"WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?"
Good Friday, the Crucifixion of Our Lord April 10, 2020 Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT: When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished" and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:30 (ESV)
"Good" Friday--as we look around at the way we Christians observe this particular day of the year, we might wonder why it was ever called "Good" Friday. There doesn't seem to be much about today that is recognizable as good. We are a bit out of character today. This is the only day of the church year for which the prescribed liturgical color is black. This is the only day of the church year when our chancel lies stripped of its paraments. Some Christians are fasting today. Others will not speak any more than is absolutely necessary. Usually Christians rejoice, but today we mourn. Why? A number of years ago on a Good Friday, I heard a news commentator on the radio say, "Today is Good Friday, the day on which Christians all over the world mourn the death of Christ." Obviously this man had no understanding of what Christianity is all about. If he did, he would never suggest that Christians mourn the very act through which their sins have been paid for and their reconciliation with God has been accomplished.
If we're not mourning our Savior's suffering and death, just why are we so gloomy on this day that we have designated as "Good"? What we mourn is not Jesus' crucifixion, but the reason why it was necessary. Today we mourn our sin--the sin that earned the kind of torment that He endured for us. Today we gaze upon the cross of Christ with shame, because we know that it is our own guilt that has brought this about. Today we behold our Lord beaten, bleeding, humiliated, thirsty, forsaken by God, and left to die in agony and loneliness, and we say: "This is our fault. We did this. This entire spectacle is our responsibility." Today we look at Him with a profound realization that that really should be us hanging up there. According to what our deeds deserve, each one of us should be spending eternity going through what Jesus went through on that Friday that we call "Good," because the scene that we are beholding is nothing more or less than God's righteous and fair judgment against our sin.
If we're going to have any appreciation at all for what was done for us on that dark Friday afternoon so long ago, we first have to have some understanding of God's Law and our disobedience. God's Law is like a bill that needs to be paid. I'm sure that's something that we can all relate to, especially during these troubled times. Like any bill, the Law of God makes certain demands and spells out the consequences if those demands are not met. God's Law demands of us moral perfection, and the consequence it prescribes for our failure to meet that demand is total banishment from the grace and fellowship of God. None of us has met that demand, and none of us can. And so the debt that we owe God because of our disobedience hangs over our heads. No matter how free and powerful and independent and moral we may like to think we are, we are totally helpless and hopeless when it comes to making things right between a perfect God and His sinful creatures.
What's good about today is that the Christ of the cross became our Substitute both in meeting the demands of the Law of God and in enduring the consequences of our sin. And that wasn't an easy thing to do. Living in this world, Jesus faced real temptation--the same kind of temptation that we face every day. But unlike us, He was able to resist. The perfect life that He lived was not lived for Himself. He did it for you and me, so that through our faith in Him His perfect righteousness might be ours in the sight of God. On the cross He was engulfed in darkness--not just the physical darkness that covered the land, but also and especially the spiritual darkness of facing God's judgment as the Bearer of our guilt. He bore it all, just as Isaiah the prophet, writing centuries before, had predicted. His hands and feet were pierced, just as the psalmist, also writing centuries before, had prophesied. The sting of the whip, the bite of the nails, the humiliation of the mockers--all of this, and more--He willingly bore for us, so that our sin might be punished in His body. He also bore the spiritual dimension of our guilt--separation from God. Matthew describes this mystery for us: "About the ninth hour," writes the evangelist, "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" (Matthew 27:46). He who indeed was God bore even our separation from God. He endured rejection by God. How could this be? Because on that cross hangs the One who bears all the sin of all people for all time. He is therefore the Object of God's wrath against sin. Because God hates sin, He takes out His anger for it on the One who bears it.
In our text the beloved disciple records for us the climax of our salvation--the paying of our debt. This is our note of joy for today. At this point in time--this moment in history--Jesus knew that "all was now finished" (John 19:28). He knew that the payment of our debt was now complete. Now He could die. Simply by declaring from the cross, "It is finished," He gave us the assurance for all time that our debt is paid. No longer are we separated from God. No longer are we doomed to hell. No longer are we under the wrath of God. Now we are at peace with God, even though we ourselves have done absolutely nothing to attain it. It has all been done for us. There is power in this word from the cross--"It is finished." In the original Greek, there is only one word for this sentence. The word is tetelestai. It's an interesting word. At the time of Jesus, this word was used on business receipts, meaning "paid in full." This is not a word of depressing resignation that our Savior speaks here. He is not giving up or quitting. This is a cry of triumph--a word of completeness. I suspect that He did not mumble this word, but with the little strength remaining in His wrecked and mutilated body, He shouted it. He shouted it loudly enough for all present to hear and understand what He was saying. Perhaps the Jerusalem Bible is the most accurate in its translation of this statement. It reads: "It is accomplished!" (John 19:30 JB). That's Good News! And that's what is "Good" about this particular Friday. It is good because God has made it good for us by meeting His own demands and appeasing His own righteous anger.
How are we to respond to such great love? Our response should be total as His love is. It can't be haphazard or molded by our convenience. We should respond with our whole being and with all of our strength--by doing the things that please Him and avoiding the things that don't; by sharing His redeeming love with others, so that more of those for whom He did all of this may hear and believe; by serving Him who first served us, giving Himself totally so that we might be saved. But whatever we do must clearly be a response to His love and favor, not an effort to gain His love and favor, lest we deny what we already have. We can veil our crosses and strip our chancel and fast and wear black and sit in silent meditation on Good Friday. We do a host of other things, all of which are good and commendable, but we cannot in any way add to what He has already done for us, because, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, tetelestai; "It is finished"--accomplished--paid in full. And that's good! Amen. May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen. ~