Good Friday is a strange holiday, to say the least. It’s a holiday to celebrate one of the worst betrayals and mistreatments of a religious leader ever recorded. It’s a holy day in which we commemorate the seeming triumph of evil men against the only good man, the only Son of God. It seems almost like foolishness to celebrate such a day. Why celebrate death? Easter, that’s a little easier to celebrate. There’s something triumphant about rising from the dead. But there’s no triumph to Good Friday–at least, not on the surface.
For our message for today I thought we could consider the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (ESV):
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
The message of the cross, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. As it was 1950 years ago, so it is today. Folly. Silliness. You can almost hear a pagan from Corinth speaking. “Those quaint Christians with their antiquated rituals and their old-fashioned belief in God. How weird are they? Believing in this Jesus as being their salvation–whatever it is they need saving from. I’m sure glad I don’t need saving. I have my own ways of getting to God. Any enlightened mind can see that the Christians are just plain loopy.” As it was then, so it is now. Even today Christianity, especially those Christians who dare claim that God’s Word is truth, is regularly demeaned and denounced–but don’t you dare speak anything against any other world religion. That would be politically incorrect.
The cross. It doesn’t make sense that a Roman torture weapon should be the high point of the faith. Nobody particularly celebrated crucifixion. It was a nasty, ugly bit of business. It was designed to show criminals why they should choose a different career. It was inhumane, visually graphic, messy, and painful. The crucifixion victims would die from a combination of being unable to get enough oxygen, and, frequently, blood loss, depending how severe the whipping which preceded most crucifixions was.
Everyone in Bible times knew what crucifixion was. And nobody wanted to be a part of it. Truly, the unbelieving world thought the Christians to be utterly and completely insane to be celebrating a man who had been crucified. The Passion Narrative, which we heard from Matthew on Sunday and from John today, would be utterly unlistenable to the average Roman citizen. Hearing about a prophet or religious leader being crucified was about as far from desirable as could be. The Islamic faith teaches that Judas was made to look like Jesus, and that Judas was crucified while Jesus ascended bodily into heaven. To the pious Muslim, the thought that God’s prophet Jesus could be crucified is completely unthinkable. Even among people who deem themselves Christian, there are those who would rather not dwell on the cross of Jesus, that the cross is somehow where Jesus lost the battle and the empty grave was the victory.
And yet the great mystery we celebrate is that it is this most despicable and most detestable thing which happened to Jesus, this very act of crucifixion, which gives life and salvation for all who believe that this cross event was for them, was for you.
It doesn’t make rational sense. It can’t make rational sense. There are as many explanations as the day is long for just why Jesus was crucified, but when it comes down to it, the message of the cross only makes sense if you believe. If you don’t, the thought of a suffering saviour, the thought of salvation through utter humiliation is just too weird. It’s exactly opposite to the way things work in this world.
After all, we live in a world which celebrates the winner. The old saying goes, “Nobody remembers who finished second.” And Jesus had come to this earth to be glorified through His cross, to finish last, in any meaningful way. Only the lowest of the low, only the scuzziest of the scumbuckets, got crucified. There were loads of other ways to execute criminals. But it was to identify with the lowest of the low that Jesus came.
For the message of the cross means that if Jesus died for the filthiest of sinners, He died for you. If there is one message the Church needs always to proclaim, regardless of time or date, it is that simple truth, that Christ Jesus died for sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Tim 1:15). The message of the cross means that there is nobody on this earth who is outside of the reach of God’s grace. When Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished,” He meant it. He had finished the power of sin, death, and the devil once and for all. He had stopped the ongoing march of sin and death. He had completely overturned the power of death, once and for all.
Therefore, we are called on this day to examine our hearts and our sin which compelled our Saviour to go to the cross. We are called to examine our thoughts, our words, and our deeds, to confess to the Lord our sinfulness and our need for the life that comes to us through His cross. Consider your heart, your mind, and your deeds. Do you hold God first in all that you think, say, and do? Do you use the Lord’s name rightly, to call upon Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, or do you curse and swear by His name? Do you hold preaching and the hearing of His Word sacred, and gladly come to the house of the Lord? Do you honour your parents and other authorities willingly? Do you love your neighbour as yourself and support them in their bodily needs? Or do you harbour grudges and bury hatchets, rather than forgive? Do you lead a God-pleasing life in what you think, watch and read, or do you enjoy the lusts of the flesh? Do you make good use of the time and resources God has given you? Do you speak well and truthfully of others and yourself? Do you pine away for things you don’t have or people to whom you don’t have a connection, or are you content with what God has given you?
The cross forces us to face up to the truth of who we are before God. The death of Jesus points out that this is what sin does. Sin kills. Sin destroys all that is good in us. Sin is the root cause of all disease, all addiction, all evil of every kind. Sin is bad. It usually goes without saying, but on Good Friday we are forced to confess this again. That we are poor, miserable sinners. That we, ourselves, are why Jesus had to die on that cross.
And yet the cross also reminds us that He died for us, not to make us feel eternally guilty for our sins, but in order to free us from their damning power. It’s folly, by the world’s standard, to think this way, but it is the very truth of God. For this is what the Word of God tells us–that Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6), that His death is the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:25). As the apostle Peter said, there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Jesus Himself said, no-one can come to the Father except through me (John 14:6), and that when He was lifted up from the earth–crucified–He would draw all men unto Himself (John 12:32-33).
The cross reminds us that salvation isn’t about our strengths and abilities but rather about the God who is strong to save even the greatest of His enemies. Jesus died for us to make us His people, died for us so that we who have no claim to God can be His own sons and daughters for now and forever. The cross reminds us that our only boast must be in the Lord. We have nothing to brag about in ourselves. But Jesus is certainly worth bragging about. What He has done for us, nobody who truly believes can keep silent about. “He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.” (Small Catechism, Second Article)
The cross, finally, is not the end of Jesus’s story. It is a good thing and a worthy thing to see and remember our Saviour, Jesus, on the cross. Nothing wrong with a crucifix at all! But the even better news is that the cross is not the end of the Gospel of Jesus Christ–the empty grave and our living Lord is. We consider the cross so that we may rejoice that our graves, too, will be empty some day, and we will live body and soul forever with Him.
But for today, we sit at the foot of the cross and there gaze upon our Saviour, as He dies for us. We sit in awe and amazement, rejoicing in that great mystery that the sinless one should become sin for us, that God would die for His people, that we are His because of the cross. God grant that we always boast in the cross and not ourselves, on Good Friday and every day! Amen.
Last updated March 2008 by the webmaster.