Today’s blog is going to be a bit different. I am writing just a snippet of the many wonders, prophesies
and things that needed to transpire in Jesus’ last 24 hours. A love so fierce that it would radically change
the world forever. I am also including the YouTube link to a combined and continued message from
both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday messages.
My prayer is in listening to them you will experience Holy week on a whole new level. May you hear the
sounds, see the sights, smell the air, and feel the atmosphere. The link will be at the end.
The custom was there were always 2 unblemished lambs, brought from Bethlehem to the temple to be used as the day’s sacrifices. One to be offered in the morning to start the day and then the other at the end
of the day to finish the ceremonies. The morning lamb would be offered as the beginning sacrifice at the
3rd hour of the day. With it’s death the trumpets (shofar) would sound and the Temple gates would be
opened. Then at the ninth hour, the evening sacrifice would be slain and offered on the altar, the
trumpets (shofar) would blow at which time all sacrifices would be finished. The 3rd hour is 9:00am
The evening 9th hour is 3:00pm. Jesus was crucified at 9am and died at 3pm. Jesus had to endure hanging on the cross for the entire duration to be the atonement, the beginning and the ending sacrifice.
I can hear the shofar in the distance as the last nail is being driven and the pole placed in the prepared
hole, raising our Lord and Savior for all to see.
Another interesting bit. There were 4 holes to crucify prisoners, but this day only 3 were executed.
Why? Where was Jesus? In the middle, the center of the messiness, the brokenness and sin of our
world and us. Even on the cross he still offered grace and forgiveness, to the soldiers, to his very own
people who denied and drove him to this place in time. And to the one next to him hanging in agony
asking for forgiveness.
There were so many little things that were fulfilled that one could take all night pointing them out and
the prophesies fulfilled. However, the most important one was yet again Time. Jesus had to hang on the
cross as the ultimate sacrifice for 6 hours, on the 6 day. The day of man, the duration of time from the
first sacrificial lamb to the last, becoming the sacrifice himself that would take away all the sin from the
world.
He endured to make a bridge to cross the great divide from this sinful world to a life with him and the
Father in paradise. When 3 pm came the last lamb was slain and the Priest lifted up his arms and said “It
is Finished” and the Shofar blew. It was at that time that Jesus had endured it all, he lifted up his head
and said, “It is finished, Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
One the guilt, the sin, the sacrifice, the atonement. He took all of that upon himself and endured the
apportioned time, at which point he could say, having completed it all…it is finished.
