OzThoughts – Good Friday, 10th April 2009

OzThoughts – Good Friday, 10th April 2009

It was just two wooden beams fashioned into a cross standing at the busy corner of a park near the centre of town. It had two signs. A sign near the base said the cross was erected by the local Churches. The main sign was nailed on the cross at about eye level. It bore a simple message "Is it nothing to all you who pass by, that on the cross your Saviour should die?"

Another cross I remember well was in a church, high on the wall above the altar, placed to be the focus of those who came to worship. As members of a choir visiting a rural city, we were taken to look at the area's newest church. It was very different to the simple church we worshipped in week by week. I still remember the comment of one of our choir members. As we looked at the cross raised high above the altar and considered the cross and the artist’s impression of Jesus on that cross, she said "I don't think I could look at that every week". The artist had tried to capture the torture and pain that Jesus suffered as He died on the cross. I agreed it was not a pleasant sight. It did, however, capture the agony at the centre of our faith.

Those two crosses were about ten years apart in my experience at each end of my teenage years. I have never forgotten them and they come together in my experience to remind me of the purpose of the event we celebrate on Good Friday. They draw together other experiences and other events which point me to the love of God for me that took Jesus to the Cross. Every Easter I remember those two crosses as I look towards the third, and I have shared about them many times. To say that those two crosses influenced my experience is true. However the third cross - the cross of Jesus - changed it dramatically. It gave me a right relationship with God. It gave me forgiveness. It gives me hope.

...Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage-heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek; at the kind of place were cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. [Dr. George MacLeod “Only One Way Left”]

Matthew 27 (The Message)

...But he [Pilate] had Jesus whipped, and then handed over for crucifixion.

27 The soldiers assigned to the governor took Jesus into the governor's palace and got the entire brigade together for some fun.
28 They stripped him and dressed him in a red toga.
29 They plaited a crown from branches of a thorn bush and set it on his head. They put a stick in his right hand for a sceptre. Then they knelt before him in mocking reverence: "Bravo, King of the Jews!" they said. "Bravo!"
30 Then they spit on him and hit him on the head with the stick.
31 When they had had their fun, they took off the toga and put his own clothes back on him. Then they proceeded out to the crucifixion.
32 Along the way they came on a man from Cyrene named Simon and made him carry Jesus' cross.

33 Arriving at Golgotha, the place they call "Skull Hill,"
34 they offered him a mild painkiller (a mixture of wine and myrrh), but when he tasted it he wouldn't drink it.
35-36 After they had finished nailing him to the cross and were waiting for him to die, they whiled away the time by throwing dice for his clothes.

37 Above his head they had posted the criminal charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38 Along with him, they also crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left.
39 People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament:
40 "You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days--so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you're really God's Son, come down from that cross!"
41 The high priests, along with the religion scholars and leaders, were right there mixing it up with the rest of them, having a great time poking fun at him:
42 "He saved others--he can't save himself! King of Israel, is he? Then let him get down from that cross. We'll all become believers then!
43 He was so sure of God--well, let him rescue his "Son' now--if he wants him! He did claim to be God's Son, didn't he?"
44 Even the two criminals crucified next to him joined in the mockery.

45 From noon to three, the whole earth was dark.
46 Around mid-afternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
47 Some bystanders who heard him said, "He's calling for Elijah." 48One of them ran and got a sponge soaked in sour wine and lifted it on a stick so he could drink.
49 The others joked, "Don't be in such a hurry. Let's see if Elijah comes and saves him."
50 t Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.

51 At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces.
52 What's more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised.
53 (After Jesus' resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)

54 The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, "This has to be the Son of God!"
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[Listen: Choir: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4788.mp3
or
Vocal Duet: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_325.mp3]

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
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 e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Author: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 136

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For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Galatians 6: 14 (The Message)
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[Look and Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o ]

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross
My guilt upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no powr's, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Written by: Stuart Townend

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5 That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:

You don't want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
you've prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
6 It's not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
7 So I said, "I'm here to do it your way, O God,
the way it's described in your Book."

8 When he said, "You don't want sacrifices and offerings," he was referring to practices according to the old plan.
9 When he added, "I'm here to do it your way," he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—
10 God's way--by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
11 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. 12As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God. (Hebrews 10. The Message)

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[Listen: Choir: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4244.mp3
or
Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1015.mp3 ]

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame,
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Chorus
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he'll call me some day to my home far away
Where his glory for ever I'll share.
Author: George Bennard (1873-1958)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number:124

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You might like to listen to “Salvoaudio Songster Selection for Easter”. It is a choice selection of 11 songster pieces by at least 7 Songster Brigades.
Click here:
http://www.salvoaudio.com/songsters/salvoaudio_songsters.htm
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