Good Friday (1879)

Matthew 27:32-54 We have been very graciously stricken by God in Christ and have been bought with a price. No one can worthily preach enough and sufficiently admire that God, the Most High, sacrificed His only-begotten Son out of pure mercy for us in greatest torture and ignominious death, and that the eternal Son has come from heaven, entered in our place and suffered so unspeakably much for us. Only to the ingratitude and contempt of such love of God has to be attributed to sinful men if they are eternally lost. On the other hand, if we want to enjoy the blessings of this love, we must thus learn to understand the passion of Christ that we realize that it was solely for our own good and must view every bit of it as our help, our comfort, our life, our joy, given by God to us. This is above all necessary that we recognize in this suffering our Lord Christ and His father's heart and sympathetic will toward us; so that it may then ignite our hearts to intimate thanks and sincere love in return. We consider: How divine love is revealed to us sinners in the death of reconciliation that took place for us 1. from the Son of God Himself; a. He showed in the example of Simon, who indeed had to go a period of time under the cross of Christ but was not yet attached to it, that we should probably also carry the cross, but not the penalty of our sins1; b. the latter He Himself did for us when He fulfilled all the testimony of Scripture of the suffering of the promised Mediator, and in order to crush the serpent's head had to pour out the wrath of the devil over Himself; therefore He endured, . that He was plunged into the holy city to the place of execution of the offender2, that we might be sanctified by Him into a people of God in eternity3; . that He was given the gall-drink, without the senses becoming confused or made numb in this way4, so that we would like to come to holy refreshment5; . that He was beat as an accursed One on the cross6, so that we would be reconciled to Himself and inherit the blessing7;
Matthew 27:33; Isaiah 63:3. Matthew 27:33. 3 Hebrews 13:11-12. 4 Matthew 27:34; Psalm 69:22. 5 Psalm 36:9.
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. that He was robbed of the last and most necessary property, His clothes8, in order that we would be rich9; . that He was put through the shame of wanting to avoid a deception or escape on his part by guardians10; because He wanted to acquire for us the glorious freedom of children of God11; . that He bore the title of king of the chosen people on the accursed tree12, so that the promised horn of salvation would be lifted up in Him13; . that He was hanged in the middle of two murderers14, in order that evil perpetrators would have to share His royal rule15; . that His soul was tortured by the people, by the authorities, even by the human outcasts from society through defiant looks, gestures, mockery and blasphemous words16, so that all honor of true children of God might be given to Him17; . that He fought with the horrors of outer and inner darkness in the being forsaken by God with a cry of anguish18, in order that He could be our everlasting Light19' . that as by wild animals from unnatural evil even this cry of anguish was turned into an idolatrous switch of the Lord20, in order that grace might show itself more powerful than sin21; . that instead of His bodily refreshment He now had to be a new suffering in vinegar drunkenness22, in order that we could drink with Him anew in His Father's kingdom23; . finally, that He, under the sign of loud cries, freely gave His life in death for us as an offering for sin24, so that we could live forever with Him25;
Matthew 27:35; Deuteronomy 21:23; Psalm 22:17. Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20; 2:14; Galatians 3:13-14. 8 Matthew 27:35; Psalm 22:19. 9 2 Corinthians 8:9. 10 Matthew 27:36; Psalm 22:17. 11 Romans 8:21. 12 Matthew 27:37; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Psalm 2. 13 Luke 1:69-75. 14 Matthew 27:38; Isaiah 53:12; Luke 22:37. 15 Revelation 5:10. 16 Matthew 27:39-44; Psalm 22:7-9, 13-14, 18. 17 Romans 8:17. 18 Matthew 27:45-46; Psalm 22:2 19 Isaiah 60:19; Revelation 21:23. 20 Matthew 27:47, 49; Psalm 22:21-22. 21 Romans 5:20. 22 Matthew 27:48; Psalm 69:23. 23 Matthew 26:29. 24 Matthew 27:50; John 10:18.
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2. from the Father who sent Him; that this suffering of His only-begotten Son for our salvation happened by His premeditated counsel26, He has publicly testified a. by a sign from heaven27, when He indicated by a three-hour darkness that He cast all our sins on His Son28 and could drink this cup of His wrath in fear and judgment for us; b. by a sign in the most-holy place on earth29, when He indicated by the rending of the veil at the moment of death of His Son that now the right and eternal sacrifice for the sins of the world is done30; c. by a sign on earth31, when He indicated by the movement of the earth that now through the mediator of the New Testament the immovable kingdom is at hand32; d. by a sign under the earth33, when He indicated by the quickening of many bodies in the graves that the death of His Son that life is even for the departed faithful34; e. by a sign to the living people of God35, when He showed many of the faithful by the manifestation of many of the resurrected saints the certainty of eternal life coming to us by His Son; f. by a sign to the heathen36, when He publicly laid aside the confession of the centurion and the guardians, whereupon the congregation of God alone should be established in the whole world. R.L.

Isaiah 53:10, 12. Acts 4:28. 27 Matthew 27:45. 28 Isaiah 53:6. 29 Matthew 27:51. 30 Hebrews 10:14. 31 Matthew 27:52. 32 Hebrews 12:24-28. 33 Matthew 27:52. 34 Acts 15:11. 35 Matthew 27:53. 36 Matthew 27:54.
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