I want to talk about death: the Good News of Jesus’s death.
The Good News about Jesus’ death is it means you’re free.
The Good News about Jesus’ death is it means you’re well.
The Good News about Jesus’ death is it means you’re victorious.
Read all of Mark 15 and then use this writing to reflect on Good Friday.
Jesus Identifies with Your Shame
What happens to Jesus on this night, is nothing short of evil. Betrayal, condemnation, abandonment, powers conspiring for more power, the cold disposal of life, he is abused, he is forgotten…
The good news about Jesus’ death is He identifies himself with the shame of evil—the havoc that the sins of this world have on us.
The shame of evil is the wounds deep within you done by others. The shame of being left. The shame of being forgotten. The shame of being condemned and judged. The shame of being let-go, neglected, hated, betrayed.
The dark truth about all those things is this: they never just roll off your back. They infect you. They break you. The weight of it, the stain of it, it’s all overwhelming.
Kendrick Lamar describes this agony well: “Everyday I try to escape the realities of this world, but I can’t.”
Jesus, on this Good Friday, walked a path for your healing.
Jesus identifies with your shame. And carries it to the cross while being spit on, despised, betrayed, and abused. In his death, the realities of this world are crushed and our shame is carried to the cross. We’re set free from evil done to us.
Q: What evil or sin has been done to you? How does Jesus bare that burden?
Jesus embodies Your Guilt
What happened to Jesus on that night wasn’t just about evil, it was also about sin. The good news about Jesus’ death is he embodies your guilt.
Sin isn’t a trip, fall, or stumble. It’s an active abuse of who we’re created to be and a destruction of the souls around us. Humanity exists to reflect the character, creativity, and compassion of God, and yet, our thoughts, relationships, actions, work, economics, and politics rarely align with his justice, mercy, and compassion.
While we can point to a long line of offenses against us and a large pile of shame we carry, there’s also this sad truth: Being wounded by this world, being overcome by it, we join it.
It doesn’t simply exist “out there” being done to us, it exists within us. We’re familiar with the internal rage when we don’t get what we want and the manipulation, lying, stealing, cheating, lusting, abusing, and using of others for our own comfort—even the ones we claim to love. The war is within and creates a gulf between us and all others. How will I pay for the wrong? How will I make it right? Is there a way?
This is the guilt of sin.
Jesus, on Good Friday, walked a path for your freedom by taking all of the guilt and all of the sin on himself. It was the cross he carried, it was the breathe he breathed out! He took it all. How will you pay? Jesus will pay. How will it be made right? Through the body, blood, and death of Jesus.
The Good News about Jesus’ death is you’re free from guilt because the guiltless one died for you!
Q: What guilt do you carry into this day? How does Jesus set you free?
Jesus Dies Your Death
But also, what happened that day was also about death. The Good News of Good Friday is he died for you.
In the Bible, death exists because sin and evil exist. Death defines the fallen life—death is life as it was unintended. Death is the distance between the thriving garden and humanity. Death replaces life as the human experience. This reality fogs every funeral: despite all the nice things we can say about the person we are burying, the sting of death pronounces the perversion of life. Death culminates the consequence of sin.
The program of sin culminates in death. Death is the “reward” and “payoff”.
First, you notice it on those around you—“They’re living some meek existence aren’t they!” “What a wasted life!”. Later, you recognize it in yourself—“None of this is satisfying. Tomorrow I’ll stop, but haven’t I said that before?”
Then, eventually, you stand at a grave or lie inside it. Sin’s final conquest is life itself. All of this is what Apostle Paul means when he says, “the wages of sin is death.”
The opening chapters of Genesis craft this reality well. First, the death of relationship with God, then between Adam and Eve, then wandering, then murder, then a whole mess. Often, lost between the lines, is the body count of Genesis—the lives not completed…
Death arrives with sin. Don’t be naïve, death happens long before our hearts stop beating. It’s only when we become a corpse does our death become obvious.
Jesus’ claim at the beginning of Mark that his presence that the kingdom of God is at hand means he is coming to face death. And this is what he has done on the cross. He came to die.
With these words, your life is forever change: “He breathed his last”…
The Good News is You don’t deserve death anymore, because our savior died. You don’t need death, His love overcame it through dying. Did you notice the finality of it all when Jesus’ body is carried in cloth to a borrowed tomb.
Q: How has sin destroyed parts of your life? How does Jesus raise that life?
God’s Desire Is Good News For You
All of this was God’s will—his desire, his passion, his purpose, his plan. What a remarkable creator of the heavens and the earth that he would fix his eternal love on you, and me—humanity.
No one, has ever done anything like this for you, for me, for the world. No one has ever claimed to do anything like this. This wasn’t a martyrs death. This wasn’t a rescuers death. This was death by love for the world.
This was a good day. Good Friday…it’s the day shame died. It’s the day sin was dealt with. It’s the day death was buried in the grave.
It’s a day of deep gratitude. It’s a day of sincere joy. It’s a day of response. It’s a day of belief. It’s a day to accept the forgiveness and love of Jesus.
Q: How can you praise Jesus today?