The death of Jesus Christ is the most horrific tragedy in the history of mankind. The Son of God, God the Son, is judged unjustly and dies as a criminal, being innocent.
Reading: Matthew 27: 32-61; Isaiah 53: 1-8; Psalm 22
His body hangs inert from the cross.
Around him both soldiers and Jews rise from the ground. The terrible earthquake left them trembling. Some take advantage of the fact that the earth has quieted down to run terrified down the hill towards Jerusalem, as if fleeing from the one who has given his life, of that supposed criminal whose inscription on the cross announces:
Jesus Nazareno, king of the Jews.
One of the soldiers approaches, with wide eyes, and babbles: "Truly this was the son of God." They are the words of a gentle man who recognizes being in front of a different one from everyone. He was a son of God. That truth that the religious considered blasphemy comes from the mouth of a man who has just been involved with the death of the man who acknowledges being a son of God.
Just a few hours before everything seemed to go according to plan. The Romans had crucified Jesus Christ along with two thieves, one on his left and one on his right. The religious leaders looked at him with disdain, muttering under their breath: "If he is the king of Israel, come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him." All the disciples of the crucified had fled except one of them, young man, who was crying along with some women at the foot of the cross. Yes, the women had remained faithful.
But at noon everything changed when the sky turned black. Darkness, at noon? Then, about three hours later, a heart-rending cry from deep in the throat of the condemned man:
It is finished.
Jesus of Nazareth dies hanging on the cross, naked and torn, a spectacle for men, principalities, and powers. Humiliated in front of everyone. Forsaken by his people, forsaken by his friends ... forsaken by his Father (Matthew 27:46).
The death of Jesus Christ is the most horrific tragedy in the history of mankind. The Son of God, God the Son, is judged unjustly and dies as a criminal, being innocent.
However, the story goes beyond that. For although the Jews were guilty of his death, like the Romans, the reality is that Jesus Christ died as part of the perfect plan of redemption (Acts 4: 26-28). The death of Jesus Christ was not a cosmic mistake. While Jesus was hanging on the cross, the Father did not look around worriedly, wondering what to do. No. Everything was part of the plan.
Jesus Christ said: "That is why the Father loves Me, because I give My life to take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I give it from My own will. I have the authority to give it, and I have the authority to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father "(John 10: 17-18). So his death is the perfect plan of redemption, a plan devised from eternity past in which God decided to rescue sinners.
In the end, our sin put Jesus on the cross. In the end, the Father placed Jesus on the cross to propitiate our sin (1 John 2: 2; 4:10). Christ carried on the cross with the sins of the world to save those who put him on that cross. The great irony is that the humiliation of Jesus Christ is at the same time his exaltation. Christ humbled himself and died to overcome death and sin once and for all.
But today is Friday, and Jesus Christ is on the tree. Soon his body will be put in the grave. Satan thinks he has triumphed. The religious think they have triumphed.
But soon it will be Sunday.
