From the desk of Rev. Dr. Toni Luck
10 April 2020
Good Morning beloved. Peace and grace be unto you on this blessed Good Friday.
I don’t know about you but I have often been puzzled about calling today Good Friday. As a child, I
often asked the nuns why was this day good when Jesus had to die. I asked our parish priest, Father
Burns; I asked my mother, Aunt Tillie, what is so good about this day when Jesus was hurt and
scorned and had to die. As grow ups do to children’s honest queries, far too often I must say, they
smiled and would say,” it just is so, or Jesus died for our sins” So what? from a child’s
perspective; and often even from our adult senses, we do ask so why and what is so good about that
anyways?
Then when I got a bit older, around 11 or so, Father Nolan came to our Parish, he was young and as
I remember quite handsome, and very funny, not so stiff and not at all a fuddy-duddy. I liked him
immediately, so I asked him about this dilemma that I faced about “good” Friday. He said two things
that have stayed with me forever and ever even till today. I must say that neither of his answers
made any sense to me at the time and in fact made me angry at God for one of the answers and sad
for Jesus because he was supposed to be God and yet he did not seem to know what “joy” was. And
even more I became suspicious that Father Nolan really did not know anything about this matter
because his answer to me was “because it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” and that was good for us.
And then he added, “for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross” another thing
that was good, for us. Well I was indeed a smart little girl and neither of these answers made any
sense to me at all, nor did they make me happy or satisfied.
And I did wonder where did Father Nolan get those strange ideas from. You must remember that when
we grew up we had a catechism, but the full Bible in those days was reserved for the priests. So,
while Father Nolan was handsome and kind and very smart and funny, it seemed to me, that day he was
really dumb. Of course, I had to go to confession to confess that I thought a Priest of God was
dumb and of course he was the one hearing confession and after he laughed out loud, I was surely
forgiven and did not even have to do any Hail Marys that day for my
“transgression” of calling a Priest dumb.
However, his words and those thoughts resonated with me for many years and when I met the Lord
personally almost 30 years later and read the Bible for myself and became acquainted with the story
and its intentions, I began to rise in love with the Man from Galilee, finally understanding what
it meant “for the joy that was set before him...... he endured...” It is to this truth that we come
to today on this Good Friday and the whys and hows of our eternal life.
Every so often during the year I consider the events of this day of 2000 plus years ago, and more
so at this time of the year. I go over and over in my mind every single detail of this day. So, I
hope you will please come with me for a moment:
"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." Psalm 22:14
Fixing our eyes on Yeshuah, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering
for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall
prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10
The events began at the Passover dinner that Wednesday night, wherein Yeshuah (aka
Jesus) broke bread with his disciples one last time, and then he did a most magnificent thing, "he
took the towel" That's right he laid aside his garments, wrapped his nakedness with a
towel, filled a basis with water and began to wash the feet of his men, and dried them with what?
Well the towel that was wrapped around him, that's what, so there he was before his men, even
Judas, on his knees, bare, open, vulnerable as he prepared himself for the cross.
After dinner we follow him to the Garden of Gethsemane. He has been all night in agony so much so
that from his brow fell large drops of blood onto the stone where he was praying. Then, he spent
the early morning at the hall of Caiaphas, (remember early morning is still dark) he had been
hurried from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate.
Yeshuah was beaten so badly that it tore his flesh, he was bruised, he was spat on, he was
slapped, his whiskers were taken out one by one, oh the agony of it all – yet for the joy set
before him! There’s so much more, he was laughed at, scorned. The very people who had thrown
palms at his feet just a mere 7 days before, we now asking for his blood, his death, his denial,
his torture.
As we follow him down the Via Delarosa, we see that he has but little strength left after being up
all night being scourged and ripped apart, and yet neither refreshment nor rest were permitted him
while Sin, Evil and Hatred, scorn and lust were all eager for his blood, and therefore led him out
to die. Loaded with a rugged wooden cross that weighed 30 kg which he carried for
almost a kilometre, Yeshuah being so weak from all the pain inflicted upon him, bleeding, kept
falling along the way and having to constantly pick up the cross again and again, until by God’s
merciful grace he was helped by Simon of Cyrene. Having reached the “skull” the place of
crucifixion, a crown of three-inch piercing thorns complete with the sap which adds to more
discomfort, were plunged deeply into his head. And then the most heinous act of the Roman Empire –
crucifixion, a tortuous death to say the least.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" humiliating excruciating death and only the worst
criminals were condemned to be crucified, often left to hang completely naked. Yet it was even more
dreadful for Yeshuah, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Yeshuah was
nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, rather than tied as was the usual practice... Each rusty
nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist, not into His palms as is
commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards
knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break,
forcing Yeshuah to use His back muscles to support himself, so that He could breathe –oh for the
joy that was set before him!
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus, He was forced to support Himself on the single nail
that impaled His feet to the cross. Yeshuah could not support himself with His legs for long
because of the excruciating pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and using
his legs just to continue to breathe. Beloved imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the
courage, the love, the compassion, the obedience. Yeshuah endured this reality for over 6 hours.
Yes, over 6 hours! Can we even imagine this kind of torture and suffering? - yet for the joy that
was set before him he endured....
To make sure he was dead, a Roman soldier used his lance and pierced his side, at that point He
was simply pouring water from his wounds. He had no more blood to bleed out, as he had poured it
all out for us, only water poured from His wounded side. He had poured out 3.5 liters of blood
(the amount of blood the adult human body holds, just a bit less than a gallon.).
At each remembrance of the details of this day, my soul does weep deeply. And then I remember what
Father Nolan told me many years ago: that it pleased the Lord to bruise him for me, for you, for
the world. And for the joy set before him he endured the cross for me, for you, for the world, and
I am somewhat comforted. But even though I know that the first day of the week, Sunday morning
with its rousing victory is coming, I nevertheless find myself at the foot of the cross on that
Good Friday because at that moment that is all that I have. And as I watch Our Savior not just
take our sins, but become sin, I cannot see joy yet, I see sorrow and pain. What was this joy, and
what pleasure did God get in this bruising. It is amazing the answers to these questions that all
find their foundation in a Love so great we can hardly take it in.
We often question why sin was allowed in the world in the first place. Why God did what he
did, why it could not have been different? However, regardless of our burning questions, we are
yet confronted with the truth that the sovereign God demanded the payment for the sins of all his
people; and Yeshuah stood forward, and to the utmost paid whatever we owed, and He paid it in
blood. It seems that it is WE who are the JOY that was set before him, our lives, our future, our
destiny. We must, today on this Good Friday, be so relieved and grateful to acknowledge that the
sacrifice of Calvary was for us. Moreover, we must remember that this was not a part payment; it
was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete
and perfect remission of all the debts of all of us – imagine we are the joy that was set before
him. I am so present with that fact that on that day when Yeshuah hung on the cross, he did not
leave a single cent for us to pay as a satisfaction to God. The whole of the demands of the law
were paid down there and then by Yeshuah, the great High Priest of all his people. And blessed be
his name, he paid it ALL, AT ONCE. You know that Kings’ ransoms have sometimes been paid a part
at the time, and part in dues afterwards, to run through years. But not so our Saviour: once for
all he gave himself a living sacrifice; at once he counted down the price, and said, DONE! “It is
finished,” leaving nothing for him to do, nor for us to accomplish. He did not drivel out a
part-payment, and then declare that he would come again, no the full ransom price to redeem all
people was paid. And the receipt given to us in the form of our Salvation and Everlasting life. In
this majestic action, one cannot help but see the reality of For the Joy set before him, for He
then nailed the receipt to the cross for us for all eternity.
DONE! FINISHED! HalleluYah!
So, beloved today on this day of days, I now can see why it is called GOOD Friday, for it is a day
full of an activity of LOVE. A LOVE so magnificent that it cost God all for the good of us all.
So, it is truly good for you and good for me, and even good for a world that does not yet
understand or believe for we are His joy, our freedom His pleasure.
May you have a blessed Good Friday, looking forward to Resurrection Sunday remembering that we are
free to live life abundantly in joy, peace and love by his hand and the decision that set Joy
before him for our sakes. Wow and Amen!
I Love you so much and it is obvious that He LOVES YOU AND ME EVEN MORE
I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life
as if there
isn't and die to find out there is.
Pastor Toni Luck
Jerusalem First Ministries Johannesburg, South Africa cell: +27 79 478 7126 skype: drtoniluck1
