Good Friday thoughts. Matthew 27.

We're almost finished with Matthew's account of Jesus the Messiah. One of the benefits of our reading program is that each quarter we'll spend time in a gospel, adding to our understanding of the One we follow. In Mark's account we get the basic structure of Jesus' ministry, with an emphasis on the sequence of events and the activities of His life which demonstrated His authority and servant-hood. In Matthew, we see much of Jesus' teaching, and the way in which He fulfilled prophecy, establishing Him as the kingly Messiah. Later, in the accounts of Luke and John, we'll gain additional perspective about Jesus.

But every account will reach this day, the day we call Good Friday, when after a series of bogus trials, Jesus was executed on a cross. Yes, there will be some variations in the accounts, and that is one way to approach the reading for today. For example, Mark gives us the time (the third hour) Jesus was crucified, Matthew does not. Matthew tells us about Judas and his attempt to return the money to the Jewish leaders in remorse.

In the end, though, we are faced with the death of the Messiah. It's a dark day, a day of remorse on our own part, a day to reflect on God's love and sacrifice. A day when the curtain between God and mankind was torn in two. In His letter to the Romans, Paul puts Christ's death at the heart of his theology -- "But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?" (v.5:8, 10).

All the teachings we've received in Matthew -- the blessings for the poor in spirit, for the meek; the need to come into the kingdom humbly, like a child; the call to live lives in line with the heart of the law; the necessity of being a forgiving community -- all these teachings and more, culminate in Jesus' sacrificial, excruciating, and shameful death on a cross. We can't avoid it. It is a good day to reflect on Jesus' life and death.

God bless you in your reflection.