Good Friday
Deliver Us From Evil
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! What is the Seventh Petition of the Lord’s Prayer? “But deliver us from
evil” (Matthew 6:13). What does this mean?
We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us
from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when
our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this
valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (Small Catechism).
Dear Christian friends,
“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many
people should be kept alive” (Genesis 50:20). That is what Joseph said to his
brothers in God’s book of Genesis. Joseph said, “You meant evil against me,”
because Joseph’s brothers had earlier sold Joseph into slavery, imprisonment
and death (Genesis 37-50). Joseph said, “God meant it for good,” because God
used Joseph “to bring about that many people should be kept alive” through
Joseph. As it is written, “Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of
Goshen. And they gained possession of it, and were fruitful and multiplied
greatly” (Genesis 47:27).
In tonight’s Gospel, “They took Jesus—that is, they took our Joseph—and He went
out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the place of the skull, which
in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him.” As the first Joseph
could say to his brothers, so Jesus our Lord is also able to say to those who
surround Him, “You meant evil against Me, but God meant it for good, to bring
about that many people should be kept alive.”
“There they crucified Him.” They crucified the One who teaches us to pray,
“Deliver us from evil.” Is it possible that Jesus wants us to pray, “Deliver us
from evil,” precisely because here at His cross He delivers us from all evil?
Stated another way, Jesus might want us to pray, “Deliver us from evil,” not as
a way of preventing evil from happening in our lives, but as a way of realizing
and rejoicing that Jesus has already fully suffered all evil for us on His dark
yet good Friday!
Think for a moment about the other petitions of the Lord’s Prayer:
• “Hallowed be Thy name.” We do not pray “Hallowed be Thy name” so that
God’s name might become holy! God’s name is holy by itself. We pray “Hallowed
be Thy name” so that God’s name may be kept holy among us.
• In the same way, the kingdom of God comes by itself and without our
prayer, the will of God is done even before we pray, and God gives daily bread
to everyone, even to all evil people. Why, then, do we pray these things? We
pray these things so that God would cause us to realize that His kingdom, His
will, and His rich provision are daily given to us; and so that we may receive
these things with thanksgiving.
• Again, we do not so much pray “Forgive us our trespasses” so that we
may be forgiven. We are already fully and completely by the blood of Jesus! We
pray “forgive us our trespasses” so that God would lead us continually back to
that eternal forgiveness earned by Christ for us, once and for all, by His
death upon the cross.
Shall we think any differently about the Seventh Petition, where we pray,
“Deliver us from evil”? Jesus bore and suffered and endured all evil for us
here in tonight’s Gospel. You heard it yourself! There is no evil anywhere that
was not visited upon our Lord right here! Jesus bears for us here even the evil
things we each experience in our own lives. Everything that can be done to
us—“every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation”—everything that
can be done to us here is done to Jesus, for us and in our place.
That is why I tell you that Jesus wants us to pray, “Deliver us from evil,”
precisely because here at His cross He delivers us from all evil. Jesus gives
us the petition, “Deliver us from evil,” not so much as a way of hoping to
prevent evil from happening in our lives, but as a way of realizing and
rejoicing that all evil has now been rendered toothless by the death of our
Lord.
Look at what great power and strength God gives you for your daily life, by
giving you the death of your Lord: Because Jesus bore all evil for you, you now
are able to look at the evil events of your own life and you can say—with
Joseph and with Jesus alike—“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for
good.”
Of course, such a conclusion is hard for you to see with your eyes. When you
feel pain, pain feels evil and it is hard to think that God will use it for
good. When you suffer loss, loss feels evil and it is hard to think that God
will use it for good. Nothing looked very good on Good Friday, either, when
“they took Jesus… and crucified Him.” In all that they did, they “meant evil
against Him, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should
be kept alive.”
Jesus says that we should pray, “Deliver us from evil.” When we pray this
petition of the Lord’s Prayer, we should pray these Words as
• a confession of our sin and failure: “Forgive me, Lord, for looking so
wrongly at the things in my life that I do not like. Forgive me for thinking
that You might possibly be the author and source of evil, visiting evil upon
me. Forgive me for blaming You for my life in this world, this valley of
sorrows. Forgive me for turning a blind eye to the good and blessed things that
You always cause to arise from my hardships and losses, like daffodils and
crocuses growing in the snow.
• as an expression of thanks and praise to God for all His benefits:
“Thank You, Lord, that bloody death upon the cross suffered the full brunt of
all my evil, so that I would not be delivered into evil. Thank you that, here
in the shadow of Jesus’ cross, You now protect me from all evil.”
• as a simple request or petition: “Deliver me from evil, O Lord! Give me
eyes to see that this is a done deal, that You have already delivered me from
evil even before I can think to pray. Preserve me and keep me now and always,
and when my last hour comes, keep me firm in the blessed end You have already
created for me, and at last graciously take me from this valley of sorrow to
Yourself in heaven.”
Amen.
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