March 11, 2024
What Happened on Good Friday
By Michael Youssef, Ph.D.
Read Matthew 27:45-50.
When we are tempted to doubt the love of God, all we need to do is look to the cross of Christ and remember that His love led Him there. Jesus endured the worst physical suffering imaginable—His hands and feet nailed to a crude implement of torture, His back flayed from the scourge of a soldier’s whip, and His head pierced by a thorn of crowns. But the Lord also endured another type of pain: “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’)” (Matthew 27:46).
Some pastors and theologians have tried to discount these words, but there is no way to avoid them. For a short time, while Jesus was dying on the cross, the Father turned His back on Him. Jesus bore the judgment of our sin upon the cross—indeed, Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)—and the Father could not look upon Him (see Habakkuk 1:13).
This divine abandonment wasn’t a surprise. It had been prophesied roughly a thousand years prior. In Psalm 22, David wrote of the crucifixion—long before the cruel practice was even invented! In verse 14, he says, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” That’s the dislocation of bones caused when a body is stretched into place on the cross. He continues, “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (v. 15). That’s dehydration caused by the physical toll of crucifixion. Verse 16 says, “[T]hey pierce my hands and my feet,” which points to the nails that held our Savior in place.
Even though Jesus knew what would happen to Him—the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain He would experience—He pressed on. The Bible says He set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem (see Isaiah 50:7 and Luke 9:51). His goal was the cross.
If Jesus was willing to endure all this, we can be confident that His blood can atone for any sin we’ve committed. Why? Because Jesus would not have done all that He did for you and me if it wasn’t going to be enough to rescue us. Jesus died forsaken so that we might be accepted. He died rejected so that we might be received. Praise God for this indescribable gift!
Prayer: Lord, thank You for enduring death and separation from the Father for me. I am awed by Your precious gift—the gift of eternal life. May I live for You and experience abundant joy and rewarding purpose as I remember I am loved by my Creator. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:50).
Learn more in Dr. Michael Youssef’s sermon Seven Awesome Statements from the Cross, Part 4: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOW
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