Good Friday – 14 April 2017 – Year A

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The texts for this meditation are written in

Isaiah: 52: 13 – 53: 12  &  John 18: 1 – 19: 42

God’s first and most important instalment of His Law was given to Israel through Moses with fire and billows of smoke on Mt. Sinai.  God did not do this so that they could save themselves through it, that we know is impossible, but to reveal the sin that already dwelled in all mankind. The Ten Commandments are held up as a mirror showing how far short all mankind fall of God’s standard of love for God and love for our neighbour.

Israel misused the Law, abused the Law. They broke the Law with idolatry and adultery and trust in man rather than trust in God, but worse, they kept trying to save themselves by means of a broken Law.

Isaiah was one of the prophets whom God sent to Israel to call them to repentance and to point them away from themselves to the great Servant of the Lord, the Messiah, whom the Lord would send, the Servant of the Lord who would save the Lord’s people, from captivity of sin, death, and the devil. We hear about that Servant in the Book of Isaiah, a Servant of the Lord who would come from Israel and to Israel, and yet would be despised and rejected by Israel, wounded, bruised, slaughtered and killed.

The same Isaiah announced how He would come: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call His name Emmanuel, God with us”.

Finally, some 2,000 years ago, the virgin, a descendant of King David, did conceive. “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

He was Abraham’s Seed, according to the flesh, He was the Son of David according to the flesh, but He was also the eternal Son of God, the very Word of God by whom the heavens were made. He came to His own, but His own received Him not.

Hence, we come to Good Friday, where we see the Servant of the Lord serving right down to His last breath, when He declared in a loud voice, “It is finished.” Jesus came preaching and teaching, healing people and doing miracles. He did not come to mock the Law of Moses; He was, after all, the author of Law of Moses. He came as the Righteous One, the sinless One, to fulfil the Law, even as He pointed out to the Jews that they hadn’t fulfilled the Law, nor could they. He had come to save them and to give them the Sabbath rest that they never knew, rest from their labour at trying in vain to keep the Law, rest from their work of trying to atone for their own sins, and yet failing miserably every time. He had come to save sinners by calling them to repent of their sin and to trust in Him as their true Rest-Giver. “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The Jews would not have it; they would not have Him. They had their precious Law and their precious heritage from Abraham, even though they didn’t actually keep the Law or imitate the faith of Abraham. Their leaders conspired to put Jesus to death, and Jesus willingly yielded at His arrest as we witness in the words of St. John; “Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”

In so doing, they were unwittingly fulfilling every prophecy in their own Scriptures. In so doing, they were unknowingly slaughtering the true Passover Lamb, offering up the one sacrifice that does atone for sin, shedding the one Man’s blood that is holy enough, that is precious enough, that is worth enough to make up for the sins of all mankind. This Jesus is not merely a man. He is the only sinless Man, the promised Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Son of David, the Son of God.

Here we come to the reality that each of us must face. The Jews handed Jesus over to be crucified. The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, perverted justice and allowed them to do it. None of us were there. We don’t have to apologise for what people did to Jesus 2,000 years ago. No, whether Jew or Gentile, we have to answer for our own sins, and they are just as real and just as damning, because Adam is our father, too, and we, like those present of that first Good Friday, are just as guilty.

The Law still cries out condemnation from Mt. Sinai, and each one of us will have to answer on the Day of Judgment for our own sins. However see what God has done on Good Friday: He has set up another mountain, Mt. Calvary, another place of judgment where the only one who is condemned, where the only one whose blood is shed, is Jesus, the Christ, the Righteous One. Although, He isn’t condemned for His sins; He’s condemned for ours. His blood doesn’t atone for His sins, but for ours. As Isaiah said, “We esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by 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.”

Here on Mt. Calvary stands God’s own answer to sin. He hates it. He punishes it. He destroys the sinner and condemns him to death. On this mountain the Righteous One dies so that the sinners can go free. It’s love that caused God to send His Son, His Servant, to this mountain, to this cross, that by His suffering and death, the Law might lose its power to condemn us, because God’s Son has already been condemned for us.

Then, as we will celebrate on Sunday, God has also raised this Jesus from the dead, and Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit in this Gospel to proclaim to the world what the Apostle Peter proclaimed to his fellow Jews in Antioch about the crucified and risen Jesus: ^{Acts 2: 29-33} “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.  Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

We must be wary, lest we fail to believe in this Messiah, for then we will have to answer for our own sins. God doesn’t want us to answer for our own sins. He only wants to see Christ. He only wants us to plead the blood of His Son. In this Gospel that we hear again today, we hear the voice of God calling us to abandon Sinai, to flee in faith to Calvary, to the Mercy Seat, to the Throne of Grace that is Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us. If God is for us, who can be against us?

On Good Friday, of all days, there can be no doubt that God is for us. Here we see the depth of His love for the world in His willingness to give His Son for our redemption. ^{John 3: 16-17} “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus in His death, resurrection and into eternity. Amen

Maundy Thursday – 13 April 2017- Year A

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation is written in the 52^nd Chapter of the Book of Exodus: Verses 1 – 4 & 11 – 14:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ….. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

And:

St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: Verses: 23 – 26.

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”   In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

The Old Testament reading from the 12^th Chapter of the Book of Exodus tells us of the very first Passover night, the night before the day the children of Israel walked though blood-stained doorways into freedom and life.  That was the memorial (paschal) night, the night of the remembrance meal - the hard, unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the lamb roasted to dry toughness.  The Lamb’s blood painted on the doorposts.  It is the night of judgment and death as God seeks out the blood.  Under the blood of the lamb, His people are safe.  Death passes over.  Without the blood there is death.  It is neither safe nor beneficial to deal with God apart from the blood of the Lamb.
It is a night of remembrance. The Lord commands; “This day shall be for you a day of remembrance, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall observe it as a law forever.”  In this meal, they remembered the Lord and His saving work; and the Lord remembered them, His Israel.  They ate in solidarity with Israel, past and present.  It was a holy communion of a holy community. ‘They’ were the descendants of Adam, a lost and fallen people, this was part of God’s plan to bring them back into communion with Him; a plan for them – a plan also for us.

Here now on the 13^th April 2017, It is again the night of that fateful day on which the Son of God incarnate in our human flesh laid down His life to save the world.  In the rhythm of the day as it appears in the Bible, evening marks the beginning of the day.  Darkness into light.  Evening into morning.  This is the evening Jesus was handed over; the morning would bring his death for the life of the world.

Jesus is in an upper room at a table with His disciples, His Twelve, His Israel.  They are celebrating the Passover, the Old Testament sacrament by which they were joined to Israel on the night they walked through a blood-stained doorway into freedom from slavery.  “This day shall be for you a day of remembrance, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall observe it as an ordinance forever.”
At this table, Jesus gives to His disciples in two ways.  First, He gives them a pattern to follow, an example of sacrificial service, of holding others in higher regard than self.  He takes off his tunic, takes up a towel and a basin of water, and washes the dusty, dirty feet of His disciples.  The Lord and Creator of all, bends down to do the work of the lowliest of servants.  The Master becomes the slave.  He came not to be served, but to serve, and to lay down His life as a ransom for the many.

At first, Peter would have none of it.  Pride gets in the way of our being given to.  It is so terribly hard to be given to.  We say it whenever we receive an unexpected gift:  “You shouldn’t have.”  We mean it.  But Jesus, ever patient, persists.  Peter must learn the way of humbly receiving as well.  Before you can give of yourself in service, you must receive the divine service of the Suffering Servant.

In washing their feet, Jesus gave them an example to follow, “that you should do as I have done to you.”  This is what it means to live under Him in His kingdom and to serve Him.  He is the King who bows before His subjects and washes their feet.  In the face of that, is there any task beneath our dignity?  “A servant is not greater than His master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.”  What would Jesus do?  He would wash dirty, dusty feet.
If clean feet were all Jesus gave out that night in the upper room, then He would not have given anything new.  Examples are nice, and examples from the Lord are even better.  Who can argue with a Jesus example?  But apart from His death and life, apart from our union with Him as branches to the vine, we can do nothing.  The spirit may indeed be willing to wash feet, but the flesh is not only weak, it is dead.
So Jesus gives to His Twelve in yet another way.  Not the way of example but the way of sacrifice and gift.  He takes the bread that opens the Passover meal, the hard, unleavened bread of affliction, He gives thanks, and He breaks it into pieces, handing a piece to each of His disciples.  To receive the piece of bread is to be admitted to the meal.  You belong at this table.  He says words never before heard in a Passover liturgy:  “This is my body, which is given for you.”  His words tell us what we could not know for ourselves.  This bread is Jesus’ body – the very body that will later that day be given into death on the cross.  Here bread finds the highest and holiest use - to be the vehicle to deliver Jesus’ body, the Bread of Life, living Bread come down from heaven as manna to feed His Israel.  His Israel, His church, would live off the Bread of His death until He appears again in glory.
He takes the cup of wine after supper, the blessing cup.  He lifts His cup, gives thanks, and gives each of His disciples to drink from it.  Again, Jesus says words never before uttered in a Passover:  “This is the new covenant in my blood.”  Covenants were sealed with sacrificial blood sprinkled on the people.  This covenant blood is given to drink.  Here too, wine finds its ultimate purpose, binding those who drink of Jesus’ cup in a covenant of His blood.  In the Old Testament, blood stood for life.  “The life of the creature is in the blood.”  This blood of the new covenant is a blood that was poured out for us, in our place, for the forgiveness of our sins.
Washing feet was the example.  That was something the disciples could do - but giving His body to eat and His blood to drink; that was something only Jesus could do.  He unites them and us with Him in His death and life.  He is the vine; they are the branches.  His body and blood, His death and life flowing into them make them fruitful foot washers.  Apart from Him, they can do nothing.  Nor can we.

Jesus’ gracious invitation to us also is to come to His table on this night which commemorates the night on which He our Lord and Saviour was betrayed into death for us.  The same Meal He gave to His Twelve, He now gives to us.  Humbly we receive the bread He prepared for us and eat it.  It is His body, our manna to sustain us in our wilderness journey until we rise to walk in Promised Land.  Humbly we receive the cup He prepared for us and drink from it.  It is His covenant blood, poured out for the many, poured out for us.  This is wine from Calvary’s vineyard to gladden our sin-saddened heart.  What greater gift can Jesus give, than to give us the fruits of His sacrifice, His own Body and Blood?

He gives His all to us so that He might save the all of us.  Nothing stands outside His forgiveness.  Nothing can separate us from His self-sacrificing love.  No greater love is there than that this self-giving love that lays down its life for another.  In His Supper, at His table, He lays before us the gifts of His cross and says, “These are for you.”

From this holy Meal we arise refreshed, renewed, restored.  Humbly we let Jesus’ Body and Blood have its way within us, enlivening us in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another.  Love that bends down in service of the neighbour - both friend and stranger.  Love that seeks to serve Christ in the least, the lost, the lowly.  Love that washes dirty, dusty feet. Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Palm Sunday – 9 April 2017 – Year A

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 27^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 11 – 54:

¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” ¹² But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” ¹⁴ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

¹⁵ Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶ And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” ¹⁸ For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹ Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” ²⁰ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹ The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²² Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³ And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

²⁴ So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” ²⁵ And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and ^eon our children!” ²⁶ Then he released for them Barabbas, and having ^fscourged³ Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. ²⁸ And they stripped him and put ^ja scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ³⁰ And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹ And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

³² As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. ³³ And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), ³⁴ they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. ³⁵ And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. ³⁶ Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. ³⁷ And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” ³⁸ Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. ³⁹ And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” ⁴¹ So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ⁴² “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” ⁴⁴ And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land⁷ until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Our Passion Gospel begins with the Governor of all things standing before Pontius Pilate.  Ironically, the all-powerful Lord allows Himself to be questioned by a weak and sinful representative of the Gentiles.

We know that Pilate is weak because he eventually caves to the pressure of the crowds to crucify Christ.

Although it was God’s preordained plan that Christ would die for the sins of the world,  that does not excuse Pilate for allowing this perversion of justice;  for all that he tried to claim innocence, he was guilty as well.

Perhaps Pilate should have listened to his wife.  She sent a message to him while he was sitting on the judgment seat.  “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.”

Dreams, in general, are unreliable.  They can mean anything or nothing.  In this case, the earth-shattering events to come were so momentous that even that woman’s dream pointed to the truth.  A gentile woman became a prophet of sorts, to speak the truth about Christ.  He was the righteous man, innocent and unworthy of death.  Leave Him alone, she advises.

Yet Pilate does not listen.  He listens instead to the bloodthirsty cries of the mob.

He tries to claim innocence.  He washes his hands in a public display, as if that proves that he is not guilty of killing an innocent man.

Like all of us, Pontius Pilate wants to appear innocent to the world.  We do not want people to see our guilt.  We want to hide our trespasses, as if to show the world that we are a good person, not bad.  To what lengths will we not go?  Surely we have lied to protect our reputation.  Surely we have covered up or hidden or kept secret whatever is shameful in our lives.  Surely we have blamed others for what is really our fault.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, we have all been trying to show an innocent face to the world.

Sometimes we are as naive as Pilate, thinking that an outward show like washing with a little water can make us innocent.

This is not the case, especially not in the way Pilate meant it.  There is a true washing that removes guilt.  Real, physical water is used, combined with the Word of God.  This washing from God is not a humanly invented sacrament for self-justification.  In Christ who died, Baptism has become the true washing of innocence.  For Christ washes us into union with His death.  He washes us into the holiness of His Blood, shed in perfect righteousness for sinners.

Pilate saw none of this.  He was only fearful of the riot that was beginning.  The Jews were prone to rebellious demonstrations that often had to be put down in bloody fashion.  Pilate was probably more fearful of the repercussions to his political position than of the violence the people might do.

May our motives be more pure.  May we not fear man, but the Lord God, and so strive to keep His commandments.  May we resist the pressures of those around us who want us to act contrary to the Law.  May we also not remain silent and do nothing when the innocent are slandered, or threatened with death.

In the midst of the travesty of justice and inhumanity in the Passion account, the Jewish people speak what is perhaps (unknowingly to them), the best prayer that can be spoken in response to the suffering of our Lord.  They cry out, “His Blood shall be upon us and upon our children!”

What they meant was a horrifying half-truth.  Let Him be killed, and we will take responsibility.  They thought that He was such a bad man, an unholy blasphemer, that any means justified the ends to which they were putting Him.  They thought that God would surely approve of killing this Man whom they thought to be evil.

Yet if we pray this same prayer in faith, it takes on a wonderful and blessed meaning.  “O Lord, let Your precious Blood, shed on the Cross, be on us and our children!” For no one is righteous unless the holy Blood of the Lamb covers their iniquities.  The only ones who have life are those who receive in faith the benefits of the death of Christ.

May we humbly trust in the Blood of Christ.  May the Lord grant us faith that does not waver as it clings to the innocent death of our King.

The soldiers made fun of Him.  They knelt down before Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Even as Blood dripped from the crown of thorns, they felt no sympathy.  They gave Him a reed for a scepter, then took the reed and beat Him with it.

He did not protest.  He did not use His power to defend Himself.  For He did not come to avoid pain, but to willingly suffer it.  He submitted to all the humiliating shame.

When they had crucified Him, the soldiers sat down to keep watch over Him.  When they should have been kneeling in reverence, they sat casually, as if the most important event in history was not happening before them.  This was only a job for them, an order to be obeyed. Perhaps they were bored or annoyed at this duty? 

Lest we be too proud, let us remember that we are sometimes bored or annoyed when the Lord is in our midst.  We are sometimes casual when we should be filled with reverent awe when the Lord gives out the fruits of His death.

When He hung upon the cross, the people mocked Him by calling Him the Son of God.  They said, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself!  If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. … He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Set aside the complete lack of compassion behind such words, which is horrible enough.  Beyond that, we see a total misunderstanding in the crowds.  These people meant to show that they were really the pious, spiritual people, and Christ had been a liar.  For surely, they thought, God would not completely abandon His own beloved Son, which Christ had claimed to be.

What they don’t understand is that is the exact reason He came.  He came for sinners, just like those who stood before His cross to mock Him.  He came into human flesh so that He could bleed even for the soldiers who pounded nails into Him.  He willingly came to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, to present Himself as the Lamb without blemish who would be slaughtered for our sins.

The crowds so misunderstood the purpose of God in sending His Son.  Almost certainly if we had been there, we also would not have seen the glory of God in the Man tortured on Golgotha.  We only see the plan of God for us in hindsight because He has revealed it in Scripture, and then opened our minds to comprehend by His Spirit through Holy Baptism.  Without that revelation, we would be as ignorant as the crowds who mocked Him on that day.  If we were numbered with His disciples, we would see the Cross of crucifixion only as a terrible event when innocence was tragically crucified.

Through the good news of the Holy Scriptures, we now know that the Passion of Christ is our salvation.  We see in His sufferings the glory of God’s grace.  We comprehend, even us who are spiritually ignorant in our flesh, that Christ is the Son of God, who came for this exact purpose – to save us by His death.

So Christ is recognised as the Son of God by the centurion.  He is not recognised when He is feeding the multitudes or doing miracles or showing love in His words.  No, He is recognised as God’s Son when He breathes His last and the heavens are dark and the earth shudders and rocks are split.  The centurion is filled with great fear because he recognises that here was no mere man, but the Son of God.

In death, Christ shows Himself as the true Son of God more clearly than anywhere else.  On the Cross, He fulfils His identity as the Son who obeys His Father even to the point of death. 

He yielded to death at the very end because even then, after all He had suffered, He did not have to die. He was still the almighty Son of Man who could have resisted death forever. With a single word, He could have healed all His wounds and stepped down from the Cross.  At a single word, legions of angels could have swooped down from heaven to rescue Him.  Jesus Christ, true God and true man came to finish all things.  He did not shy away from death, even after all the torture and pain inflicted on Him.  Even then, He voluntarily yielded up His final breath.

This is the love of Christ for us.  He suffered all rather than lose us.  He suffered the greatest shame in history to redeem us.  He paid the ultimate price, dying for our sins when His innocent flesh should never have tasted death.  All this He did for us.

We see the benefits of His death when the bodies of many saints were raised.  They came out of their tombs after Christ was raised and entered Jerusalem and appeared to many people.

This is a foretaste of the Resurrection at the Last Day. 

God was showing us that His Son’s death had already purchased eternal life for all His saints.

We have eternal life also, because Christ died in our place.  Because the Innocent Man paid our punishment in death, we receive His reward in unending life.

The Lord keep us in reverent contemplation of these events this Holy Week, since these events are our life and salvation. Amen.

The love and peace our lour Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen