Good Friday + 1 Week Sermon
A new sermon for Good Friday given last week to two different congregations...
A sermon given at Lutheran Community Home Chapel, Seymour, Indiana, and at St. John Lutheran Church, White Creek, Indiana, on Good Friday 2023.
Adapted and inspired from the Good Friday sermon by CFW Walther, “Sermons” vol. 1, pp. 219ff.
“A Day to Rejoice”
Today, we gather to remember and celebrate the death of the only-begotten Son of God for the reconciliation of the world. Foretold by the prophets. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died, and was buried. On this day. A real historical fact attested to by many witnesses. The centurion who nailed the Lord to the cross was the best witness: “Truly, this was the Son of God!”
On this day many years ago, the pure and holy Son of God Himself, found innocent of all charges by Pilate his judge, nevertheless died the death of the guilty sinner in order that the sinner might live.
On this day, the Almighty Light of the world Himself was conquered by the power of darkness, that weak men like you and me, who have themselves been trapped in the depths of darkness – might be delivered from that darkness into the marvelous light of eternal triumph.
On this day, even He who has gone forth from of old, even from everlasting, came to the end of His days that salvation might be brought again for fallen mankind, that they would know a never-ending day.
On this day, the very inexhaustible fount of life itself, from which the life of all creatures flowed, dried up in order to give life to the dead hearts of all sinners.
On this day, the eternal Son of God poured out His holy blood in order to extinguish the fire of God’s wrath over the sins of men.
On this Good Friday, we rejoice over what the world considers foolish, that in Christ, hung on the cursed cross, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them. (2 Cor. 5.19)
It is the most glorious, the greatest of all miracles, and the most blessed and deepest mystery of God’s grace. God the Father gave His only begotten Son over to death on the cross and so reconciled the world to Himself.
This day is sung about in heaven, even now, by the saints and angels. We probably ought not track with the one stanza in the Palm Sunday hymn “Ride on Ride on in Majesty” that the angels look upon Christ riding to His death with sad and wondering eyes… on the contrary, St. John tells us in his Revelation, that the angels in heaven also have no more profound and wonderful subject to extol in their heavenly praises than the death of God’s Son, as St. John records their exultation,
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. (Rev. 9.12)
And then St. John records the elect saints who sing and cry throughout the heavens,
Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev. 5.9)
The day of Christ’s death is celebrated now and for all eternity by the myriad hosts of angels and by all the spirits of the perfected saints, and this day will be celebrated in eternity by all the resurrected unto salvation when this earth will have long since passed away into a new heavens and a new earth.
So today, this day, Good Friday, 2023, in the middle of a season of real trial, in a time of testing shown by tremendous tumult and strife and warfare and the apparent reign of all the evil that can possibly be mustered, this day with humble hearts adore the precious cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
on which He hung to save us from the evil that afflicted us with eternal consequences,
on which He hung to buy us back from the prison house of Satan’s clutches,
on which He hung to return us to the fatherly and caring arms of our Heavenly Father, never to be separated from His love, ever.
For on this day, Good Friday, all the promises of God’s grace and happiness find their yes in God’s crucified Son.
As certainly as at Christ’s death the sun was darkened, so certainly has the sun of grace and righteousness risen over all men.
As certainly as after Christ’s death the graves were opened and the dead arose, so certainly was Christ’s death the opening to the well of water springing up to eternal life.
As certainly as at Christ’s death the rocks were shaken and rent, so certainly did God’s own hand tear away the handwriting of the guilt of all men.
As certainly as at Christ’s death the veil in the temple was torn in two and the Most Holy Place with its mercy seat was revealed, so certainly was the door of the Mercy Seat of God on High, the Most Holy Place of heaven, was thrown wide open to all men.
It is true that here in these gray and latter days you will not always taste and see the glory of your Savior and Lord who reconciled you to your Father in heaven. In affliction and temptation, the sun will often not shine, just as it once darkened over all the land as your Lord hung on His cross. Even your eyes of faith will become dark and clouded some days and will shed bitter tears of misery and anguish because of your sin and the effects of sin we all feel, even as our Lord’s mother and the other women wept at the foot of His cross.
But let us gladly die with Jesus to this dark life. In Baptism we were joined to His death, and how happy you ought to be to die with Him. For on that day of your Baptism, you died with Him, He marked you as one redeemed on account of His work on the cross for you, marked you with the seal of His cross to be taken away from this vale of tears into the land of promise, where the eternal sun shines and there are no clouds of doubt or sorrow. For that’s what He paid for with His blood on this most holy day. There, in paradise with Jesus, you will join in that eternal song of all the saints and angels. For when you have died with Christ Jesus, you also live with Him to sing His resurrection song.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit +