Good Friday

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

And Jesus, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS (John 19:17-19).

Dear friends in Christ, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ was an utterly brutal affair. St. John, as well as the other Evangelists, record for us the humiliation, the mocking, and the beatings which preceded our Lord’s death upon the cross. And when it was finally time for the crucifixion to occur, He was already nearly at the point of death. And then He was forced to carry His own cross—the very instrument of His impending death—to the crucifixion site. Like Isaac before Him, He willing bore the tree and journeyed to His death. But unlike in the case of Isaac, there would be no ram substitute at the last moment. For Christ is the lamb for the burnt offering in which Abraham hoped (cf. Genesis 22:8). He was Isaac’s substitute, just as He is your substitute and mine. It should be you and me upon the three crosses of Calvary. For we, like Adam, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We justly deserve the punishment of death about which Adam was warned. And yet, we have fallen into sin, just as Adam did in the Garden. At the deception of the serpent, he ate of the fruit of the tree, and so sin and death entered the world. But the Lord God gave a promise to Adam and all his descendants. The Seed of the woman would one day come—He whose heel would be pierced as He crushed the head of the serpent.

And so it is that our Lord Jesus Christ was led to the Place of a Skull—a place known as Golgotha in Hebrew or Calvary in Latin. Some of the ancient church fathers believed that this was the burial site of Adam, though there is no way to know for sure. But one thing is for sure: This is the Place of a Skull. It is the very manifestation of death itself. For here, many countless crucifixions had, no doubt, occurred. We might say in our modern way of speaking that this place was the residence of the Grim Reaper. For when one who had been sentenced to crucifixion was brought to this place, he was in the very clutches of death and the devil. So it was with our Lord as He bore His cross outside the city and up the lonely road to the Place of a Skull.

And so it is that at this moment, the devil thought he had won. His attempts to kill the Christ Child through the madness of Herod had failed. His efforts to lead our Lord into temptation in the wilderness had fallen short. But the devil’s scheme to use one of Christ’s closest friends to betray Him and lead Him to the most brutal of deaths at the hands of the Romans was working perfectly. Christ was now in His clutches. All that the ancient serpent had to do was to sink his poisonous fangs into the hands and feet of our Lord and then watch as He died a slow, miserable death.

And die a slow, miserable death He did. From the beatings to the crucifixion itself, our Lord endured hours and hours of agony. But the worst part was the eternal separation from God which He experienced in these hours. For He who is eternally one with the Father and the Holy Spirit has been cut off from Their Communion. Psalm 22 is fulfilled. Christ has been forsaken by the Father. He is enduring upon the cross what is impossible for a mere man to endure. But as the God-Man, He endures eternal separation from the Father on Calvary’s cross.

This is exactly what the ancient serpent’s scheme had hoped to bring about. The agonizing death of God the Son brought with it shouts of victory from the demonic hordes. But in His arrogance, the ancient serpent did not see that it was he, in fact, who had fallen into a trap. For death was being destroyed in the death of Christ. The head of the serpent, who had pierced the heel of the Promised Seed, was being crushed by the very instrument of Christ’s death. For by virtue of its erection, the cross itself was piercing the Place of a Skull, thus illustrating how death’s reign of terror has come to an end. As the sixth century Latin poet, Fortunatus, so eloquently puts it:

On the Cross the offered victim

Of the sacred Body hangs—

Which the serpent sees, and straightly

Fails the venom of his fangs—

He with hissing neck is stricken

And succumbs to deadly pangs.

For in the cross, death is undone. He who once overcame in Eden by a tree is now being overcome by a tree as the One who was supposed to be the victim of death actually delivers the death-blow to the serpent.

And so it is that Pilate’s sign above our Lord’s cross tells it all. “INRI”, which is Latin for: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum. Or, in our language:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS (John 19:19).

Yes, indeed, this is the King of the Jews, but not of the Jews only. He is the King of Creation, the Ruler of the Universe. He is the one who in the beginning brought life and light into the world. And Christ is the King who reigns from a cross. When the kings of this world take up their throne, they do so in luxury and comfort. Even the most pious and godly earthly kings are self-serving in some measure. But not this King. For He is a selfless king. He is the King who emptied Himself and took on the form of a servant (cf. Philippians 2:7). He is the King who has borne our griefs and sorrows (cf. Isaiah 53:4). He is the King upon whom the iniquity of all men has been laid (cf. Isaiah 53:6). He is the King who frees us from the power of sin, death, and the devil.

Jesus of Nazareth is the King who surrenders His life for His people. He demonstrates the greatest form of love in laying down His life for His friends (cf. John 15:13). For He has taken upon Himself the suffering, pain, and death that you deserve by virtue of your sins. He has suffered as your substitute so that you might go free. And so, the repentant thief is blessed by virtue of his trust in the suffering King. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of this King. In this King is Adam’s hope fulfilled. For death and the devil are overcome and sin is atoned for by virtue of the suffering of this King. All things now stand completed.

And so it is that Good Friday is rightly called “Good”, for today is a day of victory. But our Lord’s victory over sin, death, and the devil on Calvary’s cross cost Him everything. It was a victory necessitated by our sin and rebellion against Him. And so, today we stand in thanks and awe, in sorrow and appreciation for what our Lord did for us upon the tree of the cross. It is fitting that we sing this day the words of the eleventh century hymnwriter, St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

What language shall I borrow

To thank Thee, dearest Friend,

For this Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

O make me Thine forever!

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never,

Outlive my love for Thee (LSB 450:5).

In Jesus’ name. Amen.