Good Friday
April 6, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
A few years ago, there was an article which appeared
in the religious section of the Dallas Morning News, with the title: “Savior or Martyr?” This article explored news and information
about Jesus as it tried to explain just what Jesus’ death meant. However, rather than stating the biblical
facts of Jesus death on the cross, it presented new and fresh ideas which
challenged the Scriptural teaching that Jesus died on the cross to save the
word from sin, by painting a picture of Jesus as a man who was so committed to
his teachings that he was willing to die for them as a martyr. Though this may be the world’s conviction
about Jesus, you and I know that he was not just a martyr! In fact, you and I know that he wasn’t a
martyr at all, rather, we know that Jesus is our Savior from sin and death. He
is the one who suffered to save us. He
is the one who died in our place. He is
Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior!
Now, among those who believe that Jesus was a real
human being who lived in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago, there is little debate
that he endured great suffering when he died.
However, in some circles there is an even greater debate as to exactly
what and exactly how Jesus suffered.
Those who see Jesus as a great teacher who was willing to die for what
he taught, believe Jesus was nothing more than a martyr who suffered death
because his teachings went against the wealthy and influential people of the
time. But for us who believe in Jesus
Christ as the sinless Son of God who came to the earth as our Savior, we know
he endured much more than that. For we
have Jesus’ own words recorded for us in Psalm 22, which reveal the extreme
anguish that Jesus suffered to save us.
David writes, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so
far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out
by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.” (Psalm 22:1-2).
Just by looking at Jesus on the cross, we never
would have known the intensity of Jesus’ sufferings, but when we hear his own
words, recorded by the Psalmist, David, we see the gruesome picture of what
Jesus truly endured to save us. For on
that cross, Jesus not only endured the pain of the nails which were driven
through his hands and his feet. He not
only endured the anguish of his whip-torn flesh scraping against the wood as he
struggled for breath. But on top of all
that, he felt the weight of our sins pressing down upon him, and he knew the
horror of his Father willfully turning his back on his Son. In spite of his repeated efforts to get his
Father’s attention, his Father did not respond.
Though Jesus pleaded for help time and time again, it did not come. It wasn’t that Jesus only felt forsaken; it
was that Jesus had been forsaken by his Father. Why? Because at that moment, the Father was
directing all of his wrath against our sins at his Son. It was because at that moment, Jesus was
suffering the torments of hell which we deserved because of our
transgressions. It was because at that
moment, Jesus who was the bearer of our sin, was sin and had to be destroyed,
so that we might be saved.
This is how seriously God takes our sins, and this
is how severely he punishes them. Call
them what we will, errors in judgment, mistakes, little white lies, or even, if
you will, an alternative lifestyle, God calls them sins and every single sin is
a paycheck that can only be chased in for God’s everlasting justice and
punishment in the never ending torments of hell. This is what Jesus endured for us so that he
might save us, and this is why Jesus is our Savior! For when Jesus suffered, he didn’t just suffer
at the hands of the religious majority because he had crossed them. He suffered the full fury of God’s wrath
against sin so that he might save us.
This is the reason Jesus cried out in such agony, “My God, my God why
have you forsaken me? Why are you so far
from saving me?” Because when he
suffered, he truly suffered to save us, and when he suffered, he innocently
suffered to save us.
Though Jesus went to the cross as an innocent man;
he suffered as the Son of God hanging on the cross, not for his own sins, but
for the sins of the world. He suffered
in our place; the Holy Son of God who had never committed a single infraction
against God’s perfect law. He suffered,
because it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer so that he
might make Jesus’ life a guilt offering for our sins. You see, in the same way that the Israelites
had continually sacrificed innocent lambs to cover over the guilt of their
sins, the Lord God now sacrificed his sinless guilt offering to cover our sins
once and for all. Just as the Israelites
were required to chose a one year old lamb from the flock and take special care
of it during the fourteen days prior to the Passover and then, at twilight,
slaughter that lamb and cover the door posts of their hoses with its blood; the
Lord sacrificed his Passover Lamb, on the cross for our sins.
Though Jesus was truly innocent of all sins, his
Father saw fit to slaughter him to pay for our sins, rather than condemn us to
eternal death forever in hell; for as we know, we are far from innocent. Though we might try to fool ourselves into
believing that we are pretty good, all we have to do is take a look at our
track record. Each and every one of us
has at one time in our lives despised God’s Word by our refusal to come and
worship him. Each and every one of us
has taken his name in vain by shouting it out when we were surprised. Each and every one of us has failed to love
the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, and mind. (And those are just the first three commandments
we have broken.) But Jesus is the one
who kept them all perfectly, and he is the one who willingly went to the cross
to save us. For there on the cross,
Jesus, the innocent Son of God, was forsaken by his Father, to pay for our
sins. Jesus the innocent Son of God,
endured the punishment our sins deserved so that he might free us from them
forever. This is how Jesus is our
Savior! Through his innocent sufferings
and death, he freed us from our sins, and has guaranteed eternal life with him
forever.
When someone dies as a martyr, that is the end. Though their memory may live on in people’s
minds, there is nothing more that person can do for the living. When Jesus went to the cross, he went so that
he might save us through his innocent sufferings and death. When Jesus died on the cross, he died to pay
the price that our sins deserved. But
when Jesus rose again from the dead on Easter morning, he showed himself to be
the Lord God our Savior. For in rising
from the dead Jesus assured us that our sins have indeed been forgiven. This is the comfort we have in knowing that
Jesus is our Savior. He is the one who
freed us from sin and death. He is the
one who suffered to save us. he is the
one who died in our place. He is Jesus,
the Son of God, our Savior!
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
