Today is the last day of Holy Week, a day that we call Good Friday. It is a day of remembrance.  We remember the cross, we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. We remember what He did and what He went through, all for our sake. We will have a Good Friday Service tonight at St. Matthew’s and we’d love you to join us at 6:00 p.m.  You can join us in person, or online. 

Today we will look at John 19: 28-37.  I’d encourage you to go and read through all of John 19 at some point today, just to properly frame what is happening.  

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.”

Today we see the reality of what sin does.  It kills.  It destroys. That is what it does. It is a corrosive acid. It destroys everything and everyone that it touches.  The original sin of our first parents has passed down to you and to me.  We have done stuff that is wrong, things that we would rightly call sin.  But just as we inherit traits from our parents, we all have inherited a sinful nature from our first parents. 

That sin caused separation. In the Garden. 

The sin caused separation throughout scripture.

That sin causes separation within us, God, and others even now. 

That sin destroys relationships and in time will destroy even us.  But God loves us so much that He would not all that to happen.  Instead of allowing us to bear the weight of the sin that destroys, He placed the weight of that sin upon His Son.  He allowed Jesus, on this dark day, to bear the weight of all our sin. 

Jesus suffered so we would not to. 

Jesus was punished so we would not have to be.

Jesus bore all of our sins, our hatred, our loss, our everything, He bore it all.  So we would not have to.  Jesus paid it all.

Another passage to read today would be Isaiah 53.  This is called the “Suffering Servant” passage. It is a prophecy of Isaiah, centuries before Jesus, where he tells what will happen. Take a few minutes to read it today. But I wanted to share with you my favorite passage from it, verse 6:

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

All of it.  We have all gone astray.  And Jesus too all of that.

So, two things. Know how much Jesus paid today.  Do not take it lightly. 

Second, know this. Through Jesus, you can be forgiven.  You are loved. 

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