On this day, Jesus was dying because of:
- the brutality of an invader’s military rule
- the cruelty of desensitised soldiers
- spiritual pride of religious leaders
- political expediency of grasping elite
- fickle, insidious baying of the mob
- shame-filled betrayal of a follower
- grievous denial and abandonment of friends
- the sin of every single one of us
- a rescue mission from the beginning of time.
He cries out in the common tongue of his day, the first verse of Psalm 22:
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
To me, today, it is not a cry of despair but of defiance. Having begun the Psalm, his well trained mind would have followed on through verses of violence, treachery and sorrow to finally arrive in praise, triumph and completion.
The Psalm ends, as does the suffering of Jesus, with this remarkable promise:
They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
This is Good Friday.
The forsaken knows to his last crucified breath that he will save generations.
And not even time can hold him, certainly not death.
