Good Friday - April 22, 2011

The Church Season of Lent,
Good Friday Tenebrae
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (April 22, 2011)

Readings:      
        Psalm 22
        Luke 23:32-34
        Luke 23:39-43
        John 19:25-27
        Matthew 27:45-46
        John 19:28-29
        John 19:30
        Luke 23:44-46

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Isaiah 53:1-6

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

This is the day of Christ’s crucifixion.  Crosses and crucifixes make us uncomfortable—and well they should. We do not like to look at them and should we be forced to look at see that big cross before us we squirm more than little bit. It is simply too painful to look upon our Lord’s suffering.  It is too painful to know the reason for His suffering is us.  Therefore, we shudder as we sing these words:

Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain. (LSB 450:3)

For in the darkness of that first Good Friday, the totality of human sin—from the first sin of our first parents to the last sin of the last human being who will ever live—all of it was gathered up, pressed together, and then off-loaded onto this Man Jesus. He bore the whole weight of it and owned it as His own. Thus He also bore its penalty—both temporal and eternal death.

Look upon the cross of Christ. See His wounds, the nails impaling His hands and feet causing them to stick to the beams of death. See the blood running down His face from the thorns. Behold the quivering mass of His mutilated back as He is forced to rub it against the tree, pushing up against the nails in a death and life struggle to take in a breath of sinful air, to stop breathing so that we may breath life. Look, seek, realize: this wounded Man, the God-Man Jesus Christ is dying in agony, and He is not suffering for a single solitary wrong that He has done. Jesus Christ’s whole life was only love for you. He was the only human being who completely loved the Father with all His soul, with all His might, and His neighbor as Himself. Yet it is because Jesus is love that He is now pinned upon that tree. This man, this love incarnate will not leave the sinner in his sin. Love takes that sin upon Himself. Love is wounded to grant us healing. He is offering atonement for all the wrongs that we have done.

Yes, it is still so hard to look a crucifix in the face, for it is hard to accept the truth we sing:

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve Thy place. (LSB 450:3)

Yet we look—we fall on our knees before His bleeding image and we ponder it. It is good that this sad image is imprinted on our hearts and in our minds, so that we may carry it with us wherever we go.  So that we may have that image before our closing eyes, in the moment of our death. For when the moment of your death comes to you, Satan will press you hard. In that moment above all, he will seek his last chance to snatch you away from God forever, and he has a powerful weapon to use. The cunning serpent minimizes sin when he would lure you into it with temptations, but then he maximizes your sins in your memory in the last hours of despair. When death is coming for you, satan will happily replay in your mind your many sins.  The sins you have forgotten and the sins you have denied committing.  Satan will taunt you causing you to doubt that you are a Christian. He will declare you unfit for the kingdom of God. He will tell you that you are his and that you willed to be his with every sin you committed. And all those sins will be playing all the while in vivid detail and color before your eyes as you are struggling for your last breath to avoid your death.

And that is why it is so important to train yourself now in this life to look upon the crucifix.  It is why St. Paul said, “we preach Christ and Him crucified.”(1 Cor 1:23)  For to gaze upon the cross is to behold your Savior’s wounds, and to hold them close to your heart, counting them as your most precious treasure. In the hour of your death, they will be your only weapon against the despair invoked by the enemy.  In the agony of Christ you will be able to look at all of your sins as the accuser brings them before your eyes, and you will be able to acknowledge their hideous nature as an irrefutable testimony to your countless failures. But against them all you will set another image: the image Isaiah holds forth for us today—the image of the Crucified One. And it is this image that will shatter the devil’s attempts to draw you into despair the moment before your death. And so we sing:

Hold Thou thy Cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heav’n morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. (LSB 78:6)

The image you want before your eyes as they are closing in death is the image of the Son of God in His last agonies, fully owning and answering for your every one of your sins, pouring out His blood to blot out the accusations of the Law that Satan would use against you. For awful as your sins are, each one has been accounted for, covered over in innocent blood, the blood of your Lamb, your Jesus. It was said, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”(Revelation 12:11). In that hour, you will say with boldness: “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is ours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not” (AE 48:12).

Thus you indeed will be prepared for death when the image of the Crucified One hangs before your eyes and you know that His life is now your righteousness; His death, your forgiveness; His wounds, your healing; His sufferings, your crown and glory.  You have been, you are loved by God. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, He is your dearest Friend, and He would make you His forever. Look upon His cross boldly, confidently, continually, and you will see, that He is yours, and you are His.  Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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