Matthew 27,51-54. Good Friday

✠ We preach Christ and Him crucified ✠

Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum

Matthew 27,51-54 (John 19,16-30) 2419 

Karfreitag 031 schwarz

Timon, one of the 7 deacons at Jerusalem. Acts 6,5 

Olavus Petri, Pastor and Reformer in Sweden, ✠ 1552

Laurentius Petri, Reformer, Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden, ✠ 1573 

19. April 2019 

1. O Almighty, Eternal God, who for us has caused Your Son to suffer the pains of the cross, so that You may put away the power of the enemy from us, grant so to observe the memory of His suffering so that we may attain to the forgiveness of sin, and the surety of release from eternal death, to serve You in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.  Amen. (Löhe 473) 

2. »And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and exiting from the tombs after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 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!“«  

3. The title Son of God appears 10 times in the Gospel according to St. Matthew;  Jesus did not use this title to describe Himself in the Gospel, but twice the apostles call Him the Son of God. The title is uttered 4 times during Matthew’s Passion narrative, the final time by the Roman centurion overseeing Christ’s crucifixion.(Matthew 26,63; 27,40.43.54). (Matthew 10x, Mark 4x, Luke 12x and John 13x; total 39x vs. Son of Man in Matthew 28x, Mark 14x, Luke 26x and John 13x; total 81x). 

4. St. Matthew is very clear: the Son of God was crucified. On Karfreitag, God died, and thus „the death of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary is the end of the world, as we have known it“ [Der Tod Jesu Christi am Kreuz auf Golgatha ist das Ende der Welt, wie wir sie gekannt haben.] (Wenz 3). When Jesus died, the Jewish leaders who had handed Him over to Pilate were elated. That blasphemer who equated himself on par with God the Father was dead. So much for being the Son of God, for he had died. Not much of a God there, suffering and dying, humiliated and condemned, by the Roman law and the Jewish covenant as a criminal against the Roman State. Pilate who knowingly condemned an innocent man to death, comforted his conscience that in doing so he settled the bloodlust of the Sanhedrin against Jesus and thus quelled a potential mob uprising during the very important Jewish feast of Passover. Peace was tentatively maintained, all at the cost of a single man’s life. 

5. The peace that Pilate had preserved between the Romans and the Jews in Palestine is a type of the greater peace that Christ Jesus enacted between God the Father and us. Behold, the Son of God crucified as the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sin of the world, yes, for all your sins! Christ crucified is the costly ransom that paid in full all our sinfulness. Behold, there is Jesus, the King of the Jews, and He is dead! His crucifixion means that there can be no doubt that God loves each and every fallen, sinful man and woman. Three years before He was crucified, Jesus told Nicodemus: »For God loved the world so much that He gave His Only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.« (John 3,16). God desired to save the world from sin, death and hell so He sent His one and only Son as the vicarious sacrifice to redeem the world. God did not spare Himself, but rather He sent His very best for you and your salvation. 

6. The death of God on the cross lead to the defeat of the Devil. In the 3. century, Origen (d. 254 or 255) was the first theologian to propose that God has outsmarted the Devil (Gschwantler 149,8). The image was as follows: The Old Testament uses the sea monster, Leviathan, to represent the Devil as the Serpent who tempted Adam and Eve to sin against God. By taking on a Human body, Christ convinces the Devil that it is possible now to kill God and ultimately defeat his ancient foe. Unbeknownst to the Devil, this human bait was intended by God to trick the Devil into maneuvering the Roman and Jewish forces in Jerusalem into executing the Son of God, and in dying God would triumph over the Devil. Jesus is the bait, the cross is the fishhook and once the sea monster is hooked ... well, that is the end for the fish. Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394) described it this way in a sermon: The Divine buried Himself in the shell of our human nature, so that Satan at the same time swallowed the fishhook of the Deity with the bait of the flesh in the manner of ravenous fish (Gschwantler 149,8). In a Divine turn of events, the hunter becomes the hunted and the Gospel promise of Genesis 3,15 is fulfilled: The Devil strikes Christ’s heel and in return Christ crushes the head of the Devil. 

7. And, what immediately happens when Jesus died? Matthew tells us that the the tombs were opened and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised up. These risen saints departed the tombs after Jesus’s resurrection; they went into Jerusalem and appeared to many. The Devil lost his grip over Death and Hades the moment Jesus died. Such an event shows that Jesus’ death on the cross had broken the power of death and the grave, for His atoning sacrifice conquers those two ancient foes of mankind. 

8. 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!“ [ἀληθῶς θεοῦ υἱὸς ἦν οὗτος. vere Dei Filius erat iste. Wahrlich dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen!] Most of the priests and Pharisees condemned Jesus as a blasphemer for declaring Himself to be God Almighty, but the Roman legionnaires at His crucifixion confessed Jesus to be the Son of God. Truly the gospel and salvation was given out to the Gentiles that day!

9. Jesus is the Lord over Death and the Lord of Life. He proclaims: »I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though that person dies, yet shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die« (John 11,25-26). We have seen this truth born out again tonight in the Holy Scriptures that speak of His crucifixion. God died on Good Friday, and in dying He caught and defeated the Devil. God will rise from His grave. Jesus is your Resurrection and your Life. Go in peace on this night of salvation for Jesus is our Christus Victor!  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Gracious God, who delights in being gracious rather than to pour out Your wrath upon any; grant unto Your chosen ones, by the suffering of Your Son, so that they hate their sins and receive Your comfort.  Amen. (Löhe 474) . 

Which is poured out for everyone.

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Gschwantler, Otto. Christus, Thor und die Midgardschlange. Copyright © 1968. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to You, O Jesus). A. Schuster, Ed. Copyright © 1949 Freimund Verlag.