And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” AND THEY CAST LOTS, DIVIDING UP HIS GARMENTS AMONG THEMSELVES.     Luke 23:33-34 LSB

Today we celebrate Good Friday. It all sounds wrong. We celebrate the day that Jesus was crucified for our sins. A man who had no sin died for our sins. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

We celebrate this day because Jesus took our sin, died, was buried and rose from the dead so we might become the righteousness of God.  What Jesus went through on that day was horrible beyond what we can even imagine, but we celebrate because it’s what gives us all these things like forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life.

As Jesus hung on that cross, He asked God the Father to forgive those who had beaten Him, mocked Him, tortured Him, spat on Him and crucified Him. He told God they did not know what they were doing.

We are told in Matthew 27:50-54 that when Jesus took His last breath the veil of the curtain in the sanctuary was torn from top to bottom, there was an earthquake, and the rocks were split. What happened next, according to Matthew 27:52 is similar to what will happen when the rapture takes place. The tombs that held the believers that had died were opened and they walked out of the tombs and came into the holy city and appeared to many. At the time of the rapture, the dead who accepted Christ as their Savior will rise first.

Seeing all of this, the soldiers keeping guard over Jesus became terrified and said, “Truly this was God’s Son!” Have you come to realize who Jesus is? Have you come to realize that He died to save you from your sins? Have you accepted the salvation that He died to give you? Have you been washed in His blood?

If you have, then your life should be changed. You should be exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You should be walking by faith and not by sight.

Do you know who He is? Do you know what you are doing? These centurions or Roman Soldiers did not know what they were doing. Jesus knew this and prayed for God to forgive them even as he hung on the cross for their sins and for my sins and your sins. They knew what they had done when Jesus died. They became believers at that point. The Bible tells us they were terrified when they realized this.

When we realize our sins, we too should mourn them. We should want to do all we can to make things right. We must first realize what we have done. We must realize that we crucified Jesus with our sins. He died for us as well as the sins of those soldiers.

When we know who He is, it makes it more important for us to know what we are doing. How we live our lives becomes more important. We want to live in a way that pleases Him. We want to serve Him and serve others. We want to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit to draw others to Him.

I lived a lot of years of my life not knowing what I was doing, but praise God, He was patient with me. He was merciful enough to forgive me. He will do the same for you. Turn to Him today.

Have a great Good Friday!