Good Friday

The Apostles, the chosen men that followed Jesus every day were especially happy on this day, the day when they remembered how God saved them from slavery. The twelve were ordinary men. They were fisherman, there was even a former tax collector among them/  The Seder had progressed though three ritual cups of wine. These men did not drink wine for solace, they drank when they were commanded by the law to do so.  Jesus had not completely followed the ritual. He passed bread and wine to his Apostles and told them that it was his Body and Blood.  They did not understand at first what he had done. Then he said, "Do this in remembrance of me."  They were to the same thing he had done. He had given them something new. He continued the Seder, they drank the third cup of wine and sang the Great Hallel and instead of drinking the last cup of wine, Jesus led them to the Mount of Olives where He prayed and his followers slept. Judas, one of the twelve arrived with soldiers and representatives of the high priest and betrayed the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave. He was taken to Annas, the real power behind the temple who looked Jesus over, shook his head and sent him to the High Priest.  There in the dark of night, he was illegally tried and convicted of blasphemy.  They gathered again in the morning and confirmed the sentence of death and after a brief appearance before Pilate and Herod, the criminal Jesus was whipped and he was forced to carry the cross to the place of the skull.  He was nailed to the cross and above him a sign hailed him as King of the Jews. The sun beat down on his body. Insects attracted by the smell of blood came and landed upon him.  The pain in his arms was intolerable but he had to pull himself up to breathe. His mother, Mary, was at the foot of the cross as was John the Apostle. In a tender act of love he took leave of his mother and put her under the protection of John. That was the last earthly thing he had to do. He uttered the words, "I thirst."  And a sponge was soaked in some common wine and held up to his mouth. He took the wine and said the words, "It is finished."  In saying this he let it be known that he had concluded the Seder from the previous night by drinking the wine and then he cried out in a loud voice, "Father into your hands I commend my spirit." And with that Jesus died. 

Jesus is the Lamb of God.  His blood saves us all. Be at peace on this Good Friday and in your prayers remember the man from Galilee who died this day so very long ago and changed the disobedience of man into obedience and in doing so destroyed sin and death.