In Jesus’ Name. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
“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” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
What is it that we are gathered here tonight to celebrate – the death of an innocent man? Is that truly a cause for celebration? Is it that the Lord knows what we go through because He has tasted the bitterness of extreme suffering and death? Why are we here tonight?
The reading of the Passion tells us the facts of tonight, but it is tonight’s epistle that opens our eyes to see what these facts mean. These are the facts: Jesus of Nazareth is nailed to a wooden cross. He suffers. He lacks breath. He speaks, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He dies. What makes Good Friday, good? What is there to celebrate? Why should there be any joy in the death of Jesus?
To this question, the Book of Hebrews gives us the answer: “[Jesus] was heard because of His reverence. 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” (Hebrews 5:7-9).
If we want to truly understand what Good Friday meant to Jesus, it is “reverent submission.” Jesus is clear that the events of Good Friday came to Him from His Father. He received the gifts His Father gave, even the gift of suffering and the gift of death. As He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will”(Matthew 26:39).
Now, Jesus is fully and completely God, but even as God, He learned as He became fully man. He learned obedience from what He suffered. And what does God require of all of us? He requires obedience. He requires the obedience that we refuse to render.
God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His only Son so that you could have eternal life by faith in Him. Jesus came in human flesh so that He would be the Man who would be man enough to be obedient to God the Father.
The eternal Son of God took on our human flesh knowing that He would suffer and die for all of humanity. He took on our human flesh knowing that the only way for mankind to be reconciled to God was through the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, Jesus said to His Father: “Your will be done.”
Tonight is a day of celebration, because God provided us Jesus as our substitute, who was perfectly obedient to God the Father, even through extreme agony. So, all of the obedience we have failed to render to God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ goes forth to render on behalf of all – for you, for me.
As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the darkness of the world’s sin wrapped around Him and the horror of the world’s damnation washed over Him, but He remained completely attuned and perfectly submissive to His Father’s holy will for us. Jesus learned the full cost of that obedience, carrying it beyond anyone else has ever taken. “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). And “being made perfect” through the cross and tomb, He “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). The high priests of old had to offer sacrifices year after year, but Jesus, the Great High Priest, His blood “cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
But is there a caveat here? Salvation is only for those who obey Jesus? Yes. But you and I are poor, miserable sinners. How do we obey Jesus? Well, we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him and “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). Faith is obedience to God and is worked in us by God’s grace through His Means of Grace – Word and Sacrament. Just as our faith is not our doing, but God’s. So is how we obey. We learn to obey as God’s gift through the Holy Spirit so that we can live with God and for God through faith’s obedience.
This is the joy of Good Friday. God has given us the source of salvation – the only source of salvation – and that is faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s gift of salvation for you! Through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in you, you know that your sins have been completely paid for on the cross of Jesus, that your death has been destroyed in His dying, and that you will pass with your Lord through the gate of death to a joyful resurrection. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
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