Good Friday

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, Luke 23:26-43
Vicar Gary Schultz

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The wages of sin is death (Rom 3:23a). It is only a matter of time before death and the grave come for you. There’s no escaping it. The sin that corrupts you leaves you with the inheritance of the grave. The things you do against God’s will each day are only symptoms of the underlying curse of sin – the curse that leads only to death.

The two criminals show us a picture of ourselves. Punishment for sin is what we deserve. Jesus, crucified between two criminals, shows how He lived His entire life, among sinners. As He lived among sinners, He was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. The thief on the cross bore witness to this: We indeed justly [are under the same sentence of condemnation] for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. He was crucified among criminals that He may truly be the innocent among the guilty. Jesus was even tempted to use His divine power and come down from the cross: Save yourself and us, one criminal exclaimed. But He remained and endured the curse of death.

This is how Our Lord wills it to be. God must offer up Himself. He offers up His own son. It’s a tragic, gruesome sight. Jesus has been through torture already, in His agony in the garden, in his betrayal and arrest, in His undergoing the trials of Herod and Pilate, in His enduring mocking and scorn, in the beatings, the flogging, the crown of thorns – the scandal and punishment of sin. Now He is on the cross, at the place of The Skull, even as Jesus was promised to come and crush the skull of Satan. It’s not a pretty sight. The punishment of death is taking place.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. To make His people right again, God must offer up Himself as the atoning sacrifice, that is, for payment. God gave up Himself so that we, His people, might have everlasting life. Our Lord Jesus was not defeated by death. Rather, He defeated death. He crushed the skull of Satan. He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

There is no fighting among the Father and the Son here. Jesus, as the God Man, asked and begged and demanded that the cup of His suffering be taken away. But Jesus, as the God Man, did not have any will other than that of Our Father. That’s why He went willingly, so that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against us. Our Lord gives up Himself to reconcile – that is, make right, the world’s trespasses by taking them away.

It is only a matter of time before death and the grave come for you. There’s no escaping it. Death is an enemy and it will come. But Our Lord’s victory over sin, death, and the devil on the cross takes the enemy of death and flips it around. When death comes for us, it will not be pretty. But it will be the way that Our Lord uses to bring us to be with Him in Paradise.

One of the criminals sought Jesus on the cross. He trusted that Jesus was able to help him. He acknowledges Jesus’ innocence. This criminal knows he’s done wrong. He knows he is being rightly punished. Yet he trusts in Christ: “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus assures him: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” So, too, for us. We know that we have only earned death. But Christ our Lord assures us of something different: eternal life. God’s gift of faith in Christ allows these words of Our Lord to be spoken to us when we are ready to depart this vale of tears: Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Your baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection makes the criminal’s words about Jesus now also rightly said of you: “This man, this woman, has done nothing wrong.” God’s righteousness placed upon you is exactly what this day – the death of the Son of God – has accomplished.

Be Thou my consolation, My shield, when I must die.

Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh.

Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, Upon Thy cross shall dwell,

My heart by faith enfold Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

(LSB 450:7) Amen.