Isaiah 52:13-53:12/2 Corinthians 5:14-21/St. John 18:1-19:42
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Good Friday is the real day of the Passion of our blessed Lord Jesus. On this day He died; on this day God died.
If we want to know the full magnitude of human sinfulness, we must go to Golgotha. Who is hanging there upon a tree, between heaven and earth, between two criminals, with outstretched arms, and with blood flowing over His whole body? Who is mocked? Who is slowly tortured to death?
Jesus of Nazareth? He is the Virgin’s Son. Behold, the Man! He is the Prince of Life. Behold, your King!
Hoisted up upon the Cross, suspended between heaven and earth is the Innocent Son of the Most High God. He is the Lord of Glory, the Creator of the whole world, and the God of all men.
Consider this night, then, the suffering of Jesus that He took upon Himself out of love. “O love, how deep, how broad, how high!” Love impelled Jesus to become Man. Love brought Him to the waters of a sinner’s Baptism. Love drove Him into the wilderness. Love caused Him to heal the sick, raise the dead, preach good news to the poor. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
And yet the people seized Him, hung Him on a wooden cross, and killed Him. Truly this is the most shameful, vile, and cursed deed plotted in men’s hearts and carried out by men’s hands. Upon the Cross we see human wickedness in the highest degree and most abominable form.
We see that the heart of man is capable of the most horrible thing imaginable: killing his own Creator and the eternal Love. When the sun saw this, its ceased shining, as if it could not bear to witness this agonizing scene. When the earth saw this, it quaked and tore its rocks as if in fury against this sacrilege toward its Creator.
What horror! What strife! What have we done? What retribution can we expect? We of unclean lips, impure hearts, we killed the messengers again and again, and now, we have killed the Prince! Oh we wretched wretches, we justly deserve to be put to a wretched death. We nailed God to the cross. What hope do we have?
On Golgotha we see sin in the greatest magnitude and with the most horrifying result. For what Christ suffered here, He did not suffer justly. He was innocent, holy, undefiled. He did not suffer for the sake of His own sin. He suffered voluntarily for the sake of your sin. Surely, the prophet writes, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.
What He suffered, we should have eternally suffered. He hung naked, disgraced, ridiculed, and shamed – what we should have earned by our sins. Do you think of your little indiscretions lightly? Consider your foibles to be trivial? Even your secret lusts to harmless? Consider then the Cross! God has painted the terrible threats of the Law to the wood of the Cross – with broad and bloody strokes, smeared in the blood of the Lamb of God.
Repent, dear Christians. Repent this night, and every night, that you may rest in peace. Fear God’s wrath. Throw yourself on His mercy. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Repent, then, but do not despair. For like Joseph’s self-absorbed, vainly delirious brothers, who meant evil against him, so we too meant the Cross; but God has meant it for good.
What does the prophet say? It was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One make many to be accounted righteous. What does St Paul write? In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them; for they were counted against His Beloved. And what does our Lord Himself say? I am a King. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world. To seek and save the lost. To draw all men unto Myself through My wicked and cruel death.
Consider the Divine grace and mercy of Christ evident from the Cross; even while He suffers violence and scorn, even while He dies, He forgives His accusers. He forgives those who murder Him. He promises a malefactor paradise. He looks after His mother.
Was there ever love so selfless, so concerned for another? What kind of a man lays down His life for His enemies? What kind of a God takes back those who kill His Son? The Messiah awaited by Abraham, foreshadowed in Moses and Joshua, prophesied by Isaiah. This is your God dear ones.
This is the heart and will of Christ: He dies so that you live. He dies for your salvation. He endures Hell so that you are spared and have fellowship with Him. He is forsaken, so that we, malefactors all, are accepted! There is no retribution. For He who killed His Son in our place, even the Father, will not kill us. That is His will. That is His love.
It is finished. He loves you to the end. The Father’s wrath has been appeased. The ransom is paid. It is complete. There is no more. The Cup is empty. The serpent’s head is crushed. The devil is cast down. Man is reconciled to the Father. Heaven is yours.
And the Cross of Christ, O the Cross of Christ! is glorious, beautiful, magnificent. That is why it has been veiled these weeks of Lent. Its glory is again partially hidden from us for a time. For it is, the very symbol of death and all that is wrong with us, but it is the very emblem of our Faith.
The death of God is the Life of man. The Cross is the epitome of who God is, what He has done for us, what we mean to Him. We meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. It is the seat of God’s mercy, the cause of our joy. It is the icon of our salvation.
It is also the herald of our “Alleluias.” For He who died there, and made satisfaction for our sins, is not dead! The veils will not last. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Good Friday is the real day of the Passion of our blessed Lord Jesus. On this day He died; on this day God died.
If we want to know the full magnitude of human sinfulness, we must go to Golgotha. Who is hanging there upon a tree, between heaven and earth, between two criminals, with outstretched arms, and with blood flowing over His whole body? Who is mocked? Who is slowly tortured to death?
Jesus of Nazareth? He is the Virgin’s Son. Behold, the Man! He is the Prince of Life. Behold, your King!
Hoisted up upon the Cross, suspended between heaven and earth is the Innocent Son of the Most High God. He is the Lord of Glory, the Creator of the whole world, and the God of all men.
Consider this night, then, the suffering of Jesus that He took upon Himself out of love. “O love, how deep, how broad, how high!” Love impelled Jesus to become Man. Love brought Him to the waters of a sinner’s Baptism. Love drove Him into the wilderness. Love caused Him to heal the sick, raise the dead, preach good news to the poor. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
And yet the people seized Him, hung Him on a wooden cross, and killed Him. Truly this is the most shameful, vile, and cursed deed plotted in men’s hearts and carried out by men’s hands. Upon the Cross we see human wickedness in the highest degree and most abominable form.
We see that the heart of man is capable of the most horrible thing imaginable: killing his own Creator and the eternal Love. When the sun saw this, its ceased shining, as if it could not bear to witness this agonizing scene. When the earth saw this, it quaked and tore its rocks as if in fury against this sacrilege toward its Creator.
What horror! What strife! What have we done? What retribution can we expect? We of unclean lips, impure hearts, we killed the messengers again and again, and now, we have killed the Prince! Oh we wretched wretches, we justly deserve to be put to a wretched death. We nailed God to the cross. What hope do we have?
On Golgotha we see sin in the greatest magnitude and with the most horrifying result. For what Christ suffered here, He did not suffer justly. He was innocent, holy, undefiled. He did not suffer for the sake of His own sin. He suffered voluntarily for the sake of your sin. Surely, the prophet writes, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.
What He suffered, we should have eternally suffered. He hung naked, disgraced, ridiculed, and shamed – what we should have earned by our sins. Do you think of your little indiscretions lightly? Consider your foibles to be trivial? Even your secret lusts to harmless? Consider then the Cross! God has painted the terrible threats of the Law to the wood of the Cross – with broad and bloody strokes, smeared in the blood of the Lamb of God.
Repent, dear Christians. Repent this night, and every night, that you may rest in peace. Fear God’s wrath. Throw yourself on His mercy. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Repent, then, but do not despair. For like Joseph’s self-absorbed, vainly delirious brothers, who meant evil against him, so we too meant the Cross; but God has meant it for good.
What does the prophet say? It was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One make many to be accounted righteous. What does St Paul write? In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them; for they were counted against His Beloved. And what does our Lord Himself say? I am a King. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world. To seek and save the lost. To draw all men unto Myself through My wicked and cruel death.
Consider the Divine grace and mercy of Christ evident from the Cross; even while He suffers violence and scorn, even while He dies, He forgives His accusers. He forgives those who murder Him. He promises a malefactor paradise. He looks after His mother.
Was there ever love so selfless, so concerned for another? What kind of a man lays down His life for His enemies? What kind of a God takes back those who kill His Son? The Messiah awaited by Abraham, foreshadowed in Moses and Joshua, prophesied by Isaiah. This is your God dear ones.
This is the heart and will of Christ: He dies so that you live. He dies for your salvation. He endures Hell so that you are spared and have fellowship with Him. He is forsaken, so that we, malefactors all, are accepted! There is no retribution. For He who killed His Son in our place, even the Father, will not kill us. That is His will. That is His love.
It is finished. He loves you to the end. The Father’s wrath has been appeased. The ransom is paid. It is complete. There is no more. The Cup is empty. The serpent’s head is crushed. The devil is cast down. Man is reconciled to the Father. Heaven is yours.
And the Cross of Christ, O the Cross of Christ! is glorious, beautiful, magnificent. That is why it has been veiled these weeks of Lent. Its glory is again partially hidden from us for a time. For it is, the very symbol of death and all that is wrong with us, but it is the very emblem of our Faith.
The death of God is the Life of man. The Cross is the epitome of who God is, what He has done for us, what we mean to Him. We meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. It is the seat of God’s mercy, the cause of our joy. It is the icon of our salvation.
It is also the herald of our “Alleluias.” For He who died there, and made satisfaction for our sins, is not dead! The veils will not last. Amen.
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