From his early morning encounter with the guards in Gethsemane, his trial before the High Priest and Pilate, the beating and mockery he endured at the hands of the Roman soldiers, to being nailed to a tree and left to hang naked for 6 hours…never once did Jesus complain.
I cannot fathom the pain and loneliness he must have felt this day a long time ago and yet when I realize he did it all for you and me, I find myself humbled and grateful. The only man in the history of humankind able to withstand the weight of the world’s sins and not be crushed. This is what makes Good Friday. A burden that would crush any of us in an instant was taken off our hearts that day.
It is there at the foot of the cross where we must come to terms with who we are and who Christ is. It is where we come to the harsh realization it should have been us hanging there bloody, bruised, and naked. It is at the foot of the cross where we hear Jesus’ words, “It is finished,” not as a cry of agony but as one of accomplishment.
It was the deliberate utterance of a clear consciousness on the part of God’s appointed Revealer that now all had been done that could be done to make God known to men and to identify him with men.
~”Footsteps in the Path of Life” by Marcus Dods