The day we call Good Friday kicked off with Jesus praying in the middle night. He faced His fear, surrendered His will and life to the care of the Father, refused to run from the hardship to come, and got angelic help to make it through a terrible ordeal. Around 1:00 - 1:30 AM it is revealed that one of the 12 of His closest friend has betrayed Him, and has arrived with soldiers to arrest Him. He responds by telling the soldiers He's the one they're after, caring for and healing one of the soldiers who was wounded when Peter fought back, telling His disciples not to fight back or resist, and watching the rest of His friends run, scatter and desert Him. Pretty amazing half an hour or so.
This is a horrible day for Jesus, and He's less than two hours in with worse to come! He doesn't preach or rant about how people who stab you in the back aren't your friends. He doesn't say if you're not there for me in the bad times as well as the good you're not worth my time and I'm cutting you loose, He didn't act in any way that would be a good meme on social media about true friendship and caring about your self. In fact He personally hunted out every single living friend that ran that night the first chance possible and showed them He loves them, accepted them and restored the relationship.
He didn't rant about the evils of His enemies or their manipulative and sneaky tactics. He didn't fight or resist. He didn't scream about how He was in the right and shame on them. He protected them from His friends, and even helped restore one that was wounded. Imagine being attacked by a group of people who believe differently and responding by not responding, asking your friends not to fight back and when one does anyway and one of the enemies is hurt, reaching out to heal the enemy. Yeah we don't see a lot of that kind of thing, not even from Christians. But at least one soldier's life was forever changed as love reached down and healed his ear that night.
Over the next 6 hours Jesus goes through not one but five bogus trials. Not even a kangaroo would have stood a chance in that court. The first trail starts around 1:30, and the fifth around 7:30. The sun has barely risen, and Jesus has been hit, spit on, mocked, ridiculed, lied about, falsely accused and set up. He never strikes back. He never returns the actions and attitudes against Him with anything but love. He is completely alone, surrounded by enemies out to get Him after His friends have deserted Him, but He doesn't whine, sink into self pity or attempt to elicit sympathy from anyone about His plight. He either speaks truth in love or doesn't respond at all. He continues to trust God even though it doesn't look like God's helping much and faces the evil of and in the day without reacting, fighting or self pity.
Then things actually got worse! In an attempt to appease the mob, Pilot had Jesus scourged, which means beaten nearly to death. In about an hour's time He is beaten beyond recognition, gone through a sixth and final so called trial and then turned over to be crucified. The soldiers mock Him, torture Him even more, force Him to carry His own method of execution through a mob of people, nail Him to a cross and have Him hanging by around noon. The people around Him, and even the men on the cross begin to mock and ridicule Him, His message and what He believes and knows. The way that He responds is with unasked for forgiveness. He reacts to it all in such a manner that one man repents, and is saved.
He's going through hell, nothing is going right. He's literally dying, and will be dead around 3 PM. He's betrayed, deserted, lied about, falsely convicted, beaten nearly to death, tortured, crucified and finally died before most people get off work for the day. He didn't attack His attackers. He didn't point out their wrong or their stupidity. He didn't reject His friends for failing Him. He healed an attacker. He forgave. He stayed in the will off the Father, even to death. And at least one man was save that day, and how many thousands since?
If today was your last day, how would you spend it? Today let us live like there's no tomorrow in the way that Jesus did. Let's not attack or fight back against those who attack us, believe differently or belittle the truth, but respond in love or not at all. Let us not point out the failures of others or demand to be treated fairly by friends and others or be cast aside. Let us not feel the night to try to defend God or ourselves in words or force, but show the truth by responding even to evil with the love, light and truth of what we claim to believe. Let us trust God even through the misery and hell and pain that life can bring, even death, and by surrendering to the Father, let the Spirit control our reactions and responses, treating others with love even when they don't deserve it, keeping our side of the street clean, pushing in to God rather than running away no matter how bad it gets, and doing this in every area at every moment, we might scream though our actions evidence or God's love, power and way of life in such a way that lives are changed forever. And let us do that every day, because one day it will be the last day.
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