Flora First Christian Church - Flora, IN

March 21, 2008

A Child’s Question

I understand that it is a question that has been asked by children for centuries. I understand that it is a question that children still ask today. I know that children ask this question . . . I was there when a child asked the question. It was nearly forty-five years ago. I still remember the day well. It was a wet, cold, gray, rainy, winter Sunday morning in March 1964 in the fourth grade Sunday School classroom of the Flemingsburg Christian Church in rural Northeastern Kentucky. Mrs. Ruth Gaines was leading our class through the events of the crucifixion. We did round robin reading on what occurred. The soft-spoken teacher talked about the brutality of the soldiers, how Jesus was beaten, and how a needle-sharp crown of thorns was placed on his head. She talked about how Jesus was made to carry his own cross through the narrow streets of Jerusalem. We heard how he was nailed to the cross; he was not tied. He had to have screamed at the top of his lungs in misery and pain.
Then the question was asked. I remember that Kennetha McIntire spoke up and asked: “Why do we call such an awful day Good Friday? What happened to Jesus was so mean and so bad! Why do we call this good?”
This isn’t just a question children ask - it’s a good question for anyone to ask.

Passion of the Christ

In his 2004 movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, Mel Gibson brought the visual impact of the crucifixion to light. I found it interesting at the time that some critics who hailed “Kill Bill” as a work of art, panned “The Passion of the Christ” for its violence, saying that the brutality and blood was unnecessary to the story. The church I was serving in Seymour at the time took groups to showings of the movie and gathered back at the church afterwards to discuss it. A woman named Betty asked me: “Do you think the crucifixion was really that bad and that bloody?” My answer from an historical standpoint was: “Yes, it was every bit that violent and cruel, if not more.”

Lee Strobel and His Case for Christ

In his book, “The Case for Christ,” Lee Strobel, a former journalist for the Chicago Sun Times, and a one time atheist, used his journalism and law school skills to discover if this Jesus could be believed. Could Jesus of Nazareth really be the Christ? Could Jesus be God’s Deliverer? Was Jesus really the Son of God? Lee traveled throughout the world interviewing scholars and historians on both sides of the fence. He sought to examine the evidence from all angles including the medical evidence of what happened to the human body when it was flogged, beaten, speared, and nailed. His mission in examining the crucifixion was to discover if someone could survive such torture. What he discovered in this stage of his investigation was the details of crucifixion.

Floggings

Floggings by the Roman soldiers were known to be terribly brutal. They usually involved 39 lashes, but depending on the mood of the soldier, more lashes were frequently given. The whip of braided leather had metal balls woven into their strands. The whip also contained pieces of sharp bone tied into it. The was meant to shred the back. Often bones and veins would become exposed. Those punished were to wish that they had never been born, and had never committed a crime against the Roman Empire.

Nailing to the Cross

The process of crucifixion took a wretched toll on the human body. Spikes, not nails, 5-7 inches long, were most likely nailed through the wrist to hold the body to the cross. These spikes would have also punctured the median nerve that would have caused excruciating pain. Crucifixion is a slow death of asphyxiation or heart failure.

Roman Soldiers

The Roman soldiers who carried out crucifixions weren’t medical school graduates with knowledge of what was happening to the body, but they were trained to punish and kill persons and to do it successfully. (“The Case for Christ,” 1998, Lee Strobel, pages194-204)

You may be thinking, Pastor I didn’t need or want to hear that description of death by crucifixion. Why are you telling us this? We know it was bad!
So . . . we are back to our question: Why do we call what happened on that Friday a good day?

It’s About Relationship

In the midst of the torture, blood, and cruelty, Good Friday is about relationship. A relationship that God longs to have with the people he created. The Book of Genesis opens the stage curtains of the Bible with the announcement: “In the image of God he created them — male and female he created them.” Adam and Eve, you and me, were created to live in relationship with God.

The Relationship Was Broken

But, the relationship was broken by disobedience and rebellion.
James writes in the New Testament, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” So too with the Law presented in the Old Testament we either keep it in its entirety, or we fail to keep it. Period! The Apostle Paul reminds us about the truth of the matter: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The relationship with God has been broken.

Reconciliation from the Other Side

We could not accomplish reconciliation from our side of the relationship. God did it from his side. The offering of sacrifices was no longer in order, so one was made on our behalf. That is exactly what God did on Good Friday.
This day is good because it honestly expresses the heart of God to be relationship with all men and women. “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only son.”

Not About Our Being Good.

Good Friday is not about our being good, worshiping God, and trying to get along with one another, even as Paul admonishes us “to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”
Good Friday is about God being good and forgiving us, even when we were no longer good to his only Son whom we crucified.

What is God Like? Marco Polo

Legend has it that during Marco Polo’s celebrated trip to the Orient, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and adventurer, supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related the events of Holy Week, and he described Jesus’ betrayal, his trial, his scourging and crucifixion, Genghis Khan became more and more agitated, more engrossed in the story, and more tense. When Marco Polo pronounced the words, “Then Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit,” Genghis Khan could no longer contain himself. He interrupted, bellowing, “What did the Christian’s God do then? Did he send thousands of angels from heaven to smite and destroy those who killed his Son?”

What did God do next? He watched his beloved Son die, that’s what God did next. It was not at all the way we would expect God to demonstrate his might and power, but that’s the way it was and that is how we know what our God is like. (The Greatest Wonder of All, John M. Braaten, CSS Publishing Company, Inc, 1991

The words of Paul are like a two-edged sword cutting both ways: “Now most people would not be willing to die for an upright man, through someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. BUT God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5: 6-9)

It Means Nothing

This crucifixion means nothing if it was just the death of a good man, who was a good moral teacher or a rebel who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire and set up his own kingship.
Remember Lee Strobel and his research. After combing the world for answers, he concluded that yes, Jesus Christ died a brutal death by crucifixion. He really died! He didn’t swoon or pass out for a few hours. By the power of God he came back to life—not just for the masses of people in this world, but for him personally.
The relationship is now restored, in the words of Paul who wrote, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself … that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them….” (Colossians 1:20)

Report of Flabilvus Josephus

Jewish historian Flabilvus Josephus who lived in the time of Christ, recorded that there were over 200 crucifixions that day on the hillside outside the walls of Jerusalem. Remember the closing scene in the movie “Spartacus’ with its rows and rows of men dying on crosses? This was an historical ending, not a Hollywood ending. Crucifixion was common. Yet on that day in Jerusalem the cross of only one man is remember. It’s the cross that leads to the love of God. And that alone makes this terrible deed . . . good.

“And God showed his great love for us in this: Christ died for us.” Amen.