✠ We preach Christ and Him crucified ✠
Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum
2. Corinthians 5,(14b-18) 19-21 2116
Karfreitag 031 schwarz
✠ The Annunciation of our Lord. W ✠
Dismas, the penitent insurrectionist at Christ’s right hand
25. March 2016 [1]
1. O Almighty and Everlasting God, who has willed that Your Son should bear for us the pains of the cross, so that You might remove from us the power of the adversary; help us to remember and give thanks for our Lord’s passion so that we may obtain remission of sin and redemption from everlasting death; through the same, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for Karfreitag).
2. »For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has arrived. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 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. Tonight is one of the rare occasions in the Church Year where Karfreitag and the Annunciation fall on the same date. This happened in 2005, but won’t occur again until 2157! 25. March is when Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her she would bear the Son of God, and 9 months later Jesus was born. This conjunction of Church feasts is important because Jesus was crucified on the anniversary of His conception. He goes from the womb to the tomb on this day.
4. Furthermore, Jesus’ preaching was fulfilled on Karfreitag. The Synoptic Gospels record on four different occasions where Jesus had said He would suffer, be crucified and die (Matthew 16,21; 17,22-23; 20,17-19; 26,1). Tonight, as we remember our Lord’s crucifixion, we ponder the Apostle Paul’s proclamation in his Epistle: »If anyone is in Christ, then he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has arrived. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself.«
5. How did Jesus make the old new? St. Paul tells how: »For our sake God the Father made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.« Jesus was made to be sin upon the cross. Again St. Paul: »Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree [Deuteronomy 21,23]— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might appear to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith« (Galatians 3,13-14).
6. The irony of Jesus’ execution was not lost upon the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees who had plotted His death. Jesus had claimed to be the Messiah and God. The Jewish leaders called this blasphemy, and the law of Moses said blasphemers were to be stoned to death (Leviticus 24,16). However, they could not execute Jesus since the Romans had ordered that only the governor could execute capital punishment. Prefect Pontius Pilate would have to review the Sanhedrin’s verdict and pronounce sentence or dismiss the case. [2] (The Jews had lost the right of ius gladii (law of the sword) when Palestine became a Roman province in AD 6. Although they retained the right to stone fellow Jews if it was confined to just Jews and would not cause a major uproar for the Romans.). So their argument before Pilate was that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God, thus breaking a Jewish law, and that in making this declaration He had also claimed to be the King of the Jews, breaking a Roman law. Sedition against Rome by non-Roman citizens was punished by crucifixion, and the Romans were planning to execute three Jewish seditionists the next day. The Jews understood crucifixion to be akin to hanging on a tree, and so by having Jesus crucified the Sanhedrin condemned Him under the Mosaic law thereby making Him a curse and an outcast among Jewish society. Their deft political and religious maneuverings gave them an all-around wining decision.
7. Pilate knew how shrewd the Sanhedrin were, having dealt with their religious zeal for years as governor. He understood the underlying motives for their request, tried to thwart it, but in the end he wanted to preserve peace during the feast of Passover lest a riot break out and Roman legionnaires had to be sent in to crush the violence. In one final act of oneupmanship, Pilate ordered the crime for Jesus’ crucifixion to placed above His head as „King of the Jews“. The Sanhedrin balked at this, and they wanted Pilate to change it to „He said he was the King of the Jews“. But Pilate made Jesus’ claim official when he had the inscription (titulum) written and placed above Jesus’ head when He was crucified written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: מנצרת, מלך היהודים ישו, Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum, Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, thus in English: „Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews“, and as it is commonly rendered today upon crosses and crucifixes with the Latin abbreviation „INRI“.
8. The Gospel according to John records four specific Scriptures that Jesus fulfilled during His crucifixion. The Roman soldiers cast lots for His seamless tunic; this was prophesied in Psalm 22: »They divide My clothes among them and cast lots for my garment« (Psalm 22,18). Jesus said: »I thirst«; this was prophesied in Psalm 69: »They put gall in My food and gave Me vinegar for My thirst« (Psalm 22,15; 69,21). The Romans did not break His legs or any other bones in His body; this was prophesied in Psalm 34: »God protects all His bones, and not one of them will be broken« (Psalm 34,20). Finally, the Romans pierced His side; this was prophesied in Zechariah 12: »I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son« (Zechariah 12,10).
9. Beloved John tells us: »When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said: „It is finished!“, and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.« This final statement from Jesus is not a cry of defeat, but a simple and powerful proclamation of victory. Jesus’ suffering and humiliation under the law is over. The sin of the entire fallen world has been purchased. The ransom price has been paid, and the Heavenly Father’s wrath and anger against sin and the sinner has been sated. The gospel leaves sinners in overwhelming joy. The gospel brings us to the foot of the cross and shows us Jesus, the Lamb of God and the King of the Jews who has redeemed us back to God.
10. Behold, the Son of Man, the King of the Jews, hangs lifeless on the cross. Jesus suffered and died for you. Your sins, all of them, are forgiven. Eternal life is now yours. Salvation is given unto you. On the cross, Jesus reconciled you back to God the Father. Jesus has made peace between God and us. Behold, Christ crucified for you.
11. Karfreitag draws to a close with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus [3] asking Pilate for the body of Jesus so they might bury Him before the day of Preparation arrives at 6 pm Friday evening. Pilate consented, and they placed Jesus in a new tomb that was in the garden near Calvary (John 19,38-42). Sometime between His death and resurrection Jesus descended into hades. John Chrysostom describes Jesus’ harrowing of hades:
Let no one fear death, for the death of Christ has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Hades took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O hades, where is thy victory? (Chrysostom in an Easter sermon preached in 400).
12. Beloved John tells us in his Apocalypse why Christ’s descent into hades is important: »When I saw Jesus, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His hand on me, saying: „Do no be afraid; I am the First and the Last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hades!“« (Revelation 1,18). Jesus is the King of the Jews, and He rules over death, the grave and even hades. He has triumphed over them and given us the victory.
13. The Christ who was crucified, died, was buried and descended into hades did all this for you. Karfreitag ends in darkness and shadows, but behold Light is dawning and the Bright Morning Star is about to arise and shine upon all the earth!
14. In Christ you are now a new creation. The old died on the cross with Christ, and the new arose with Him on Easter. Darkness has fallen on Karfreitag, but the light of Easter dawn is about to rise above the horizon. St. Paul tells us: »In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.« Tonight we have heard of this Divine reconciliation and the great cost is was to achieve. But the gift of reconciliation is free grace. Pass on that grace to others in need of it.
15. Finally, meditate on these words from the hymn Christ Be My Leader:
Christ is our Savior in calm as in strife;
Death cannot hold us, for He is the life.
Nor darkness nor doubting nor sin and its stain
Can touch our salvation; with Jesus we reign (LSB 861,3).
Amen.
16. 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 resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead 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)
Which is poured out for everyone.
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 2011 Cambridge University Press.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Maier, Paul L. In the Fullness of Time. Copyright © 1991 Paul L. Maier.
Wenz. Armin. A sermon preached on John 19,16-30 on Karfreitag, 10. April 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Rev. Dr. Armin Wenz. Translation © 2011 The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind.
1 Dr. Paul L. Maier dates Karfreitag as 3. April 33 (In the Fullness of Time 153).
2 Maier 144.
3 Both men were members of the Sanhedrin; they were probably the only tow of the seventy who opposed Jesus' verdict by voting nay or abstaining.
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