1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. Our text for this Good Friday meditation is Psalm 22. Psalm 22 gives a graphic prophecy of the suffering and triumph of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Only Isaiah 53 equals this psalm as an Old Testament description of how our Savior, who is God made flesh, would suffer and die. The message is entitled, “Our Lord Did This for You,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Today we will consider what it is that happened to Jesus on this Good Friday as it was prophesied in Psalm 22. We will also consider what this should mean for us. If Jesus’ death does not mean new life for you, then I pray that the Holy Spirit gives you the wonderful gift of new life today, in the next few moments, through the preaching of Christ crucified. If your flesh has already died with Jesus and his death has worked new life in you, then I pray that this new life may be renewed and strengthened again this day.
3. From Psalm 22, we see a graphic description of Jesus’ suffering and death. King David was writing over 1,000 years prior to our Lord’s incarnation and crucifixion. While the situation described in this psalm may correspond in some degree with what David faced, possibly when he was being pursued by King Saul, Psalm 22 goes beyond a foreshadowing of what David’s Son would experience. The Old Testament is filled with such foreshadowing, or what is also called typology: something happens in the past that foreshadows something greater that happens in the future. Psalm 22 goes beyond typology to what is actually direct prophecy. Here the Holy Spirit has molded the utterances of David so that the psalm reaches beyond the typical facts, penetrating to the word of divine prophecy to the extent that Christ here actually speaks through his forebear David, making the typical suffering of his ancestor the medium for the representation of Jesus’ own future suffering and death.
4. Psalm 22 begins with what would be the fourth of Jesus’ words from the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These are the words of the sacrificial Lamb from earth toward heaven. They are words that show devotion instead of despair, because while forsaken by God the Father, the Crucified One still calls out to God as “My God,” not once, but twice. This is a mystery that only eternity can penetrate: God is forsaken by God. The forsakenness of Jesus is unique because he places himself under the judgment of God as he bears the sins of all people for all time. He can’t be spared from experiencing God’s full wrath against sinful humanity. He who is completely innocent and holy came to take our place and to represent us before God as the Second Adam who was forced to experience the terrors of hell in order to free us from sin and death and hell. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is a cry to his God and Father, which penetrates God’s wrath, reaching all the way to the eternal and steadfast love of God for us.
5. Jesus is forsaken by God the Father. He is also scorned like a worm by those who are persecuting him. In their mockery, Jesus’ enemies draw the conclusion that God does not want to rescue him. The cruelty of Jesus’ enemies is graphically portrayed by comparing them to vicious animals: bulls, lions, and dogs. When they beat him, they were like bulls trampling a person underfoot. When they tore his flesh, they were like lions tearing their prey. When he was on the cross, they surrounded him like a pack of wild dogs. The crucifixion is graphically described in that they have pierced his hands and his feet. At the foot of the cross are the Roman soldiers who carry out the sentence. Even before our Lord’s death, the soldiers are already dividing the spoils. Jesus’ robe is without a seam, so they “divide [his] garments among them and for [his] clothing they cast lots.” It is God who lays the crucified Savior low to death. All of this is in accordance with the Father’s will, even as it was prophesied in Psalm 22.
6. Our dying Savior knows this. From his incarnation, the Father declared his love for his only-begotten Son. Angels announced his future glory to Mary and Joseph even before he was born. At his nativity, angels announced the peace he would bring. The Father personally declared his pleasure at Jesus’ Baptism and transfiguration. In the same way, Jesus had shown his love and obedience to the Father throughout his life. He would not renounce the love of his Father now. In Psalm 22, our suffering and dying Lord proclaims God’s holiness and his trust that the Father will work deliverance through the terror he is undergoing.
7. The intensity of Jesus’ suffering is described through a number of graphic pictures. He is poured out like water. He is dried up like the piece of a broken pot. The statement “I can count all my bones” apparently refers to the way in which he was stripped of his clothes and hung on the cross. These words of Psalm 22 portray the suffering that led our crucified Lord to cry out, “I thirst.”
8. In Psalm 22, our suffering Lord goes on to tell why he has been forsaken by God, why he has faced the mocking of his tormentors, why he has undergone the intensity of this suffering and death. The Father let the Son die for the sins of his people so he could restore them and grant eternal blessings. Christ suffered as one who was separated from God as a result of the curse of our sins. In the closing verses of Psalm 22, the Messiah promises to declare the good news of what he has accomplished in the congregation of God’s people. In Heb 2:10–18, we see the further fulfillment of this prophecy. Through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are truly God’s children who share in his suffering and death, in his flesh and blood. Through Jesus, we have deliverance from sin, death, and the devil. He is now our High Priest, who is able to help us in any suffering or tribulation that we face. Christ’s kingdom will be spread throughout the earth and every generation until the end of time. He is the Savior of all people. All who trust in him will be fed at the banquet of eternal life. He continues to feed us now through his Word and in his Holy Supper, where he gives us to eat and drink his very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
9. Psalm 22 ends with the Hebrew word ‘asah, “He has done it.” It can also be translated “It is . . . finished”—and you know where else we hear that today. This last word of the psalm expresses the very words you’ll also hear from the lips of our crucified Savior. “It is finished.” This is the completion for which all of creation had been waiting since the fall of mankind into sin. There, on that very cross, on Good Friday, is our salvation. There, at that very point and time in history, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. That is what Jesus proclaimed when he had completed all that was necessary for mankind’s redemption. It is accomplished. Our reconciliation and atonement was finished on the cross.
10. How then shall we view what was prophesied in Psalm 22, 1000 years before Jesus was born, which he then accomplished on the cross on Good Friday? What should this mean for you and me on this Good Friday almost two thousand years later, in the year of our Lord 2024? Well, above all, by the working of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s death on the cross should mean repentance and faith for us. In the first place, there is no better location for us sinners to come to true repentance than at the foot of the cross of Calvary. For it is here we see human sinfulness in its greatest depth, and it is here that we see the most dreadful consequences of sin.
11. If we really want to see the depths of human depravity, we must go to Golgotha. Who is he that here is slowly being tortured to death? He is not a criminal, for even one of the crucified criminals says, “This man has done nothing wrong.” But, he is more than just an innocent man. He is the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the Word made flesh, by whom all things were created. Here we see what the human heart and mind are capable of conceiving, thinking, planning, doing. Here we see human sinfulness in its greatest depth. And even though you and I were not there personally, our sin played a part in that. Shouldn’t we be appalled that we are human beings and that we belong to the human race, that has made itself guilty of such a crime against God? We did that! Shouldn’t we hang our heads in shame?
12. But, at Calvary, we not only see sin in its highest degree and greatest depth, but we also see its most dreadful consequences. For what Christ has here suffered, he endured not for his sins, but willingly for ours. What we see Jesus suffering is what we should have suffered eternally on account of our sin. And Christ was forsaken by God the Father. From this we see that, because of our sin, we deserved eternal rejection by God—eternal rejection in hell. On Golgotha, God has written the Law before our eyes in bold, bloody letters: “The wages of sin is death!” That kind of death!
13. As we come before the cross of Christ, terrified over our sins, Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them,” and “It is finished.” Be comforted. Your sins are forgiven! Don’t ask, “What more shall I do?” There is nothing for you to add. Christ Jesus has already done everything. You should only believe in him. If you feel your sins are many, then look up and see your Savior who has endured the greatest afflictions and suffering for your forgiveness. On the cross, the words stand clearly before all sinners: Repent, for you shall die! But just as clearly shine the words for terrified hearts: Believe and you shall live!
14. Today, Good Friday, our salvation was finished on the cross of Calvary by our Lord and Savior Jesus. Now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to repent of our sins and believe that Jesus has paid the ultimate price for us. Here we have forgiveness and life. That God prepared this from the foundation of the world, that he used King David to prophesy and proclaim this in such graphic detail more than 1000 years before it happened, that Jesus accomplished each detail completely and fully so that he might taste death for everyone—that is a remarkable demonstration of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love. Jesus has made us his brothers and sisters, children of God, and heirs of eternal life. Dear Christian friends, on this Good Friday, be comforted, even in your sorrow over sin, for Our Lord Did This for You . . . Today! Amen! Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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