Good Friday 2023
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Good evening, everyone, if you brought a Bible tonight or if you have a Bible app you can open, I invite you to turn to Psalm 22. We’ll read vs. 1-18. If you don’t have access to a Bible, there should be a hardback copy of the Scriptures near you in the back of a pew. If you are using the hardback copy, our passage is found on pg. ______
While you are turning there is it strange to you that Christians call the day, we remember the death of Jesus on the cross “Good” Friday. The greatest of all sins in human history was not the crusades, or the holocaust, or any number of human atrocities that have been carried out in human history. No, the most heinous and wicked act ever committed by any human was the deceptive condemnation, brutal torture, and merciless execution of Jesus Christ. At no level has he ever committed any evil, even the slightest. At no point was any charge against him proven. We even know that those who had some sliver of hesitation about his death caved to social pressures to slaughter the Son of Man.
Just this Wednesday in our Bible study we considered when a young man approaches Jesus and calls him “good teacher” and Jesus’ response is “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God alone.” Jesus is not planting seeds of doubt about his goodness for this man, but rather forcing him to see what is actually true about Jesus and about himself. Jesus is in fact good, because he is in fact God himself, the second person of the trinity. One God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet in his response Jesus makes plain what is true of the man. The man who called Jesus good is not in fact good himself. Yet, Jesus’ words make equally clear that you and I are not good people either. We can do good things, and even be good to others, but at our core Jesus makes it plain there is none good. Jesus is not being harsh or mean, he is in fact saying what the Old Testament said even in Psalm 14
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
So how can we then call the day when the only good person to ever walk the soil of this earth is slaughtered “good”, is there anything truly good about Good Friday?
Listen to Psalm 22:1-18:
The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good,
not even one.1
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
ButIamawormandnotaman,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18
This is the Word of the Lord...thanks be to God
You would be hard pressed to hear those words and conclude that the Psalmist is describing anything good. In fact, David rightly recognized in these verses that the only good is not here on earth, but only the God who is enthroned in glory is good.
The psalm opens with a crying question, as David surveys his life and circumstances he does not feel God’s presence, no David feels abandoned, he feels forsaken. The very next Psalm, Psalm 23 will have the testimony that the Lord never leaves nor abandons David, and yet here and now David cannot sense the Lord is present, the apparent absence of God has left him devastated, lonely and without hope.
And yet, we know that God did not forsake David, even with all of the wickedness that marked David’s life, he was not forsaken of God.
But perhaps as I read these words flashes of broke upon your mind or you recognized the words of this psalmist not because they dripped from David’s pen, but rather these moments called to your mind our innocent savior as he hangs on the cross, unrecognizable, and bloody.
In fact the very first verse of the Psalm is one of the seven sayings we have recorded in the gospels, sayings from our savoir as he hung gasping for air dying on a cruel Roman cross. Matthew records,
“45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”3
Jesus utters the same words, quoting the Psalm. When his strength was dried up, and as life was ebbing from his veins what flows from our saviors lips are the very Words of Scripture. What the Savior voiced was the prayer of the Psalmist, that David wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In a real sense, these were Jesus’ words before they were David’s and David pen was pointing to the savior who would speak them from the cross.
The word forsaken in the Bible, and in this context means to be left, to be abandoned, to be rejected. As Jesus hangs on the cross dying, He cries out to the Lord, and he is met with silence, surrounded by darkness, shouts of mocking accusation, in unimaginable physical pain and suffering he is dealt the most devastating blow — Jesus is not surprised by this, when He prayed in the garden He prayed with
they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 2
awareness of what would come, but to experience alienation from God’s loving presence and to experience the wrathful presence in the silence of the Father against sin.
The late James Montgomery Boice wrote so helpfully about this, “Jesus was indeed forsaken by God while he bore the sin of his people on the cross. This is the very essence of the atonement—Jesus bearing our hell in order that we might share his heaven. To be forsaken means to have the light of God’s countenance and the sense of his presence eclipsed, which is what happened to Jesus as he bore the wrath of God against sin for us.”4
To differing degrees, we have experienced feelings of being forsaken, we have felt the sting of friends or family forsaking us. We have endured the loss and pain of feeling forsaken, but no one in human history endured the forsaking that Jesus did on the cross.
And why does Jesus quote this Psalm, so that we could see that the Paslm David wrote was pointing to this moment.
Did you see and hear all of the connections between the Psalm and Jesus’ crucifixion:
Vs. 7, “7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8
And Matthew records, “39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”6
Then in vs. 15 of our Psalm, we read: “15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.”7
Then John tells us, “28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”8
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” 5
Then in vs. 16-18 we read:
and for my clothing they cast lots. 9
And we read in Mark 15, “24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting
lots for them, to decide what each should take.”10
Why does Jesus utter this question from the cross?...because he is fulfilling the Scriptures. Jesus prays
in agony from the cross because the agony of the cross had been foretold long ago.
Jesus quotes the Psalm, fulfills the words spoken long ago and lays down his life for his people, Luke writes, “46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.”11 – With a loud voice the lion of Judah roars and dies.
Again I ask you what is “good” about any of this? Why would we call this day good Friday?
Because the death of Jesus was far more than a criminal act, far more than the sin of sins, and the greatest evil ever committed by human hands... if Jesus was just another wrongly accused victim of a corrupt judicial system there would be no good about good Friday
But church the death of Jesus was foretold even at the beginning of his ministry when the voice of one crying in the wilderness, John the Baptist said, “29 ...“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”12 How is Jesus the lamb who takes away the sin of the world? Through becoming the innocent sacrifice for people who are guilty of sins. The death of Jesus is the hope of every sinner who knows the weight of their guilt before the God who made them.
Good Friday is good because the one who is good took upon himself all our guilt and shame and rebellion and took our place in His death on the cross. “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”13
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
Good Friday is good because it brings good news to us who know our desperate need for a savior. Jesus doesn’t sell self-help salvation. He doesn’t offer you a list of ways to get your life on track, he offers himself in your place if you trust in Him. If you aren’t a Christian, I assume you know you aren’t perfect, I believe you know yourself to have committed sin. You simply may not know what that means, nor do you know how to be free from your guilt and shame. You see the death of Jesus on the cross stands as a testimony to the evil of our sin. In the agony of Jesus we see the righteous punishment we deserve. Yet if you have eyes to see it, you also see the love of God as Jesus takes your penalty upon himself and offers you freedom from guilt, forgiveness of sin in his death for you. Who but the Lord could pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”?
You see beloved as Christians we call this Friday “Good Friday” because it is on the cross Jesus made an end of all our sin. We look again at the crucifixion of Jesus, at times even with tears, and rejoice...not because of our sin, but because our sin has been paid for in the precious blood of Christ.
But there is more to the Psalm is there not, now follow along as I read the rest of the Psalm, beginning in vs. 19...
But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
David, who felt forsaken by God, turns to praise as His communion with God is restored. He remembers the Lord’s deliverance and his desperation turns to delight as he thinks upon the deliverance of God.
He is not abandoned, no the God who loves Him will save Him and David will speak again of the greatness of His God. We do not know what deliverance David experienced that caused the emotional and tonal shift of this Psalm, but we can see how this turn would foreshadow an even greater turn than any could imagine.
How can a crucified and dead Jesus tell of the glory of God?
How can a crucified and dead Jesus declare that the Lord has not despised his affliction? How can a crucified and dead Jesus turn the hearts of the nations to praise the living God? How can a crucified and dead Jesus be served by people who had not yet been born?
Because Good Friday is the culmination of Jesus’ ministry, but it is not the end, the story doesn’t end with a bloody cross, that would be no good news for anyone...the gospel story is better...the same Jesus who died on the cross, whose body was laid in a tomb guarded by Roman soldiers was raised by the Father and in glorious conquering power Jesus walked out of the tomb...death trampled underneath his nail-scarred feet! But for that part of the story we must wait till Sunday.
But where does that leave us tonight, well can we not with Isaac Watts say what generations of Christians have sung:
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died My richest gain I count but loss And pour contempt on all my pride
Forbid it Lord that I should boast
For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. 14
14 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:19–31.
Save in the death of Christ my God All the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to His blood
See from His head His hands His feet Sorrow and love flow mingled down Did ever such love and sorrow meet Or thorns compose so rich a crown
His dying crimson like a robe Spreads o'er His body on the tree Then I am dead to all the globe And all the globe is dead to me
Were the whole realm of nature mine That were an offering far too small Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all
Let’s pray
End Notes
1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 14:1–3.
2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:1–18.
3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 27:45–46.
4 James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 194.
5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:7–8.
6 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 27:39–43.
7 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:15.
8 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 19:28.
9 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:16–18.
10 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 15:24.
11 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 23:46.
12 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 1:29.
13 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Co 5:21.