Good Friday

I imagine, a little over 2000 years ago, on a similar Friday...

People in a hustle. Bustling in the market place, attending to their daily activities a commotion in the street stirred their attention. A man, battered and bruised, who had been whipped and beaten, is struggling along the road, dragging a cross on his back through the city. A man half naked with a crown made of thorns pierced into his forehead and scalp falls to the ground. Crowds gathered, as they stopped and stared. Then the taunting began...
"Oh it's that Jesus", "Yes, that liar", "He claims to be the King, does he"?, shouts a vendor in the square. "A king deserves this fitting crown".Laughter erupts from the many now following the procession.
"NO,"cries a woman in the doorway, "I know him, he healed my cousin. He is a teacher, a good rabbi"!

At the top of Golgotha Roman soldiers throw him to the ground---
"Get up! Get off the ground and face your punishment". Weary and broken in spriit, a bloodied man, takes his place on a cross. The deafening sound of metal pounding metal, through human flesh echoed in the valley. The cross was lifted between two thieves. "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", they shout. One solider whispered to another, "He can't even save him self". "Cry out to Elijah, he can save you".he shouted and sneered. The other solider drops his head in shame, remembering his Captain's daughter had been brought from death to life by this man. His heart was heavy with grief.

FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO!

The women wept as they viewed in anguish. How can this be, they thought, for he was sinless, he did no wrong.

Taunts and laughter roared from the crowd as he professed his thirst and they gave him sour wine. The thief on the cross joined in. Yet the one on his right objected, "This man has done no wrong, we deserve our fate, he does not. Jesus,"he cried out, "remember me in your kingdom"

Between labored breath he directed his words to the thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise".

"What is he talking about"? "What did he say?" "Blasphemer".muttered through out the crowd.

The sun went dark...

Eloi, Elio, lema, sabachthani!

Then the Son of Man bore the weight of the sins of the world, both yours and mine for all time on his own shoulders. His Father turned away. A single tear fell from the Heavens as the Christ, the Messiah called out in his last breath...

IT IS FINISHED! His very spirit committed to the Father's hands.

The very ones who pounded the nails, now beat their chests in woe, "Surely he was what he said..."

Jesus, pronounced dead, treated for burial by those who loved him, placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a stone rolled in front of the tomb, soldiers standing guard...

End of story!

Or so you think! Not such a good Friday for the man they called Jesus.

But Sunday tells the entire story.......stay tuned!