Good Friday (2024)
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The Son of God Pierced for our Transgressions
The Son of God Pierced for our Transgressions
Tonight we meditate upon the death of Jesus Christ our Lord. For the Father has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. The wrath that we deserve, that we have earned for our sins and it crushes Him instead of you. It is tempting to try and shift or move this blame from our shoulders to someone else. To imagine that it is someone else’s sin that has brought the Son of God to this painful and excruciating death. As He whom Angels sang a glorious song to shepherds on a hillside now struggles to breathe. For that is the child whose birth we celebrated a few short months ago, is the one who is now hanging there for you.
We often excuse our sins and say that they are small or insignificant, and yet we see the terrible cost of sin on this day. What we hide away behind closed doors, or the gossip we spread carelessly, and the lies that slip from lips, the thoughts that we indulge and just saying it as bad as actually doing them. The ugliness of those sins is shown tonight.
The cross shows us what terrible cost we must pay for our sins. We want to imagine that God is like a kindly grandfather, who would just pat us on our head for the wrongs that we have done and say its ok, and sweep it under the rug. If that is all God does, how bad or awful is sin, and why ought we avoid it? You see the terrible cost of sin, when it comes to rest upon the head of God’s only-begotten Son. Jesus, the one through whom all things were made, carries your sin as He goes to the Cross. Even though He is the true Son of God, your sin is so awful and terrible, that when God comes to deal with it, He smites, and afflicts Jesus painful.
The Father doesn’t stop them from tearing apart his back with whips. He doesn’t stop them from pressing thorns on to his brow, from wrapping him in a cloth and tearing it away after the scabs had formed to it. Then nailing him naked to the cross as men sat by and gambled for his clothes. If that is what happened to Jesus when your sins are upon his head. Jesus who lived a better life than you, who loved people more than you do, who didn’t excuse or justify sin, but avoided evil all his days while you indulged it and made room for it. If that is the cost of sin, when it rests upon the head of Jesus, what would happen to you, who were born a sinner and have at the best of times sinned out of ignorance, and at your worst, told God you didn’t care, and you were going to do what you wanted. We return here year after year, because we forget this day, and forget the terrible cost of sin. We like sheep go astray while our shepherd bleeds.
Consider what Jesus has done, would you die for people who would forget your sacrifice, who would walk away from this night with hearts unchanged, who would cast aside your sacrifice the moment something more fun comes along, or who would try to use it to justify continuing to live in sin all the while piling more upon your head? That’s what happens to many, Jesus paid their debts, but they don’t want it. They throw away Jesus’ sacrifice and will have to stand in front of the Father with only their sins to defend them.
So why did Jesus do this, why would anyone put up with this unjust suffering, pain, and anguish that is rejected and misused by so many? What do we teach the children to sing, Jesus loves me. Such a simple song, but it holds the answer. Jesus loves me, he who died, heaven’s gate to open wide, he will wash away my sin let his little child come in.
This is the love that we sing and for which we give thanks. For if our sins were to remain upon us, if we had to pay for them on that day that we stand before God’s holy throne for judgment. We’d have no chance, for if the wrath of God against sin was this great, that He did not hold back even when it came to rest upon His only-begotten son, I had no chance of being saved. That’s why the Law was given, that we might realize, that if salvation depends upon our fulfilling of the Law, every last one of us is damned. But out of Love Jesus called you His friend, His brother, His sister, and knowing the punishment would be more than you could bear, and would separate you from God forever, He took your place. That’s why He through whom all things were made, who had legions of angels at his command, allowed men to lay hands on him, to strike and abuse him, and mock him as He hung there dying for them. This was love like no other.
For that we are grateful, beyond all measure for who else would have done this for a sinner like me who didn’t deserve to be saved? It is also why this is a somber night, for the Son of God died for me, and my failings, and I can’t even properly repay him for what do I have to offer up that is of worth. It is humbling for there is nothing we can do that will ever repay what Jesus did for you, or for me. We give thanks and rely solely upon His steadfast love, and mercy.
For tonight we see how great the Love of Jesus is for us. His love wasn’t just empty words, but was shown by what He was willing to pay to save you. That’s why we want Jesus’ Cross to be held before our dying eyes, so that when terror and fear begins to lay hold, we might remember there is one who loves us, and will bring us through death to His side. There is the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, who laid down His life to save me, a poor miserable sinner, who washed away my sins, by His holy and precious blood.