Good Friday 2024 – Behold the Man

Simon Cyrene Knows the Burden of the Cross

The Slave in Free Nation Prays for The Blessings of Whole Patience on Good Friday

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. It is observed in commemoration of the crucifixion of Jesus. Friday, March 29, 2024, is observed as Good Friday. I pray to the Son of Man, a native of Nazareth, Galilee to know, and to understand the quality, the ability, or the fact of “Patience.” I am using the phrase “Whole Patience” for Jesus clearly demonstrated His other supernatural abilities. Jesus had several options if He chose not to wait, not to tolerate, not to succumb, and not to experience the horrors of pain and humiliation imposed on Good Friday. Today, the Slave is beholding the Son of Man to learn the Art of Patience. I am “alien” for I have not yet entered the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Whole Patience: To Know, to understand the Quality, the Ability, or the Fact of Patience. I pray to The Son of Man known as Jesus, a Native of Nazareth, Galilee.

Whole Christ–Whole Love–Whole Redeemer:

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE. GOSPEL IS OF VERY SPECIAL INTEREST TO MAN AS IT REVEALS GOD’S COSTLY PLAN FOR MAN’S REDEMPTION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

Good Friday is of very special interest to man for it reveals God’s costly plan for the redemption of man. The word redemption means to release, or freedom from payment of a price and man’s freedom or deliverance, or liberation involving the greatest possible depth of suffering. The price paying concept lies at the heart of redemption and hence it is a costly action. For man is a “SLAVE” to sin, to set him free, a ransom-price is paid. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) The emphasis is on the giving of Life as a ransom. Good Friday is a completed act for Jesus paid the ransom-price. Jesus performed this action with Whole Patience. It is immaterial as to whom Christ paid this price. For man, the only concern is to experience the results of this full redemption by receiving God’s grace and mercy through Christ and His Love. On Good Friday, Jesus had gone through the whole of human experience including the worst horrors of pain and humiliation.

Endurance is the ability to stand pain, distress, and fatigue; it is the ability to resist and withstand suffering and hardship with fortitude and patience.

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE: THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JESUS ON GOOD FRIDAY. IT IS A LESSON TO HUMANITY, A TEACHING TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE QUALITIES OF PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE. ROMAN GOVERNOR PONTIUS PILATE THOROUGHLY SCOURGED JESUS AND ASKED PEOPLE IF HE NEEDS TO PUNISH MORE.

Endurance speaks of the ability to hold up under pain, to tolerate, to put up with, to bear pain without flinching. It is the will, ability, quality, or fact of waiting without complaint. It demands steadiness, perseverance, self-control, resoluteness in the face of grave provocation. This ability to bear suffering results from firm sustained courage and it is a mistake to interpret endurance as cowardice. Jesus remained calm and unperturbed while people angrily shouted demanding his crucifixion.

On Good Friday, the Son of Man was a picture of Stoicism displaying grit, and courage that refuses to succumb under any circumstances, courage that involves utmost indifference to personal pain and suffering.

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF WHOLE PATIENCE: “THEN SOME BEGAN TO SPIT AT  HIM,  THEY BLINDFOLDED  HIM,  STUCK  HIM  WITH  THEIR FISTS,  AND  SAID, ‘PROPHESY!’ AND THE GUARDS TOOK  HIM  AND  BEAT  HIM .” BOOK OF   MARK, CHAPTER 14, VERSE#65.

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF WHOLE PATIENCE: TO WHICH LAND AND TO WHICH KINGDOM DOES THE SON OF MAN TRULY BELONGS? IF JESUS BELONGS TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, WHO HAS GIVEN THE AUTHORITY AND POWER TO MAN TO DEFINE HIS TERRITORY AND HIS DOMAIN?

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF WHOLE PATIENCE: IF THE SON OF MAN WAS CRUCIFIED ON GOOD FRIDAY, IT ONLY SPEAKS ABOUT HIS WILL TO REFRAIN FROM RETALIATION, AND FORBEARANCE. PEOPLE TAUNTED JESUS TO SAVE HIS OWN LIFE AND TO COME DOWN. HIS FORTITUDE IS NOT TO BE MISTAKEN OR MISINTERPRETED AS WEAKNESS. 

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF WHOLE PATIENCE: ON GOOD FRIDAY, ROMAN GOVERNOR PONTIUS PILATE OR HIS SOLDIERS POSTED A WRITTEN NOTICE ABOVE THE CROSS ON WHICH JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED.

On Good Friday, Jesus was repeatedly taunted, mocked, and ridiculed by people, by criminals, by officials, by soldiers, by the high priest, King Herod, and Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. The ultimate act of indignity was that of calling Him, “The King of The Jews” showing utter contempt for His failure to save His own life and get away from the Cross on which He was nailed.

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF WHOLE PATIENCE: ON GOOD FRIDAY, JESUS DID NOT EXPRESS ANY THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS OF SELF-PITY. JESUS SAID, “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.”(THE BOOK OF ST LUKE, CHAPTER 23, VERSE#34).

On Good Friday, Jesus did not rebuke the people who offended and punished Him. Jesus did not express any desire to retaliate against them and did not express any thoughts or feelings of Self-Pity. Jesus after His crucifixion said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34)

ECCE HOMO – “BEHOLD THE MAN”

There is no easy cure, and there is no easy remedy for man’s problems for man’s problem is that of alienation or estrangement from his own true or real nature that God implanted in man while making man in His own image. Man lives as an ‘alien’ for man has lost his connection with his own LORD God Creator. The divine nature of the Son of Man becomes self-evident when man learns the Art of Patience and Endurance. I ask my readers to ‘Behold The Man’ and see His Patience, Fortitude, Forbearance, Perseverance, Calmness, Steadiness, Strength, Self-Control, and His resolute Endurance.

On this Good Friday, I am sharing a collection of images that depict Jesus when Roman Governor Pontius Pilate presented Him to a mob of people who gathered outside the palace shouting to crucify Jesus. The Slave in Free Nation has no access to care or comfort while he faces the difficult problems of his simple, mortal existence. The Slave understands the proverb that instructs man to endure problems that cannot be cured.

GOOD FRIDAY 2024. THE SLAVE IN FREE NATION PRAYS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE: IF PROBLEMS HAVE NO ANSWERS, IF PAIN AND SUFFERING CANNOT BE CURED, MAN TO KEEP HIS EXISTENCE HAS TO LEARN THE ART OF PATIENCE.