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He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.(Isaiah 53:3–6)
Is “Good Friday” an unusual name for this day or should it be called “Bad Friday”? Some think that there is nothing “good” about today. So, they say, it should be called “Sad Friday” or “Dark Friday”.
To be sure, this is not everyone's favorite day. Deep down, we find this day to be sad and painful. We would rather skip Lent and jump to Easter. There is a part of us that would rather focus on the miracles and the glory of Jesus instead of the cross. There is always a higher attendance on Easter than today.
Why? Deep down, we want to avoid suffering and focus on glory. But also deep down, Good Friday makes us feel guilty. It should, because our sin caused Jesus to die.
In a hymn that we sang earlier, the question is asked, “Who is it, Lord, that bruised You? Who has so sore abused You and caused You all Your woe?” (Lutheran Service Book #453 v. 3). Then, we sang, “I caused Your grief and sighing by evils multiplying as countless as the sands. I caused the woes unnumbered with which Your soul is cumbered, Your sorrows raised by wicked hands” (Lutheran Service Book #453 v. 4). In the movie “The Passion of the Christ”, Mel Gibson was the one holding the nails for the crucifixion. He said in an interview that he held the nails in the movie because he was to blame for Christ's death. We can say the same thing. The Jewish leaders handed Jesus over to be crucified, and Pilate gave the order, but we are to blame. Our sin caused Christ to come into this world and to suffer and die.
This day, then, is not a day to weep for Jesus. When Jesus was on His way to Calvary, many woman mourned and lamented Him. They were in a state of deep sorrow for Jesus' fate. Many people today see the crucifixion as a sad event apart from any atonement. But He said to the women, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Luke 23:28). There should be no tears for Jesus, since He is simply going to the cross for our salvation. Rather, there should be tears from us of contrition over sin. We should have tears of repentance. The daughters of Jerusalem and many people today should weep for themselves and for their children if unbelief continues.
The earliest name for this day was “The Day of Preparation”. This title was even used several times in our Gospel reading. This was the day in which the Passover was prepared. Jesus is our Passover lamb. He is prepared to die by means of crucifixion.
Other names for this day were “Day of the Lord's Passion” and “Day of the Cross”.
Today is God's Day. This is the day in which the Father through the Son is glorified. Jesus once said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). We shake our heads and think, “How can there be glory in suffering and death by means of crucifixion?” But God's ways are not our ways. We avoid suffering and want glory. But suffering, death, and crucifixion was God's plan of salvation. So, today is God's day of glory. Therefore, this day was probably shortened from God's day to Good Friday, just as “God be with you” was shortened to “good–bye”. But nevertheless, this is truly a “Good” day. It is a day of our salvation.
On the very first Friday — the sixth day of creation — God completed His work of creation. It was finished. “God saw everything He had made and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). We might say that this first Friday was truly a “Good Friday”.
So also, on this sixth day — a Friday — God looks at the sacrifice on the cross, and it was very good. Why? Because all of God's just demands for a perfect sacrifice are met in Jesus. Jesus, a lamb without blemish or defect, was the sufficient sacrifice. We are not good enough to redeem or to die for our own sins or the sins of another. But Christ was the one who was able to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. His death was a ransom payment, not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. His death is placed in the balance on one side and all of fallen humanity on the other.
Jesus, then, is our substitute. He died our death. Just as sacrificial animals in the Old Testament were innocent and yet died on behalf of the person, so also, Jesus is innocent and yet He died on behalf of you and me. Just as the person's sins were transferred to the animal, so also, our sins were transferred to Jesus. We heard in our Epistle lesson that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus carried the weight of our sin upon His shoulders. Jesus borne our griefs.He carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
Therefore, a real exchange took place. The Son of God died so that we could be sons and daughters of God. Jesus was wounded so that we could be healed. He was punished so that we could be given peace with God our Father. Jesus endured hell on the cross so that we could enjoy heaven. He took upon Himself our sin so that we could be declared holy. He paid the penalty of our guilt so that we could be set free. He died so that we could live forever.
And Jesus did all of this voluntarily. The cross was not forced upon Jesus against His own will. Jesus willingly went to the cross. He said at one time, “I lay down my life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord” (John 10: 17–18). Our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah says that “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…and as a sheep before its shearers is silent” (v. 7). The hymn we sang earlier put it this way,
A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing.
And, laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing;
Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, to slaughter led without complaint,
that spotless life to offer,
he bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the mockery and yet replies,
“All this I gladly suffer.”(Lutheran Service Book #438, v. 1)
And so, Christ's death upon the cross is Good News for us sinners. This is not a day to stay home. The cross is not anything to be ashamed of. Instead, the cross was the means of our salvation. At the time of Christ, the cross was viewed as an instrument of shame and death, but now it's a symbol of joy. It is worn as jewelry. We hang crosses in our home and in the church.
About the cross, Saint Paul said to the church at Corinth: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.…For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 22–23). The message of the cross might be foolishness to the world, but it is God's plan of salvation. A Christ–centered and cross–focused message is preached from this pulpit every Sunday. We are not ashamed of the cross, but we are thankful that through it Christ brought salvation to our world.
So, is this day a day of sorrow or a day of joy? It is a day of sorrow, because we are responsible for the death of Christ. It is a day of sorrow, because our sins put Christ on the cross. However, it is a day of joy, because Christ paid for our sins. This is a “good” day. It is God's day. What kind of Friday is it? It is a “Good Friday”. It is a day of salvation. Thanks be to God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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