver Israel from the Romans.  Finished.  He died.  No angels came.  God didn’t come to save Him.  No miracle lifted Him from the hands of the oppressors.  Just "finished."

2,000 years later we understand what the disciples wouldn’t until three days later.  Yes, Jesus’ earthly life was finished.  But the new things were yet to come and the disciples had absolutely no way of knowing that in three days time absolutely nothing would ever be the same.

Jesus lived and died as a man.  He felt what we felt.  He saw what we saw and He lived as men lived 2,000 years ago.  He owned nothing except the clothes on His back, and yet he lived the most significant life that ever was.  

All that would be revealed later.  Today though, was a dark day for the disciples.  The man they knew and believed was the Son of God was hanging on a cross, beaten, bloodied, and ridiculed; a crown of thorns upon His head adding to the pain and ridicule.  A sign mocking Him as “King of the Jews” hung above His head for all to see. 

As Jesus’ lifeless body hung there, a Roman soldier pierced His side to insure Jesus was in fact dead; blood and water flowed.  

Standing a short distance away, a small number of people, left to ponder all these things and wonder to themselves what they would do next...