St Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Pastor Mark Gartner

Sermon for Good Friday – April 6^th, 2007

Dear children of the Jesus through his death,

We have come to the end of our Lenten pilgrimage. Forty days ago we heard and listened to the call of Jesus: we are going up to Jerusalem. We have followed after him looking for the glory hidden on the cross. And today that journey has reached its goal. Listen to its end. Listen and look for the glory hidden on the cross. Listen and look for the glory that is:

Our journey ends as it began. When Jesus began his Lenten pilgrimage, he declared that he was going up to Jerusalem to be mocked and spit upon. He was going up be handed over to the Gentiles. He was going up to be beaten and crucified. He was going up to die and then, after three days, to rise from the dead. And he said on more than one occasion that all of this was done to fulfill the Scriptures.

And that is the glory on this most solemn day of the year. Jesus did it! He fulfilled the Scriptures. Think about this for a few moments. Every step of his journey, yes, going all the way back to his birth in Bethlehem, had been foretold in the Old Testament. One promise after another tells the journey of the Son of God from heaven to hell, from the glory that he had in eternity to the horror of hell when he is abandoned by his Father on the cross. Just think of how difficult these events that take place on this holy day are to God! But God had promised every single one of them. David, in Psalm 22, was inspired to write of this day when Jesus would be crucified, when his bones would stick out so that they could be counted, when his clothes would be won by gambling soldiers at the foot of the cross. Isaiah had pictured this day so graphically in chapter 53, the day when God’s Suffering Servant would be despised and rejected, would have no form or beauty that we would want to see. Later Isaiah spoke of the blood-spattered garments. The passages referred to here in the gospel of John are promises from God that go all the way back to the time of Moses and that end with Zechariah, one of the last Old Testament prophets.

Try and comprehend all of this! God promised all this misery for his Son. The Son of God agreed that all this should take place and happen to him. And every step of the way, the Father ruled over history and the Son directed his own footsteps, so that not one, not a single one, of the promises God made concerning his Son would fail. Who ever heard of such a thing? To make promises and to keep them, yes, we have heard of that. But to make promises that are filled with torture and ridicule and suffering and pain and to keep them, that is something else. To make such promises and keep them when there was no one who could force you to keep promises like that, that is something else. To make a promise to your own hurt when you don’t have to and then to make absolutely sure that not a bit of the hurt is left unfelt, unsuffered—who ever heard of or can imagine such a thing? But that is exactly what happened in the journey of Christ that ended on Good Friday. He promised that he would come of his own free will. He promised that he would suffer the torments of death and hell, not because he deserved any of it but for us and in our place. And he kept his word. He kept it down to the last detail. He kept it perfectly.

All that remains is to keep the promise of the resurrection. And we do not doubt for a second that he will fulfill that promise too. For if Jesus kept all these promises that cost him so much, then surely he will not let fall to the ground the promise of his triumph over the grave on Easter Sunday.

But there is still more glory for us to see on the cross on Good Friday. For all of heaven and hell, all of time and eternity, is wrapped up in the promises that we see fulfilled on the cross. And those promises have to do with us, with you and me. Jesus had promised it himself to Nicodemus in John chapter 3; he had promised that he would be lifted up on a tree and that all who believe in him will have everlasting life. That promise extends to each one of us. We see him on Good Friday fulfill the promise that he would be lifted up on the cross. He kept his word. And now his word promises us everlasting life.

How can you doubt it? If he did the one thing: suffered on the tree, as he promised, he will surely do the other: give eternal life to all who trust in him alone for their salvation. For that’s the whole reason why he kept the promise. It would be silly for any of us, let us say, to pay for a coat at the store and then leave it there. Jesus has paid the price for your salvation by the hard labor he endured. It would be ridiculous in the extreme for him to pay so high a price and then not get what he paid for—your redemption and salvation. No, you can be sure of it. He kept the promise to pay the price of it. He will keep the promise as well to give you fully and freely what he paid for: your redemption, your forgiveness, your peace with God and even with your own conscience.

Is that not glory on the cross? God has kept the promises there that break his heart as he sees the torment of his Son. The Son of God has kept the promises there that leave him bleeding, that leave him dead. The Holy Spirit has kept the promises there that he made through the mouths of the holy prophets in the Old Testament, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Not one of those promises has failed. Not one of them has been left incomplete in any way. And all of them were expensive to no one but God. Having kept these hard promises, we can be sure that what he wanted to accomplish by this hard labor has been accomplished: our salvation!

But this is not everything. All through the Bible, God makes promises to you, beautiful promises, one right after the other, that cover the whole of your life, that cover you even after you are dead. Behold the glory on the cross. If God kept his promises there, promises so hard and painful, then you can be sure of this: He will keep all of his other promises to you as well. For example, he promised through the apostles Peter and Paul that Baptism would wash away all your sins for all eternity. Here on the cross, the promise is paid for. In your baptism, God keeps his promise and adopts you there for his own; he washes you clean of the sin and guilt in which you were conceived and born; he washes you clean of every stain of a lifetime and promises to be your dear Father for the sake of the Son who suffered and died. Then he promises you, in the closing words of Jesus himself just before his ascension and in so many other places in the Bible, that he will never leave you or forsake you.

Oh, to be sure, we deserve to be forsaken. For in spite of the love and the promises he kept in Baptism, we have been all too eager to wander away, we have been happy to stumble and fall, and we have rejoiced to rebel and leave the Father’s house. But, nevertheless, just as the father in the parable of the prodigal son, God has stood waiting, waiting, waiting. And then, when the bitter consequences of our sins have come home to roost and we are in despair, there is the Father, waiting, calling, embracing, pardoning, receiving us again and with tears for the sake of his Son who suffered.

But this is not everything. When it is your turn to suffer pain, he does not forsake you. When all around you leave, he remains. When sorrow shadows your every move, either because of your own sins or those of others, he does not abandon you. For he has promised it. he will never forget you; your names are written on the palm of his hand. He promised that the mountains could fall down and melt into the ocean, but his love would remain for you forever. He promised that all things would work together for your ultimate good, that he himself would be with you to the end of your days. He promised it, and on the cross he paid for it. He promised, and on the cross he kept his promises so difficult and so expensive. All these promises he has kept and will always keep. For he is not a man that he should lie. He is faithful to his word and keeps it ever. Did you not see it, even last night? He promised to feed you with his body and his blood through the lowly elements of bread and wine. He promised there to give you again the forgiveness of all your sins. And he kept his word.

But there is more. His promises go all the way to the grave and through it. For Jesus promised it when he said, "Because I live, you will live also." Even the grave will not rob us of our life in Christ and our life with Christ. For as he would keep his promise to triumph over his own grave on Easter Sunday, so he will keep his promise to give us the victory over our graves as well. As we have risen with him from death in Baptism, so we will rise with him in the glory of the resurrection that he has promised us on the Last Day.

It is Good Friday. The hill of Golgotha is veiled in black, as the sun refuses to shine on the body of its suffering Creator. It is Good Friday, and those who saw what happened that day went home smiting their breasts in anguish at the sight. It is Good Friday, and our churches too are dark and draped in black, if draped at all. It is Good Friday, and we too go home in our own way smiting our breasts at what we have done to him. Because he pays for our sin with his passion. But at the same time, we go home with hearts throbbing with hope that cannot disappoint and with joy that will never fade and with life that does not end. For we have seen the glory hidden on the cross. We have seen the glory that is his promises kept. We have seen the glory that his promises to us have all been fulfilled there on the cross. We have seen the glory so that we, therefore, can be certain that he will always keep all of his promises to us. Go home now in the sorrow of repentance. Go home now in the joy of forgiveness, and wait with quiet confidence for the cry that will rise three days later. For then will be fulfilled that great promise of his resurrection, when we rejoice to hear again: HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! For all of this has happened that the Scriptures should be fulfilled. Amen.