Seven Words from the cross that give us hope.

 

Sermon for Good Friday, April 15, 2022

Seven Words from the cross that give us hope.

From the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

First Word: A Word of forgiveness

Many people are fascinated about the last words spoken by famous people, whether the thing said might be of any consequence or not.  Likewise, we might well treasure the last words spoken by someone we love, especially if those words remind us how that person loved us in life, but no last words will ever be as important as Jesus’ words from the cross.

“It was the third hour, when they crucified Him.  And Jesus said: ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’”

I wonder how we would respond if we had to endure the relentless beating, mockery, and pain that Jesus experienced in our place that night.  Common experience might indicate that our thoughts would be wrapped up in the pain.  We might even express hatred for those who dealt the blows.  Cursing and swearing would not surprise anyone standing nearby, and we would hardly be in a forgiving mood, even if our captors didn’t understand why they were mistreating us so viciously.

Forgiveness is often hard for us to muster, especially if we know that the person causing our pain is doing it recklessly or intentionally.  Jesus had endured hours of abuse at the hands of men trained to cause pain.  Thus, it is most surprising to sinners to learn that as those nails are driven through Jesus, He swallows the pain and calmly prays to His Father in heaven for forgiveness for His assailants.

It also surprises us that Jesus said that His torturers didn’t know what they were doing.  Of course, they knew they were hurting Him.  Of course, the Jewish leaders knew they were killing an innocent Man—just like Pilate knew it.  What none of them knew, however, is that Jesus was in that position by God’s design to bring forgiveness and peace to those of us who offend God daily with our sins.  People like us, who really aren’t any better than those executioners at the cross.

It is also a fact that none of us deserve this forgiveness.  The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t.  The Roman soldiers didn’t.  You and I don’t deserve it.  What we all deserved was for us to be suffering that pain and worse.  But, here we see God’s grace as He delivers justice.  Without any merit or worthiness in us, the Son of God takes up our sin to bear the punishment we are owed, so that God in His mercy would declare us forgiven and righteous in His sight.  There, on the cross, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

How do we know this forgiveness is also ours?  We know because like those who were guilty of driving the nails through Jesus’ hands and feet, God delayed holding us accountable for our guilt.  Instead of punishing us as we deserved, God brought us to believe in His Son as our Redeemer and Savior.  “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)  Then, because of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, God answered Jesus’ prayer for you and me, releasing us from the debt of sin we owed, and by the power of His Spirit in Word and baptism, God claimed us as His own dear children, washing away our guilt, and in that cleansing flood that poured from Jesus’ side later that day, we have forgiveness whenever in repentance we return to the baptism that saved us.  In that baptismal repentance, Jesus’ words comfort and assure us: Father, forgive them.  Amen.

 

Second Word: A word of promise

            As Jesus hung on the cross along the main road leading into Jerusalem, many stopped to mock and jeer this Teacher from Galilee who claimed to be the Son of God.  Even His fellow crucified took part in the mockery.  Yet, one of those criminals eventually had a change of heart.  His guilt ate at his being, and Jesus’ demeanor took him by surprise.  This wasn’t a game to Jesus. Nor did Jesus take a defiant stand against His accusers nor His assailants.  Even the jeers of the soldiers and Jewish leaders brought no angry response from Jesus. 

The stories that criminal had heard about Jesus started to work on the man’s conscience.  And then, it worked on his heart.  He remembered that Jesus had spoken of sins forgiven and peace with God.  And with nothing left to offer in exchange, the crucified criminal realized that Jesus truly was his only hope.  Finally, “one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying: ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’  But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: ‘Do you not fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’  And he said to Jesus: ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’  And Jesus said to him: ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”

Who would expect Jesus to care about that criminal’s change of heart?  Why would anyone care about that death-day reversal?  The man had been mocking Jesus moments before.  Why believe that anything had changed?  Because Jesus had told His disciples, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.  No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29)

For most of that criminal’s life, he had followed the devil’s lead.  Yet, there on the cross, God claimed Him as His own lamb.  The change doesn’t come from within the man, just as it doesn’t come from within us.  Paul wrote, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)  We don’t know how the Spirit worked the change.  We just know it happened and by God’s grace that condemned man received grace, and through faith in Jesus, he received peace and a home in heaven. 

Later that afternoon, when the soldiers came and broke the man’s legs, he lost the ability to breath and life departed his body, but the promise was immediately fulfilled: the soul of a repentant criminal was taken to the Father’s house in heaven with his sins forgiven and peace with God and eternal life in Paradise assured.

You and I have the same comfort.  As we near the end of our lives and the grave is staring us in the face, we can trust Jesus’ promise to a dying man who deserved only eternal torment.  None of us can reconcile ourselves with God.  None of us can stand before the Almighty Judge and plead our own case.  No, that is why Jesus came, and why He was hanging on that cross, so that having paid for the sins of the world, He could take us from death to life.  With the sacrifice He made, and the preaching of His Word of life, Jesus grabs us before hell can have us, and He opens the gates of heaven so that we will enter into peace with His Father.  Therefore, our plea is answered: Lord, remember me.  Amen.

 

Third Word: A word of love

            Hanging on the cross, the Son of God looked so helpless.  Yet, what is hidden from our eyes is that all the while He was on earth, Jesus remained the loving Son who was here to serve.  As the firstborn of His mother, Jesus knew the responsibility for her care was His.  No mention of Mary’s husband, Joseph, is made in the Scriptures after Jesus was twelve years old.  The assumption has always been that Joseph had been called from this life prior to Jesus entering His ministry role.

            Again, we are confronted with our own weakness.  When we are suffering, how often do we remember to care for others?  Well, to be honest, many women and some men do.  Yet, Jesus was enduring the agony of being punished for the sins of the world.  Would anyone blame Him if He neglected one small detail?  Ah, but now we know who Jesus is.  Remember how He said, “Amen I tell you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18)

Was it in the Mosaic law that the oldest son had to care for his widowed mother?  Or was it tradition?  To be honest, I am not sure.  But the law of love drove Jesus.  Therefore, in love, He would never forget His care for the woman that bore Him as an infant.  We see, here, that Jesus lived perfectly as our Substitute at every moment of His life on earth.  Any law that we must obey is fulfilled by Christ.  Any love that we should show is demonstrated in Jesus.  He loved His neighbor as Himself; especially, He showed the love and respect to His mother that the Fourth Commandment would require.  Thus, is fulfilled, even in the last hours of His life, one of the requirements over which we so often stumble.

This tender moment reminds us also of God’s love for the family.  God intends the family as He instituted it, with husband and wife loving and serving each other and the children honoring and respecting their parents, to be for our ongoing good as we live in this troubled world.  It is through our families that Jesus continues caring for people like us.  The world may not care what happens in our lives, but Jesus does, for God has promised, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and merciful toward all that he has made.  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.  He grants the desire of those who fear him.  He hears their cry and saves them.  The Lord watches over all who love him.” (Psalm 145:17-20) 

No matter what trouble or hardship we might have to face in this troubled world, we go forward with the confidence that Jesus will care for us just as He remembered the needs of His mother even in the midst of His own suffering and pain.  Why can we be confident that Jesus will care for us as He cared for His own earthly family?  Because the Holy Spirit assures us through the hand of St. Paul, “In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)  Just as Jesus loved His mother until the end, He will care for you until He calls you home to life everlasting.  Amen.

 

Fourth Word: A Word of ???

Numerous people have tried to explain what happened that day.  How could the sun stop shining for three hours in the middle of the day?  In two thousand years, no reasonable explanation has been found.  That is because this was an unearthly darkness that covered the land. 

St. John later wrote, “God is light.  In him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)  Yet, there on the cross, God turns away from His Son as Jesus suffered the pains of hell for you and me.  God’s light that sustains us through every day was turned off from the land, and from the presence of Jesus.  There in the darkness, as God removes Himself from the scene, Jesus experienced an anguish unlike anything we have ever known. 

The pain of the whip that tore His flesh, the sharp thorns piercing His brow, even the spikes unmercifully driven through His hands and feet didn’t bring a cry to Jesus’ lips, but now the agony was beyond compare.  God had abandoned His Son because Jesus was now the sin of the world.  At that point in time, God could not be in Jesus’ presence because Jesus became filth to His Father. 

One can only imagine the pain this would cause the Father, if the Father feels pain, but this is why Jesus took on human flesh, because here in the Son who had taken man into the Godhead, God learned the agony of hell.  We can call it agony.  We can call it anguish.  Yet, what word can possibly describe the torment Jesus was feeling in that moment.  Never before had He been separated from the love and care of His Father in heaven.  Never before had Jesus been alone with no one to help Him.  No angel was coming to offer relief.  No man could ease His suffering.  No, Jesus bore this pain alone, so that you and I never have to feel it.

Many of us have cried deep sobs of sorrow.  Many of us have suffered the loss of a parent, and some know the pain of losing a child.  But only Jesus knows what God turning away feels like.  The writer to the Hebrews says, “Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.  After he was brought to his goal, he became the source of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him, because he was designated by God as a high priest, like Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:8-10)

For generations, lambs were offered to the Lord to remove the sins of the people, but the sun never went dark, because no lamb could buy God’s forgiveness.  Only the Lamb of God to whom those sacrificed sheep and goats had meekly pointed could earn the reconciliation with God we needed.  We see the Lamb of God hanging on the cross in the darkness of that first Good Friday, where God turned His back to His Son, so that your sins and mine are paid for.  The guilt that haunts us was put on the Son.  He carried all our shame, so that we might walk in the Light of our God without blemish or stain.  There in the darkness, Jesus cried out to His Father, “with a loud voice, saying: ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’”, so that His Father in heaven would never have to forsake us.  Amen.

 

Fifth Word: A Word of fulfillment

“I thirst.”  It is such a simple statement that it almost surprises us.  Previously, Jesus had been offered a drink, but He refused it because it contained a sedative that might have eased His suffering, but also could have interfered with His work of suffering for you and me.  So why now?  Why after those hours on the cross did it finally become so unbearable that Jesus had to ask for relief?

Actually, we know from the accounts of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness that Jesus would not have asked just to satisfy His own needs.  God’s Son was willing to endure anything to rescue you and me from the fate we deserved.  Therefore, the text that reports Jesus’ request also answers our question: “Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: ‘I thirst.’”  

No doubt, Jesus had to be thirsty by the time He made this request.  Doubtless, His lips were parched.  Undeniably, His tongue must have felt like shoe leather after the abuse He had suffered without any refreshment since the supper He shared with His disciples the night before.  The request shows us that Jesus’ suffering was indeed real.  The payment of death for our sins was really and truly being put on Jesus.  Like any ordinary man would be, Jesus was drained by the experience of His crucifixion. 

However, Jesus didn’t ask for a drink because He couldn’t bear the torment any longer.  Instead, Jesus was being faithful to what He promised He would do.  We find our answer in the words Jesus spoke to two of His disciples after His resurrection from the grave.  As Jesus walked with them to the town of Emmaus, He said, “These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44)  You see, God leaves nothing to chance when it comes to saving sinners. 

Through the hand of King David in the songs of praise, the Son of God had prophesied about His experience on the cross, “My strength is dried up like broken pottery, and my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.” (Psalm 22:15)  And. “They put bitter poison in my food.  For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” (Psalm 69:21)  Lest there be any room for doubt, every detail God had granted to His people about the coming Messiah had to be fulfilled.  For you and for me, Jesus left not even one iota undone.  With this last sip of liquid, Jesus was finishing His work of rescuing you and me and all who believe from the powers of evil.  With one last sip of bitter drink, Jesus set us free.  Amen.

 

Sixth Word: A Word of completion

Finished!  Completed!  How many tasks do we do in a year that we can say will never have to be done again?  We plant a crop, and finish the job, but next year, we have to do it all over again if we want to eat.  We go to school and get our degrees, but when we get out in the workforce, we soon learn that we have much more to learn to do our jobs and to make a satisfactory life for our family.

Imagine having so perfectly loved your wife or children that you never have to do anything again to keep them happy.  Our broken condition means there will always be something to make amends for, or something needed to keep one another entertained and satisfied.

Those needs for ongoing effort in our everyday lives lead most people to think the same thing is true in our relationship with God.  Jesus did His part, many claim, but the rest is up to you.  If you want to join Jesus in heaven someday, you better live right, pray right, give right, and do right or God will not be satisfied with you.  Yet, is any of that nonsense true?

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’  And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”  Every last detail that the law demands of us was now accomplished.  Every prophecy, big and small, was completed.  The Father’s will to save sinners had been carried out.  The writer to the Hebrews assures us, “Christ was offered only once to take away the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:28)  Jesus never has to repeat His work, and for any man to claim that we can do it better or again is nothing but nonsense.  The writer repeats this saving truth, “By only one sacrifice he [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)  Thus, through St. Paul, the Holy Spirit brings us the Good News: “So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

This sixth word Jesus spoke from the cross literally stamps our account before God as paid in full.  Nothing more will ever be owed.  No matter what tempter comes to you, either in person or in spirit or mind, the One who will judge you on the final day has already announced the verdict.  Your debt to God for your sins is finished—paid in full by the blood of God’s Son as He gave up His life in your place on the cross.  From that day forward, every Christian believer can celebrate with St. John, saying, “If we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)  Amen.

 

Seventh Word: A Word of confidence

As it must for all of us, the end of Jesus’ life on earth arrived.  There was nothing left for Him to do.  His teaching was completed.  His healing works had all been done.  His obedience of the law and trust in His Father’s care had been perfect from conception through this moment in time.  Jesus had successfully resisted every temptation the devil or His own flesh might put before Him.  Finally, Jesus had offered Himself up to the Lord as the payment price for all of us.  In fact, Jesus did all of this for us, so that we might be declared holy by His Father in heaven, so that we could be adopted as sons of God through faith.  Jesus, as the scapegoat, had carried all the sins of the world to the wilderness of hell so that none of those guilty stains could ever be held against us.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; . . . And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6 NKJ)

To the world, it looked like defeat.  The hope of Israel near death on a cross, stripped of all dignity, His skin shredded by a multitude of lashes from the whip.  His face battered and bruised beyond recognition.  His friends had deserted and betrayed Him, and His enemies still mocked Him.  The blood had been draining from His wounds all day.  Jesus was parched, dehydrated, and in immeasurable pain.  The uninformed might think that He lost hope and simply gave up.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Earlier, Jesus spoke to His disciples, telling them what was to come: “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.  This is the commission I received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18) 

Now, with every last detail completed, “He cried out with a loud voice, saying: ‘Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.’”  Jesus gave up His life as He had lived it, with perfect trust in His Father’s care, confident that He would rise again at the appointed hour.

At creation, God looked at everything He had made and called it exceedingly good.  Then, on the seventh day He rested from His creative work.  Now, with all His redeeming work fully and perfectly completed, the Son of God would likewise rest on the seventh day, this time in the grave.  Being fully God and fully Man, Jesus had earned His rest.  More than that, He had earned the right to reign over all creation and to judge the world on the last day.  But now, He would rest, confident and content in His Father’s loving arms, knowing that on the third day He would be raised victorious over death.

Dear friends, because of Jesus, we can face our last day on earth the same way, confident and content in the Father’s loving care.  Everything needed to wipe away our sins has been accomplished.  Everything needed to make us right with God is completed.  When the Holy Spirit brought you to faith in Jesus, He gave you a new heart to believe and the sure promise that you too will rise from the grave on the last day.  At the appointed hour that only the Father in heaven knows, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)  This is the sure and certain hope that is ours as we watch our Savior and Redeemer bow His head in victory and give up His spirit into His Father’s loving care.  Like Jesus, we can rest in the grave confident and at peace until our own Easter resurrection when the trumpet call of our God resounds, and our risen Savior returns in glory.  Amen.