Friday of Holy Week was a day of death. Early Friday morning, Judas, overcome with remorse for betraying our Lord, hanged himself.
By 9am, Jesus had been falsely accused, condemned, mocked, beaten and abandoned. Soldiers spit on Him, tormented Him, and pierced His head with a crown of thorns. He was sentenced to death by crucifixion, one of the most horrible and disgraceful methods of capital punishment known at the time. He carried His own cross to Calvary where He was again mocked & insulted as Roman soldiers nailed Him to a wooden cross. Jesus’ first words on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34 NV). His last words were “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk. 23:46). By 3:00, He died. Around 6pm, Nicodemus & Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body down from the cross and lay it in the tomb.
Let’s sing: “At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life, I’m in awe of You, I’m in awe of You. Where Your love ran red and my sin washed white, I owe all to You, I owe all to You, Jesus.”
Scripture reading for Friday: Matthew 27:1-62, Mark 15:1-47, Luke 22:63-23:56, and John 18:28-19:37.
(Jerusalem) The Church of the Flagellation is a Roman Catholic church and Christian pilgrimage site located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Lions, Gate. This church marks the Second Station of the Cross and spot where Jesus Christ was flogged by Roman soldiers before his journey down the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. (Photo March 2020, Gina Brummett)