3 PM - Good Friday

⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ⁴⁷And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." ⁴⁸And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

 ~Matthew 27:46-48

³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished..."

 ~ John 19:30a

⁴⁶...Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

~  Luke 23:46

Noon

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

~ Luke 23:44-45

Midmorning - Good Friday

 ³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" ⁴⁰But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." ⁴²And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." ⁴³And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

~ Luke 23:39-43

9:00 AM - Good Friday

²¹ And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ²² And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ²³And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ²⁵And it was the third hour when they crucified him.

~ Mark 15:21-25

8:00 AM - Good Friday

 ²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. ²⁸And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" ³⁰And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

~ Matthew 27:27-31

7:00 AM - Good Friday

 ³³ So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

³⁴Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"

³⁵Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?"

³⁶Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."

³⁷Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?"

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

~ John 18:33-38a

¹⁵ Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" ¹⁸For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream."

²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." ²²Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Let him be crucified!" ²³And he said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!"

²⁴So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves." ²⁵And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" ²⁶Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

~Matthew 27:15-25

6:30 AM - Good Friday

 ⁶When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. ⁷And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. ⁹So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. ¹⁰The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. ¹¹And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. ¹²And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

~ Luke 23:6-12

6:00 AM - Good Friday

²⁸ Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. ²⁹ So Pilate went outside to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?" ³⁰They answered him, "If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you." ³¹Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law." The Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." ³² This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

~ John 18:21-32

5:00 AM - Good Friday

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." ⁷⁰But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you mean." ⁷¹And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." ⁷²And again he denied it with an oath: "I do not know the man." ⁷³After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you." ⁷⁴Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed.

 ~ Matthew 26:69-74

⁶¹And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." ⁶²And he went out and wept bitterly.

~ Luke 22:61-62

1:00 AM - Good Friday

⁵⁷ Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. ⁵⁸And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, ⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward ⁶¹and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.'" ⁶²And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."

⁶⁴Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. ⁶⁶What is your judgment?"

They answered, "He deserves death." ⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, ⁶⁸saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?"

~ Matthew 26:57-68

Unraveling

The National Review is neither inspired of God nor is it inerrant.  Only one place you can go to find such a writing (no, not ESPN).  NR does, however, provide some great fodder for cranial cud-chewing.

In a recent article, Rich Lowry, NR's editor, reviewed a speech* given by Charles Murray on the disintegration of two distinct classes in our nation, and to prevent it from becoming an issue of ethnicity, Murray sticks to "white America" thereby preventing any from shrugging these issues off as merely a problem for American blacks, hispanics, Portuguese, Puerto Ricans, Port-au-Princians, etc.

Two troubling highlights.  Number one, marriage.

In 1960, everyone was married — 88 percent of the upper middle class and 83 percent of the working class. In 2010, 83 percent of the upper middle class is married and only 48 percent of the working class. 

And quite naturally, fewer marriages equates directly to more out of wedlock births.

In 1960, births to single mothers in the working class were just 6 percent; now they are close to 50 percent.

While conservatives fight to keep the American understanding of marriage as being between a man (one) and a woman (one), most of America doesn't seem terribly concerned about marriage of any aberration.  Considering God created marriage before any other institution, such wholesale rejection of marriage should at least get our attention.  The fundamental fabric of a civilized people depends upon strong and stable families.  Mighty hard to build community apart from them.

The second troubling highlight from Murray's speech is the working class' rejection of God, too.

Although secularization has long been on the rise, it’s more pronounced in the working class. Among the upper middle class, 42 percent say they either don’t believe in God or don’t go to church. In the working class, it’s 61 percent. In other words, a majority of the upper middle class still has some religious commitment, while a majority of the working class does not.

Rather than leave us to grope about trying to determine the "So what?" of the statistic, Murray fills in the blank with a 19th century observation:

“The American Constitution is remarkable for its simplicity; but it can only suffice a people habitually correct in their actions, and would be utterly inadequate to the wants of a different nation. Change the domestic habits of the Americans, their religious devotion, and their high respect for morality, and it will not be necessary to change a single letter of the Constitution in order to vary the whole form of their government.”

Such statistics obliterate the myth that Christ is merely an opiate for the uneducated masses.  No, the cross of Jesus Christ remains the only sanctuary for those who have come to recognize the festering foulness of their sin before a holy God, and the blood of Jesus Christ as the only cleanser to remove such rank stains.

There was a time when the upper class refused to accept the foolishness of God because they felt it interfered with their revelings, their decadence.  The Reformation brought God back to man by allowing the common man access to the Bible, God's message to man.  It infected all aspects of culture and Western Civilization spread like wildfire.  When America struggled to her feet in the 18th century, the upper middle and lower classes all stood firmly on the word of God. That continued through most of the twentieth century with only halls of academia and the culturati turning back to secular paganism.

Today, with the demise of the American family and parental unwillingness to weave their values into their children and with school and culture holding sway over our children until their mid-twenties, is it any surprise that the preponderance of society has bought into the god of self?

Murray and Lowry are right.  Balancing the national budget is not the greatest crisis our nation faces.  It is a doozy (and I believe it, too, finds its troubled roots in the dissolution of the family and the distrust of God), but it pales in comparison to what's unraveling below the surface.

Time to look into the mirror and start bolstering those things each of us can bolster.  Start with God.  Move on to your family.  Perhaps we can stem the tide before our nation's nothing more than a tangled heap of knots.

-------------------
*The speech is forty-eight minutes long with forty minutes of question-and-answer to follow.

Faith: The shallow water of America's belief in God

I remember the first Bible study I led at sixteen years of age.  The livingroom held late teens and early-twenty-somethings and I expounded upon the faith of a mustard seed.  Hot on the heels of reading Richard Bach's, "Illusions," I'd concocted a god in my own image, a god where if I thought hard enough and believed enough, I could manufacture what I wanted.  I truly believed I could get Mount McKinley into the sea if only I exerted enough mental force.

It's a wonder God didn't crush me right there.  Grace.

Perhaps no part of the Bible gets more bad press than faith. On the threshold of Resurrection Sunday, Time, Newsweek, et. al. are sure to splash theological articles all over the newsstands, and as they examine events of the Bible, they do so with tongue in cheek and eyes set to perma-roll. To them, the objects of belief are not objective at all; they are no more objective reality than Clash of the Titans. 

Unfortunately, Christians have done "faith" no favors.  Ask most believers why they believe what they believe and they will wither to "You've just got to have faith," as though what they believed was really silly but they were going to believe in it as hard as they can, a la Richard Bach. When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.

I stumbled upon an article yesterday that notched my blood toward 212-degrees.  It started like this:

"I am a person of faith. But sometimes I like to step outside of faith and just think about things rationally." 

While the rest of the article proved interesting, the intro highlights the prevailing belief about faith.  It is utterly irrational and devoid of reason.  It's as hollow as Mortimer Snerd's head and as unsubstantial as a Twinkie.  Worst of all, it's contrary to what the Bible says.

Some passages on faith:

Ernest Borgnine's centurion from "Jesus of Nazareth"

MATTHEW 8:5-13 - THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION:  Jesus lauds the faith of the Gentile soldier.  Greater is it, says the Son of God, than the faith of any in Israel, the people of God.  What is that Roman Centurion's faith?  As a commander, he knew that when he gave a command it would be carried out.  Based upon what he'd seen and heard of Jesus, he understood that Jesus had the ability to command healing (Matthew 4:23-25).  His belief that Jesus could do this thing was quite substantial, hence the request.

MATTHEW 8:23-27 - THE DISCIPLES LACK OF FAITH:  Jesus asnooze amidst a storm on the sea.  The boatsmen disciples feared for their life, and so they woke Jesus.  "Save us, Lord; we are perishing."  (Why the ESV doesn't put an exclamation point there I don't know.)  You would think that rousting the Christ to save them would be an act of faith.  They'd seen what Jesus had done (ref. the previously cited passages and Matthew 8:14-17), and so they turned to him in their time of need.  It is precisely that they had seen what he had done that it is considered a lack of faith.  He had given the orders to cross the sea at that time (8:18).  Would he not see them safely to the other side?  Why would you consider yourself to be perishing based upon all you have seen?  Faith exhibited would have been to trust the One who put them on this mission to see them through to their destination.

MATTHEW 16:5-12 - NO BREAD:  The disciples forgot to pack a lunch as once again they traversed the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus takes that moment to warn them of the false teachings prevelant in that day by referencing bread since food was the topic of discussion.  When the disciples didn't track with Jesus' object lesson, he thumped them for worrying about food by reminding them that he had fed 4000 and 5000.  Essentially, "If I fed all these folks, will I not take care of you also?  Believe in what I have done.  Trust me."  Substance.  Jesus had proven himself before.

MATTHEW 6:25-34 - EXAMPLE FROM NATURE:  During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tackles the stresses and strains of life, the worry that creeps in over providing for one's family and one's self.  He calls their attention to God the Creator.  Check out the birds.  Do they have enough food?  Check out the flowers.  How are they adorned? "Are you not of more value than they?...Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"  Jesus hammers them for not trusting in the One who has proven himself faithful even within the small details of nature's provision.

Some will retort, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).  I agree, but the verse does not imply a lack of substance or evidence.  To have an assurance and a conviction is to know.  How can I know?  The entirety of Hebrews points to the evidential excellence of Christ.  God who has worked in all of history will fulfill what he has promised to the very end even down to each of us individually (Philippians 1:6).

"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Hebrews 11:3).  What a great example of faith!  Nobody was there.  If all we have are observations, then we can look at the evidence until we are blue in the face, and all we will ever have regarding the beginning of things is a best guess.  BUT if God Almighty who has proven himself to his creatures again and again throughout history tells us that "In the beginning he created the heaven and the earth," why would I disbelieve him.  I trust him who has proven himself trustworthy.

"Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).  Faith is not, as Francis Schaeffer calls it, an upper-story leap of unreason.  God has spoken plainly in history. His hand is manifest in the creation.  He has revealed himself to us in Word, the Bible.  And he has entered visibly into our realm in the man, Jesus Christ (John 14:9).

A faith without a foundation has no assurance.  You might as well follow Richard Bach and fashion a palatable messiah for yourself.  No, the God of the Bible, the God of Creation, calls his creation to trust the One who has shown himself plainly to them.

To trust him or not to trust him?  That is the question.