Grace Lutheran Church Sermon Good Friday Evening, April 6, 2007

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

Good Friday 7pm

April 6, 2007

“It is finished: The death of death”

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30)

Jesus did not die as a victim but as a victor. Jesus gave up his spirit. The spirit of Jesus was given to our death, to our sin, to our trespasses. This spirit was given to our need and covered us with grace and mercy.

April 7, 2006, Amy Hawkins was at home as a tornado came through your home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. She laid her body over her children in an act of protection. She saved their lives but was paralyzed. She saved her children but appeared to lose everything else. But she woke one morning to Ty Pennington and the Extreme Home Makeover Crew. Recently she was profiled by Oprah on her hero show.

There are countless stories of sacrifice that we can find where people give up something to help others. I think these stories happen because the work of Christ on Good Friday seeps into creation and has given humanity a new view on the need to help others.

But more than example or inspiration, Jesus is THE sacrifice, by which all of life is possible. It is by our faith in Jesus Christ that our own works become sanctified. The letter to the Hebrews states about the sacrifices of others, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” (Heb 13:1)

If the sacrifices we make were able to accomplish the reconciliation of others to the wrath of God, if the sacrifices of the old commandment at the temple had been effective, they would have been stopped because they would have worked and so no longer needed.

We need the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus because every day there are reminders of sin.

The letter to the Hebrews is about the sacrifices offered by the priests at the Temple in Jerusalem. Every priest would stand daily at his service, repeatedly offering the same sacrifices which never can take away sins.

But the sacrifice of Christ was offered on the cross for all time, all people, in all places. Jesus then sat down at the right hand of God having accomplished what we could not. For by his single offering of self he has made us perfect for all time. Jeremiah 31:34 promises, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

By Jesus offering we are made perfect. When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” he was bringing an end to our vain efforts to silence God’s wrath. By the blood of Jesus we now have confidence that we can enter the holy places of God. God is no longer an enemy but our shelter. God is no longer one we need to hide from in fright, he is our refuge in the storms of life.

This idea that God could be an enemy that needs to be run away from may sound foreign to you. But please consider the great danger that sin brings upon the soul. We have a just God who punishes sin. Paul confirmed in the letter to the Romans that “the wages of sin is death.” We no longer need to shrink back; we are righteous by faith and can stand before God. God’s grace makes beauty out of everything. The ugly stain of sin is no more. Christ has accomplished what no beauty show could, has brought beauty back to a world daily surrounded by disease, divorce, dread, deadbeat dads, and death.

It is finished. We are not those who shrink back from death and are destroyed. By faith we understand that by the power of the one who created the world our lives have been given new meaning by the sacrifice of Jesus. We are now able to love because we have been loved.

Soli Deo Gloria

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