The Greatest Sacrifice

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Good Friday, the 29th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the Gospel of John 15:12-13: 

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  

In the year 2003, which is 21 years ago, my wife, Jill and I went to the Holy Land for the first time. I have been many, many times since then, but that particular trip, I have never forgotten. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. As we walked into that place, I have never forgotten it, I sat down in a little bench and I looked across the way, and there were steps going up to where they say the Lord was crucified and I started to weep uncontrollably. I don’t think I have ever wept like that before in my life. The reality of what Jesus has done for me hit home, and my dear wife, Jill had to actually comfort me. I was completely overwhelmed at the price that the Master had paid for my sin. Yes, I realised what a sinner I was. I broke down and I wept.

I looked up and I saw pilgrims coming into this massive cathedral, flocking in from every part of the world. I saw women from Russia with those little scarves tied around their heads and their brightly coloured clothes, coming up to a slab of granite that they say the Master’s body was laid on when Joseph of Arimathea took Him off the cross after He had died. They were taking cloths from their bags and wiping the top of the concrete slab and the tears were flowing. They would obviously take these cloths back to Russia with them for their families. There was such a presence of the Holy Spirit and I think of all those multitudes of pilgrims from all over, from Japan, China, South America, Britain, South Africa, Canada, the United States of America, coming together and just spending time on their knees worshipping the Lord.

Now, we don’t know exactly where it took place. There is another place in Jerusalem also, where they say (The Garden Tomb) where the Lord was buried. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that it happened and it happened in Jerusalem, in the Old City, and I just thought how Mary Magdalene felt when she cried and asked the angel in the morning, where the body of Christ was.

I want to say to you today, take time out please to sit on your own and contemplate. It wasn’t the Jews that killed Jesus, it wasn’t the Roman soldiers that killed Jesus. It was our sin that murdered the Darling of Heaven and we need to ask Him again to forgive us and we need to think carefully about our lifestyle so that it doesn’t happen again. This is a time for you and I to contemplate on the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made in the world.

Jesus bless you as you have a very thoughtful Good Friday,
Goodbye.