Why We Worship a Crucified Man (Good Friday Sermon)

Johnathan Arnold preaches a brief sermon for Good Friday 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the Holy Joy Sermon podcast. Visit us at holyjoys.org to find more resources for a holy happy church.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

One of the earliest depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus was discovered in Rome, Italy, in a room near the Palatine Hill. Scratched into a plaster wall was a young man looking up at a cross on which hung a man with the head of a donkey. An inscription read, Alexamenos worships his God. The graffiti mocks Christians for worshiping a crucified man. One might as well worship a donkey. In First Corinthians one twenty-three, Paul writes that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. It is indeed a strange event. Crucifixion was a means of state-sponsored execution, like the electric chair or a lethal injection. Except that, unlike a lethal injection, it was meant to expose its victims to maximal suffering and humiliation. The Roman Empire was an elitist society which prided itself on social standing. The whole goal of life was to ascend the ladder of status. Crucified people weren't just at the bottom of that ladder, they weren't on it at all. They were the dregs of society, worms and not men. Salton claimed that Jesus was crucified with two common criminals, but that's almost certainly a myth because Rome didn't crucify petty thieves. And since Barabbas, a murderer, was scheduled for execution around the same time, it's likely that the thieves on the cross were among those who robbed and vandalized in order to unsettle things in Palestine with the ultimate aim of overthrowing Roman rule. Might not be too far to suggest that they were domestic terrorists. Some modern translations have called them rebels, revolutionaries, or insurrectionists. The Jews had an even lower view of a crucified man. They believed that a man hung on a tree was cursed by God. When they looked at Christ on the cross, they saw the ultimate evidence that he was a false messiah, a liar, and a charlatan, worthy of divine wrath and humiliation. And yet, like Alexamenos, we worship him. Why? We worship him because of who he was and why he was there. Because this man on the cross is no mere man, he is God incarnate. Because the sins for which this man is crucified are not his own, but ours. Because this death is no mere death. It is a payment for sin, a ransom for sinners. Because the shame and curse which he bears is not his own. It is the shame of Adam and of us all trembling beneath the fig leaves of our own self-righteousness. Why do we worship him, this suffering servant, stricken, smitten, and afflicted? Because neither Pilate nor Herod nor Annas nor Caiaphas is the ultimate actor on this day. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. Because this is not just another tragic death left to the cruel whims of history. It is a death according to the scriptures, foretold from ages past, down to the parting of his garments, the sour wine, the unbroken legs, and the pierced side. Why do we worship him? This crucified Messiah, bloody, bruised, and beaten? Because this man on the cross is no mere man. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of Man who will come on the clouds in great glory, truth in a person, the second Adam, the Lord of life, the great I Am, the bread from heaven. His cross is the tree of life from which we eat the fruit of immortality. It is Jacob's ladder by which we ascend to the heavenly places. It is the altar of sacrifice on which the sin offering is made once for all. It is the pole lifted up in the wilderness that all may look and live. Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction to me. What is foolishness to the world is for us the power of God unto salvation. So come out from behind your fig leaves. Bring your sin, bring your guilt, bring your shame, and find forgiveness in his name. Come, behold the wondrous mystery, Christ the Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners hangs the Lamb in victory. See the price of our redemption. See the Father's plan unfold, bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold. Let me be numbered with Alexamenus. Let me be a fool for Christ. Oh, forbid it, Lord, that I should boast. Save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most. I sacrifice them.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Thank you for listening to the Holy Joy Sermon Podcast. Our labors for a holy, happy church are supported by generous listeners like you. Please pray about partnering with us at holyjoys.org forward slash donate.