Good Friday
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Not once in the New Testament is the cross of Jesus depicted as being empty. On Easter morning we will celebrate the discovery of the empty tomb, but when you behold the cross, as presented to us by Holy Scripture, you will always find there the mangled, dying body of Jesus. And what a shameful and gory spectacle this is. So shameful, in fact, that even the faithful are tempted to turn away in horror or disgust. Indeed, in our own churches, surrounded as we are by a hostile culture, one will notice that our crosses are increasingly empty. One can always find pious reasoning for this: “Don’t you know that Jesus came down from the cross?” as though somehow Christ’s body on the cross is a denial of the resurrection.
I have no doubt that many Christians who have said these words are faithful believers who mean well. Yet in our attempts to mitigate the horror of the cross, even for pious reasons, the church has unwittingly furthered the agenda of the world, the sinful flesh, and the devil. Christ upon his cross is a visual sermon, a graphic portrayal of the saving Gospel. And the world will only and can only hate Christ and his Gospel. For example, I read this morning that students of the University of North Texas who hid Easter eggs with Scripture verses inside were accused of not being inclusive of other religions in their celebration of Easter. But is it the lack of inclusivity really the problem? No, the preaching of Christ crucified is the problem.
Dear saints, we can never appease our culture by making concessions. Nothing short of the destruction of the church and the silencing of the Gospel will satisfy the angry mob. You can never be friends with this world. It’s too late; your baptism marked you as its enemy. Peace with the world comes only through apostacy, and Satan knows this even if Christians don’t. Anyone who desires the love of the world will be ashamed of Jesus upon his cross.
St. Paul tells us that the cross is a stumbling-block and an offense. It will always arouse hostility and anger within the heart of sinful man. And we, the Church, will never succeed in beautifying the cross so as to make it more attractive to this world. In fact, there is nothing about Jesus upon his cross that is appealing even to us. Isaiah the prophet foretold this: “He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is 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” (Is 53:3b–4).
Our Lord asks, “O my people, what have I done that you despise me so?” Tonight we heard read the account of Jesus’ trial at the hands of unjust men. But make no mistake, the Lord is on trial every day. His actions are deemed offensive. His words are declared too narrow. His claim to be the only way of salvation is not inclusive enough. His teachings on marriage and human life are outdated. But who is it that despised him? Isaiah tells us: We are the ones who hid our faces. Who was ashamed of him? It was his own disciples that deserted him and fled. Who demanded that he be silenced? You and I stood among the angry mob that called for his death. It was the people of God who handed Jesus over to the Gentiles to be crucified. In this, the whole world, believers and unbelievers, is complicit. No wonder the image of Jesus upon his cross is so unwelcome, even, sadly, within the church of God. For here is the smoking gun, the irrefutable proof of the greatest crime ever committed. And it was our hands that wielded the murder weapon. We cannot hide from what we have done. We must look full upon bloody spectacle and confess, “Here is my handiwork.”
No, the Scriptures know nothing of an empty cross. On the contrary, St. Paul writes, “I have determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). “Wait a second, doesn’t St. Paul know about the resurrection?” Of course, he does. And yet he says, “Nothing but Christ and him crucified!” There is no Resurrection, especially for us sinners, apart from the death of Jesus. As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up for all to see. For paradoxically, only those who look upon this gruesome image of death will find life. Here at the cross, where all the sin of the world was piled high upon one man, is the salvation of all men. Here the One who knew no sin became sin for you. Upon this cross hangs the man who was not ashamed to be called our Brother, even while we were ashamed of him. God Almighty was numbered among us, the transgressors, wounded for our sins, crushed for our iniquities.
And even as we look upon what we have done, we see upon the cross what God has done. We look full upon the bloody spectacle and confess, “Here is the handiwork of God.” What we meant for his evil, God has meant for our good. He has created blessing out of curse, joy out of sorrow, and life out of death. No, the Scriptures know nothing of an empty cross, and neither do we, the church of Christ. Instead, we, who once were ashamed of him, now boldly proclaim him. We shall tell of our crucified Lord to the coming generation and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn. Here is salvation. Here is forgiveness. Here is eternal life. Look to the cross and see what our God has done.