Posted on Friday, April 10, 2009
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GOOD FRIDAY

10 April Anno + Domini 2009

"Sacred Head, Now Wounded” Sermon Series

Part 9:  "The Wounds that Heal” (Isaiah 53:1-6)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.  Amen.

Crucifixes often make us uncomfortable - and well they should.  We should squirm before them, and not because of any anti-Roman Catholic bias or some Protestant delusion that we can just be "Easter Christians,” both of which would be quite silly.  We should squirm before crucifixes because it is simply painful to look upon our Lord suffering so and to know the reason for His suffering.  We should shudder before the image of our Lord dying on the cross, because we rightly sing:

Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain. (LSB 450:3)

In the darkness of that Good Friday, the totality of human sin - from the first sin of our first parents to the last sin of the last human being alive - all of it was gathered up, pressed together, and then off-loaded onto this Man.  He bore the whole weight of it and owned it as His own.  Thus He also bore its penalty - both temporal and eternal death.

As uncomfortable as it may make you, look at Christ upon the cross, dear friends.  See His wounds, the nails affixing His hands and feet to the beams.  See the blood running down His face from the thorns.  Behold the quivering mass of His mutilated back as He is forced to rub it against the tree, pushing up against the nails to take in a breath of air.  Look, seek, realize:  this wounded Man, dying in agony, is not suffering for a single wrong that He has done.  His whole life was only love.  He was the only human being who completely loved the Father with His all and His neighbor as Himself.  Yet it is because Jesus is love that He is now upon the tree.  Love will not leave the sinner in his sin.  Love takes that sin upon Himself.  Love is wounded to grant us healing.  He is offering atonement for all the wrongs that we have done. 

Yes, it is hard to look a crucifix in the face, for it is hard to accept the truth we sing:

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve Thy place. (LSB 450:3)

Yet it is salutary to look - salutary to fall on our knees before His bleeding image and to ponder it.  It is good even to beg Him to imprint this image on our hearts, so that we might carry it with us wherever we go, so that it can be before our eyes in all our sufferings, trials, and tribulations, and most especially in the moment of our death.  You see, when the moment of your death comes to you, Satan will press hard.  In that moment above all, he will seek his last chance to snatch you away from God forever, and he has a powerful weapon to use.  The cunning serpent minimizes sin when he would lure you into it with temptations, but then he maximizes your sins in your members in the hours of despair.  He invites you to indulge your sinful flesh, promising you that no harm will come upon you because of your sins.  But, that old evil foe is quick to change his tune when suffering comes your way.  Then, he wants you to realize that you are only getting what you deserve for your sinfulness.  He wants you to believe that you are not good enough to be saved.  And, he saves his most vicious attack for the hour of death, for when death is coming for you, he will happily set up the DVD player in your mind and replay for you the many sins you have forgotten all about.  He will taunt you, then, trying with all his might to convince you that you are no Christian.  He will declare you unfit for the kingdom of God.  He will tell you that you are his and that you willed to be his with every sin you committed along the way.  And all those sins will be playing all the while in vivid detail and color before your eyes as you are struggling in death.

And that, dear friends, is why it is vital to train yourself in life to look upon the crucifix, to behold your Savior's wounds, and to hold them close to your heart, counting them as your most precious treasure.  In the hour of your death, they will be your only weapon against the despair of the enemy.  You will be able to look at all your sins as the accuser brings them before your eyes, and you will be able to acknowledge their hideous nature as an irrefutable testimony to your countless failures.  But against them all you will see another image:  the image Isaiah holds forth for us today - the image of the Crucified One.  And it is this image that will shatter the devil's attempts to draw you into despair before your death.  Thus we sing:

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)

The image you want before your eyes as they are closing in death is the image of the Son of God in His last agonies, fully owning and answering for your every sin, pouring out His blood to blot out the accusations of the Law that Satan would use against you.  For awful as your sins are, each one has been accounted for, covered over in innocent blood, the blood of your Lamb, your Jesus.  As it is written:  "They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 2:11).  In that hour, with the image of Christ Crucified imprinted upon your heart, you will be able to say with boldness:  "Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, just as I am Your sin.  You have taken upon Yourself what is mine and have given to me what is Yours.  You have taken upon Yourself what You were not and have given to me what I was not” (AE 48:12). 

Thus you indeed will be prepared for death when the image of the Crucified One hangs before your eyes and you know that His life is now your righteousness; His death, your forgiveness; His wounds, your healing; His sufferings, your crown and glory.  People, dear friends in Christ, you have been loved by God.  God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, has indeed proved to be your dearest Friend, and He would make you His forever.  Look upon His cross boldly, confidently, continually, and you will see.

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.  Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting.  Amen.