The Food for Thought Faithcast with Be Rob
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The Food for Thought Faithcast with Be Rob
Ep. 11- Good Friday- Walking Through Holy Week: Jesus's Journey to the Cross
The darkness of Good Friday holds within it the most profound demonstration of divine love humanity has ever witnessed. Walking through Luke's account of Jesus' final days, we trace his journey from triumphal entry to sacrificial death, uncovering the paradox at the heart of this holy day.
As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, crowds celebrate him as the long-promised king. Yet amid the celebration, Jesus weeps. He sees what lies ahead – rejection by his own people and the destructive path they will continue down. His first act in the city is a bold prophetic protest in the temple, overturning tables and declaring, "This is supposed to be a place of worship, but you've made it a den of rebels."
The timing during Passover was deliberate. At the Last Supper, Jesus transformed traditional elements into powerful symbols of his coming sacrifice – broken bread representing his body, wine symbolizing his blood establishing a new covenant. What follows is a cascade of betrayal, false accusations, and injustice culminating in his crucifixion. Throughout this ordeal, Jesus demonstrates extraordinary love – praying for his executioners, offering hope to a criminal dying beside him, and faithfully entrusting his spirit to God.
What makes this day "good" is not the suffering itself but the love revealed through it. In Jesus' willing sacrifice, we witness God's unbreakable love for humanity – a love that extends even to enemies, that forgives rather than retaliates, that transforms darkness into light. As we reflect on Good Friday, we're challenged to embody this same radical love in our own lives.
Join our Holy Week journey as we continue tomorrow and culminate with Resurrection Sunday. Need prayer? Submit requests through the link below. Your support helps keep this podcast going – donation information available at berobmusic.com.
So we are walking through the Gospel of Luke and we have reached the end of Jesus' long road trip to Jerusalem. He has arrived.
Speaker 2:So he rides a donkey down the Mount of Olives towards the city, and all these crowds are forming and people are singing praise the King who comes in the name of the Lord. They are laying down their cloaks in front of him.
Speaker 1:Why all this royal treatment?
Speaker 2:Okay. So Israel's ancient prophets promised that one day God himself would arrive and rescue his people and rule the world. Other times the prophet spoke about a coming king who would ride into Jerusalem to bring justice and peace.
Speaker 1:So Jesus is activating all these hopes, that he's that king and everyone's ecstatic.
Speaker 2:Well, not everybody. The religious leaders. They think Jesus is a threat to their power and so they're not happy. But even more striking, jesus himself is distraught. He's actually weeping as he rides. Yeah, why Well? Jesus can see what is coming. He knows that he won't be accepted as Israel's king and he knows that Israel will keep going down a destructive path, neglecting the poor, stirring up rebellion against their Roman oppressors. And he knows that Israel will keep going down a destructive path, neglecting the poor, stirring up rebellion against their Roman oppressors. And he knows that it will lead to death. It breaks his heart.
Speaker 1:And it riles him up. The first thing he does in Jerusalem is march into the temple courts, and he drives out the money changers disrupting the entire sacrificial system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's staging a prophetic protest and he stands in the center of the courtyard shouting out words from Israel's ancient prophets. This is supposed to be a place of worship, but you've made it a den of rebels. A den of rebels. Yeah, he's quoting from the prophet Jeremiah, who stood in this same spot, the center of Israel's religious and political power, and he offered the same critique of Israel's leaders that they're rebellious and corrupt.
Speaker 1:And they get the message and start to plan to have him killed.
Speaker 2:Which is no surprise to Jesus. In fact, he planned that all of this would happen during Passover.
Speaker 1:This is the holy week when Jewish people celebrate their ancient story of how God liberated them from slavery and invited them into a covenant relationship.
Speaker 2:And so Jesus uses the symbols of Passover to reveal the meaning of his coming death. The broken bread was his broken body and the wine was his blood. That would establish a new covenant relationship between God and Israel. Jesus was going to die for his people and open up a new way forward.
Speaker 1:After the meal, Jesus takes his disciples to a garden to pray.
Speaker 2:And he struggles with the very human desire to save his life instead of sacrificing it. But he overcomes this temptation.
Speaker 1:And it's here where the religious leaders with the temple guards find him and arrest him.
Speaker 2:Now, Jerusalem was being ruled by the Roman Empire, and so the temple leaders couldn't execute Jesus without permission from their Roman governor, a man named Pontius Pilate, and so they make up this charge that Jesus is a rebel king stirring up revolution against the Roman emperor. Pilate asks Jesus are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answers you say so.
Speaker 1:So Pilate can see that Jesus is an innocent man and he doesn't deserve death.
Speaker 2:But the leaders keep insisting that he is dangerous, so they negotiate a compromise. Pilate will release an actual rebel against Rome, a man named Barabas instead of Jesus, and so the innocent is handed over in the place of the guilty.
Speaker 1:Jesus is taken away with two other accused criminals and nailed to a Roman execution device and people are mocking him. Hey, if you are the Messianic King, save yourself and us.
Speaker 2:But Jesus loved his enemies to the very end, offering hope to one of the criminals dying beside him, and he even prayed for his executors. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:And then the sky darkened as an innocent man died, the death of a rebel.
Speaker 2:And then Jesus cried out with ancient words from Israel's Psalms Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And then Jesus died, innocent and alone.
Speaker 3:And then Jesus died, innocent and alone. Guys, this is B-Rob, this is the Food for Thought Faithcast, and I am your host. And it is Good Friday, and it's the one day during Holy Week that we call good. But it's ironic because it's the darkest, most painful day, good Friday. So what's so good about this day? After sharing a Passover meal with his friends, jesus takes him for a short walk across the Kidron Valley into a garden. He enters a deep, excruciating time of prayer there and asks God to spare him from his fate. Jesus knows he will soon be murdered.
Speaker 3:In the early hours of the night, judas uses what should be an expression of love, a kiss, to betray Jesus. He tells Roman soldiers that the one he kisses is the one they are looking for, and after he does it, jesus is taken into custody. Powerful men use deception and coercion to find Jesus guilty and condemned him to death, but Jesus loves each of them, even though they wish to do him harm. That's a powerful, powerful thing. And rather than fighting back, he remains silent when he is accused. Jesus is publicly tortured and mocked as people spit on him and they beat him bloody. He is stripped naked and led away to be crucified. He endures some of the most brutal beating, scourging and gut-wrenching humiliation ever seen by mankind. Outside the city, his accusers nail him to a cross where he eventually dies. Before dying, he prays for his people who are killing him. Father, forgive them, he says, for they know not what they do. That's Luke, chapter 23, verse 34. God's unbreakable love for every human being, including his enemies, shines bright on this day, this deadly Good Friday.
Speaker 3:Today's video is brought to you by the Bible Project. You can find them on thebibleprojectcom. Today's clip. It's not a video, sorry. Today's audio clip, and it walks you through the Holy Week according to the gospel of Luke's account.
Speaker 3:Guys, let's just say a prayer today. Dear Heavenly Father, almighty God, we come to you graciously. We come to you for our family, your family, for whom Jesus Christ, our Lord, was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners and to suffer his death on the cross. He now lives and reigns with you, lord, in the Holy Spirit. One God, lord, we thank you for so. We thank you for just showing this act of love. Lord, we thank you for your commandment of love. We thank you for Jesus' new commandment to love everyone as he has to live like he did. Lord, we just come to you today, on this Good Friday. We know your son will rise, just as you gave us a new day today and you give us a new day every day. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray these things Amen and hallelujah.
Speaker 3:Guys, it's Good Friday and I'm not going to keep you. We got more to cover tomorrow. And then Easter Sunday Resurrection Sunday. I don't even like calling it Easter, but we'll do a separate podcast on that, probably Sunday. I love you, guys. God bless you. And check out thebibleprojectcom Good stuff, good stuff. The link will be down below, same with the prayer request link and same with the donate link. If you need prayer requests, please let us know specific or unanswered. If you'd like to donate or give to the faith cast, the food for thought, faith cast, that would be gracious as well. Both links are below. If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, let me know that as well. My number is 706-691-1043, or you can find it on berobmusiccom. That's B-E-R-O-B musiccom. I love you, guys. God bless you. We'll see you tomorrow.
