The greatest battle ever fought.

Sermon for Good Friday, April 10, 2020

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

(EHV) Matthew 27:45-50  ⁴⁵ From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.  ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  ⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “This fellow is calling for Elijah.”  ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran, took a sponge, and soaked it with sour wine.  Then he put it on a stick and gave him a drink.  ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Leave him alone.  Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”  ⁵⁰ After Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

The greatest battle ever fought.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Did the light slowly fade?  Did the sun suddenly shut off?  The writers don’t tell us the how.  They simply tell us that darkness took over the earth for the hours that fateful day that Jesus hung on the cross.  Historical records from various places also record this strange event.  Yet, we know there was no eclipse.  No dark clouds are mentioned that would hide the light.  Just suddenly, a terrifying darkness covered the face of the earth.

The only explanation possible is that the Son of God, the One who is Light, was nailed to that tree suffering for all the sins of all the human race, you and me included.  How could the sun possibly shine when God turned away from the giver of light?

Many have spoken of the ugliness of crucifixion.  Crucifixion was intended to be ugly: a cruel, slow, public, agonizing, shameful execution—a graphic warning against any who would consider rebelling against the authority of the government.  Indeed, the Bible says, “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)  Moses had prohibited Israel from leaving an executed criminal hanging on a tree overnight lest the land would be defiled before God.  What an amazing foreshadowing some fifteen hundred years before the execution of our Savior.

The Man thousands had adored, followed, begged for help and healing, and welcomed into Jerusalem with a shouts of acclaim was now nailed to a cross between two common criminals.  Two men deserved to die for their crimes.  The innocent Man in the middle became sin for all people ever.

Earlier that morning, Jesus had acknowledged to Pilate that He was indeed a King.  Pilate even feared to condemn this Son born of God, yet there hung the King of Truth, bleeding, dying in the strange darkness.  The hidden Warrior God sent into battle for the salvation of our souls sacrificing Himself so that we might live. 

This is the scene of Jesus’ last battle with the devil to win freedom for God’s people.  We think of the World Wars as big battles.  This one is far bigger and far more important.  Every promise God had made for our salvation hung in the balance.  Every moment of Jesus’ life led up to this: The greatest battle ever fought.

There have been numerous battles in history that were major turning points in the countries and cultures involved.  Until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, our nation had been reluctant to join in the war that threatened much of the free world.  The D-Day assaults were the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.  But, the battle between Jesus and Satan is the biggest of all.  Without Jesus taking on the deceiver, no one would be reconciled with God.

By the time the sun went dark at noon that day, Jesus had already endured unfathomable torture.  Interrogated since late evening the night before, Jesus had been slandered and rejected by those who should have been His greatest supporters.  Later in the proceedings, Jesus was mocked, crowned with a wreath of ugly thorns, and brutally beaten by the fists, rods, and whips Pilate’s and Herod’s soldiers utilized with sadistic glee.  Weakened to the point of collapse, Jesus was then forced to carry His cross until He couldn’t go any further and fell to His knees.  

At Golgotha hill, the Christ was stripped of His clothing, thrown down on the wooden cross, and long, rough nails were driven through His wrists and feet to hold Him to that cursed wood.  Then, lifted above the crowds entering the city, the mockery continued from Jew and stranger alike.  It’s hard to view this happening to a mortal enemy.  Yet, this is our Savior, our dearest Friend, the Lamb of God taking our place.

As hard as it is to imagine, Jesus took all of this punishment and pain without complaint.  No angry curses against His betrayer or the people treating Him so cruelly and unfairly.  Instead, the first words Jesus spoke from the cross were a simple plea to His Father above for the forgiveness of those who put Him there.  Jesus then answered the desperate plea of His fellow crucified prisoner with the promise of entrance into Paradise that very day, and with tender compassion, Jesus placed His mother’s care into the hands of His beloved disciple.

In the middle of the day, the darkness took over the whole earth.  If you want to know how much God hates sin, you can see it there when the Father turns His back to the Son.  The One Man who had been perfect in every thought, word, deed, desire, and will bore the brunt of God’s anger for every affront and rejection of every person who has ever walked this earth.

Perhaps we should be glad for the darkness that covered the land.  It might have intimidated some of the mockers and silenced their filthy slanders.  Furthermore, no one could fully see the torments Jesus was enduring.  For the first time in forever, the Father was not helping Jesus, not advising Him or defending Him from the devil’s assaults.  And you can know that the devil wasn’t hiding that day.  No, this was Satan’s last chance to steal the kingdom from the Son.  Remember how that devil had tempted Jesus earlier, trying to get Jesus to claim the kingdoms of earth by taking a shortcut.  How Satan must have needled Jesus when the Father no longer heard His prayers.  How the demons must have done everything they could to increase the pains of the Son of Man, but through it all Jesus did what Jesus does—He willingly submitted to His Father’s will, and He loved us to the bitter end of The greatest battle ever fought.

There is no way we can truly understand the pressure and torment Jesus was enduring.  The only way we could know it would be to suffer hell’s curse for eternity.  The guilt of every murder, rape, unethical war, the guilt of the mockers and false accusers, every theft, every robbery, the abortions, divorces, affairs, and abandonment of families, the guilt of curse words, lustful thoughts, greedy desires, lack of effort or gratitude for God’s blessings, it’s all piled up there on Jesus.  The Man who never once went astray from God’s will, was now bearing God’s just punishment for your guilt and mine.  There in the unnatural darkness, God’s righteous anger bore down on Jesus—the same terrifying justice that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, that unleashed a flood that destroyed the whole world, that can shake the mountains and plague a whole nation poured down on Jesus, and without complaint, Jesus took that retribution for you and me and all people.

Near the end of this unbearable reckoning, we hear Jesus’ anguished cry, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  In a way we simply can’t comprehend, the One who is Love, the God who created the world and acknowledged Jesus as His perfect Son turned His back on His Beloved only-begotten Child.  Their perfect relationship is severed.  How evil mankind has been to bring such a thing to pass.  How strong and kind Jesus is that He would bear this punishment on our behalf.  Isaiah wrote, “Surely he was taking up our weaknesses, and he was carrying our sufferings.  We thought it was because of God that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced.  He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Dear friends, much of the time, we are not even aware of the sins we commit.  The moments of unrighteous anger, bad habits, selfish desires, and immoral thoughts so ingrained in us we don’t even notice we are betraying the One who loved us completely.  We couldn’t even know where to begin if we would pretend to appease God for our faults.  Yet, Jesus knew, and Jesus did.

Toward the end, Jesus last words came rather quickly.  Someone thought He had called for Elijah to save Him and ran to offer a drink of sour wine.  The soldiers were waiting to see what might happen next, and to make sure no one intervened in the execution.  Some mockingly claimed that they wanted to see if Elijah would come to help.  Jesus, totally spent, spoke again: “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished!’” (John 19:30) 

There, in the late afternoon with the light returning, we see the end: earthquakes shook Jerusalem, and “the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’  When he had said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:45-46)

When in the depths of His agony, Jesus had no longer called out to His Father, but to Almighty God Who was crushing Him.  Now, when all is complete, we see the reunion that has been accomplished.  The separation between God and man is removed.  Jesus once more calls out to His Father in peace.  The battle for all people was won. 

There, on Calvary’s dreadful hill, the goal of Father and Son has been achieved.  The rebellion begun in the Garden of Eden by an angel blessed beyond any others was finally put down.  The devil wanted to be god, but like so many wicked tyrants in human history, Satan’s end is death—his head crushed by God’s justice.  Satan’s wicked rebellion is defeated by the obedience and humble sacrifice of God’s Son.  Forever bound to the prison of hell, the devil can no longer accuse anyone of sin, for Jesus has paid the penalty for all.  The promise God made when Adam and Eve fell is fulfilled.

In The greatest battle ever fought, Jesus had given His all.  To defeat the tempter and his rebellious hoard, to withstand every temptation and trap the devil could devise, Jesus had given His determination and will in humble obedience to His Father in heaven.  Then, to pay for the sin of every sinner ever, Jesus gave His body and soul into the hands of a just and jealous God, accepting all the punishment sinners deserved, and now that the debt has been paid in full, the final payment due, Jesus hands His life into the Father’s care, because God’s justice is satisfied and the Son is again in the Father’s perfect love.  The Father gave Jesus the authority to lay down His life and to take it up again.  In the death of Christ, salvation is accomplished for you and me. 

For you and me, Jesus, the holy and unspotted Lamb of God, has wiped the slate clean.  Our ledgers no longer contain any record of sin but only the righteousness of Christ and accounts of the good works His Father has prepared in advance for us to do.  Though death once held a strangle-hold on us, we are forgiven and restored through faith in Christ; our names are now recorded in the Book of Life.  The darkness that once enveloped our future has been lifted by the One who is Light. 

Dear friends, be comforted by the truth of Jesus’ own words: “It is finished!”  Your sins are forgiven.  Your eternal life granted.  Peace with God is your present and future reality, both now and forevermore.  Thus, whenever death comes calling, we, like Christ Jesus, can lay our lives confidently into the Father’s loving hands because through faith in Christ, we now have perfect peace.  Amen.