The final two words from the cross

Sermon for Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13-53:12  +  John 18:1-19:42

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us that, just before He died, Jesus cried out with a loud voice. But none of them tell us what He cried out. Isn’t that strange? They left it to John, the last Gospel writer, who was standing there at the foot of the cross as the only apostolic witness, just as we always leave it to John to guide us through our Good Friday reflection. Jesus’ loud cry was one four-syllable word in Greek, Tetelestai!, It is finished! The sixth word from the cross.

What is the “it”? “It” was His entire life of obedience in the sinner’s stead, the life that Jesus had been leading as mankind’s Substitute from the moment of His conception. “It” included His active obedience, the things He gladly and willingly did in obedience to God’s Law. “It” included also His passive obedience, the things He suffered, the things He gladly and willingly allowed to be done to Him, from the insults He took, to the beating and floggings, to the condemnation before the Jewish and Roman courts, to the nails and the crown of thorns. One righteous life had been lived, from start to finish, without a single transgression, without a single mistake. Satisfaction for the sins of men had been provided. Forgiveness for all sins had been merited; the earning of forgiveness for all sinners was complete. No one else should dare try to add anything to the life and sufferings of Jesus in order to earn his salvation, in order to make atonement for his sins, in order to earn back God’s favor, in order to earn God’s forgiveness. Heaven has been purchased by the Son of God for all the sons of men. It is finished.

Those were the words of Jesus’ dying cry, His sixth word from the cross. But they weren’t His very last words. Luke is the one who records that seventh saying for us: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit. 

It’s “Father” again, after the tormented cry moments before, “My God, my God.” Because all is finished. The cup of God’s wrath, poured out vicariously on Jesus, on Jesus in our place, had been emptied. There wasn’t a drop left, not for Jesus, not for anyone who takes refuge in Him by faith. After all His hard work, Jesus’ Sabbath rest had finally come. His spirit would be kept safe in His Father’s hands in Paradise while His body rested in the tomb until the third day, just as the spirits of all believers are kept safe with Christ while their bodies await the resurrection at the Last Day. The dying Lord Jesus is victorious in death. He’s at peace. This is the end, but only as the planting of a seed is the end for the seed. After it’s planted in the earth, after it dies, it springs up into a new plant, into a new and much more glorious life. So, too, with Jesus. So, too, with all who trust in Him.

Now that we’ve heard all seven words of Jesus from the cross, now that we’ve watched as the Lamb of God, the great Passover Lamb was slain, we should take a moment to ponder the rest of what St. John told us about what happened there at the cross of Jesus and its connection with the Passover.

When the soldiers came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

Do you remember what you heard on Sunday morning in the reading from the prophet Zechariah? They will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. And one will say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?” Then he will answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

And what of this blood and water that flowed from His side? Remember the rest of what Zechariah prophesied: And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, and the LORD shall be King over all the earth. The blood and water testify to the death of the Lamb of God, who, by His death, earned the right to be exalted to the highest place and the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

But the blood and water also testify to how the Lamb’s blood would flow from Jerusalem, to be applied to the doorframes of the Israelites houses like the blood of the first Passover lambs, to be applied now to sinners’ hearts. God’s instrument for applying that blood, the blood of Christ shed on the cross, for applying the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ to sinners, would be Holy Baptism, the sacred water that washes us in the blood of the Lamb. Our instrument for receiving that blood of Christ connected with Baptism is faith. As the writer to the Hebrews says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And for those who are safe inside the house, safe inside the Church of Christ, baptized in His blood, Christ’s blood also flows to us, down through the ages, in a special way, as it did for the Israelites, in a family meal, where we feast on the Lamb and drink His blood, safe inside the house from all the destruction of sin, death, and the devil.

Give thanks today for the Lamb who was slain, who is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Rejoice in His victory! And take comfort in the fact that you have been buried with Him through Baptism into His death, that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in a new life. Amen.