Good Friday Tenebrae
April 18, 2025
Text:
John 19
The Gospels record seven words, or
sayings, of Jesus from the cross. The
hymn, “Jesus, in Your Dying Woes,” LSB 447, though we aren’t singing it
tonight, is a good meditation on all seven words, and may be a good exercise
for your private devotion this evening, or tomorrow, as you anticipate our
Lord’s resurrection. As we heard the
Passion, the account of our Lord’s suffering and death, from the Gospel
according to St. John this evening, the Spirit confronted us with three of
those seven words: “Woman, behold, your son! … Behold,
your mother” (John 19:26-27; ESV), “I thirst” (v. 28), and “It
is finished” (v. 30). Tonight, I’d
like to say a word about each of these.
“Woman,
behold, your son! … Behold, your mother.” See how Jesus cares for His dear mother,
Mary. See how He cares for the disciple
whom He loves. It is as David prays in
the Psalm: “God settles the solitary in a home” (Ps. 68:6). Oh, my Jesus, what would you teach me here? Our Father, who lives in eternal relation to
His Son, and to the Holy Spirit, in the perfect Communion of His own tri-unity,
has created you and me in His image, to live in relation and perfect Communion
with Him, and with one another. Sin has
broken our relation to God, our Communion with Him, and it continually breaks
our relation and Communion with each other.
On the cross, the Lord Jesus stretches out His arms to bring together
again what sin has separated, to mend what is broken and make it whole. For you.
Your relationship to God restored.
And so also your relationships to one another. With whom do you need reconciliation? Pursue it by the power of Christ’s
cross. His blood cleanses you of all
sin: Your sin against God. Your sin
against others. Others’ sin against
you. So go… forgiven by God… and
forgive. And confess your sins to your
neighbor, and be forgiven. And also,
rejoice. It is not good that the man
should be alone. So God has given you a Family. His Family.
Those do the will of the Father (Mark 3:35). Those who believe in Jesus Christ, and are
united with Christ. The Baptized. The Church.
God puts you in relation, in Communion.
He points to you and says to His Church, “Woman, behold, your son,”
your daughter. He points to His Church
and says to you, “Behold, your mother.”
And behold your brothers and sisters in Christ. By His blood and death the Lord Jesus gives
you to live in faith toward Him, and in fervent love toward one another.
Then, “I thirst.” It is not merely cracked lips and parched
tongue, longing for liquid relief, of which Jesus speaks. He is drinking the cup of God’s wrath over
your sin, to the bitter dregs. He is
doing it in your place. Because He
thirsts for a better cup for you, the cup of grace, the cup of blessing
which we bless. Oh, my Jesus, what must
I know of Your thirst? The Blessed One
hungers and thirsts after your righteousness (Matt. 5:6), your
justification. And He will only be
satisfied by providing you with His own perfect righteousness, credited freely
to your account. It can only happen by
His emptying Himself, pouring Himself out, paying your debt. And that is what He does in His
suffering. Now, when He cries out, the
bystanders take a hyssop branch… that is the branch used to paint the doorposts
and lintels of the Israelites with the blood of the lamb the first Passover in
Egypt, the night of the Exodus… they take a hyssop branch, and with it they
lift a sponge soaked in wine-vinegar to his lips. So it is, again, as David prays in another
Psalm: “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour
wine to drink” (Ps. 69:21). What is
happening? Jesus is ingesting the
poison. He is soaking up the sour. On the cross, Jesus frees you from all
bitterness and gall. Give it up to
Him. He swallows it up to the very last
drop. It is no longer yours to
savor. So… exchange, now, sour for
sweet. There is no more wrath. Not from God.
It is all expended on Jesus.
Therefore, hold no more wrath toward anyone else. That would be poison to you. Instead, take up the Cup of Salvation, the
atoning and cleansing blood of Jesus Christ that restores you to God, and to
His people, in one Holy Communion. And
call on the Name of the Lord. Render
thanks (Ps. 116). Drink, and be
satisfied. Be healed. Be whole.
Jesus thirsts for your thirst thus to be quenched.
And finally, “It is finished.” What is finished? Again, the wrath of God. The Sacrifice of Atonement. Your sin.
Your death. Oh, my Jesus, how may
I rest in Your finished work? Our Lord
won our salvation on the cross, but He distributes His victory to us in the
divinely appointed means of His Word and His holy Sacraments. It is as David prays in yet another Psalm: “it
shall be told of the LORD to the coming generation: they shall come and
proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it”
(Ps. 22:30-31). He has accomplished
it. He has brought it to completion, to
fulfillment. He has finished it. We receive it here and now in the
preaching. Jesus speaks His Word
from the cross, and so His Word goes out from the cross, to deliver
the cross into your ears. And by water,
onto your body. And by bread and wine,
His true body and blood, into your mouth, into your body. To sweep you up into His redemption, body and
soul.
Beloved, live in His finished
work. Live in His Family. Drink deeply from His Cup. Your sins are forgiven. And you know that this Holy Week does not end
in death, with a dead and impotent God.
Night has come. That is
true. But already, the sun is poised to
rise. Already, we anticipate the rays of
light cracking through the stone-sealed tomb.
Take your Sabbath rest tomorrow, and prepare for the coming of the
Dawn. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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