Good Friday: At Calvary!
April 2, 2021 by Leah Daughtry
Matthew 27:1, 27-61 (CSB)
Jesus Handed Over to Pilate
27 When daybreak came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. 2 After tying him up, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate,[a] the governor.
Mocked by the Military
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole company[g] around him. 28 They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. 29 They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head. 31 After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Crucified Between Two Criminals
32 As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon. They forced him to carry his cross. 33 When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull), 34 they gave him wine[h] mixed with gall to drink. But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it. 35 After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots.[i] 36 Then they sat down and were guarding him there. 37 Above his head they put up the charge against him in writing: This Is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
38 Then two criminals[j] were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 Those who passed by were yelling insults at[k] him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders,[l] mocked him and said, 42 “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the King of Israel! Let him[m] come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God rescue him now—if he takes pleasure in him![n] For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way even the criminals who were crucified with him taunted him.
The Death of Jesus
45 From noon until three in the afternoon[o] darkness came over the whole land.[p] 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá[q] sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”[r]
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. 49 But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. 51 Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.
54 When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
55 Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there, watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus
57 When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it[s] be released. 59 So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen, 60 and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were seated there, facing the tomb.
The two Marys walked with Jesus through His entire Friday ordeal — from Galilee to the Cross to the burial. They witnessed his persecution, they watched his killing, and they waited in their grief at the Tomb.
This week, as the trial of Derrick Chauvin proceeds, we have a glimpse of what the Marys must have felt, as we listen to witness after witness share their testimony of the persecution and killing of George Floyd, and their grief in the aftermath of his death.
The disbelief. The horror. The pain. The grief.
Present then. Present now.
Without looking to Sunday, can you just sit with the Marys in this moment?
Today’s Music: “Calvary” by Richard Smallwood. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.