Parson to Person - It is finished

On Good Friday, we can no longer look at God as someone who merely winks at our sins or simply ignores them. We can no longer brush off our sins and say, ?Oops, I did it again.? We are forced to face the reality of what God thinks about sin and what it deserves.

If ever there was proof that God takes sin seriously, it was hanging there on the cross on Calvary. It was there in the beaten, bloody, bruised, and dead body of His Son. There, God showed the world that He meant it, when he said to Adam and Eve: ?For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.? (Gn. 2:17)

When you see Christ hanging on the cross, you are compelled to see what God really thinks of your lying; your lustful thoughts and actions; your covetous desires; your gossip; your lack of fear, love, and trust in Him above all things; your propensity to put the worst construction on everyone?s words and actions; and your inclination to worry and doubt God?s love and protection.

But God did not send His Son to the cross simply to make you feel bad. Good Friday is not a ?feel sorry for Jesus? day. Nor is it a funeral for Jesus. Christ willingly drank the cup of suffering, for you.

What you see in the cross of Christ?what you ought to see most clearly?is the extent of His love for sinners. If ever there was proof of God?s love, proof of His mercy toward sinners, proof of His desire to save, it was hanging there on Calvary. There, the holy God was taking out His wrath and anger toward your sin on His innocent and holy Son so that you would not have to face His wrath for eternity.

But you would not know this merely by looking at the cross, apart from faith. It is only by divine revelation through the mouths of prophets and apostles (the Bible) that you know what was actually taking place on that day. Without this, you would be like those who believed Him to be ?stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted? (Is. 53:4). You would not know simply by looking at the cross that He was ?wounded for our transgressions? and ?crushed for our iniquities? (Is. 53:5).

You would not have known, unless it had been revealed to you in the Bible, that in Christ, ?God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.? (2 Cor. 5:19) This is why Christ made known to His disciples the purpose of His sacrifice in the words by which He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar: ?This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.? (Mt. 26:28)

So it is through the words of Jesus, and His prophets and apostles, that you know and believe that everything that happened on Good Friday was according to God?s own will. As the Prophet Isaiah declared: ?Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief? (Is. 53:10). Every whip, every jeer, every nail driven into the hands and feet of Jesus turned God?s fierce anger away from your sin. As Moses once stood between the wrath of the almighty God and the idolatrous Israelites, so, too, this man Jesus, condemned to death by crucifixion, ?turned away God?s wrath forever.?

You can wake up and go to work each morning not in your sins, but secure in the forgiveness of your sins won for you on the cross. You can approach your heavenly Father boldly, having been cleansed of your sins through Holy Baptism, knowing that by faith you stand innocent before Him.

That is how the Church looks at the death of the Son of God. That is why we call this day ?Good.? It was good that God placed His own Son under a curse, good that the nails were driven into His flesh, good that the spear pierced His side, good that blood and water flowed from Him, good that His head was bowed in death for us. And it is good that He has turned the cup of His Father?s wrath into a cup of blessing for us, which we receive with grateful hearts in His Holy Supper.

As Jesus Himself declared on that first Good Friday, ?It is finished!?