Jesus’ Trial and Crucifixion

Good Friday, April 6 – Read Matthew 27:1-66

Here we find the story of Judas’ too late change of heart, then of Jesus’ trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus’ torture by flogging and execution on a cross. Finally, Matthew tells us of his burial and the guard placed on Jesus’ tomb. In Matthew Jesus says only one thing from the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus has always had faith in God’s presence and desire to help him, but now on the cross, Jesus feels deserted. His experience of the pain and terror that life can bring is the same as ours. Why is this necessary? Why does Jesus have to die such a brutal death? 

One answer sometimes proposed is that Jesus takes upon himself the punishment that we deserve. The argument is that a just God cannot simply overlook our sins and that only God’s Son has a worth more than equivalent to all the wrongdoing of human beings. So God, exacting justice, crucifies Jesus in our place, and by paying the price Jesus wins our forgiveness. This answer, however, leaves God without the ability to forgive that even a human parent routinely offers. Indeed, it leaves God brittle and bloodthirsty. 

A better understanding, I believe, is that it is God who takes up residence on the earth in the life of Jesus. Far from staying up in heaven, exacting justice on an innocent son, God is present to us in Jesus, suffering at our hands to reveal the full depth of God’s love and the folly of human violence. In the prophet Jeremiah, God promises to make a new covenant with us. God says that God will take the law and write it upon our hearts. Then we will no longer need to teach one another about God, for all of us will know God intuitively. This new covenant is what God creates in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The picture of Jesus beaten, bleeding and crucified is a living love letter to the human race. If and when we really allow ourselves to look at that picture and see that it is a picture of God’s love, our hearts do change. We are born again.

Reflection Question: Take some time to picture the scene of Jesus’ death in your mind. The God to whom you pray, the God who gave you life and who accompanies you day by day is there on the cross, suffering and dying to show you the extent of God’s love. What does that mean to you?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you. Thank you for my life. Thank you for your great love. Amen.