Good Friday

"It Is Finished For You"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            We gather here to observe the Passion of our Lord.  The thing for which He was born to do; to suffer and to die on the cross for your salvation.  His bloody death is intensely before our eyes for us to behold.  There, we see the cost for our sins; the sins that we so flippantly commit, the sins we’ve planned, the sins that are the evil we don’t want to do but keep on doing.  We just sang in Paul Gerhardt’s beautiful hymn, “I caused your grief and sighing, By evils multiplying.  As countless as the sands.  I Caused the woes unnumbered with which your soul is cumbered.  Your sorrows raised by wicked hands.”  It’s true.  We look down at our hands and they’re red with the blood of Jesus.  My sin is what pinned Jesus to the cross.

            Yet, this day isn’t about feeling guilt for Jesus’ sake.  He doesn’t go to the cross so that you would feel shame.  Jesus didn’t allow Himself to be nailed to the cross that we would look at His lifeless body and think, “What have I done!”  You have God’s Law for that! 

            Jesus’ cross isn’t about feeling guilt over what our sins cost; rather, it’s about your forgiveness, your salvation being complete.  If there’s nothing else that you glean from this day, let it be this:  Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, is sent to carry your sins and to pay for them in full by His dying on the cross.  The reason Jesus went to the cross wasn’t so that you would feel ashamed but that you would be given an eternal inheritance.  As proof of this, I point you to Jesus’ own words; three of the most important words in all of Scripture:  “It is finished.”  “It is finished.” 

            What is the “it” that Jesus is referring?  His work of salvation for you.  Why is this little phrase so important?  Because it’s either finished or Jesus isn’t telling the truth.  Jesus has either completed the work of salvation or your sins are they’re still with you.  It’s either finished or there is still something left for you to do.  Some little part for you to play.  Some small task that must be done by you.  But Jesus says, “It is finished.”  Three of the greatest Words we could hear.  It is finished.  Your sins cling to you no longer! 

            The work of salvation is done.  There’s nothing left to do.  There’s nothing that you can add to Jesus’ salvific work.  It is finished.  For you.  Your sin atoned for.  Paradise’s door wide open through He who bore His cross for you.  It is finished.

            That’s the “good” in Good Friday.  Though, to the world it looks like defeat, God uses it for your eternal good.  By the wounds of Jesus you’re healed.  By His stripes you’re set free.  Be His cross you’re forgiven.  The highest good has been won for you! 

            On this Good Friday, behold the cross of Jesus that say to yourself these little words, “It is finished for me.  Those are my sins Jesus is paying for.  The devil can accuse me no longer!  For my sins aren’t on me, they’re on Jesus and if they’re on Jesus, they’ve been paid for in full!”  It’s been finished all for you. 

So this day, let us leave here not in sorrow on Jesus’ account but rejoicing.  For the Words it is finished is our triumphant cry.  In these little words, we proclaim that Jesus is our Savior who has finished and completed His work of your salvation.  Amen

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Maundy Thursday; Luke 22:7-20

"Given and Shed For You"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            The sight of blood is usually bad news; it’s, more often than not, a sign that something has gone wrong.  Even as children, the sight of blood on a skinned knee, a cut finger, a scraped elbow is enough reason to howl in agony, no matter if it actually hurts or not.  Blood means that something isn’t as it should be. 

            But the Thursday before Jesus was crucified on the cross, He and His disciples celebrated something in which blood was a very good sign:  Passover. 

            Last week, we talked about Moses and how God used him to deliver His people.  If you remember, God sent 10 plagues upon Egypt and the last one God killed every first born in Egypt human and beast.  It was a bloody night.  All first born, people, cattle, and lambs lay dead by night’s end.  They all died because Pharaoh had hardened his heart against God.  They all died for his sin.

Yet, God preserved the faithful by passing over the homes that were adorned with the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels.  They hid themselves behind the blood of the lamb and death passed over them.  And God also instituted a meal that day called the Passover in which Israel would remember that night year after year.  The lamb which was slain to preserve their life from God’s wrath that night was roasted over a fire and eaten.  This is the meal that Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the night He was betrayed. 

            The night that Jesus was handed over was also a bloody night.  His sweat hit the ground of the Garden of Gethsemane like blood.  The whips of Pilate, the thorns of the crown placed on His sacred head also tasted his blood that night.  And the next day, Good Friday, the lambs of sacrifice are slaughtered in the temple. 

Blood is often a bad sign, a sign that something has gone wrong.  But not tonight.  Tonight it’s different.  Tonight blood makes everything is right with us and God.

For the body that Jesus offers up on the cross, He gives for you.  The blood that stained the cross red is the same blood that He places into your mouth this night.  Like Israel, we hide behind the lamb that has been sacrificed for us, that death would Passover us, that God would not see us stained in the scarlet of our own sins, but covered in the blood of His Son. 

            Others died for the sin of Pharaoh and so it is with us.  The Lamb of God, who has bore your sin unto Himself has been sacrificed for you.  And the night that He was betrayed, handed over by God to be sacrificed, “He took bread and when He had given thanks, He gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat.  This is my body which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  In the same way also, He took the cup after supper and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying.  Drink of it all of you.  This cup is the new testament in my blood.  Which is given for you for the forgiveness of sins.  This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”

            No more do consecrate a day to remember Passover, the day the lambs were slain to free the people of Israel from death.  For the spotless Lamb of God has been sacrificed on the altar of the cross for you once for all.  And His body and His blood, He gives to you in a meal in which He is both host and entrée.  That the benefits of forgiveness and eternal life which He won for you on the cross, are brought to you here and now and placed on your tongue.  For in the Supper, your hand and your mouth become the throne on which He desires to sit.

Blood is often a sign that something has gone wrong; but not tonight.  For us, the blood of Jesus that He sheds on the cross and places into our mouths is our salvation.  The Lamb goes to the altar of the cross for you, that your sins are covered and paid for in His blood which was been given and shed all for you.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion; John 12:12-19, Luke 23:1-56

"The King Rides On to Die" or "What's Wrong with this Picture?"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            What’s wrong with this picture?  The Son of David, the Most High God, makes His entry into Jerusalem on the back of the colt of a donkey, and a borrowed on at that.  The Son of David doesn’t sit on an expensive saddle, but upon the cloaks of His disciples.  The Son of David rides into Jerusalem to crowds of people laying palm branches before Him, to a week later, crowds of people spitting on Him.  The Son of David rides into Jerusalem to crowds of people shouting, “Hosanna!  Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed in He who comes in the Name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest” to crowds of people shouting, “Crucify Him.”  Shouts of joy and triumph turn to shouts of condemnation.  Shouts of “Hail to our King” to shouts of “We have no king but Caesar.”  What’s wrong with this picture?  Nothing.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this picture.

            This is how our Lord would have it.  He didn’t come to this world to be inaugurated as a glorious king who sits on a throne of glory.  But to come as a humble beggar king, who has no place to lay His head.  He comes to His people not in pomp but in lowly fashion.  A golden crown isn’t placed upon His head, but He’s “honored” with a crown of thorns.  He doesn’t sit upon His cushioned throne in the center of Jerusalem, but is nailed to His throne outside the city on the cross.  This is how our Lord would have it, He came not to be served, but to serve.  There’s nothing wrong with this picture, it’s exactly what our Lord willingly undergoes for you.

            But that’s not the kind of King we want.  We would much rather think of our Savior King as spotless, regal, and mighty.  We would rather have Him ride into Jerusalem on a chariot pulled by mighty steeds, not upon a donkey’s colt.  We would rather have our Savior King reign in glory and might, not from the lowliness of the cross.  We would rather have our Savior King bask in the accolades of Palm Sunday, instead of moving on to His passion.  But He won’t have it that way.  Because that’s the way that would lead to our death, our complete separation from God.  The way that would divert Jesus away from the cross is the way that would damn us to hell.

 If Jesus doesn’t go to the cross, if He stays in the humble splendor of Palm Sunday, our sins are pinned to our chest, wrapped around our necks.  Sin demands blood, it demands punishment, it demands death.  That’s what we deserve, what have coming, what we ought to get.  We sin, we offend God, so it’s us that should take the punishment.  Sounds only fair, right?  You do the crime, you should do the time.  But that’s not the way our Lord would have it.  The innocent one dies, while the guilty ones, that’s you and me, are given eternal life.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing; that’s how our Lord would have it.

            The wonderful thing about Jesus’ suffering and death is that He does it for you.  That’s how precious you are to Him.  The Son of David takes your sinfulness into Himself.  He takes it all and dies for it.  The punishment that you so rightly deserve, is taken out on the Christ.  The death that was ours to die, Jesus dies.  The guilt that you bear because of your sin, He collects it as if it were His very own.   

All of this for you.  This beggar King takes your sin and gives you His righteousness, His forgiveness.  He takes Your punishment and gives you an everlasting reward.  Jesus rides on His donkey into Jerusalem to die for you; to face the scorn and pain of the cross for you.

            The beggar King, the Son of David, comes not that you would be rich, mighty, or comfortable in an earthly way of speaking, but so that you would be given, through His  death and resurrection, all the treasures of heaven.

Through baptism, we’re brought into the death and resurrection of Christ, we’re made a part of it.  Through the water combined the Word, our Lord comes to us.  Our Lord continually comes to us under humble means.  To the world, words seem meek, but God uses the Words of the Gospel to bring to you, here and now, the forgiveness that Christ won on the cross so many years ago.  To the eye, water is nothing special, yet our Lord connects His Word to it and uses it to bring to you forgiveness and make you a new creation in Him.  Bread and wine are ordinary, but God combines His Word to it and uses these humble means to bring Himself to you, that by eating and drinking His body and blood, you’re as close to Him as you can get this side of eternity.  The forgiveness that He won on the cross is now placed into your mouths.  Humble means, through which He comes to you to forgive, renew and strengthen. 

            That’s the kind of King we have.  One who suffers and dies in lowly fashion for you.  One who rides into town on a donkey to die for you.  To the world, it looks like defeat, the picture looks all wrong, but to us, it’s God’s work of salvation.  It’s how God has redeemed the world to Himself.  How He forgives your sins, so that you’ve been purchased and won from all sin, death, and the power of the devil. 

The King rides into Jerusalem mounted on a donkey to take up His crown of thorns and His throne on the cross.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Because He does it all for you.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

Wednesday of Lent 5; Exodus 3:1-17

"Jesus- The Deliverer of His People"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Throughout this Lenten services, we’ve looked at types of Christ in the Old Testament; remember, a type is something in the Old Testament that foreshadows a New Testament reality.  Specifically, we saw how people in the Old Testament point us to Christ.  After all, that’s what the Scriptures are all about- Jesus.  There are countless numbers of people in the Old Testament I could have used; this sermon series could last a long time if we went through them all.  Throughout these last few weeks, we’ve looked at how: Adam, Isaac, Esau, and Joseph foreshadow Christ and tonight, we’ll complete our series with Moses.

When you think of Moses and all that he did, what stands out foremost in your mind?  To many, Moses is the Law-giver.  He’s the guy who came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.  I mean that’s what the Charleston Heston movie is called, right, The Ten Commandments.  It’s not called The Parting the Red Sea, or The Liberation of Israel, but they named the movie The Ten Commandments. 

            Yet, Moses is more than the Law- giver but the deliverer of Israel. For 430 years, Israel was in bondage in Egypt, forced to be their slaves.  They lived under the whip of Pharaoh, forced into labor.  At one point Pharaoh even ordered that every male Hebrew baby be killed.  But one escaped- Moses.  He was born into the world for a purpose.  Do be the instrument that God uses to deliver the people of Israel out of slavery and lead them to the land that had been promised to Abraham. 

            But even on their way out of slavery, even as God is ushering them to the land that He had promised them, Israel can’t help but grumble.  They go throughout the desert complaining constantly about the conditions and actually longing to be back under the yoke of slavery in Egypt.  On their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land, Israel goes kicking and screaming.

            Not unlike us.  We were born into slavery under sin, death, and the devil- our harsh overlords who want nothing else than to drag us down to everlasting fire.  And as we make our way through the wilderness of this world, the slavery of sin often looks better than the deliverance of Jesus.  Our sinful nature seeks to be bound to the things of lust, jealousy, and the things that are best for itself instead of the neighbor.  It seeks the things of the world instead of the things of God.

            By nature, we are children of slavery, born in the chains of sin; helpless to deliver ourselves.  Like Israel, we need a deliverer, one to crush the chains of sin, conquer death, and lead us out of the realm of the devil and usher us into the Promised Land.

            Who shall save us from the bondage of sin?  Who shall deliver us from the chains of the devil?  Who shall deliver us from the icy grip of death?  Jesus.  Jesus- the Second Moses.  Jesus has delivered us by Himself being placed into bondage.  For you, He was placed under the whip of Pilate.   For you, He binds your sins to Himself.  For you, He was placed on the cross, submitting to the yoke death for three days. 

            So that we, who were in bondage to these things, have been released.  Sin, death, and the devil are no longer your master, Jesus is.  And when we turn back, grumbling about how deliverance often looks more like slavery, there’s Jesus, calling us back to Him.  In baptisms Christ has claimed you out of slavery.   Jesus has already descended into hell and proclaimed victory over Satan, crying out, “Let my people go!” 

 In this world, we wander through it as Israel wandered for 40 years but at last, Israel crossed the Jordan, entering the land that had been promised to them.  So it is for us.  Our pilgrimage shall end.  After the time of our sojourning, we will be brought to the Promised Land; land flowing with milk and honey.  A land where the shackles of sin will be forever removed and the devil can no longer harm you. 

This is your promise.  That because Jesus submitted Himself to the cross, but was raised again, you have been set free; made a liberated people of God by passing through waters of baptism.  Your chains have been cast off by your deliverer, the Second Moses- Jesus. 

Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

5th Sunday in Lent; Luke 20:9-20

"The Lord and His Vineyard"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            A man planted his seed and it found good soil.  But instead of caring for his newly planted vineyard, he rents it out to tenants.  There must not have been much of an application process because, it seems, he rented it out to the first guys who showed up- who happened to be wicked.  The wicked tenants were given charge of the vineyard while the lord of the vineyard left and went to a far away country.  Who would do this? 

            But it gets even crazier.  At the appointed time, at the time of harvest, the time for lord of the vineyard to collect his fruit, he sends two servants, whom they flog and cast out.  The third servant is wounded severely.  So what does the lord of the vineyard do?  We get a glimpse into this thoughts and it sounds like he’s nuts.  After these three servants were treated severely by the tenants, the lord of the vineyard says to himself, “What shall I do?  I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.”

            In Jesus’ parable, the vineyard is the nation of Israel, whom God planted on the earth.  The tenants are the religious people of Israel, such as the scribes, the chief priests, and Pharisees; those given to cultivate in the people the fruit of faith in the Lord.  The servants are the many prophets God sent to His people, who were often beaten and killed because the people often didn’t like what God had to say to them.

            Israel was meant to be a place of God’s grace, through whom His loving kindness would be showed to all nations.  Israel was supposed to be the nation that lived by grace through faith for the sake of Christ who was promised to them, and it was the job of the priests and religious teachers to remind the people of that fact. They lived by mercy not by merit, to be an example to the world to trust in the promise of God and to look for the coming Christ.  But when God sent His prophets, they were mistreated, or even killed, especially if they were calling the nation to repentance. 

            Yet, when God sent His Son.  The very same Pharisees and scribes, who were to point the people to Jesus -the fulfillment of God’s promise- they saw to it that was killed.  So, Jesus speaks this parable against them.  “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them,” Jesus says, “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

 Israel squandered the grace of God.  The Pharisees and scribes, along with many others in Israel rejected the Son, acted as if they were His friends, while plotting behind His back.  They turned God’s mercy into merit.  “Work hard enough in the vineyard and you’ll be rewarded,” they might say.  So, the stewardship of God’s vineyard is taken away from the blood-line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and placed into the care of the New Israel- to Gentiles whom God grafts into His vine by water and the Word- Holy Baptism.  That’s you and me.  God takes His kingdom away from Old Testament Israel and makes for Himself a new nation, consisting not of the pure blood of ancestry, but by the blood of Jesus and through faith.

The Stone that the chief priests and Pharisees rejected is the cornerstone of our salvation.  The Stone that the builders of Israel rejected has become our chief cornerstone, upon which the Church is built. 

            Now as the people of God, how do we regard the Lord of the vineyard’s beloved Son?  For we too reject Him.  It wasn’t only the scribes and Pharisees that put Jesus on the cross, but your sins and mine.  Our Lord has entrusted us the vineyard to cultivate and nurture the fruit of faith and our sinful nature won’t have it.  We too reject the Son.  We don’t have to beat Him up or kill Him.  It was our sin for which He was placed on the cross.  We reject the Son, placing His Word on the shelf, not coming to hear and receive what He has to give: forgiveness, life and salvation, ignoring what He has to give to us.  We act as if the vineyard belongs to us, instead of the Lord.  We invent our own religion, trusting in our own words instead of His, seeking to justify ourselves apart from Jesus and His cross.   We, too, reject this Cornerstone. 

            Yet, by God’s grace, by His Word, we are brought to repentance.  That’s what His Word does to us, it turns us from ourselves to Jesus, who had died for you.   Sin isn’t your Lord, Jesus is.  And His Word causes us to look up from our own fleshly desires, to Jesus, who has taken away your sins.  

            We repent and look with confidence and trust to Christ who has placed Himself on the cross for you.  That by His bloody agony and death on the tree of the cross, winning for us the fruit of forgiveness.  “And where there is forgiveness of sins,” Luther writes, “there is also life and salvation.” 

            God established His Church in the nation of Israel.  He then established His church wherever His Word is proclaimed in its truth and purity and His gifts distributed ritely.  And He shall, one day, at His coming, harvest the fruit.  At the appointed time, at just the right time, when the horn blows, Jesus shall come, and the angels shall reap the harvest all who bear the fruit of faith.  He shall gather you, His faithful, into His barn to live amongst all of God’s saints forever in the Church Triumphant, your inheritance

            Israel rejected the Lord of the Vineyard’s Son, but not you.  Whereas the chief priests and scribes sought a reward for their own labors, you come here as weary laborers, looking to receive forgiveness and mercy.  And you have it, your sins are forgiven through the Lord of the Vineyard, who sends His beloved Son into certain death on a cross, all for you.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.