“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God” Isaiah 52; Psalm 22; Hebrews 4 & 5; John 19 Good Friday NOON April ‘26

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Good Friday is taken from Isaiah 52 & 53, Hebrews 4 & 5, Psalm 22, and John 19, it’s entitled, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2.                On this most holy day, we stand in silence and awe at the foot of the cross. The world has its constant noise and chatter, its blindness to the things of God, and its indifference to Christ and the cross. But today we shut the world out, for it has no place here. Today we open our eyes, our ears, and all our senses to the one great reality of which we sing in the Good Friday hymn “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”: Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See Him dying on the tree! ’Tis the Christ, by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He! ’Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord; Proofs I see sufficient of it: ’Tis the true and faithful Word. (LSB 451:1)

3.                This was portrayed graphically by King David in Psalm 22. Written around 1000 BC, this psalm is a virtual photograph of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, our Lord. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ ” (Psalm 22:6–8).

4.                “I am poured out like water” (Psalm 22:14). “My tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22:15–18).

5.                Also Isaiah, who wrote roughly 700 BC, gave his own photographic description of the events of Good Friday. So, we meditate on this profound truth: On the Cross, Jesus Was Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God So That We Are Accounted Righteous, Healed, and at Peace with God.

6.                Jesus is stricken, so that we are accounted righteous. The way in which Jesus was stricken is truly striking! He was stricken by God, his Father! Isaiah described this: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Is 53:3–4).

7.                Why would God strike his own Son? In the mystery of God’s love for us sinners, he desired to place the punishment we deserved upon his sinless Son. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). Only through Jesus’ passion, suffering, and death in our place and as our substitute could God’s wrath against sin be appeased.

8.                Now in Jesus we are accounted righteous before God the Father! So, the hymn continues: Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning, Was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, Foes insulting His distress; Many hands were raised to wound Him, None would intervene to save; But the deepest stroke that pierced Him Was the stroke that justice gave. (LSB 451:2)

9.                Now that justice has struck Jesus, it can no longer strike us, and God accounts us righteous in his Son. What a mystery of unfathomable love is before us! On the Cross, Jesus Was Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God So That We Are Accounted Righteous, Healed, and at Peace with God. Today, we also see that Jesus is smitten, so that we are healed. “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’ ” (Jn 19:16–19).

10.             The details of Christ’s suffering are well-known to us all: the spitting, the scourging, the blows, the crown of thorns, the nails in hands and feet, the pierced side. The Old Testament clearly states that “he who is hanged [on a tree] is accursed” (Deut 21:23 NKJV). Being smitten by the hands of the Jews and the Romans wasn’t a pretty sight. It still causes people to recoil as they react to its film portrayal in the movie The Passion of the Christ.

11.             But the hymn will not allow us to look away: Ye who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, See who bears the awful load; ’Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed, Son of Man and Son of God. (LSB 451:3) The real smiting was from God the Father, so that now we are healed! The healing for us is complete, it is done. We didn’t bring it about. Jesus did!

12.             John, the beloved disciple, gave his eyewitness account. “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (Jn 19:28–30). On the Cross, Jesus Was Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God So That We Are Accounted Righteous, Healed, and at Peace with God.

13.             This day we see that Jesus is afflicted, so that we are at peace. In Hebrews 4, we learn that “since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (vv 14–16).

14.             How can the affliction of Jesus bring us peace? Because Jesus has passed through life, death, resurrection, and ascension into the heavens at God’s right hand, we have a high priest who pleads our case at the throne of grace. As our Brother, he sympathizes with our frail natures. As our Lord, he offers us mercy in every situation and place. He himself is our peace.

15.             And so the hymn concludes: Here we have a firm foundation, Here the refuge of the lost: Christ, the Rock of our salvation, Is the name of which we boast; Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, Sacrifice to cancel guilt! None shall ever be confounded Who on Him their hope have built. (LSB 451:4)

16.             Isaiah knew the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice for all people, for all time. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6). David knew the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice for all people, for all time. “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. . . . Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it” (Ps 22:27–28, 30–31).

17.             John knew the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice for all people, for all time. “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. . . . ‘They will look on him whom they have pierced’ ” (Jn 19:34–35, 37).

18.             The writer of Hebrews knew the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice for all people, for all time. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (5:8–9). You and I know the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice for all people, for all time. He did this for you and me!

19.             On this most sacred and holy day, we stand in solemn silence and sublime awe at the foot of the cross. On the Cross, Jesus Was Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by God So That We Are Accounted Righteous, Healed, and at Peace with God. Now the peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds, in true faith in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.

 

“New Death” John 19.17–30 Good Friday April ’26

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Good Friday is taken from John 19:17-30, it’s entitled, “New Death,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Once sin came into the world, with but the two special exceptions of Enoch and Elijah, death has never failed to take the life of every person who has ever lived—even Moses, even Samuel, even David and all the prophets. No one has ever had the power to overcome death.

3.                That is, until Jesus. Though not noticeable to the world, when the Lord bore the cross on the way to Golgotha, it was a sign of his being able to bear death as if conducting a victory march. His processional with the cross was leading to a victory over the devil himself (Gen 3:15). Once Jesus was lifted up on that cross, multiple languages on the inscription above Jesus’ head proclaimed him “King,” the family of God was affirmed, and Jesus announced victory with the words “It is finished” (John 19:30). This death was like none other. It was a new death. Our Enemy, Death, Met a New Death that defeated death.

4.                How could the devil have the audacity, way back at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, to confront the Son of God in the wilderness? The answer is easy: the enemy was the reigning champion against nearly any and every human being who had ever lived up to that point. In his dark insanity, the devil was convinced he could overcome the Lord Jesus Christ. He had taken down the first Adam—who was a perfect man without sin—and it would be just a matter a time (in his corrupted mind) that the second Adam, Jesus, would also succumb to his destructive weapons called “sin” and “death.”

5.                Though Satan’s temptations against Jesus were overcome during the forty days in the wilderness (Mt 4:1–11), in his madness, the devil still waited for an opportune time for what he assumed would yet be eventual victory over the Messiah. For him, it was at The Place of a Skull, which symbolized death, that he believed Jesus would finally be overcome.

6.                But Jesus knew what he was doing. The Holy Scriptures reveal: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14–15).

7.                No wonder the soldiers mocked Christ by taking his garments and dividing them, then casting lots for the Lord’s tunic. There was no doubt in their minds: Jesus was going to die. Death had never left any doubt about its outcome. But, neither the soldiers nor anyone else could have imagined what was about to occur. Something that had never happened before in the face of death. The old death was about to encounter a new death, the death of the Son of God, who can’t be defeated.

8.                There’s an old saying, “Give him a taste of his own medicine.” This was carried out in the most glorious way at Golgotha. Jesus entered this horrible suffering leading to death in order to conduct the most magnificent victory over evil the universe has ever known. The light of the world, Jesus (Jn 8:12), intentionally entered the darkness of death so that the light of God would overcome the darkness of death. Jesus permitted himself to be nailed to the cross so that death would meet a new death: the death of death. That is, the author of death, the devil, was conquered by the death of Jesus Christ. The devil’s death was defeated by Jesus’ death that led to life.

9.                Martin Luther, in his Galatians lectures, used a patristic metaphor that Gregory of Nyssa had used centuries earlier: “The kingly authority of the divinity is given to Christ the man, not because of his humanity but because of his divinity. For the divinity alone created all things, without the cooperation of the humanity. Nor did the humanity conquer sin and death; but the hook that was concealed under the worm, at which the devil struck, conquered and devoured the devil, who was attempting to devour the worm. Therefore the humanity would not have accomplished anything by itself; but the divinity, joined with the humanity, did it alone, and the humanity did it on account of the divinity” (AE 26:267).

10.             Simply put, the devil saw the human nature of Jesus and considered him as all the men before him. His humanity was the “worm” Luther referred to. The enemy had no suspicions about devouring the worm. He had done it a million times before. But what the devil didn’t see was the “hook” underneath the human nature of Christ, that is, the divine nature, true God who was enfleshed. So when the devil swallowed up the human nature of Jesus into death, death unintentionally swallowed God, the light of the world. And this light, the darkness of death could not hold. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

11.             Death was fully confident that it had swallowed yet another worm, but after swallowing, death was swallowed by the “Author of life” (Acts 3:15), one strong enough to bind the strong man who brought death (Mt 12:29).

12.             Therefore, death has completely changed for those baptized into Christ. On account of Jesus going to the cross on that first Good Friday, Christians now confess with Paul: “ ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ ” (1 Cor 15:54b–55).

13.             Everything has been transformed for the people of God who hold to Jesus, who holds to them. Because Martin Luther understood that Christ defeated death already on the Good Friday cross, he could write: “ ‘Law, if you are able to bite me, bind me, and plague me, I will put another Law above you, that is, another tyrant and tormentor, who will accuse you, bind you, and oppress you in turn. You are indeed my tormentor. But I have another tormentor, namely Christ. He will torment you all the way. When you have been tormented all the way by Him, then I am free.’ Likewise, if the devil whips me, I have a stronger devil, who will whip him in turn. And when the more powerful devil battles and conquers the powerful one, I am set free. Thus grace is a Law—not to me, because it does not bind me, but to my Law; this it binds in such a way that it cannot bind me any longer. . . . See this very joyous duel: the Law battling against the Law, in order to become liberty to me; sin battling against sin, in order to become righteousness to me; death battling against death, in order that I might have life. For Christ is my devil against the devil, that I might be a son of God; He destroys hell, that I might have the kingdom of heaven” (AE 26:164).

14.             For this victory of the new death of Christ over the old death, it’s small wonder that God’s providence proclaimed Jesus “King,” even on his cross. The King of kings and Lord of lords proved to have all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18), and as a result, the day is coming when “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10–11).

15.             Also, it’s not surprising that Jesus would make his mother and his disciple John into a new family, representing the new family of the church delivered from the old death. The Lord knew that he would be victorious over death, so he began building his church right there at The Place of a Skull, because he said before, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

16.             But the greatest sign of the new death over the old death was what Jesus said just before he died: “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). His mission was finished. The work that the Father had sent him to do to save us poor sinners was finished. Because something else was finished: old death was finished. Its reign and rule was no more. It is now finished, so that when Christians die, they do not die in accord with the old death but in accord with the new, that is, in the death of Christ that conquers death, so that now when Christians die, they do not die, but live. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“New Passover” Luke 22.7–20 Maundy Thur. Apr. ‘26

 

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. The message from God’s Word on this Maundy Thursday of Holy Week is taken from Luke 22:7-20, and it’s entitled, “New Passover,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                On the night our Savior and Lord Jesus was betrayed, he was also falsely accused. His accusers could find no evidence that would hold up in court. They knew he had committed no crime. The next morning, Pilate, the Roman governor, would reach the same conclusion: Jesus had done nothing wrong. His best judgment told him to let Jesus go, to pass over this incident and move on—to write Jesus the pass that Pilate knew he deserved. But Jesus’ accusers, the Jewish leaders, wouldn’t settle for that. They couldn’t pass over the upset they felt Jesus was causing their little establishment. So Jesus wouldn’t get a pass—and this was just as Jesus intended. He would not be passed over from condemnation, but he willingly took stripes for our sin to heal us (Is 53:5).

3.                We who are baptized into Jesus’ name are still accused, but through his accomplished victory for us, the Lord does not permit our accusations to stand. He found a way for us to be passed over from condemnation. We have now passed over from death to life (Jn 5:24). It is all on account of the abounding gift of being passed over by the Lord, who gave a new Passover to us. Usually we don’t like being passed over, but it’s surprisingly true: Being Passed Over Is an Abounding Gift. What’s more, we are continually kept in our passed-over state through the blessed gift that Christ, our Lord, established this holy night.

4.                The last thing our sin will permit is our being passed over. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). Death is sometimes presented in Scripture as a monster or false king. It hunts us down and demands that we be counted among the condemned. And there’s no escaping him. He writes no one a pass. He will find all of us. The world joins in the accusations against us: “You’re not half the employee she is.” “You’re not the father you should be.” “You’re not committed enough to saving our planet.” Finally, the devil continues to accuse us. He slanders and lies so that we might believe him: “You can’t be forgiven! Not for that! That’s exactly what God’s commandment told you not to do!” Satan tells us that judgment is surely coming—no passing over us for condemnation. All too often, in our sinful weakness, we believe the assaults against us.

5.                But, Luke introduces our reading with words that signal a change in Luke 22:7: “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.” Luke has a sense of the dramatic. The Lord sends his disciples into Jerusalem to prepare in an upper room the meal that from now on will counter all assaults against the people of God. The scene is magnificent: The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29), who would be the last and greatest Lamb sacrificed, entered this most holy meal in remembrance of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery. Little did the disciples know that through this meal, the holy church would receive God’s gift: children of God would be passed over when judgment of sin and death would be handed down—and that gift would continue to give them that blessedness of being passed over.

6.                The Lord always takes the initiative to save. He knows we can’t save ourselves from the accusations against us, so he prepared this holy and powerful meal, a rock-solid covenant, and he did it on the very night he stepped in to take sin’s betrayal in our stead. Against Jesus sin, the world, and the devil accused: “You will not be passed over from death.” So, in the greatest love the world has ever known, he took our place, permitting himself to be betrayed by Judas, arrested, and forced away by the mob, condemned and then crucified with the sins of the world upon himself.

7.                Usually we don’t like being passed over—passed over for a promotion, being ignored by someone whose affection we desire, being left off a guest list. Usually it hurts to be passed over. But how painful was it for Jesus not to be passed over? One among his closest companions, his very disciple, would betray him with a kiss, and it was also this Judas who left the Upper Room before the Sacrament of the Altar was instituted by Christ. But, Judas wouldn’t be the last one who would contribute to the Lord not being passed over. Instead of being watchful with him in prayer, his other disciples would sleep as he sweat blood, and when the time of the cross came, he would cry out to the Father, “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). But before Good Friday was Maundy Thursday. And already on this night, the Lord would give to God’s children there at the table with him the victory he would seal the next day on the cross.

8.                The Lord Jesus celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples took them back to the first Passover. They rehearsed once again what had occurred in Egypt fifteen centuries before: God’s final plague on the Egyptians, which at long last brought Israel out of slavery. In each Israelite household, a lamb had been sacrificed. The blood of the lamb had covered the lintels and doorposts of their houses (Ex 12:22). That night, the angel of death had killed the firstborn in every Egyptian home, but the Israelite homes, where the blood was over the door, the angel passed over, doing no harm. That blood was already powerful, as it pointed to the blood of the Messiah who would come. The blood that caused God’s people to be passed over was already the life in the blood that covered the condemnation of death (Lev 17:11). But, all of this, was temporary (Heb 10:11).

9.                Then Jesus did something new. He did something to make atonement permanent. At every Passover meal, several cups of wine were shared around the table. This night, when Jesus took the third cup—called the cup of redemption—he said something of this wine that had never been said before: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). This wine was now also the way his redeemed would receive his blood, God’s blood (Acts 20:28). Jesus gave the wine of the new covenant that was also a participation in his blood (1 Cor 10:16). This cup, this promise, this Old Testament beriyth (בְּרִית) and New Testament diatheke (διαθήκη), would unite his believing people to the blood that would be—the very next day—the atonement not only for our sins but for the sins of the world (1 Jn 2:2).

10.             And with such a last will and testament, Christ’s words—God’s words—can never fail. They are absolute. They are enduring. They are always true. A new status now marks the baptized into Christ: they are passed over from judgment and condemnation to the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

11.             We’ve now entered a new status by the grace of God in Christ and through faith in his steadfast promise “poured out for you.” At one time, sin, the world, and the devil insisted we could never be passed over in the face of our great guilt, shame, and despair, but Jesus became our sin (2 Cor 5:21) and our curse (Gal 3:13). By faith in him, that attack and curse, which could never be passed over, became his and no longer ours. In love and mercy, Jesus made a way for his children never to stray from this salvation: a new Passover constantly received by his church. This is why we are now his new creation: his blood of the covenant runs through us.

12.             It came at a cost unimaginable. The aloneness and abandonment our Lord felt on the first Maundy Thursday must have been devastating, but even in the face of this, he gave this gracious command, mandatum: “Do this” (Luke 22:19). The Lord Jesus knew exactly what we poor sinners need: constant assurance throughout our lives that we have indeed been passed over from the bondage of sin and death. This new Passover—the Lord’s Supper—is ours. And it has been given to us by Jesus, who, even on this night so terrifying for him, gave us the best gift we could have ever received.

13.             In Holy Scripture, Jesus is also a physician (Mk 2:17), most assuredly the greatest one. But what will keep us eternally under his care? His medicine, of course. It is the medicine that keeps us always passed over. St. Ambrose said, “Because I always sin, I always need to take the medicine” (AC XXIV 33). The medicine has been given to you, Christians—it is your medicine; it is your new Passover—so that from sin and death you are healed; you are passed over. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.