Good Friday

 Video of Service

Good Friday Tenebrae

April 3, 2026

Text: John 19:28-30 (ESV): “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

            In the Name of Jesus X.  Amen.

            “I thirst.”  Suffering, dying, making atonement for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine... It’s hard work.  Our Savior is human.  Like us.  The Son of God does His saving work in a body.  Flesh of our flesh.  Bone of our bone.  And so, He is physically parched.  And wine-vinegar won’t slake Him.

            He has emptied Himself.  Poured Himself out for us.  His blood.  His strength.  His very life.  And now, knowing that the work of our redemption has been accomplished, He speaks forth His emptiness, His longing to be filled.  By water?  Certainly.  But more than that.  For what is He thirsting? 

            For you.  To be His own.  For you.  To live with Him, in His Kingdom, forever.  For you.  To desire Him, as He desires you.  To live for Him, as He has lived for you.  To die in Him, as He has died for you.  And so, to rise with Him, as He is risen and lives for you.  The Blessed One hungers and thirsts for your righteousness (Matt. 5:6), your justification.  And that is what He accomplishes by His death on the cross.  What is it that can satisfy His thirst?  You.  Only you.  Beloved, look again at the crucifix.  See Him bleeding, dying on the tree.  He does all this for you.

            The sour wine.  The gall.  That won’t do it.  This, rather, is to fulfill the Scripture, which said: “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink” (Psalm 69:21).  As it happens, that is a fine description of the best we can do to quench the Savior’s thirst by our own efforts.  To be righteous before Him by our own strength.  To justify ourselves.  Swill.  Spoiled.  Polluted.  Rotten.  That is what we give Him.  It will never do.  It is with us as the Prophet Isaiah says: “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is. 64:6).  Filthy rags.

            “I thirst,” Jesus says.  But only He can provide that for which He thirsts.  And He does.  So, “When Jesus had received the sour wine”... as though swallowing the last sin left on earth... the final transgression to be atoned... the big one, our self-justification... He said, “It is finished.”  That is, it is complete.  This that I am now doing has come to its conclusion, and reached its goal.  And so, He lays His labor down.  He rests, as He did on the Seventh Day of Creation.  He dies.  For you. 

            What, exactly, is included in that declaration, “It is finished”?  His suffering?  Yes.  But more.  The Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins.  The Propitiation.  And so, our guilt.  Our condemnation.  Our enmity with God.  What is left to do?  Just this: A Sabbath rest in the tomb, thus sanctifying our sepulchers as soft beds from which we will one day awaken.  And then, getting on with the business of resurrection and life. 

            So, “It is finished.”  And He “bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”  Not just a poetic way of saying He took His final breath this side of death, although it is that.  He is breathing forth the Holy Spirit into the world, and upon all who will believe in Him.  His death unleashes something.  He’ll do it again on Easter evening, when He breathes on His disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).  He will manifest it fully when the Spirit blows through on Pentecost, fifty days later.  And on us in every Baptism.  And on the wind of His Word.  Where His death... and life... touches us in the body given, the blood poured out, set before us as a banquet, the Holy Supper. 

            That is the satisfaction of His thirst.  That you receive Him, and all His saving gifts.  The Spirit He pours out.  The Father who loves you.  The life He gives you.  The Kingdom He bestows. 

            And what is our response?  As we sang, “What language shall I borrow To thank Thee, dearest Friend” (LSB 450:5)?  The sour wine, my own swill, will never do.  How about this?  Another request!  “O make me Thine forever!  And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, Outlive my love for Thee” (emphasis added).  Live in Him, and love Him.  Be loved by Him.  That is my response.  And yours.  Every day by His mercy.  Each day in faith.  Treasuring His every Word.  Longing to see Him with my own eyes.  Rejoicing to receive Him as He comes to me... to us... in His Means of Grace.

            It is that for which He’s been thirsting all along, isn’t it?  There He won it (the cross).  And here He gives it (the Church).  Oh, beloved.  Behold your Savior, and your God.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.