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Psalm 22:1-8
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 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!" (ESV)
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He Dies for Me
Good Friday
6 April 2012
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The mystery of the cross accomplishes all good. It is our entire theology, as Martin Luther says. Everything is reduced to the cross on this day and from the cross emerges and spreads out the entire faith of the church passing through the open tomb into the baptismal font through which we are dying to live. No wonder then, that Good Friday, the very day of the cross, is so important in the church' s calendar. The holy of holies has been opened to us this day (Mt 27:51). We can approach no closer to God than to stand below the cross to see the man dying for us. While the cross means all good to us, it does not appear to be good. It appears to be an ignominious and humiliating death for a man who claimed to be God. And reason howls that the God who dies cannot be God. Yet, this is the clear teaching of the Scripture. This man is God, who dies. He dies for the world. He dies for me.
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Lactantius
"I will now speak of the mystery of the cross, lest anyone would happen to say, 'If death must be endured by Him, it should have been not onethat was manifestly infamous and dishonorable, but one which had some honor.' I know, indeed, that many, while they dislike the name of the cross, shrink from the truth, though there is in it great reasonableness and power. For since He was sent for this purpose, that He might open to the lowest men the way to salvation, He humbled Himself that He might free them. Therefore He underwent that kind of death which is usually inflicted on the humble, that an opportunity of imitation might be given to all. Moreover, since He was about to rise again, it was not allowable that His body should be in any way mutilated, or a bone broken, which happens to those who are beheaded. Therefore the cross was preferred, which reserved the body with the bones uninjured for the resurrection.
"Having undertaken to suffer and to die, it was fitting that He should be lifted up. Thus the cross exalted Him both in fact and in meaning, so that His majesty and power became known to all, together with His passion. When He extended His hands on the cross, He plainly stretched out His wings towards the east and the west, under which all nations from either side of the world might assemble and repose. But of what great weight this sign is, and what power it has, is evident, since all the host of demons is expelled and put to flight by the sign of the cross. Before His suffering Christ put to flight demons by His word and command, so now, by the name and sign of the same suffering, unclean spirits, having insinuated themselves into the bodies of men, are driven out, when racked and tormented. They confess themselves to be demons, they yield themselves to God, who harasses them. What therefore can the Greeks expect from their superstitions and with their wisdom, when they see that their gods, whom they do not deny to be demons, are subdued by men through the cross?"
Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes, 51
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Prayer
Almighty God, graciously behold Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
For all who bear the cross of Christ by coming to Good Friday services, that they might be built up in the holy faith of the church
For Don Porter, who is in ICU, that the Lord would continue to grant him healing
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Art: GRÜNEWALD, Matthias Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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