Good Friday

Good Friday Tenebrae

April 14, 2017

Text: John 19; LSB 450

            “O sacred Head, now wounded, With grief and shame weighed down” (LSB 450:1).  Beloved, do not look away.  Do not hide your eyes from the awful sight.  Behold, your King, crowned with thorns, surrounded by a court of scornful jesters.  You would not believe it to see it, but this man, naked, bleeding, dying, hanging between two criminals… This man is the Son of God!  What glory, what bliss belongs to Him who is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.  But now, oh, now… despised and gory, pale with anguish, they heap upon Him sore abuse, the soldiers, the religious leaders, the bystanders, the thieves.  How His face doth languish, He who once was bright as morn, the Morning Star how fair and bright, the Light of the world, the Light no darkness can overcome.  But now grim death with cruel rigor hath robbed Him of His life.  The strong man has plundered the Stronger.  Light has fallen to darkness, life to death.  But…

            What our Lord has suffered is all for sinners’ gain.  It is all for you.  Do not let appearances deceive you.  Understand what is happening here, hidden under grief and sadness.  Death swallows a bitter pill.  Light is swallowing darkness from the inside out.  Life is ripping a hole in the belly of death.  Jesus dies to lead a host of captives out of death and the condemnation of hell.  Jesus dies to lead you through the valley of the shadow and out the other side forgiven, righteous, alive, and free.  His death should have been yours.  The wages of sin is death, and yours is the transgression.  Yours the rebellion, the selfishness, the rejection of God.  But He would not have it.  He would not leave you in separation from Himself.  So He takes your pain upon Himself.  He takes your death upon Himself, your hell, and He does them to the bitter end of Himself on the cross.

            How can we begin to thank Him for all of this?  What language shall we borrow to thank Him who calls us “friends”?  Words fail us.  Our praise is inadequate.  We simply fall before Him and bid Him look on us with favor and grant us His grace.  He is our Shepherd.  We are His own sheep.  He bestows the gifts.  He washes our sins away in pure baptismal waters and heals our wounds.  He feeds us with His Word and with His body and blood.  His Words are truth and love.  By them His Spirit leads us to life and heavenly joy.  “Dear Savior, make me Thine forever,” we pray, “and do not forsake me.  Should some sin or weakness cause me to stumble, do Thou set it aright and stand me up again.  And if not, take me, O Lord, to Thyself in heaven.  Let me never, never, lose the faith to which You’ve brought me.  Let me never, never, outlive my love for Thee.”

            Now, our Lord has won the victory over death by dying.  Death could not hold Him.  We will sing of that very soon.  But remember how this victory was hidden under the grief and death of Good Friday.  Remember how that Friday appeared to be anything but good, how it was, in appearance and external circumstance, very, very bad.  The good is the surprise ending of it all, but don’t forget the good is a surprise that is hidden under the cross and suffering and death.  What our Lord did in His death, flipping everything on its head, turning what is very, very bad into what is very, very good, He will also do in your death.  Death cannot have you.  That is the result of Jesus’ saving work.  You do still have to walk through the valley.  You will still physically die.  But here is what the Lord will do with it.  When you close your eyes in death, you will open them in heaven.  You will not die, but live.  And just as we gather on this Good Friday to await Easter morn, so your eternal Easter will come on the Last Day, when Jesus raises you bodily from the dead, even as He is risen. 

            Death is the last enemy to be defeated.  But you do not go it alone.  Your Savior has gone ahead of you.  He came out the other side alive.  And He is with you now.  So we pray the Savior would be near us when death is at our door.  That He would cheer us with His presence.  That He would not forsake us to the darkness.  That He who suffered the anguish of our death and condemnation would not leave us alone when our own soul and body languish, but would take away our suffering by virtue of His own.  And He will, of course.  He will be your consolation, your shield when you must die.  He will remind you of His Passion, He will hold His cross before your closing eyes, when your last hour draws nigh.  He will tuck Himself into your heart and soul.  He will never leave you.  And knowing that, you can depart in peace and joy.  Look upon your Savior.  Look upon His sacred head, crowned with thorns, His hands and feet pierced for you.  Behold the blood and water that flow from His side.  Behold, the God who died for you.  Behold Him nailed to the cross for your redemption.  And beholding Him, believe and live.  He who dies thus in Christ, dies well.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.