Good Friday

Article for Good Friday April 3, 2026

John 12:23b–24 23b “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Jesus seems to ignore a question asked by Philip who asks what we should do with these Greeks and foreigners.  Instead, Jesus goes into a discourse of lament over not His life but our life.  Jesus knows it is a time that will shake the foundation of those who followed Him.  This will be an ultimate test of faith for the Apostles as well as for all His disciples.

Here is the thought that should help us know why Jesus chose to let the leaders of the Jews vote for His crucifixion.  Jesus compares His death and resurrection to that of a seed.  If you plant a seed, it dies and, in its death, it grows new and numerous fruits. 

Jesus is telling us that if He dies the fruit of what He has already planted will come forth in His resurrection.  The Word of God will flourish more and spread new seeds and harvest more fruit.  Thus, the words of Gamaliel, a trusted Pharisee, comes true.  If Jesus and His Apostles are from God, there is nothing that can be done to stop this movement. (Acts 5:34-39).

John 12:25–26 25Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

There are many things in our lives we can love especially when it comes to God and family and even friends.  This is not what Jesus is talking about.  Rather we should hear Jesus saying if we love our stuff, our actions in sin, or anything that will take us away from God, this will make us lose our life.  But if we hate our stuff, our actions in sin, or anything that will take us away from God, this will lead us towards the salvation of our life.

Furthermore, if we spend more time serving God through serving one another God will see what we are doing and honor us for it.  Keep in mind what you do in secret God rewards, but what you boast your boasting is your reward.  What we do should not be done to receive anything in return, less you have a job to make a living for yourself and your family which earns a paycheck.

Thus, our lives we hate are life lived for the world but the lives we can love is life lived to God.  Again, if we truly live our lives to God then we boast in God and not in ourselves.

John 12:27–30 27“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.

The glory of God is Jesus Christ who came to suffer and die for our weaknesses, our captivity to our sinful desires.  The glory of God is our salvation.  To those who close their minds and hearts to God they only hear thunder, but to those who still have their hearts and minds open to God, they hear the word of God.  As Jesus says, this is for our benefit.

For our sake, not so much for the sake of Jesus, but truly the word of God is for our sake.  It is a shame that some of our churches if you can still call them a church because the true church is Jesus Christ are trying to close their hearts and minds to God’s word.  These places of false worship put their faith in themselves as they think they are making the choices God wants them to make.

The word of God is not a buffet of items to pick and choose from.  You either believe it all and put your faith in God that He would not leave a sinful people guess at what is right or wrong.  The world wants to make up its own rules, and part of the rules is to destroy the church.  Unfortunately, many churches are falling to the sweet sounding lies of the world and do not realize the world is allowing itself to be ruled by the prince of darkness.

John 12:31–33 31Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

For us humans who live in the constraints of time, it seems like forever, but for God it’s already done.  The ruler of this world, the prince of darkness is living in denial and does not realize He has already been sentenced to eternal death.  Darkness, death and evil have been defeated through the crucifixion of our Lord and savior.  The results of the glory of God comes again in the celebration of Easter, the resurrection of our Lord.  In three days, the Temple of our Lord will rise from the grave and walk again in the flesh.

John 12:34–36 34So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”  35So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

The light shines and the darkness reseeds, but the people of the light shine for an eternity.  Jesus only seemed to be overtaken by the darkness and through this deception the darkness lost hold on everyone it thought it could steel from the Glory of God, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Written by Pastor Curtis A. May