No business being here

Pastor Max Lyons opens Good Friday with a story about his mother, nicknamed "the little general" for whipping bankrupt companies, a little league, and a high school football program into shape. As a college student in sweatpants and a hoodie, he joined her and her lawyers at a five-star steakhouse where everything was paid for, thinking the whole time that he had no business being there. That, he says, is true of all of us. Physically, our existence is a miracle of family lines and a planet placed at just the right distance from the sun. Spiritually, we have no business being loved and accepted by God, because every one of us was born sinful.

The same thing Adam and Eve did

When Adam and Eve took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were telling God that He no longer defined right and wrong; they did. Disconnected from the source of life, the result was death. Pastor Max warns against blaming them, because we do the same thing whenever we say, "I know the Bible says that, but I'm going to do my own thing," whether in how we handle money or relationships. Our culture loves social justice and hates personal holiness because social justice always points at someone else. On Palm Sunday the crowds cried "save us" from the Romans, and when Jesus confronted their own hearts instead, they turned on Him. Quoting Luke 7, he notes that whoever has been forgiven little loves little. Theologians call the cross the great exchange, summarized in 2 Corinthians 5:21: Jesus took our sin so we could become the righteousness of God.

His identity attacked so yours could be secured

In Luke 22:63–65 the guards blindfold and beat Jesus, taunting Him to prophesy who struck Him. It is an attack on His identity, the same tactic the devil used in the wilderness, and Jesus never wavers. Pastor Max tells of a college roommate who complained so bitterly about his guitar playing and singing that he never sang aloud in that house again, because his identity rested on other people's opinions. After he gave his life to Jesus and was planted in a local church, he found he cared less and less what people said and more and more what God said. Ephesians repeats the phrase "in Christ" over and over. Until you know who God is, you will never know who you are.

Crucified so you could be forgiven

In Luke 23 Pilate declares three times that he finds no guilt in Jesus, yet the crowd demands crucifixion and Barabbas, a murderer and insurrectionist, walks free. The guilty man goes free while the innocent man dies, a picture of what Jesus did for us. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life. Pastor Max observes that it is harder to accept a free gift than to try to earn one; we are conditioned for transactions, not covenants, and even church people slip into religious performance. Just as he could not have covered his own bill at that steakhouse, we cannot pay for our own sin. Jesus can.

He received death so you could have eternal life

Two criminals hang beside Jesus. One mocks Him; the other says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," and hears, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Receiving the gift does not mean living however we want. After a car wreck in which the other driver was fully at fault, Pastor Max still had to go through the insurance company's process to have the repairs covered. Jesus is not a get-out-of-hell-free card; following Him means going through His process. The thief models it with humility, faith, and surrender.

Unclaimed inheritance

There is an estimated $80 billion in unclaimed property in the United States, and Pastor Max wonders how much unclaimed spiritual inheritance sits untouched because people have never received what Jesus did. He recounts the price: betrayed, beaten, whipped, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, and slowly suffocated, taking what we deserved. He points to the quiet revival among young people on college campuses and in the UK as evidence that the way of the world leads to a dead end and people are finding the narrow path that leads to life. The closing challenge is to stop trying to earn forgiveness and to receive the gift Jesus paid for in full.