Good Friday

Today’s Verses:  John 18:2-19:42 

There is a Fountain

But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.  And he who has seen has testified and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.  For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.”  And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced” (John 19:33-37).

Can you imagine seeing Jesus crucified?  Like, really being there—at His feet looking up?  Today our senses are bombarded and numbed by what we see at the movies and on our large surround-sound HD and 3D TVs.  We watch something that is supposed to blow us away but all of its action is hollow and we retain little of it.  But: a crucifixion?  Not on screen but there before you?  Real.  Your friend?  Who had done nothing wrong?   It happened today, Friday.     

In his book, On a Hill Too Far Away, John Fischer gets us there… “I spent a decade of summers at the Christian Artists Seminar in the Rockies, an annual seminar for contemporary Christian musicians in the mountains of Colorado.  When I think back on those days, I try to capture what stands out in my memory.  And what stands alone among all the new groups vying for attention was the day Cynthia Clawson sang without any accompaniment: “There is a fountain filled with blood, /Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; /And sinners plunged beneath that flood, /Lose all their guilty stains.”

I remember wanting it all to stop right there.  I didn’t want to hear another musical sound—not another word—for about three days.  I just wanted to let that last song echo around in the rocky mountains of my mind until I could hear it no more.  I remember resenting the people who got up next to sing—I’m sure they were wonderful.  But everything after that mysterious, culturally irrelevant, historical relic of a hymn was mere noise to me.  I didn’t want to hear another up-tempo expression of the gospel.  I wanted to sit for a while with the shocking thought of a fountain of blood spewing from the Savior’s veins; I wanted to explore the bizarre thought that this might fill up a dark red pool into which some crazy saint or sinner like me might want to actually plunge his whole body.  Nothing about this concept was appealing.  Everything about it was arresting and somewhat offensive, as the cross has always been.” (6)

Questions to think about:

*When did your understanding of Christ’s suffering on the cross suddenly deepen and mean profoundly more?

*What was different about that time in your life than now? Are you further along in your walk with Christ now than you were then?

*Imagine being in the crowd during His crucifixion. What do you think that would have been like?

For Further Study: 

     *Acts 1:18-19 *Isaiah 56:3-4

     *Luke 4:13; 22:47-23:56 *Luke 16:15

     *Philippians 2:6-8 *1 Samuel 16:7

     *Mark 11:12-14, 19-22

     *2 Corinthians 5:21

     *Matthew 26:47-27:66

     *Mark 14:43-15:47

     *1 Peter 2:23-24; 3:18

6. Friday

John Fischer, On a Hill Too Far Away: Putting the Cross Back into the Center of Our Lives (Bethany House Publishers, 1994) pp.23-24