Daily Verse | 2 Kings 8:19
Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.

Friday’s Reading: 2 Kings 9-12
Saturday’s Reading: 2 Kings 13-14

Friday, but not just any Friday. Good Friday.

Good Friday?

On that Friday, Jesus suffered the indignity of a show trial during which false witnesses testified against him.

Good?

Jesus was accused of blasphemy for telling the truth that he was the Son of God when charged under oath to admit if he was the Messiah.

Good?

Jesus was slapped, punched, and spit in the face by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who then mocked him for good measure.

Good?

Jesus was brought to the Roman governor, Pilate, to be executed—because the Jews weren’t allowed to do it themselves.

Good?

Jesus was sent to Herod, who ridiculed and mocked him, then sent him back to Pilate.

Good?

Jesus was traded for an imprisoned murderer, Barabbas, whose name ironically means “son of the father.”

Good?

Jesus was flogged, a lashing with nine leather straps laced with pieces of splintered animal bone and lead weights that ripped the flesh open across the shoulders, back, and legs to a depth of one inch, pulling ribbons of muscle out through the lacerations.

Good?

Jesus was mocked, dressed up in a scarlet robe with a coil of inch-long thorns jammed onto his head and a wooden staff in his hand. After humiliating him that way, the soldiers spit on Jesus and beat him on the head with the wooden staff.

Good?

Jesus was nailed to a wooden beam by his wrists, then hoisted up onto a vertical beam sunk in the earth. His feet were then nailed to the upright beam, and he was left there hanging. Breathing in wasn’t a problem, but to breathe out, he had to pull himself up by his nailed wrists while pushing up with his legs on his nailed feet.

Good?

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, being “numbered with the transgressors.”

Good?

Jesus was insulted by one of the thieves hanging there with him.

Good?

Jesus’ clothes were taken by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was sneered at by the religious leaders.

Good?

Jesus was mocked again by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was taunted, insulted and mocked by passersby.

Good?

Jesus wondered why he had been abandoned by God.

Good?

Jesus hung from his wrists on the cross from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.

Good?

Jesus died, condemned by his own and executed by proxy.

Good?

Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb not his own.

Good?

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Good?

Yes! Good.

Have a good weekend—and a very happy Easter.