Good Friday

Good Friday – April 18, 2025

Hosea 6:1-6; Habakkuk 3:2-4; Exodus 12:1-11; Psalm 140

St. John 18-19

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…you are still in your sins…If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”[1] The death and resurrection of Christ are the center, the heart, of our faith. This is because Christ vicariously (that is, in the place of man) rendered to God, who was wrathful over our sin, a satisfaction which changed His wrath into grace toward us.[2] The vicarious satisfaction of God’s wrath on your behalf is the focus of our service today.

Pilate asked the Jews, “Shall I crucify your King?”[3] All Christians ought to consider that question. All Christians ought to be bothered by how to answer it. Knowing the depth of your own sin, it seems impossible to answer, “Yes! Crucify Him!” You know that it is your sin that ultimately put Christ on the cross. He lived a perfect life. There was no sin in Him. He knew no sin and yet He died the death of a criminal because of your sin. No one desires to see an innocent life taken. It is even more difficult to know that the innocent life was taken because of you.

At the same time, knowing the depth of God’s love for you, knowing what the Scriptures say about the Christ, and knowing that God will raise the innocent Lamb from the dead, Christians are also obligated to answer Pilate’s question with, “Yes, crucify Him.” It is this dichotomy that I hope to lay before you this afternoon by looking 1) first at the immutable justice of God; 2) second, what it means that Christ is our substitute; and 3) finally, the benefits of Christ’s substitution.

I.                   The Immutable Justice of God

God’s immutable justice demands perfect obedience to His Law and pronounces eternal damnation on all who transgress.[4] This justice is an inherent quality in God. He is perfect in every way and will not stand in the presence of imperfection. As for the demand of perfect obedience, that is precisely how God created the universe. In the beginning, He called all things good. With the creation of man, He called all things very good. Man was created in original righteousness. His will was perfectly conformed to God’s will. Adam and Eve trusted God more fully and obeyed His Law more precisely than we can even imagine.

The proclamation of eternal damnation on all who transgress was also present at the beginning. God told Adam and Eve that should they transgress His Law, they would surely die. The consequence of sin is death, not strictly because one logically follows the other, like one domino hitting the next, but because of God’s judgment against transgression. God passed the death sentence for the transgression of sin because it is a tearing of the relationship between man and God. It is a destruction of the relationship into which God first created man. If God is life, then severing our connection to Him via sin is to choose death. Therefore, God’s judgment of death for transgression does logically follow, even if the cause and power of death is God’s proclamation, not logic. It is the Word of God that makes death deadly.

Some might try to comfort themselves by saying that God’s justice and proclamation of damnation for transgression of that justice only apply in general, to His general governing of the world. However, this is not the case. Scripture is clear, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them;”[5] “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[6] All means all. Everyone means every individual person. Every person is born a sinner, a consequence of original sin, and every person continues to sin. Stumble in one minor point of God’s Law and you are guilty of it all.[7]

It is our own guilt and shame that would plead with Pilate to reconsider. Knowledge of sin leads us to realize that we are not worth the death of another, let alone the innocent death of Christ.

II.                Christ is the Substitute

Yet it is the very death of Christ that pleads on our behalf. The hour of His crucifixion is the hour of His glorification. It is the very reason He came into our flesh. “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.”[8] Motivated by the deep, eternal, divine love for man, Christ made Himself lower than the angels that He might reconcile us to the Father and plead our case before the Divine Judge. He willingly accepted the obligation to stand in man’s stead both to keep the Law perfectly and bear the punishment the Law exacts on transgression.[9]

By standing in the of man, Christ fulfills both elements of God’s justice. He perfectly kept the Law. He was obedient in every way, even triumphing over the temptations of satan that were the demise of Adam and Eve. He was obedient to death, even death on a cross.[10]

Christ’s death was gruesome. He was tortured, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. His face and body were unrecognizable as He hung on the tree. He suffered physical and spiritual pain on a scale billions of times greater than we can imagine. He knew the pain He must endure on your behalf. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He begged the Father that if there was another way to save mankind, any other way, to let it be so.[11] And yet, He faithfully submitted to His Father, knowing what must happen. What mother’s heart isn’t broken by the suffering of her child? And yet any mother would give anything to suffer in her child’s place. So too, Christ is willing to suffer even this on behalf of His beloved.

Knowing the depth of Christ’s love for us, that while we were yet sinners, He died for us, we ought to answer Pilate’s question, “If it is the Father’s will, then please, do not crucify Him; yet do not act according to our will, but let God’s will be done.”[12]

III.             The Benefits of Substitution

Through Christ’s substitutional obedience and death, God’s wrath against man was appeased, or in other words, the judgment of condemnation was set aside.^[13] The verdict was rendered, and the sentence was carried out, but not on you. Christ stood in your place and received the full sentence due to man for sin, and there is no double jeopardy in the divine courtroom. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”[14]

Having been justified by Christ, declared righteous before God, the relationship between God and man has been restored. That which was sundered by sin has been repaired through the death of Christ, which satisfied God’s wrath against sinners. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”[15]

There is sometimes the idea that faith or religion is for the purpose of personal fulfillment, comfort, encouragement, or self-actualization. That idea leads to the modern thought that while you might find fulfillment in Christ, someone else finds fulfillment in friendship, the teachings of the Buddha, or even a fine glass of whiskey. This thinking fails to realize that in Christ, we have something objective. A real change has happened outside of ourselves. Christ’s vicarious satisfaction is an objective truth that stands outside of our sense of fulfillment, joy, or encouragement. He has satisfied the wrath of God such that we are now reconciled with God. The restoration of this relationship means that we have access to the Father. We are declared free from the bondage of sin.

In this freedom, sure, we find a sense of fulfillment, joy, encouragement, and even happiness, but these benefits derive from the true benefit of the Cross – a restored relationship with God, an objective declaration of our innocence before God. The deadly power of death has been removed. It had no claim on Christ, the truly innocent One, and so now death has no claim on you. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[16]

We must never separate the Crucifixion from the Resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ is the sign that His sacrifice to the Father was accepted, pleasing to the Father, and that it made atonement for man. Death had no claim on Christ because He had no sin. Yet He bore the sins of the world, your sin, into death that it would be buried there in the tomb. It was necessary for Christ to die so that by His death, death would be destroyed.

And standing on this side of the Resurrection, our eyes opened like those of the disciples in Emmaus, we can hear Pilate’s question with new ears, “Shall I crucify your King?” Pilate and the Jews, though themselves agents of death and the devil, were also working to fulfill the way of salvation. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.[17] Therefore, we can confidently answer Pilate, “Yes, crucify our King because by His crucifixion, we shall be made righteous before God. Yes, crucify our King because by His death we are saved and the wicked shall be judged. Yes, crucify our King because in three days, He will be raised triumphant over the death you so wickedly have commanded.”

The cross of Christ is His glorification and the moment of our salvation. If there was any other way for salvation, even Christ found it preferable. Yet this was the only way to save sinners. And because Christ loves you, He endured the sins of the world by hanging on a tree. Thanks be to God that He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”[18]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17, 19.

[2] This definition of the vicarious satisfaction comes from Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Volume 2 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1951), 344.

[3] St. John 19:15.

[4] Pieper, 344.

[5] Galatians 3:10.

[6] Romans 3:23.

[7] James 2:10.

[8] Galatians 4:4-5.

[9] Pieper, 345.

[10] Philippians 2:8.

[11] St. Matthew 26:39-46; St. Mark 14:35-42; St. Luke 22:41-44.

[12] Romans 5:8; St. Luke 22:42.

[13] Pieper, 346.

[14] Romans 3:23-24.

[15] Romans 8:1.

[16] 1 Corinthians 15:56-57.

[17] Hebrews 9:22.

[18] St. John 3:16.

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

 The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity – September 19, 2021

Psalm 86; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Ephesians 3:13-21

St. Luke 7:11-17

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The day after preaching on the plain and healing a centurion’s beloved servant, Jesus went to a town called Nain. He was followed by his disciples and a large crowd, for word of his teaching and miracles was beginning to spread. As he approached the gate of the town, our Lord is met by a funeral procession. The only-begotten son of a widow has tragically died. The boy was barely old enough to be called a man. The widow wept loudly and a large crowd followed in her sorrow. The mourners close at hand, the pallbearers marched slowly out of the town to bury the boy.

Upon seeing the woman, Christ has compassion upon her and tells her to stop weeping. Upon touching the funeral bier, the open coffin, everyone stops. The pallbearers freeze, almost as though they are dead where they stand. Christ then utters his second command, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Immediately the boy sits up and begins to speak, presumably speaking glory of God and blessing the name of the Messiah. In one of the most tender gestures in all of Scripture, Jesus takes the boy by the hand, helps him down, and presents the now living boy to his mother.

Then everyone in the crowd was seized by fear and began to glorify God saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us,” and “God has visited His people.” The report of this resurrection then spread throughout all Judea and the surrounding lands.[1]

Three times our Lord is recorded to have raised someone visibly from the dead. It is possible he raised many more that were not recorded. It is also entirely possible that this boy, Jairus’s daughter, and Lazarus were the only three souls to be reunited with their bodies during the ministry of the Christ. The important question is not how many, but why these three? St. John tells us “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”[2]

These three were raised to teach you something about Jesus – that he is the Christ, the Son of God – and that by believing you may have life in his Name. How then does this resurrection teach us about the Christ?

First, this miracle is a prophecy of Christ’s own death and resurrection. The boy is carried outside the city in death, just as Christ himself will be given over to death and crucified outside of the city of Jerusalem.

The boy is the only-begotten son of a widowed mother. Jesus is the Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father and the son of a widowed mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Upon seeing the widow of Nain, Jesus has compassion on her. At his own death, Jesus looks with compassion upon his own widowed mother, commending her into the care of St. John.

The boy is carried upon an open casket, a funeral bier, for all to see his lifeless body. Christ our Lord would hang upon a cross in full view, for all to see his body as he breathed his last.

When the miracle is performed, the pall bearers, the guardians of the body in a funeral procession, are made to stand perfectly still, almost as corpses themselves. On Easter morning, as the women arrive at the tomb, the guards stationed by the Pharisees shake for fear and fall down as dead men.[3]

Then there is an important difference. The boy’s funeral procession is stopped, and Christ touches the bier. Speaking to the boy, he is raised from the dead and Christ presents the now living boy to his mother. In Christ’s own death, he is taken down from the cross and presented to his mother a lifeless corpse. This is the most important comparison between these resurrections.

In touching the funeral bier, Jesus made himself unclean. He touched the death of the boy and took it upon himself. The clean white robe of Christ wiped the filth of death from the boy’s forehead – cleaning the boy and soiling Christ. We can see very clearly that Christ gave his life to the boy and took the boy’s death upon himself. Jesus took the place of the boy in the grave so that the boy could take his place in the arms of his mother.

The second teaching of this miracle concerns a false understanding of death and resurrection. When Jesus traveled to Bethany to mourn the death of Lazarus, he is met outside the city by Martha, one of Lazarus’s sisters. Martha confesses that had Jesus been there, Lazarus would not have died, and yet she retains faith that the Father will do whatever Jesus asks. Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again,” to which Marth confesses, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus gently corrects her, “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”[4]

When someone we love falls asleep in death, we are tempted to think like Martha. We know our beloved, our friend, our father will rise on the last day and that is our only comfort. But that is not true of the Baptized. Those who believe in Christ shall never die. Our death was in the waters of Holy Baptism. We were drowned in that saving flood. We come to the waters of Holy Baptism as sinful creatures, less than human, turned away from God. In judgment, the Lord drowns us, just as he drowned the unbelieving multitudes in Noah’s day and swallowed hard-hearted Pharaoh and all his mighty host in the Red Sea. Sinful man has no hope of escaping the waters of Holy Baptism. He is drowned to the depths and cannot recover. His funeral procession will stop for nothing.

Thanks be to God our funeral processions are stopped by the Light of Christ. The Only-Begotten Son of God reaches out and pulls us forth from the water. Our filth of death is left behind and we are raised to a new life in Christ. Death no longer has a claim to us. Those who fall asleep in Christ have already died – on the day of their Holy Baptism.[5] Baptism now saves you.[6] It makes you a child of the Heavenly Father and heir of heaven with Christ. You are fully human, restored to a right relationship with Christ and presented to your mother, the Church.

When we bring a child to the font, the procession is interrupted by the waters of Holy Baptism, just as a funeral procession is interrupted by the Paschal Candle. Both stand in the place of Christ, who freezes the funeral procession of Nain, stopping death in its tracks.

Why then must the Christian suffer temporal death? Sin is still at work in our members. The wages of sin must still be paid by our flesh and yet, as Jesus says, “even though he dies, he shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Those who die in Christ are still living, for our God is the God of the living, not the dead. All who believe and are baptized died in the waters of baptism. Temporal death is now the victory over sin. Even as sin must finish its course of decay in the flesh, the Christian is alive and free from the chains of sin. He now enjoys eternal, sinless life.

Do not weep inconsolably over the death of a Christian. Weep with tears of joy and sadness for the separation you must endure. But know that Christ has compassion on you. When Jesus came to Nain, he did not resurrect the boy out of compassion for him. Jesus had compassion on the mother, the bereaved. The miracle of the resurrection was for the sake of the comfort of the widowed mother.

Tears at the temporal death of a Christian are a confession of sorrow over sin and a longing for eternal life. Christ himself cried at the death of Lazarus. Yet weeping and wailing are a confession of death, the end of life, something unknown to the Christian. We know that the body of the departed will rest in peaceful sleep, even as it awaits the resurrection, to be reunited with the already living soul for all eternity.

Finally, know that this resurrection of the boy at Nain is consolation for the living, as well as the bereaved. If Christ took on the death of the boy, he has certainly taken on your death. Jesus took the sins of the world upon his shoulders, standing in the place of mankind from Adam to the last baby born. His death swallowed the death of all, including you.

You were conceived in sin and born in iniquity. Since Adam, all mankind has been carried out of the heavenly Jerusalem to be buried outside the gates. The pallbearers of sin, temptation, Satan, and our flesh have processed to the grave every hour of our lives. But the Son of God would not have it. He halts the procession and reaches out to touch our sinful filth. He drowns our sin and washes us clean. Even then, he does not leave us alone. He presents us to our mother, the Church, who will continue to care for us even as we grow in the faith. As we age in knowledge and wisdom of Christ, we too come to care for the Church.

There came a day when the widow’s son once again fell asleep in Christ. He presently enjoys the nearer company of Christ, awaiting the day when he will be reunited with his body. So too, we who enjoy life in the Church await the return of Christ look forward not to our rest in the grave, but the coming of our Lord. We, who are held in the arms of Mother Church, look for the triumphal return of Christ, who will lead us into the heavenly Jerusalem through the gate of pearl.

In + Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] A summary of St. Luke 7:11-17.

[2] St. John 20:30-31.

[3] St. Matthew 28:4.

[4] A summary of St. John 11:17-27.

[5] Romans 6:3-4.

[6] 1 Peter 3:21.