Readings: Isaiah 52:13–53:12 | Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 | John 19:16b-30
Text: John 19:28-37
In the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, new light shines on what He had done beforehand to recognize sinners to Himself and make them His people.
The Scripture references the Holy Spirit gives us through John are telling:
~ Christ the Reproach ~
At nearly His very last breath, Christ is teaching. He “said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’” This comes from Psalm 69, which first referred to David’s treacherous companions and how David was often made to suffer because of the sins of others in addition to his own.
Yet, this pales in comparison to the rejection and abandonment which Christ endured. How much truer are these words on His parched lips:
20 Reproaches have broken my heart,
[reproach = blame or disapproval]
so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
(Psalm 69:20-21)
If something were to happen to us, we would yell to the skies, “Why is this happening?” Yet when the sin of the world was hurled against God’s righteous and holy Son, He truly says, “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1) Why was this happening? Because this is the horrific cost of the sins of all humanity.
~ Christ the Passover Lamb ~
Our sins have killed the Christ. Not just the Jews. Not just Pilate. Not only those people. Us. Yours. Mine.
Even in death, the body of Jesus continues teaching: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” (Exodus 12:46) This was said about the Passover Lamb that the Israelites were to slaughter on the night of their deliverance.
What was the Passover Lamb? It was the lamb which God appointed for His Passover when He would deliver His chosen people out of bondage in Egypt. The blood of that Lamb covered the people from the judgment of death. It went to death along with the firstborn; they went free.
Christ is the perfect Lamb of God whose blood is not just for one night, but avails forever. It is not just for the sons of Jacob, but for the sons of Adam from every nation. The blood of this Lamb was shed for slaves of sin and death, that we may go free.
~ Christ the Sin Offering ~
34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
After that first sacrifice, God continued His grace toward a stiff-necked people through the regular sacrifices in the Tabernacle and Temple. The means for peace with holy God was the sin offering. The chosen animal was accepted by the priest before the guilty party killed the animal before the Lord. Its blood sprinkled to purify the holy vessels. Finally, the remainder was poured out at the base of the altar where the burnt offering ascended to God (Leviticus 4:1-7).
There the Lord Himself hangs, and now His blood is being poured out at a new form of altar, a cross of wood. But what is the significance of all of the blood? It’s even better than that price to gain our freedom from sin and death. Later in Leviticus, the Lord explains, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Lev. 17:11) And if the life is in the blood, where the blood of the eternal Christ is, there is life!
~ Christ the Piercèd One ~
One final Scripture is fulfilled by this sin offering. In looking upon the One whom they have pierced, this is what is happening in the sight of God the Father:
10“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10)
Here, from the cross, such a sermon is preached that we hear that all God has planned over the centuries, foreshadowed, and now fulfilled in this truly Good Friday. Through His rejection, He was forsaken for us offenders. Covered by His blood, sinners are freed from the prison-house of sin and death. His holy and precious blood were poured out with His life contained therein, and is now given us to drink that we receive His life. And God the Father will look through this scene upon all contrite people. He does not give you the reproach and judgment deserved, but a spirit of grace with pleas for mercy.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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