Damian Garcia - The Cross - Good Friday 18:4:2025

Well, welcome everybody. Thanks for

coming out today on Good Friday. Um, you

guys are obviously not going away like

we are either, so it's good to see so

many people here. Um, that was amazing

worship. That was beautiful. Yeah.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that. I'm

going to pray um first and we're going

to get straight into it.

God, we just thank you for your

son. We thank you for the

sacrifice. We thank you for what

happened on this day, the brutal reality

of the crucifixion,

Lord, and the cross. We thank you

that that it's such a amazing symbol of

hope in our

life. And I just pray Lord that you

speak to us here today, be with us in

our fellowship and keep everyone safe

over this long weekend as well. Lord, we

just thank you that we have the

opportunity to gather here freely to

worship you and and praise you and thank

you for what you've

done in Jesus

name. Amen.

Well, uh, today, Good Friday, um, is all

about the passion of the Christ. And I

don't mean the movie, although, uh, it's

a fairly good depiction of the reality

of, uh, what Jesus went through, but the

passion, the term passion comes actually

from the Latin word pacio. Let's say it

together, pacio.

Pacio. Uh, which actually means

suffering and endurance. And in

reference to Jesus, when we talk about

the passion of Christ, we talk about the

suffering that Jesus went through on

what we call today, probably not the

date specifically, but on Good

Friday. As you all know, Jesus was

crucified on a cross. And there were

many things that um Jesus did that were

miraculous. Um, but I don't say this to

be uh intentionally uh diminishing of

it, but there was nothing miraculous

about Jesus dying on a cross. In fact,

it was a very common uh punishment and

torture of the Romans for people who

were hardcore criminals or

insurrectionists or um basic

troublemakers. And you can see we have a

cross up here always and there's a cross

set up at the back there um as a

reflection of uh today for Easter.

You know, although Pilate when the Jews

brought Jesus to Pilate found that he

was not at fault and he even said, "I

have no reason to crucify this man." He

was even willing to just punish him. The

the Jews insisted that he be crucified.

And so in that moment, Pilate chose the

peace of the community of what he

thought was best for him. And the Jews

also did the same thing and what they

thought was best for them is to try and

keep peace and not have anyone disrupt

the apple cart so to speak. And so

ultimately the crime that Jesus

committed was as we know was to be the

son of God. But at the time he claimed

that he was the son of God and that was

enough to have him crucified in the way

that he was.

Crucifixion was a torturous ordeal. And

it didn't just always start with a

cross. Mostly it started with scourging

or

flogging. And the scourging or flogging

started with a whip that had mostly nine

braids of leather hanging off the end of

it. And in those braids, they braided in

bits of bone or stone or rock that would

tear the flesh as it as it hit anyone.

And on the end of those braids, they

were weighted so that as that whip flung

through the air, the velocity of those

those braids would hit the flesh and

tear it open, causing open, deep wounds

and profuse bleeding.

Jesus got 39

lashes. And that is a traditional Jewish

punishment. In Deuteronomy 25:3, it

Deuteronomy 25:3

says, "But never give more than 40

lashes. More than 40 lashes would

publicly humiliate your neighbor." And

so that was a standard Jewish punishment

that Jesus

got. And once that was done, the victim

bleeding profusely from the back in

shock, losing blood, would then have to

carry the cross beam of their cross.

Most likely not the entire cross because

it was very big and very heavy, but the

cross beam of the cross would be put on

their back so that they would have to

carry it up to the hill Goltha as we

know. And the Romans intentionally chose

that place because it overlooked the

city. And when people were crucified on

the hill on Goltha or Calvary as it's

also

known, people would hang on those

crosses and all of the city underneath

would see those people up there. It was

intentionally

humiliating.

Pride and respect was huge in that

culture. And so to be hung on a cross

was incredibly humiliating and

degrading. The cross beam probably would

have weighed about 40 odd kilos. It

doesn't sound like a lot, but if you've

ever been to the gym and you've picked

up 20 kilos in each hand and tried to

walk with that, that's a significant

weight. And to have a wooden beam that

was probably finished fairly crudely

with splinters and jagged edges on it to

be hoisted onto your back where he had

just been whipped. The stripes from

where the whip would have hit would be

incredibly

painful. And when they reached the top

of the

hill, the cross would be assembled on

the floor and Jesus would have been laid

into position on the ground with his

arms stretched out. You know, it was

common practice for the Romans to nail a

sign above the above the victim or above

the the

criminal outlining what their crime was.

And again, this was a way to humiliate

the person on the cross so that everyone

knew what they were being crucified for.

And as you all know, on Jesus' cross,

they put a sign that said King of the

Jews. Now, I've heard in the in the

past, and I'm not I'm not saying this is

wrong, but I have heard in the past that

that is kind of romanticized that the

Romans somehow had this epiphany that

Jesus was the king of the Jews. And so

it was a a kind of slight at the Jews to

say, "Yes, here is your king of the

Jews." But really in my mind, there was

nothing romantic or uh prophetic about

that. That was an act by the Romans to

show the Jews that if they had a king,

they would be happy to kill him. And the

Jews were happy to kill anyone who also

claimed to be their king or their god.

And so this proclamation on the top of

the cross, king of the Jews, hung

there as a sign and as a symbol of what

would happen to anyone who would make

that claim.

And as they lay them on the cross, the

first thing they would do is they would

stretch their arms out as far as they

could. And that's a really important

factor, the first important factor in

why the crucifixion itself was so cruel

and

brutal. And they would use nails very

similar to this. There's some on the

table up there that you can pick up and

feel, but they were said to be about 20

cm long. Very probably very, very

similar to this.

And they would drive these nails not

through the hand as we quite often talk

about, but through this part of your arm

here, the lower arm between the ulner

and the radius bones. Now, if you want

to take a moment just to grab yourself

in that position and just give it a

squeeze with your thumb, it is

incredibly painful just to squeeze it

with your own strength. If you can

imagine a nail like this being driven

through that area of your body, the pain

would be excruciating.

But it was intentional not only to cause

pain, but to make sure that the person

being hung on the cross would stay up

there because that could bear the weight

through the cross, not to be ripped

out. And being hung up there with your

arms stretched out wide and being having

all of your body weight across your

chest would make it very difficult to

breathe.

And the next thing they would do is they

would bend their legs up slightly so

that they couldn't have them straight.

And again, that's a really important

part of the cruelty of a

crucifixion. And we often talk about or

or picture Jesus with his legs kind of

on the side. But most likely most likely

what they would have done is position

his feet either side of the beam and put

a nail through the

heelbone. Now again, don't take your

shoes off.

But if you want to at some point grab

your heel and just dig your fingers into

your heel, the pain is

horrible. And they would use these

same nails through the hillbone into the

cross. And the other important part of

that, the reason why that's intentional

is because they needed a way for people

to be able to support their own weight.

the the cruelty of a crucifixion. And

again, I I say it's not known exactly

how many people were crucified, but some

some sources say about 150,000 people

were crucified. Others say up to 2

million. I'm not sure, but what we know

for sure is that Jesus was not the only

person to be crucified.

The the cruelty of the crucifixion is

something that we cannot overlook on

Good

Friday. With your arms stretched out

wide and when they had lifted that cross

up, you have two choices. You either

endure the pain of hanging from your

arms, which would put so much pressure

on your shoulders and your pec muscles

and your chest cavity that it would make

it almost impossible to breathe.

or you put all of your weight on the on

the um nails that are through your

heelbones to lift you up to take away

the pressure from your chest so that you

can breathe. And so crucifixion

intentionally was

torturous. People hanging on that cross

have two choices. You either suffer the

pain of putting all of your weight on

your heels so that you can breathe

or you suffer the pain of hanging by

your arms and struggling to

breathe.

Eventually going through all of that

shock and pain would lead to something

called hypervalmic shock.

And part of hypoalmic shock, it can

cause fluid to build up in the membrane

around your heart and around your lungs

due to the the trauma that your body is

going through. And in John

John 19:35

19:35, it says, "One of the soldiers

pierced Jesus side with a spear,

bringing a sudden flow of blood and

water."

If you can imagine that happening, there

are lots of things written about why

that has happened. But most likely

medically, it's a response from the body

to try and survive and deal with the

trauma that it is experiencing through

this process.

The combination of shock and blood loss

from the whipping and the scourging, the

difficulty in breathing and getting

oxygen and the fatigue that your body

would go through would ultimately lead

to

suffocation. Your body could no longer

hold itself up to breathe and so people

would die of suffocation essentially or

major organ um failure.

Just going to ask the um team to hand

out communion if uh if you

can. You know the reality of the cross

and the

crucifixion is not pretty.

Dying on a cross was not

miraculous. But what is miraculous is

the reason that Jesus himself died on

that

cross. And the circumstances that led to

Jesus being hung on a cross. The

multiple prophecies in the Old Testament

talk about this

moment. Not particularly

miraculous, absolutely not pretty, not

romantic, incredibly

traumatic obviously for Jesus. But

imagine being one of his followers and

supporters.

You know, things could have been

different. People could have

intervened. And I often think that if

the Jews knew the outcome of the

crucifixion, they may not have been so

quick to have him hung up on the

cross. If they knew what the outcome was

going to be, and I don't want to give

any um spoiler alerts away, so if you

don't know this story, hold on your

hats. But in three days, Jesus rises

from the

dead. That is

miraculous. That is the miracle of

Easter. Not that he was born as a as a

baby cuz we all were born. Not that he

died in a particularly torturous, cold,

and callous way because hundreds of

thousands of people also died in that

manner.

But what hasn't happened is that an

individual, God

himself, rose from the dead to pay our

debt of sin, so that we no longer have a

barrier between us and God. Now I don't

want to go into the theology of the

blood but you all know in the Old

Testament to become right with God to

atone for your sins blood had to be

shed. And so the ultimate the ultimate

price for Jesus to pay was to shed his

blood for our

sins for the sins of the entire world.

And that means the people that were

standing under that cross mocking

him for claiming to be king of the Jews.

He died for them just as he did for

us. And in Matthew

Matthew 26:26–28

26:26-28, this is before the crucifixion

and Jesus was sitting around with his

disciples. He says now as it says now as

they were eating Jesus took bread and

after blessing it he broke it and gave

it to the disciples and said take eat

this is my

body and he took the

cup and when he had given thanks he gave

it to them saying Drink of it all of you

for this is my blood of the covenant

which is poured out for many for the

forgiveness of

sins. And what you hold in your hands is

a a symbol, a a mere

token of what Jesus went through, but

it's a reminder in that little cracker

and that little bit of juice that you

hold in your hands. It is a reminder of

the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on

Good Friday. the passion of

Christ, the suffering, the enduring pain

that he went through so that we can be

in relationship with God.

And while his experience was

horrific, it is important to remember

that he

willingly

willingly endured it so that we could

have free and abundant access to God

once and for all. The act of communion

is a celebration of the passion, not

because it's

gruesome, but because of the outpouring

of love and grace and mercy that it

symbolizes for every single one of us.

In John 3:16, you all know it. I'm sure

John 3:16

you can say it with me if you do. For

God so loved the world that he gave his

one and only son so that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but

have eternal

life. And I've said this before that

that scripture, you know, there's a

reason why most people know what that

scripture says. It's famous. But if you

want theology in one line, in one verse,

that's it there. that Jesus and God so

loved the entire world that he was

willing to give his one and only

son so that whoever believes in him

shall have eternal life.

Now, I'm I can tell you as a

father, I love all of you, but I would

not spare my I would not spare my child

for anyone here. And I'm very sorry to

say that, but I I love you all. I would

give my own life before I gave my

child's

life. If you're a parent, you can think

about that. Imagine giving your child

for people who may or may not believe in

him in the future.

But God so loved the world that he gave

his one and only son so that whoever

believes in him shall have eternal

life. And it goes on to say that God did

not send him to condemn the world but to

reconcile him to him.

A communion, what you hold in your hands

is an everlasting

reminder that life with God has been

freely given to us now and

forever. And so I just want to encourage

you to take a moment of

reflection while you hold that in your

hand. And when you eat and drink, I want

to encourage you to take a moment to

reflect on the impact that God has had

in your

life. And maybe not just in your life,

but in the life of those around

you. And to practice, because it does

take practice sometimes, but to practice

the art of

gratitude that even in terrible

circumstances like

this, good can always come out of it.

But

practice the art of

gratitude for what God did, for what he

is doing, and for what he will do long

into the

future. While we reflect, I'm going to

ask the um band to come up if they can.

We're going to sing um one of those

songs again. I just really encourage

you, you know, the the cross is

gruesome. it is. We should not shy away

from that. We have diminished the symbol

of a cross because we see it so often.

It's so common. People have tattoos and

necklaces and all of those things are

excellent. I'm not I'm certainly not

speaking against them. We should have

the cross out

there, but not just as a religious

symbol that we gather around for

something that happened, you know, a

couple of thousand years ago. It is

relevant to us.

Crucifixion is so brutal that it got

outlawed not long after Jesus went

through what he went

through. But it doesn't mean that the

reality of it isn't true for us today.

So I just want to encourage you, take a

moment, reflect. We're going to

worship. And if you haven't already,

when you're ready, take your communion

when you feel ready.