Friday, April 3rd | Daily Devotion
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“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him… When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’… After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill Scripture, ‘I thirst.’… When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” –John 19:16-20
TRANSCRIPTION:
Good morning. Grace and peace be unto all of you, my Father’s children.
It is Good Friday — and this is the day we remember and recall the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. This is where all of it has been leading. Every devotion, every theme, every week of fasting and reflection throughout this Lenten season has been a journey toward this moment.
Someone once asked: how can we call it Good Friday if we are commemorating the crucifixion — the death of our Lord and Savior? The answer is in what that death accomplished. The good in Good Friday is this: without that sacrifice, we would have no access to the kingdom, no pathway to eternal life. Christ came down, divine in nature but clothed in humanity, and in this moment He accepted the penalty of sin — the penalty we were completely unable to pay ourselves. That is the good. That is the gift.
We turn today to the Gospel of John, the 19th chapter, and we sit with three of the last seven sayings of Christ from the cross.
The first: “Woman, behold your son. Behold, your mother.”
Jesus is in the middle of the most excruciating suffering a human body can endure. Crucifixion was designed specifically to make death slow — it was not the piercings that killed, but the body’s gradual inability to breathe as gravity pulled downward and the lungs collapsed under the weight. In the midst of that agony, Jesus looks down and sees His mother.
And He is still teaching. Still pastoring. Still thinking of others before Himself. He ensures she will be cared for. He gives John a responsibility and gives Mary a covering. Even from the cross, He is showing us what it means to love one another.
The second: “I thirst.”
Two words that remind us of something we can never afford to forget — He was fully God, yes. But He came wrapped in full humanity. And that humanity was thirsty, aching, bleeding. He did not endure the cross as a performance. He endured it as a man. Which makes the question personal: what do you thirst for? In a world of so many competing desires and distractions, what is it that your soul is reaching for?
The third: “It is finished.”
These may be the most powerful words ever spoken. The complete and total atonement for sin — finished. Not paused. Not partially accomplished. Finished. The sacrifice that our sin nature required, the penalty that humanity owed and could not pay, settled in full. This is why we stand the way we stand. This is why we move the way we move. Because it is finished.
And so as we prepare our hearts for Resurrection Sunday, let us carry this with us: if it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, where would I be? And if it had not been for His sacrifice — who would I be?
Tomorrow is Silent Saturday. A day of quiet. A day to sit in the space between the cross and the empty tomb and simply reflect. There are no words adequate for that space — so we offer none. We are still.
But Sunday is coming.
Meet me at sunrise service — 6:30 AM Sunday morning. It has been a privilege walking this Lenten journey with you. God bless you, and I will see you on the other side of the silence.
🌅 Resurrection Sunday Sunrise Service — 6:30 AM
☀️ Morning Worship — details at cbcsomerset.org
He is risen. See you Sunday.