This year during the season of Lent through Easter Sunday morning we are continue what we started during our Advent season, that is we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, passages including His life, trials, suffering and crucifixion and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus. Today we rehearse the events of Jesus’ death.
By inspiration of God Zechariah writes prophesying Jesus’ death on the cross. He writes, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10). Notice that Jesus is the one promised in the Old Testament, the one promised by God back in the Garden of Eden. Jesus is the one promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Jesus is the one promised in Zechariah, being born from the house of David.
Today is Good Friday and the day we remember and rehearse the events of Jesus’ death on the cross. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, all the world has been cursed. Everyone born, from the moment of conception is born in sin. Sin is in our DNA, it is in our genes. If you remember, before Adam and Eve sinned there was no death only life. Their sin brought death so that everyone born is born to die. Here we might be reminded of why infant baptism is so important, because infants are conceived and born sinful. If infants had no sin and if they were not accountable for their sin, they would not be subject to death. Jesus, was born sinless because as we confess in the creeds, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit making Him truly God, perfect and holy. Jesus was also truly human, again as we confess in the creeds, born of the human woman, the virgin Mary. Jesus was human so that He might live for us, that is so that He might fulfill all the demands of God for us in our place.
Thus, as we have rehearsed and will continue to rehearse, the life of Jesus was a life of perfection for us, in our place. Jesus never sinned. Jesus knew no sin and after living in complete perfection and obedience He took our sins and the sins of all people, of all places, of all times upon Himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us. And because of our sin on Him He was crucified, that is He suffered the most cruel of deaths, even and including eternal death and hell. He suffered and he died on the cross.
As Zechariah foretells, after Jesus died, while yet hanging on the cross, in order to confirm His death His side was pierced and out flowed blood and water.
The Gospel writer John, the disciple Jesus loved, writes of the account of which he was an eyewitness, “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Jesus was crucified with two thieves, one on His right and one on His left. He was hung on the cross about nine in the morning and He died at about three in the afternoon. While the other two criminals were not yet dead, because it was getting close to sundown and the bodies needed to be buried, in order to make sure they did not crawl away and survive the custom was to break the legs of the criminals and throw their bodies in the ground.
When the soldier came to Jesus he saw that He was already dead, at least he believed Him to be dead. In order to confirm that Jesus was dead and to fulfill the words of Zechariah, the soldier pierced His side, that is he thrust a spear into Jesus’ side. If Jesus were still alive He would have reacted or the soldier may have pierced Him simply to complete the job of crucifixion, to kill Him.
John then writes that he witnessed the phenomenon of blood and water flowing from Jesus side. Some had suggested that this is the sign of a broken heart. Others have said this blood and water was due to the sever beating and traumatic death of Jesus. The point is that Jesus had indeed suffered the cruelest of suffering and had died.
Now we might ask, as some have, how can God die? Simply stated, as we each have a body and a soul, so Jesus was a human being, as we said born of the virgin Mary, and He had a soul, He was God in human flesh. Thus, just as when we humans die our soul leaves our body, so when Jesus died His soul, His being true God also left His body.
What does this mean? As we mentioned, Jesus was and is true God and true man, conceived and born in perfection. He had to be true God in order to be perfect which is the demand of God. And He had to be truly human in order to trade, substitute Himself and His perfection for us and our imperfection.
What was demanded of Adam and Eve, one rule, do not eat from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what the whole nation of Israel could not do, live according to the laws that God through Moses set down for them, even and especially what we cannot do, live obedient, God pleasing lives in word and deed, Jesus did. Because He was conceived and born in perfection, because He was true God in human flesh, Jesus lived the perfect, obedient life for Adam and Eve, for all Israel, and especially for us, for you and for me.
Because God is omniscient, living outside of time, in the eternal present, because He knew what was going to happen even before He began creating the world and because of His great love for us, He created the world and us anyway, but because of His love and foreknowledge, God has given us His Holy Scripture. His Word is a word with authority and power. His Word does and gives what it says. His Word set forth and foretold the events that would take place. His Word gives the promise of Jesus and Jesus fulfilled every promise and prophecy concerning Himself as the Savior.
Jesus was conceived and born in perfection. He lived a perfectly obedient life and then, of His own free will, not under compulsion or coercion He took our sins, all our sins and the sins of all people, of all places, of all times upon Himself. He suffered the price for sin, the complete price for sin, eternal death and hell. He suffered physically and eternally. He suffered for us, in our place.
Jesus suffered physical torment in that He was beaten, spit upon, mocked, slapped and nailed to a cross, the most horrid of deaths. His physical suffering ultimately ended with His suffocation while hanging on the cross. And so Jesus suffered and He died. Please understand, His life was not taken from Him. He freely, of His own free will and because of His great love for us, gave His life for us.
As John confirms the prophecy of Zechariah, to confirm Jesus death the soldier pierced His side with the spear and out flowed blood and water. As I said, some believe this to be a sign of a broken heart. Some point to the blood and water as Jesus’ blood was shed to wash away our sins, which was the reason for His birth and life.
Today as we rehearse the events of Good Friday we are reminded that it is Good Friday, not so much for Jesus and not so much that we celebrate, but that these events were for us and for our good. Jesus suffered and died in order to earn and pay for our sins in order to give us the forgiveness He earned and paid for.
We come on this Good Friday to be reminded. We come to be reminded that it was because of us, because of you and me, because of our sins, our sins of omission and commission, our sins of thought, word and deed, that Jesus had to be born, that He had to be perfect, because we cannot. He came to do for us what we would be unable to do. Because we are conceived and born in sin and because we daily sin much, we cannot pay the cost for our sin. Jesus came to pay the price for us because of His great love for us. Greater love can no one have than they would lay down their life for another and Jesus gave His life for us and now even greater He gives us forgiveness and eternal life with Him in heaven. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have. As we rehearse these events we give thanks to our God and we say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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