Good Friday

John 19:31-37 - Good Friday - March 29, 2013 

That the Scripture Should Be Fulfilled

Our Lord suffered in body and soul on the cross to save us poor sinners from the eternal sufferings of hell.  Isaiah foretold it in that beautiful chapter that I just read.  God’s Servant bore our sin.  The Lord God laid them on Him so that He might take our place.  He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted as though He were responsible for every sin that makes God mad.  That’s what it means to take our place.  He took our place under His Father’s anger – an anger that He totally agreed with.  And He agreed to endure it too.  No one has ever known such pain.  But He knew it.  And by His knowledge, God’s righteous Servant justified many.  Because His pain was not useless — it was not senseless.  By suffering the way He did, Jesus bore our iniquities. 

God justifies us, that is, He declares us to be righteous in His sight, by taking our sin away in a very real way.  God requires that we live a holy life.  He also requires that the sinner be punished for his sin.  God receives satisfaction for both – both the obedience that we could not render and the deserving death of the sinner – in the same place!  He demands the perfect life of His Son.  And so, in obedience to His Father’s will, Jesus poured out His soul unto death. 

And when He did, although His physical thirst was mocked by sour wine, His thirst for our salvation was fully quenched — because it was in His pain, and in the mockery He endured that Jesus made peace between God and sinners.  There was nothing beyond the painful death of Jesus that God demanded for our salvation.  This was it!  And that’s why Jesus was able to cry out what He did: “It is finished! – it’s done!”

And so we thank Him for it—“for that last triumphant cry,” we sing.  He paid for everything.  Our salvation was won.  Jesus did what He came to do.  But of course, just because our salvation was accomplished, just because it was finished, does not mean that we are finished learning.  God continues to teach us through the death of His Son. 

And so I’d like to consider this evening the events recorded right after Jesus died.  The image of the crucifixion of Jesus has so much to teach us.  It’s like a visual sound bite of His triumphant cry: “It is finished.” 

People often find the symbol of the crucifix unsettling, though.  Christians even will make the claim that, because we worship a risen Lord, the image of Him hanging on the cross is inappropriate.  But this doesn’t make sense for two reasons.  First of all, an empty cross can indicate that the body is rotting in the grave just as much as it can indicate that the body is raised.  All the empty cross really signifies is that the body has been removed.  Now, an empty cross is a perfectly fine symbol inasmuch as it reminds us of what happened there.  But it does not teach the resurrection of Christ any better than the crucifix does.  In fact, as I’ll explain in the conclusion of my sermon, the crucifix does a much better job! 

Now the other reason that the objection to the crucifix doesn’t make sense is because Holy Scripture doesn’t object to the crucifix.  On the contrary, Scripture draws our attention to it.  Our God wants to be known and can only be known, in the death of His Son.  That’s why it is His good will that we preach Christ crucified.  So let’s see what the image of our Savior’s lifeless body still teaches us today by looking at what it taught St. John. 

As an eyewitness to the horrors which artists have ever since labored to portray, the Evangelist records for us how evening was fast approaching.  The ever-so-pious Jews did not want to curse the new day by leaving a dead body hanging on the Sabbath (especially since it was during the Passover), and so they requested that the legs of those crucified be broken.  This would hasten their death so that their bodies could be taken down and discarded.  Pontius Pilate obliged them.  First the two thieves were put out of their misery. 

But upon approaching Jesus, they noticed that He was already dead.  Something else had killed Him.  And so to make sure that breaking His bones would not be needed, they lunged a spear into His side.  And from His body poured out blood and water. 

Now, John saw the whole thing: His groaning, sighing, bleeding, dying.  It happened.  He was there.  But it’s interesting that John doesn’t swear by the fact that he saw Jesus tortured and killed.  He doesn’t break out and say “And he who has seen has testified…” about the actual crucifixion of Jesus.  Of course he could’ve – ‘cause he saw it.  But no, instead these events John swears by – isn’t that interesting? – these events that occurred only once it was finished.  He interrupts His beautiful narrative for the first time in order to confirm what happened once Jesus was already dead.   And the reason He did is because these two events prove that Scripture was fulfilled. 

Not one bone was broken. 

God commanded Moses that not one bone of the Passover lamb be broken.  It was to be pure and without blemish.   The fact that none of Jesus’ bones were broken proved that He really was the true Passover Lamb that all the other lambs pointed to.  An imperfect lamb was not to be chosen for the Passover, because God would not choose an imperfect Lamb — God would not choose His second-best.  He would choose His own Son who would live a holy life in order that His sacrifice on the cross might be valuable.  God kept Him whole.  He guarded His ways.  He kept Him safe from the mob who wanted to break His bones time and again with stones.  God preserved Him in order that He might give Himself willingly when His hour finally came.  And His hour came. 

Jesus bore the sin of the world.  What killed Him was not the fact that He was beaten so badly, or the fact that His bones were weak and out of joint – although the pain He endured can’t be measured.  But what killed Him was the fact that God poured out upon Him all His wrath against our sin.  The pain in His soul – the guilt that our own consciences only dimly feel – Jesus felt acutely.  We hear the law that condemns us.  We put it out of our minds.  We find ways to lessen the pain.  We make excuses.  We ignore our sin – sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how honest we’re trying to be.  We ignore the sins of others – maybe those we love – as though it were an act of gentleness on our part.  Oh, we know what the law says … we know…

But Jesus knew the law better.  He reflected the law’s goodness in His own Person as the eternal Son of the Father.  He agreed with the law’s condemnation against sin, because He loved the righteousness it required.  And so when He took our sin upon Himself and became the sinner in our place, He knew our sin better than we do.  God did not ignore it.  He was not gentle.  And the pain was more than we can imagine.  He made no excuses, but bowed His head in submission to every painful and embarrassing accusation of guilt – even as darkness hung around His soul and the very sun that He placed in the sky turned black. 

Only He could bear the sin of all, because only He who knew no sin, truly knew the depth of the sin He bore – so much that St. Paul says, “He became sin for us.”  The angel of death unsheathed his sword and demanded the lifeblood of Him whose bones were not broken.  Scripture was fulfilled.  God kept His promise. 

Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, the wrath of God has passed over us.  The piercing spear made this known.  The spear didn’t kill Him.  But it revealed who did, and for whom.  By demanding the life of Jesus in our place, God had mercy. 

The pierced side of Jesus revealed to those who did not hear His cry that it was indeed finished.  He was dead.  And it reveals this to us too.  But it also reveals so much more!  That’s why John swears by it: “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled…”   Our faith rests in that which fulfills Scripture. 

The reason God demanded that all bones be left unbroken was because God was not done with this body.  It was not to be discarded.  Because the body of Christ on the cross, even in death, remained true God and true Man.  God did not abandon His body.  Jesus did not stop being fully God and fully Man even when He was dead on the cross.  As we sing in the hymn:

O sorrow dread!
Our God is dead,
Upon the cross extended.

Yes, but there on the cross, His bones were preserved for the day of His resurrection.  And this is why the symbol of the crucifix is so precious.  Because it reveals not only Christ’s cry of triumph over God’s wrath – it is finished.  But it also means that death is not the end.  Not for Jesus who bore our sin – not for us who still struggle against it.  The dead body of Jesus on the cross means life for us.  

If a dead body were pierced today, blood and water would not flow forth.  Death would flow forth – half-coagulated blood that stinks.  That’s the value of death.  That’s what we have to offer.  But Jesus’ body was not like other dead bodies.  Just as His bones were spared from breaking, so His body was spared from rotting – as the Psalm that we will be chanting early Easter morning says it:

Therefore my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in the grave,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 

They pierced Him to see if He would move.  But even in His motionless death, life flowed forth.  Blood – that gives life to sinners — water – which cleanses us from all unrighteousness and quenches our thirst for what we have not earned.  But Jesus earned it.  And He gives it.  Even in His death, the promise of His resurrection shines forth.  And so in the image of His crucifixion, we find our own hope for resurrection as well. 

Look at the crucifixes that you own – on your walls, the ones that hang around your neck.  Look closely.  He’s dead.  Look closer.  See what John saw.  You’ll see a little mark in His side where He was pierced.  The Scriptures foretold it: “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”   We pierced Him.  And so by faith we look – to the death that gives us life. 

The crucifix not only directs us to where our salvation was won.  It directs us to where it is given out.  It directs us to the Scripture it fulfilled.  It leads us to find in the unbroken body, and in the blood once shed the forgiveness for our sins in Holy Communion.  It leads us to the water that once buried us with Christ in Holy Baptism – that joined us to His death in order that we might be joined to His resurrection as well.  If God so honors Him who bore your sins, surely He will honor you whose sins have been washed away. 

And so we continue by faith to keep our eyes fixed on Him who died and rose until we behold by sight and unspeakable joy the Lamb slain at His eternal banquet in heaven. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.