Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
John 17:1-5
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When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples. Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Judas then, having received the Roman cohort andofficers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So Jesus,knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am…”
John 18:1-5
The disciples had spent the last three years walking with a man who passed through the hands of those who sought to push Him over cliffs with ease. They had watched Him walk on water. They had seen Him calm the storm and raging seas with a word. They had seen Him cast out legions of demons, make blind men see, lame men walk, dead people rise up and breathe and speak as though nothing had ever been wrong with them ever.
They even experienced Him granting them some of His power and authority and through His name they themselves cast out demons and made blind men see… I smile as I even remember a time that they asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to consume some men who were not treating Jesus with the respect they thought was due Him (Luke 9:53-55).
These disciples thought they had hit the big time. Jesus was the Messiah. The Man. The One who would kick the door of Caesar in and remove the yoke of Rome’s bondage and destroy any nation that tried to put them in bondage again… and they were on His team. They were fighting over who would be the greatest in His kingdom… and I wonder if Jesus sat back as He listened to their bickering if He inwardly smiled at their innocent ignorance or if He shook His head in slight annoyance. “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” must have been a thought that continuously ran through His mind.
I would think that the disciples were convinced that this Man was invincible, unstoppable, and they probably were so stuck on these thoughts that they never even heard Him when He spoke of His death… they probably even laughed at it… considering this as their Lord being “overly humble”. I mean really who could kill a man who could walk on water and raise others from the dead?
This was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Right?
Can you even begin to imagine the confusion, the despair, the fear, that entered the souls of these men as they watched Him walk away with a cohort of Roman soldiers and all the chief priests and Pharisees… with victory in their eyes… and with something they had never seen before in the eyes of the One they called Lord.
There were, to be sure, ways of coping with the death of a teacher, or even a leader. The picture of Socrates was available, in the wider world, as a model of unjust death nobly borne. The category of ‘martyr’ was available, within Judaism, for someone who stood up to pagans… The category of failed but still revered Messiah, however, did not exist. A Messiah who died at the hands of the pagans, instead of winning [God’s] battle against them, was a deceiver…
~ N.T. Wright
Was it over?
How could this Man… this Jesus… be a deceiver?
There had been so many before Him, so many who claimed to be the one, but all were dead. All proven to be deceivers by their death and defeat… but there had never been one like Him. They were so sure He was the One. So very sure.
Yet now there He is… not even appearing as a man… hanging there from a Roman cross. Dying just like all the others who claimed to be yet were not.
Those who once cried “Hosanna” cried “Crucify” and there He is broken, beaten, bleeding, bound, betrayed, belittled, and bending beneath the weight of their sin that He is carrying in every stripe on His body.
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”
Good Friday?
Really?
Three days and three nights?
The question constantly arises: If the Lord was really crucified on Friday and rose again on Sunday, how could that have encompassed three days and three nights? The Gospel accounts indicate that the Lord was crucified on Friday at 9:00 a.m. and taken off the cross at 3:00 p.m. His body was prepared for burial and interred at sundown the same day, which was the beginning of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The Lord then arose on Sunday morning after sunup. According to the modern way of counting, this spans barely two days. Yet that time period seems to disagree with Jesus’ earlier prediction: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40).
The prophecy can be understood when we examine the Jewish way of counting days and nights. We must recall that the Jewish day always starts at sunset, so that Friday really begins on Thursday evening (a fact that is reflected in the language of Genesis – “the evening and the morning” are the first day). The second day then begins at sundown on Friday and continues through the daytime on Saturday. Finally, Sunday begins at sundown on Saturday and stretches through Saturday night and the daylight hours of Sunday, making the third day. And since the Jews counted any portion of daylight as a full day, then Friday morning through Sunday morning would have been seen as three complete days.
~ Zola Levitt
As of right now, according to my central time zone, He would be on that cross.