Holy Thursday good wishes to all celebrating Easter:
"Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved His own in the world and He loved them to the end" (John 13:1)
"Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved His own in the world and He loved them to the end" (John 13:1)
Good morning to all on this #GoodFriday :
"But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
"But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
It is interesting the number of people who find Good Friday hard - the betrayal, the disloyalty, the widowed Virgin Mary watches her son’s brutal, public death, with the women of Jerusalem & only John the youngest apostle who goes to the trial & Calvary (too young to know better)
Meanwhile Peter, leader of the apostles, has denied Jesus to a literal nobody and seemingly run away. The other Apostles may be on the fringes of Pilate’s trial but only John the youngest (in a culture of old) is too uncorrupted to preserve himself. John goes to Calvary
The crucifixion was deliberately gruesome. The condemned was not only executed but forced to carry the means of their execution. It was the common, public Roman punishment for criminals, slaves, non Romans esp, as a means of deterring others. To many, Good Friday was another day
Pilate was the classic governing class apparatchik, even in Roman times, hoping for promotion. Order in notoriously difficult Judea had to be kept, regardless, and though Pilate’s inquiries had made clear where justice lay, the reality was Barrabas won the popular vote…
Even Pilate's wife had warned him not to do the unjust ... and yet Pilate did .... all of the best of what Rome & its laws was nothing because of the weakness of one Roman governor. And so the crucifixion of the suffering servant was to occur, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold.
At the Crucifixion itself, Jesus' cross was between two thieves - one mocked him, another, the good thief, corrected his fellow thief & recognised Jesus' saving power, even then & there, for which the good thief, despite his life of crime, was promised paradise.
At the foot of the Cross was the Virgin Mary, the apostle John, and many of the women who had followed Jesus .... in a literally patriarchal society, the men Jesus thought His friends had run for their lives, leaving only the women & a guy too young to know he should save himself
It had been a big week - Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, as if a King. By Good Friday, he has been tried, condemned, scourged & crucified, with a cynical inscription by Pilate on the Cross' head referring to what kingship had been claimed.
For all of the supposedly revolutionary and messianic zeal, all of those alleged zealots, it was left to a rich, establishment, fellow, Joseph of Arimathea - a man with much to lose - to go to Pilate & claim Jesus' body for burial, which this Joseph buried in his own tomb.
At the Cross, Jesus' body is held by his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel & a sign that is opposed. A sword will pierce your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35)
Good morning to all on this Holy Saturday
"For this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead" (1 Peter 4:6)
"For this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead" (1 Peter 4:6)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
