The Operation Log of Agent Delta

Yesterday was Good Friday. Many people do not mark Good Friday. Many people do not understand why Lutherans, among others, hold services on Good Friday.

Lutherans mark Good Friday because on Good Friday, Jesus finished earning our salvation. He earned our salvation by leading a perfect, sinless life, and by dying on the cross.  Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life on our behalf. On Good Friday, He was punished for our sins. He took the punishment that we deserved. This was not a light punishment, not a slap on the wrist. This was perhaps one of the cruelest punishments ever given. Allow me to explain:

To pay for our sin on Good Friday, Jesus suffered the cruelest tortures that man had been able to invent in 4000 years. Even before Jesus was crucified, He was scourged by the Romans. Scourging was a preliminary to Roman crucifixion. Many crucifixion victims died during their scourging. The goal of scouring was for two soldiers to use whips to flay a victim’s back until the internal organs were visible. Jesus went through this. When the scourging was finished, a cross was laid on his back, and He was forced to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, through a mocking, shouting mob. He was too weak to carry the cross the entire way, so somebody from the crowd was drafted to carry it for Him. When the procession got to Golgotha, Jesus was crucified.

Crucifixion is perhaps one of the cruelest forms of death known to man. Perhaps this is because it is a slow death. It is a painful death. Imagine having spikes hammered through your wrists and your feet. Imagine hanging there, nailed to a wooden cross, for hours on end, with birds pecking at your eyeballs because you are too weak to fend them off. Imagine crowds of people mocking you as you hang there. Imagine life slowly draining from your body. Imagine being in so much pain that you want to die, but cannot. Jesus went through all of this.

Not only did Jesus have to go through these tortures of men, but He also went through the torments of hell. These, we cannot even begin to imagine. But you can be sure that Satan unleashed every torment of hell and then some on Jesus.

And during all of this, Jesus was abandoned and denied by His disciples. He was abandoned by His Father. In short, He had to pay for the sins of the world alone; completely by himself, without a friend in the world.

Jesus went through all of this. And He went through all of this bearing the weight of all the world’s sins. He bore every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived, and every sin yet to be committed.

After suffering through all of this, Jesus cried out “It is finished.” And with that, our salvation was earned.

Lutherans Good Friday not only because Jesus finished earning our salvation on this day, but also because Jesus had to go through such suffering to earn our salvation. This suffering is also the reason that Good Friday services are not joyous, but solemn. The joy is reserved for Easter morning, where we are given proof that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, and proof that our salvation has truly been earned.

I am reading 1984 Release Date: 01 July, 1950

Awesome job on that post!
You're going to be a pastor when you grow up, right?

~ Benjamin Schultz