Sermon:
The reading of the Passion:
Good Friday – Friday 29 March A✠D 2024
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 22, 2, 27, 51
✠ Lection: St. John 18:1—19:42
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We stand peering in darkness at the pinnacle of salvation’s story. If we had been there, on Golgotha, on the day our Lord hung from the cross, then the three hours of darkness would be a sign far greater than any rush to spectacle in a three-minute solar eclipse, for even the smaller event heeds a call to repent and to diligently seek the Creator of the sun, moon, and stars. We gather remembering the greater darkness of man’s sin, extinguishing our candles as life slowly dimmed from the Light of the World on our behalf. We mourn what our sins did to our Savior, what the Jews did to our Savior, what the Romans did to our Savior. What they did to Him is utterly gross to the severest degree, yet it is the Victim Who won the day, not our sins, not the Jews, not the Romans, and most certainly not death or the devil. Jesus Christ, our Lord accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross that, where death arose, there life also might rise again and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome. The King of the Jews ushered in His Father’s eternal kingdom by means of assuming the throne of His own death. This is the Day that the Lord has made. The crucifixion of the King Jesus reconciles sinners to the Father and restores to them paradise, so let us rejoice and be glad in it.
I-N-R-I, there atop our crucifixes is the acronym of what Pilate wrote: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, that is, Jesus the Nazarene The King of the Jews. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Indeed, He can and has since it is Jesus, Yahweh Who saves; the Nazarene, born of the Virgin Mary,hailing from Nazareth in Galilee as the Son of Man, as the hoped-for King, the Son of David; the King of the Jews, not only the King Whom their forefathers rejected, but the King from the Jews Who shows Himself to be King of Kings by taking the sin of every nation upon His scourged shoulders and plowed back.
This is the fullness of time. This is the hour that must come in which the Son is glorified by being stricken, smitten, and afflicted by the Father. This is the LORD our God Who promised in the Garden of Eden that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between his seed and her Seed. The Promised Seed of the Woman, this Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary, would strike the head of Satan as Satan struck His heel seemingly winning by his bruising of these blessed Feet that bring Good News, but, oh, how the devil, too, was played for the fool that he is even while prophecy after prophecy stood tall leading up to this Victim’s victory. It was foretold that God would provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, thus Our Father in heaven took His Son, His only Son Jesus, Whom He loves, and went to the land of Moriah, to Jerusalem, and laid there the wood for the offering upon His back, not sparing Him, but accepting Him as the only true and worthy sacrifice for us all. The Promised Seed of the Woman was God Himself in our flesh bringing about Satan’s destruction, procuring our salvation, by the means of His own death. And [Jesus], bearing His cross, His wood of sacrifice, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull … where they crucified Him. They crucified the King of Glory, yet in blindly so doing, became the divine instruments of death’s destruction, instruments for whom we now thank God. We thank Him that in His providence, He used the evil of men, the evil of Satan, to glorify Himself in winning the salvation of the whole world. The Lord of Life carried the death stake atop the skull of Satan and crushed the dragon’s head by driving death into it, giving up His own unblemished life as a ransom for many. You have come to remember this mighty God not in a funeral setting, but in a seriously somber and reverent setting of everlasting gratitude for the magnanimity of the death of God for you. By His tree of death sprouts forth your life by the forgiveness of your sins. He is the sweet aroma of sacrifice rising up to His pleased Father. By His death, He creates a beautiful, new life that can never die again, one into which He draws you by being lifted up.
Our crucifixes are modest, because Jesus the Man was stripped naked to hang in the shame that all crucified criminals were given to die in. In His full-on nakedness there, He, too, bore all of your shame. Just as your first parents hid themselves from the LORD and tried to cover their shame with leaves, yours Christ bore openly for your sake. Your coverings, your works, your righteousness are insufficient. The shame tainting them all is too great, which is why the Lord Jesus endured the fullness of all the worst of you as He was stripped and nailed to the cross. Yet, He had mercy upon Adam and Eve by providing them with coverings for their shame by means of a sacrificed animal with which He clothed them, so, He too is merciful to you by providing this Paschal Lamb Who gives up to you, treacherous and undeserving onlookers, His seamless tunic for a most holy covering. For this, you need not gamble or plot, but receive and believe, for it is your gracious King Who does this. He covers your naked shame with His perfect robe of righteousness, which is seamless and untorn by sin so that you may be clothed, made whole in Christ with a new eternal identity as one redeemed from the death wages of your sin. Rejoice in the Lord as you mourn, because He left you not in the throes of your sin, but lived as the spotless Lamb prepared for this gruesome and glorious sacrifice that brings you peace and joy, for there is eternal fruit of which to eat from Christ’s tree.
Near the conclusion of the Passion according to St. John, it is written Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. A garden is a place for the cultivation of life. A garden is a place of sustenance and pleasure giving us joy through all of our God-given senses. The Almighty fashioned the first garden, perfect and good, and there in its midst planted many a tree. From one, man ate unto death, subjecting the whole creation to futility. But as the Seed of the Woman, this Jesus of Nazareth, strode up to the Place of the Skull, He, God, planted there the new tree of life, which reconciles God and man and restores paradise to us who have lost it. Christ’s new garden is one of life because in it hangs the Light and the Life of men from the limbs of the tree of the cross. To create the bride for the first Adam, God put the man to sleep, took part of him from his side, and formed woman, Eve, the mother of all the living. Moreso, our Second Adam was handed over into the sleep of death, with water and blood coming forth from His side, to form the Holy Christian Church, the Mother of all the eternally living. By water and His Word, she is washed, that He, the Bridegroom, might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. By blood and His Word, she is strengthened, she is prepared, she is gladdened, because the wine that truly gladdens the hearts of sinners is that which is the Blood of the crucified shed for the forgiveness of sins. There is no more beautiful a garden than that of the Holy Christian Church in which Jesus of Nazareth is proclaimed as crucified, for it is in the crucified King Jesus that He reconciles sinners to the Father and restores to them paradise.
As you consider Christ crucified for you, I leave with you words of this glorious battle so finely captured in the words of a sixth-century Fortunatus hymn:
Thus, with thirty years accomplished,
Went He forth from Nazareth,
Destined, dedicated, willing,
Wrought His work, and met His death.
Like a lamb He humbly yielded
On the cross His dying breath.
There the nails and spears He suffers,
Vinegar, and gall, and reed;
From His sacred body piercèd
Blood and water both proceed;
Precious flood, which all creation
From the stain of sin hath freed.
Faithful cross, thou sign of triumph,
Now for us the noblest tree,
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be;
Symbol of the world’s redemption,
For the weight that hung on thee!
In ✠ Jesus, our King’s glorious Name. Amen.
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