A sad day for some

Sermon for Good Friday

As I said in Bible class on Sunday, Good Friday is not a sad or somber day. The first Good Friday was, of course. When any innocent person is openly hated, or treated unjustly, or abused, or tortured, or mocked, or killed, that’s a sad thing. When that person is an especially kind and decent person, it’s even sadder. When that person is the very Lord of life, the God of creation, who specifically came into human flesh to save fallen humanity—the word “sad” doesn’t come close to describing it.

But for whom was it really sad? Some of the women in Jerusalem were sad for Jesus. They wept over Him and mourned for Him as He made His way to the Place of a Skull. But Jesus corrected them, didn’t He? Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For, indeed, the days are coming in which they will say: ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts which never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains: ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills: ‘Cover us!’ For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry? In spite of all He had suffered and was still about to suffer, things would turn around for Jesus in just a couple of days. Yes, even by the end of that Good Friday, although His body was lifeless and lying in a tomb, Jesus’ soul was at peace in Paradise. So if you’re going to be sad, if you’re going to weep for anyone on Good Friday, don’t weep for Jesus. Weep for the world. If the wood was green at the time of Christ, it has certainly dried out by now. If men received the ministry of the sinless Son of God and hated Him for it, how will they react now to the far weaker members of His Church? If men were able to sell their lies and deception while the Truth Himself was in the world, what limits will there be to the lies they can sell now?

Yes, weep for the world. Weep over the lies that have passed off for truth. Weep over the wickedness and depravity and violence of men, which will only get worse, just as it did leading up to the Great Flood and the destruction of nearly all life on earth. Weep for yourself, if you refuse the path of escape and salvation that God has been offering for so long, because judgment is coming. And if God allowed judgment to be brought down so severely on His beloved, perfect, innocent Son, what will it be like for sinful men who have rebelled against God and earned His wrath and displeasure?

So what is path of escaping God’s righteous judgment against sinners? I’ll tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t the path of denying your own sinfulness. It isn’t the path of self-righteousness or self-improvement. It isn’t the path of making up for your own sins or finding redemption in your own deeds. The path of escape from the judgment and condemnation that is coming on the world, because of the sins of everyone in the world, is faith in Jesus Christ. His agony, anguish, suffering, and death on Good Friday is the thing that makes up for the sins of mankind. His blood, shed for you, is what satisfies God’s just requirement that the sinner must suffer and die.

On Good Friday, the sinless One died for the sinner. As St. Paul wrote, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. The same Jesus who became sin for us and suffered for us and died for us now is risen from the dead and calls out in Gospel, “Repent! Come to Me for forgiveness and rest! I offer it freely! I gave My life so that you might have it!”

And that is why Good Friday isn’t a sad day for those who hear God’s gracious invitation. Because you know that Jesus chose the suffering and death, on purpose, so that you could have rest and forgiveness and a place in His kingdom. You know that, by believing in Him who was crucified, you are safe from God’s wrath, you are a beloved child of God, and you are even safe from the wickedness and depravity of men, because, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? So celebrate this day, because it’s the day of our Lord’s victory over the sin that held us captive and over the devil who thought we were his for eternity. Celebrate this day, because it’s the day our Lord went into battle for us, and won. Amen.