Good Friday: Jesus Bearing the World's Sins for Healing

``See, on the cross, Jesus did not suffer only for the sins of Roman aggression or Jewish corruption, as great as Roman aggression and Jewish corruption were. He did not suffer only for the disciples' failure of courage, even though their failure of courage was a cause for suffering. No. On the cross, in this moment of darkness, Jesus suffered for the sins of the whole world. [00:08:05] (32 seconds)  #CrossForAll

So today, if you are wondering about your worth or if your worth feels like it's tracking to your resume or your salary, if you're weary of striving for success with competing for others, or if you're overwhelmed by your circumstances or the violence of the world, open your heart to the God who is today expressing his love for you. He's telling you how much he loves you. [00:04:36] (26 seconds)  #LovedBeyondWorth

The prophet Isaiah, back in Isaiah 53 verse five, said it this way. He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Iniquities is just another word for sins. Upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises, we are healed. By the power of the cross, wholeness and healing are made available to every single one of us. [00:12:06] (34 seconds)  #HealingByTheCross

If we embrace Jesus with our whole hearts, if we surrender to his way of life, he will break down the wall of hostility that divides us from one another. This is our only hope for lasting shalom, and how we need in this season hope for shalom, hope for love to break through in the midst of our hostility. [00:13:20] (26 seconds)  #HopeForShalom

And then the very following verse, verse 39, it says, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want. Have you ever thrown yourself on the ground just in great grief, pleading with God for a different pathway? That's what the gospel writers tell us about how Jesus felt about what he was to endure. [00:06:36] (31 seconds)  #NotMyWillButYours

Zond would later say that every sin from the original Adamic transgression to the final iniquity of a fallen age became the one sin of killing Jesus. And under the burden of all of this sin, Jesus Jesus utters what becomes known as the cry of dereliction. In Matthew twenty seven forty six, he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [00:10:40] (29 seconds)  #SingularityOfSin

The scriptures tell us that when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that encircled the most holy place of the temple was torn from top to bottom. And now you and I are invited to come into his holy presence to make our confession, confession, to find mercy and grace in our time of need. This is our hope for life, and my prayer for each and every one of us is that we would embrace it. [00:13:47] (30 seconds)  #EnterHisPresence

Spirit of the living God, shine light on our hearts so that what we are blind to would become abundantly clear. We want it to be clear in our inner being how much you love us. We want it to be clear how greatly we have sinned, not so that you might condemn us, but that we might find cleansing and healing in your presence. [00:14:34] (26 seconds)  #ShineLightOnHearts

He's representing here that sin always generates a sense of alienation, disconnection, dehumanization, Jesus giving voice to what we so often feel. And yet, in the midst of all of this darkness and in the midst of all of this pain, we remember this occasion not as tragic Friday, but as Good Friday because on the cross, a mysterious change is made possible. [00:11:08] (35 seconds)  #ChangeAtTheCross

For three hours that day, there was darkness, and it's not completely clear here whether it's literal or figurative, but it would have hearkened back to early readers of God's judgment on the land, harkening back to Exodus in chapter 10, where darkness covered the land for three days while God was judging the Egyptians, setting his people free. It's a sign of something greater going on. [00:07:36] (30 seconds)  #ThreeHoursDarkness

Here, it's possible for us to think of Jesus in a way that is somehow he was impervious to pain, like he was iron man because he was God's son. But the gospel writers make it abundantly clear that he suffered as any human being would suffer. [00:06:02] (18 seconds)  #JesusFeltPain

His weakness makes way for our strength. His defilement makes way for our purification. His suffering and death makes a way for us to live and for us to live abundantly, all because of what happened at the cross. [00:11:44] (22 seconds)  #StrengthThroughWeakness

On Good Friday, we remember that Jesus suffers emotional pain, and that emotional pain is for us. Like an insect pinned on a display board, the creator of the world was treated with contempt by his own creation. [00:05:25] (16 seconds)  #CreatorSuffered

His enemies mocked him, robbed him, spat upon him. The friends whom he had loved to the very end betrayed him, denied even knowing him, abandoned him in his time of longing for friendship, in his moment of anticipating great suffering. [00:05:40] (21 seconds)  #BetrayedAndAbandoned

If we come to the cross, if we come for mercy, he has power to renew our hard, callous, bitter hearts and give to us a heart of flesh, a heart that's tender, sensitive, and vibrantly pumps blood so that we may live. [00:13:00] (20 seconds)  #HeartOfFlesh

Brian Zond is a pastor I appreciate from Missouri. He said this. He said, we can think of Good Friday as the moment in history when's the when the sins of the world became a hideous singularity. A hideous singularity. [00:08:45] (20 seconds)  #SinsBecameSingularity

For three hours that day, there was darkness, and it's not completely clear here whether it's literal or figurative, but it would have hearkened back to early readers of God's judgment on the land, harkening back to Exodus in chapter 10, where darkness covered the land for three days while God was judging the Egyptians, setting his people free. It's a sign of something greater going on. [00:07:36] (30 seconds)  #ExodusEchoDarkness

Now singularity in scientific speak is basically a point of infinite density and gravity from which nothing can escape. Brian Zond is proposing to us, and I think most of Christian history would simply agree that that all of the sins of the world coalesced upon Jesus in that moment of darkness. [00:09:05] (24 seconds)  #SinsCoalescedOnHim

All of the violent sins of the world, the violence of Nazis and Hutus and the lynching parties of the early and mid twentieth century in The United States, all of that came upon Jesus in this single moment. All of the sins of contemporary American culture coalesced upon Jesus. [00:09:29] (23 seconds)  #HeTookTheViolence

The sins of pride and anger that we see on Twitter or in the news. The sins of, comparison and envy that we see on Instagram that cause so much emotional duress and mental health crisis. All of that came upon Jesus. [00:09:53] (24 seconds)  #SinsOfScreens