For our second Good Friday devotional, we’re going to look at Luke 23:1–56 and how Jesus loved the world, even as this world assaulted Him with evil on every side. It’s in knowing our own sinfulness and the depth of Jesus’ sacrifice that Good Friday shines so very good.
With the exception of a handful of people, Luke 23 finds Jesus surrounded by some pretty terrible folks. There’s Pilate, the Roman governor with a history of cruelty and a penchant for expediency. There’s Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, who had Jesus’s cousin John beheaded to save face with his party guests. There’s also Barabbas, the murderer who’s freed so that Jesus would die. And of course, there are the Jewish leaders who arrested Jesus and brought Him to trial in the first place. To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars, we may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than the one found in this chapter.
Pages of Joy 