The
highest point of the year for Christians are Good Friday and Easter.
But they didn't come out of nowhere. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany,
Lent, and the rest of Holy Week all look ahead to Good Friday and
Easter Sunday. And for Jesus himself, a lot of things led up to his
cross, which we familiarize ourselves with every Lent. But these
things aren't just found in the four Gospels. They go back before
his birth in Bethlehem. The whole OT describes the coming and the
work of the One who would make it so that sin and death can't harm
you. And that's Jesus. And he says “It is finished”.
The
lost and condemned creation requires Jesus' “It is finished” for
salvation, or there won't be salvation.
I'm not too familiar with country songs from the year I was born,
but I do know the title “Looking for love in all the wrong places”,
if that's the only thing I know. And that's what comes into sharp
focus on a day like Good Friday: the whole world is looking for God
in all the wrong places. It's the reason why there is a Good Friday.
And here's where sinful humans look (and keep in mind, all these
things are really good things, except, they're not not the way to
find God by trusting in them): our hearts, our heads, and our hands.
God isn't found in the work of our heart. Simply put, our heart is
untrustworthy. It changes with the blowing of the wind, our emotions
fade and change all the time. It's not a solid base to build on.
The disciples went around, each of them, promising that they'd never
leave Jesus when he said they would (and they meant it). And they
all ran off when he was arrested. Only Christ's heart was constant,
and stayed on the road to the cross at all times.
God isn't found in the work of our hands. “This time I'll really
get it right” (which should sound familiar to us) would be great if
it actually worked, but what it means is “this time I'll make my
own rules and follow those” and then we can't even do that. The
Law of God says “you're never finished.” Only Christ can say “It
is finished” and have it be actually finished – your salvation,
that is, and his keeping the Law in your place by his perfect
righteousness.
God isn't found in the work of our head. Our head hears that God
actually died according to the Personal Union that Jesus is both True
God and True Man; our head hears that on the cross Jesus is sin for
our sake – and our head says “that can't be!” And in saying
that, rejects those things which Scripture says.
These are all the beliefs of a false religion: the one we're born
with. We're born without fear, love, and trust in God above all
things and with a false religion because of sin and the consequences
of sin in the world. Unbelief is the reason Jesus was born to die,
and that comes into sharp focus at the cross.
For when it comes to our hearts, our heads, and our hands, salvation
isn't found in any of these, not one little bit, or Jesus would have
said, “It's mostly finished.” Then we could have done the rest
of the job with our hearts, heads, hands, or you know, whatever
works. But we don't need to look far to see that Jesus is the type
of Savior who can do an entire job by himself. On the cross, he
hands over Mary his mother to the apostle John, that he might take
care of her, which we hear that he does. Now this reminds me of the
letters of one of the first Lutheran missionaries in Australia, Klose
by name. His letters have been published by the Lutheran Archives.
And in one of the early letters he tells of the awkwardness he
experienced with his family when he travelled to them to say goodbye
before leaving for far away Australia. He couldn't stay long, and he
could tell his family wasn't pleased, but there just wasn't much he
could do and he reports leaving uncomfortably, we'd say. He wouldn't
be the only one to have an awkward goodbye. But compare Jesus. He
takes care of it all, perfectly, even down to honoring the 4th
commandment at the last, by entrusting his mother to John, much
unlike our last minute awkwardness. If he can take care of even that
detail at the very end, then he can take care of your salvation from
beginning to end.
For Christ fulfilled the whole work of salvation; his “It is
finished”, and his voluntary death, and his handing over of the
Spirit do the job of salvation. Christ's work of fulfilling all
salvation doesn't come out of nowhere either: ask the prophets of the
OT about what he fulfills, they'll tell you. For example, and a very
good example, Isaiah. Here's a prophet who in the very reading we
heard today, describes the suffering of our Lord almost more clearly
than the Evanglists in the New Testament! So ask the OT prophets.
They will tell you why Christ suffered. And, they will tell you, as
great as his suffering, so great is his love. Every time the OT
mentions words like “steadfast love” or “mercy”, those words
should leap off the page – because there [at the cross] is the
steadfast love we're talking about, there is the mercy we're talking
about. So what Christ has to fulfill is a lot, and we could never
exhaust ourselves rejoicing over it.
But
here we might say, “How great are the Scriptures, that's Christ's
highest focus is to fulfill them for you, which he focuses on more
than the excruciating pain of his suffering and death.” Or do we
think little of it that the text says, “After
this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the
Scripture), "I thirst." 29
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the
sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.”
so that he might fulfill Psalm 69:21, “They
gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to
drink.”
And also how great is the love of the Father and the Son that this
is all fulfilled for you? How great is the love of the Father that
he delivers up his Beloved and Only Begotten Son for you. How great
is the love of the Son that he willingly gives up his life in great
agony that you may live.
For God is found, yes, gives himself to you, where Christ says, “It
is finished.” It's so much more than that his time on the cross is
finished, or his life is finished. Your salvation is completely
finished/fulfilled/brought to completion. His fulfilment of the Law
in place of lost and condemned sinners is finished. The punishment
of all sins, the great visitation of the Lord upon his creation, is
finished as Christ bears it all so that by the promises of his cross
salvation may come to you by grace through faith that when he says
“job done” it's job done for me. We can't really exhaust these
words; they are the high point of the whole Gospel of John.
And
the salvation of Christ is done when Christ hands over his life, no
one takes it from him, as we hear, “When
Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished,"
and he
bowed his
head and gave up his spirit.”
– that's how much victory he has over the grave, he lays down his
life and takes it up again, and the grave can't take you from him.
And Christ does the whole job of salvation because Christ is found
where the Holy Spirit brings the promises of his cross for you –
which is to say, Christ hands over a new religion. When John records
Jesus death, he uses these words, “he bowed his head and handed
over the Spirit.” Yes, he means that Jesus gave up his life, but
in such simple language, we can see that the Holy Spirit is given to
the Church through the work of the cross. It's become popular to
dislike religion but like Jesus. But Jesus gives a new religion,
his, because the false religion we are born with is no good for us;
sin is no good for us. But the cross is our highest good. Jesus
puts the Church throughout the world, and that's the greater miracle
than putting Mary in John's house (and it's good news for our
houses).
Conclusion: Behold Jesus on the cross. Behold the cost: sin. But
behold the gift: “It is finished.” Amen.
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