Good Friday’s Great Exchange

When I was a child, my dad always gave me a large chocolate bunny for Easter. I love chocolate, and was thrilled to receive this delicious gift which I savored for weeks. Each year was the same. I’d break into the box hoping that this year the bunny would be solid chocolate. “It’s so pretty, it must be solid!”, I’d chime to myself. One bite revealed the disappointing truth as chocolate bits broke off and tumbled into the hollow body of the now earless bunny.

I thought of these hollow chocolates several years ago after an Easter service. I was travelling one Easter weekend so I attended the only church I could find in the neighborhood of my hotel. The preacher expounded in great detail the sufferings of Jesus in his death by crucifixion. He described the gory scourging Jesus endured, the excruciating pain he would have felt of being nailed to the cross, and the shame Jesus must have suffered as he hung naked and asphyxiated to death.

The descriptions were heart-wrenching and I expect most hearers that morning had tears in their eyes. I know I did. Once he finished with the brutal details of Jesus’ death, he moved on to the glorious news of the resurrection. Everything the preacher said was true, but I walked away that Easter morning with a vague emptiness.

The preacher spoke the truth, but he didn’t speak the whole truth.

He wasn’t in obvious error, but he wasn’t totally correct either.

That Easter sermon fell flat because it wasn’t complete. The message, which had the potential to be a gospel banquet feast, offered an empty morsel—a hollow chocolate bunny—instead.

Indeed, awful suffering was inflicted upon Jesus that Friday of 2,000 years ago—the darkest day in history. Flogged, scourged, afflicted, beaten, stricken, wounded, marred beyond recognition, mocked—these are all descriptions of Jesus’ suffering from the Word of God.

Jesus’ death was brutal and shameful, but it was nothing unusual. Crucifixion was Rome’s method of dealing with criminals and more than a hundred thousand people were killed this way during the reign of the Roman Empire. The day Jesus hung on a wooden cross, two others were crucified with him.

When we reflect on the crucifixion we think first of the physical aspect. But the pain Jesus endured is not what brought the deliverance that is so foundational to Christianity. Every other person crucified experienced the pain and shame of the cross. No, the foundation of the Christian faith, the part of Jesus’ death that makes it life-giving to a Christian, is the spiritual aspect which no other person could accomplish.

Jesus Took our Wrath so we Could be Righteous
“..he was crushed for our iniquities;”

You see it was no ordinary man on the middle cross that fateful Friday. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the second in the trinity, God in the flesh. A great exchange took place on the cross and in the moments before his death Jesus experienced the wrath of God.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

The sin of those “in him” was placed on Jesus, while we received the righteousness of Christ. Jesus took our curse, he took the wrath and punishment we deserve, so we could receive his right standing before God. And he did it for our sake.

Jesus was Forsaken so we Could be Restored
“…Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied;”

From eternity past, all the way to the cross, Jesus the Son of God was in perfect, blissful fellowship with God the Father. When Jesus became sin for us, God, who cannot look upon sin, forsook his beloved Son. Their perfect fellowship was broken and it was no small thing. As God turned his face away from his beloved Son, Jesus wailed, ”My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

God abandoned Jesus as he took upon himself the penalty you and I deserve for our sins. The absence of God’s presence was part of the hell Jesus paid on the cross.

Because he was rejected for a moment, we who believe can be accepted for eternity.

Why would he do this? So we could have eternal life. Jesus bore our wrath so all who would believe in him wouldn’t have to bear it alone for eternity. Jesus was separated from God so we, who are separated from God now because of our sin, could have a relationship of peace with him. Because life without him will be eternal, unimaginable anguish.

Why would he do this? Because he loves us. Deep, unfathomable love—for you and for me—was the motivating factor for the terrible cross.

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As dark as Good Friday was, there is good news to rejoice in. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, and he was buried in a tomb, but he didn’t stay in the grave. Three days later, his mission completed and death conquered, Jesus rose! This is the glorious hope of the Christian faith.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Glory!

Take Up and Read:

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Matthew 27:27-28:20; Mark 15:1-16:20

Luke 23:18-24:53; John 19:1-20:18

Romans 5:9

If you would like to listen to an explanation of the exchange that took place on the cross, I encourage you to watch this short video. Paul Washer explains it much better than I can: