The Greatest Friend
See Him there up on a tree
Man of sorrows, suffering
Emptied of His majesty
Acquainted with the deepest grief
See the crown upon His head
Touch the nails that pierced His hands
Hear Him breathe His final breath
All to make us whole again
Behold the Lamb of God
Who takes away our sin and ransoms us
Behold the Lamb of God
Behold the Lamb of God
Hallelujah
“Behold the Lamb of God” by Valley Creek Worship
Imagine it. You’ve been living with your best friend for about three years now. You’ve gotten to walk with him, talk with him, and watch up close as he lives out his purpose. He’s brought hope to the hopeless, laid hands on the sick, caused the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear. To your surprise, he does all this while still making time to encourage you in your own purpose. And then, in a grand effort to prove His love and friendship toward you, he says “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
You have no idea what this means until you see the greatest friend you’ve ever had enduring a horrid Roman crucifixion. Right before your very eyes, your confidante is bearing the weight of the secret sins you thought would have no effect on anyone but you.
Carrying the very cross that would hold up his body, you see your friend’s vision become impaired as the blood dripping from his skull gets caught in his eyes. The thorn crown makes for an odd headdress, but the ridiculers use it as a means of mockery. They chant “Hail! King of the Jews!”, while spitting and slapping your friend across the face. Shock overwhelms you as he offers up his other cheek, awaiting the same kind of treatment.
You see his flesh atop of the strips of leather he is being beaten with, and you wonder what of him will be left when he is hung. The flogging process alone has proven to be enough to kill someone, and yet, your friend presses on.
Finally having stumbled to a vacant space between two criminals, you watch as nails are forced into your friend’s innocent, healing hands. The welling of tears make it difficult to see, but you push through the blur to catch final glimpses of the closest person to you. As water and blood gush out of his pierced side, you can’t help but let out your agony with an audible cry.
As you turn your face, unable to bear the sight of brutality any longer, you vaguely recall an old story you’d heard in your youth…
“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:2-7)
You knew your friend was special, but you did not realize how special He truly is until this moment. You’d seen the miracles and the heart behind them. You’d heard the sermons, the encouragements, and the rebukes. You’d had one on one conversations that changed your entire perspective on life and the God who created it, and now, you’re watching as the One who breathed life into humanity takes His last.
In your grief, you remember some of your best friend’s final words, including “It is better for you that I go away.” He predicted His own death, but in your disbelief, you blocked out the memory. You couldn’t bear to think about it until it was impossible not to.
Days later, after having heard rumblings of a resurrected Christ, you refused to grasp onto this glimmer of hope, because you could not shake what you had seen. You declared that, until you are able to touch the wounds in His hands and His side, you won’t believe. When He was pierced, so was your faith.
But then, you see Him. As He reaches out for an embrace, presenting His nail-scarred hands, you drop to your knees. Beholding the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, you are in greater awe of your dear Friend than you ever thought was possible.
In most of the Christian circles I have encountered, we don’t really go into depth about the cruxifixction of Christ apart from Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. However, when ministry gets difficult, and when obedience feels impossible, I need to remember the gospel. Every day, I need to be reminded that Jesus is coming back, and there are people who don’t know how loved they are by Him. Jesus could have removed Himself from dying this criminal’s death, but instead of clinging to His power, He thought about you. He thought about the joy it would bring Him to see you be made right with God (Hebrews 12:2).
For this reason, He emptied Himself of His divine power and His human desire, and submitted to the will of the Father (Luke 22:41-44). Why? Because He keeps His word. He called us friends, and laid down His life and His in-the-moment desires to prove it. He exemplified what it meant to choose obedience over selfishness. Jesus chose love of God and His people over love of self.
Will you do the same in return?
Listen To The Song!
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2CqVLuIc646gwbObWgwcuq?si=e0589093656f4586
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/behold-the-lamb-of-god-live/1704228604?i=1704228613
