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INJ
'Why So Good?'
St John 18-19
Good Friday
April 14th, 2006
Tenebrae
Dear Saints,
“I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” [1 Corinthians 2:2] So says the Apostle Paul to the saints in Corinth. “We preach Christ crucified.” [1 Corinthians 1:23] Christ, and Him crucified, this is the apostolic preaching and the apostolic wisdom. In this apostolic church, and from this apostolic altar, that the preaching that you hear every time you come is the preaching of Christ crucified. This is all that matters in the Lord's Church.
But tonight, Good Friday, we especially remember Jesus' suffering and death for us. His death was cruel, ugly, wicked, horrifying. For Jesus not only suffered the cruelty of men, He suffered the full wrath of God. We want to weep and lament and feel sorry that such wickedness happens to our dear Lord Jesus. This is the deepest, darkest hour of earth, the deepest and most terrible day. Why, then, do we call it “good”? What is so good about this Friday?
Dr Luther will be our teacher. “By nature we are contrary,” he preaches. “When we should weep over our sins, we laugh; when we should laugh and our hearts be joyful because of Christ, through His death, has won eternal life for us, we weep.”
So we've got it all backwards, we lament Jesus' suffering while we laugh at the cause of His suffering: our sins. This is why Christ suffered, what He suffered for, but instead of eeping over our sin and the seriousness of our offense, we laugh about it. Either we find sin fun and amusing or else we think that it's no big thing, “everyone else is doing it,” or else we don't even realize what wretched sinners we are.
If we want to know the seriousness of our sin we need look no farther that the cross; there we see what is ours, what belongs to us, what we have earned and deserved by all our works and heroic efforts stained with sin. That cross, that wrath, that suffering, that darkness and desertion by God and all creation, that is yours, what you deserve. Jesus' passion in the most terrible revelation of God's wrath.
“Weep for yourselves,” says Jesus. For yourselves and your sin.
But this night is not just for weeping. This is a day of darkness, but there is also light and comfort and peace, a reason to laugh and smile, for Jesus wants to go to the cross, it is His desire, His utmost desire, to die, for His death means our life, His suffering means our salvation, His getting God's wrath means our forgiveness. And this is what God, what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit want to give us: life and salvation and forgiveness.
All of this is done out of God's great love for us, for you. “We should laugh and our hearts be joyful because of Christ, through His death, has won eternal life for us.” (Luther) This cross, Jesus' death for you, this is the Gospel, the Good News for you and me and all sinners. Good News, the very best news that we could ever hear, that we are forgiven, that the Lord Jesus in His great love for us has taken God's wrath in your place.
This is Good News, your Good News; this is Good Friday, your Good Friday, for this is your Jesus, your crucified Christ, your life and your salvation. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church
Aurora, CO
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