Good Friday Meditation

Good Friday

March 29, 2024

Mark 15:33-41

 This meditation are words preached by Dr. Peter Marshall (1902-1949), Scottish-American preacher, pastor and Chaplain of the United States Senate. These are taken from a posthumous book of his preaching, The First Easter, collected and edited by his wife, Catherine Marshall.

“He might have followed the advice of His friends and avoided Jerusalem altogether at the feast time. He might have left the garden that night instead of quietly waiting there for Judas. He might have compromised with the priests – and made a bargain of future silence with Caiaphas. Had not Pilate almost pleaded with Him for an excuse, any excuse, for not sending Him to His death? He might have made His kingdom political instead of spiritual… He might have chosen the expedient. As He Himself reminded Peter, He might have called upon twelve legions of angels to rescue Him and to show His great power [Matthew 26:53]. Yes, He might have saved Himself. He had the power; many ways of escape were available… But then He would never have been our Saviour!...

“Christianity deals with reality, with life as you and I experience it. For it recognizes that this is not always a pretty world. It is a world where dreadful things can happen. The faith which is nourished and sustained by the Spirit of God faces frankly these human situations which often make our faith difficult. More than that, Christianity has a cross at the very heart of it. Leave out Calvary, and Christianity dwindles to a weak and empty cult – to a system of impossible ethics. It would not be good news to preach that there was no sin in Jesus Christ therefore we ought to be like Him. It is not good news to say that He did no wrong, therefore we too ought to be perfect. It is not good news to say that He left us an example that we should follow… These things are true – but they are not a Gospel. Christ did not come into the world merely to proclaim a new morality or a code of ethics or to set up a new social order. He did not show men how to work out their own salvation by good deeds by charities or by trying to live respectable lives. He came… “to save that which was lost… [Luke 19:10]

“And the last enemy Death… that final fear lurking deep in every human heart… That enemy too must be put down. How should he do it? Who but God could deal with all the sin of the ages… all the suffering of the flesh… all the sorrow of the heart? None but God! But not a God sitting on a gilded throne high up in the heavens, not some ethereal nebulous God floating about in space like a benevolent cloud… not some four- or five-dimensional Deity created by a Greek philosopher… But a God who lives and feels and understands… A God who knows what it feels like to weep… Someone utterly pure – in whom there is no spot nor blemish nor taint… Someone willing to give Himself at whatever cost of pain and suffering and death… and in the form of the life that you and I know… the body of a man… the form of a servant… with a voice to speak to us… a heart to feel for us… eyes to weep with us… hands to bless and to be nailed to a cross. ‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;…He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?” [Isaiah 53:4, 7-8].

“The Gospel message is simply that – that such a thing has come to pass… This is the Good News the church has to proclaim… Thus the Gospel is not something to do – but something done. The Gospel is not a demand – but a supply. Not something you can do – but something that has been done for you. And it happened at a certain point in time… on the brow of a hill shaped like a skull. It was done for me – and for you – simply because He loves us. Had not Jesus said to His apostles that last memorable night with them in the Upper Room… “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends…”

“That is why a hideous cross has become the world’s symbol of blessing” (The First Easter, by Peter Marshall; edited and with introduction by Catherine Marshall. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959; taken from pp. 90-97).

Thanks be to God. Amen.