✠ We preach Christ and Him crucified ✠
Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum
2. Corinthians 5,19-21 2620 2520
Karfreitag 031
Daniel, Prophet, 606-536 BC
10. April 2020
1. O loving and blessed Jesus, we draw near before You to meditate with true devotion of heart on Your bitter suffering. Lord, let Your woes, Your patience, inspire our hearts with strength to vanquish every temptation and spurn every unworthy desire. This is what our hearts would cherish most of all. What pain our souls’ redemption has cost You, O Savior! O Lamb of God slain in innocence! You suffered because of all our sins. Yes, the sins, debt, iniquities, unrighteousness and wickedness of all people were placed squarely on You and You claimed them as Your very own, so that in the judgment of God You became the greatest sinner of all, yes, sin itself. And as our sins were all on Your, so on You also came our punishment, overwhelming You like a flood. Amen. (Starck 82)
2. »that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.«
3. Saint Mark writes in his Gospel the following: »Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way he breathed His last, he said: „Truly this man was the Son of God!“« (Mark 15,37-39) Mark the Evangelist only records the title „Son of God“ 4 times in his Gospel (1,1; 3,11; 5,7; 15,39); he begins his Gospel saying: »The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God« (Mark 1,1), and penultimately concludes his Gospel by recording the Roman centurion in charge of Jesus’ crucifixion who says: This Jesus was the Son of God (Mark 15,39). The other 2 times Jesus is called the Son of God is by unclean spirits and demons. Jesus never use this title for Himself in Mark’s Gospel, but others called Him this Divine title.
4. Saint Mark is decisively clear on this point: the Son of God was crucified. The Apostle Paul makes a similar confession about Jesus: 1. in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and 2. for our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. The Lord’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) essentially composed 3 components: a vicarious sacrifice, God and man. God established the vicarious sacrifice long ago in the Mosaic covenant; an innocent animal without blemish is sacrificed for a person’s sin; as Jesus was being crucified the priests were busy sacrificing at the temple as many had gone up for Passover to have their sin forgiven. A man must ultimately be the sacrifice; goats, lambs and bulls only temporarily forgive sins because these animals were not identical representatives for man, thus daily and yearly animals were sacrificed to cover the cost of mankind’s sin. Finally, God must sacrifice Himself because no man could be found without the blemish of Adam’s sin. The incarnation of Jesus fulfills the Divine and human components: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; in this miracle God takes on human flesh, does not have the curse of Adam because there is no human father and thus Jesus is True God and true man: He is sinless according to both of His natures; He alone is able to represent mankind without blemish and as God His one sacrifice is efficacious for all people past, present and future.
5. On the cross Jesus was made to be sin who knew no sin. Only God could bear the dreadful weight of sin; every sin of every person was borne by Jesus; He became sin personified, and as God He bore it, endured it, suffered it, paid for it, He did so in humiliation and becoming sin did not break him; on the contrary, Jesus broke sin’s grip on the world! He ransomed us from our sins and redeemed us back to God of the Father as His righteous ones. The seed of the Serpent pierced Christ’s heel on the cross, but in being crucified the seed of the woman crushed the head of the Serpent. Genesis 3,15 was fulfilled, and the world’s sin was forgiven.
6. Mark tells us that one of the first people to see and begin to understand who Jesus truly is was the centurion at the cross; he was a triple threat to the Jews like the chief priests and the Pharisees, because he was a Gentile, Roman and an officer of the Imperial State; you would be hard-pressed to be more reviled by the priests and Pharisees than that pagan centurion; and yet he is the one who realizes who Jesus truly is: He is God. The gospel and salvation were given out that day for the Gentiles; all who confess Christ as the Son of God and believe on Him for the forgiveness of sins will be grafted into God’s family as sons and daughters of Abraham.
7. Behold, Jesus, the Son of God, suffered and died for you. Your sins, all of them, are forgiven. You are now righteous. Eternal life is now yours. Salvation is given unto you. On the cross, Jesus reconciled you back to God the Father, and He has made peace between God and us. Behold, the Son of God crucified for you! Amen.
8. Let us pray. O Almighty and Most Merciful God, pour out on us Your abundant blessing so that all who in true faith share this night in joyful celebration of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over Sin and the Serpent may be filled with Your heavenly benediction. Once we were in darkness, but now we are in the Light, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. (A prayer from the Easter Vigil in the LSB Altar Book 532, modified)
Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Concordia Publishing House © 2009.
To God alone be the Glory.
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