"The Word of the Lord Endures Forever" Good Friday April 2, 2015 John 18:1—19:42
The Word of the Lord endures forever. Isaiah prophesied of the Savior who would die for the sin of the world. Paul spoke of it afterward. John recounted the events themselves. All of this a proclamation of the Word of the Lord. This proclamation is that of the Word made flesh and who has dwelt among us. Jesus is the eternal Word who became flesh. And that Word of the Lord which endures forever died. On the cross, the life of Jesus Christ, He who is God and who is eternal and who became flesh, the life of Jesus came to end. John says that He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. This is the great mystery, that God, on the cross, died. Jesus, fully God, and fully man, who suffered at the hands of men and suffered abandonment by His Heavenly Father, stopped breathing. His body hung there on the cross lifeless. Oftentimes the soldiers would break the legs of the criminals to prevent them from pushing up so that they could breathe. There was no need for Jesus. His heart had stopped beating. His lungs were no longer taking in air. There was no need for any breaking of bones. A soldier reached up and pierced His side. They, as John says was foretold, looked on Him whom they had pierced. This was God hanging there. Lifeless. Ready to be buried. How is the Word eternal when the Word in the flesh is hanging there lifeless on a cross? We simply go with the Scriptures and believe that it is. Suffice it to say that if you and I are going to try to understand it, we will fail. We cannot understand this deepest of mysteries. What we are given to know, though, is that God loved us in this way, He gave His Son to be conceived and born in the flesh. The eternal Word of God entered into history and time and location. In this way God loved us, that His eternal Word not only was born and lived, but also suffered and died and was buried. It’s not as though the eternal Word of God was eternal but then wasn’t for three days and then returned again to being eternal when He rose. That would not be eternal. The Word of the Lord endures forever. And that means even when our Lord, the Word in the flesh, gave up His spirit on the cross, and hung there limp and lifeless. Such mysteries are too profound for us. But God did not give them to us to analyze them and make sense of them. He gave them to us because it was the only way for Him to come to us with salvation. And that is what this is all about. Jesus is God in the flesh. The eternal Word that endures forever. That He died doesn’t negate His eternal Word, it confirms it. That in His human nature He was not living after breathing His last on the cross doesn’t contradict Him being the eternal Word, it shows us how He is the eternal Word. It is the eternal Word of God which endures forever in which we take our refuge. The many voices of the world would claim that the Bible has errors or that it’s just simply not relevant today. The voice of Satan maintains its steady beat first begun in the Garden of Eden—Did God really say? Can you be certain of God’s Word? And the voice of our own sinful nature? Well, there are many temptations and some people are weaker in the face of some and others in the face of others. You know where you struggle in your life. Which sins you continue to fall prey to. Which doubts you continue to fight against. Which commandments of God you continue to break. All of these voices are temporary. They have immediacy on their side. They sound good now. But the Word the Lord? The Word of the Lord endures forever. Christ and His cross is the eternal Word which stands forever. How does Paul say it? The word of the cross is foolishness to those who don’t believe. But you know what the word of the cross is? It is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. It is Christ, the Word in the flesh suffering and dying for every single sin you have committed. It is the very words from His lips as He hung there on the cross. While hanging there on the cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Christ, depleted of His own strength, thirsting for simple water, even as when He had given His life and the sword pierced through His body life-giving water poured out for you. And His triumphant cry, “It is finished.” Everything He suffered, the brutal torture and the dereliction at the hand of His Father, all for you. He has accomplished all. His Word spoken here—It is finished—is a word that still stands as true. It is fact. It is real. It is for you. His Word stands forever, the Word of the cross. How many times did John in his account of the Passion of our Lord say that these things were done in order to fulfill Scripture? Jesus knew what was to happen, and He went through with it because He knew. He knew that in suffering what He suffered that He would accomplish salvation. The extraordinary detail we saw in the Old Testament reading of what Jesus would endure is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. The clear, powerful Gospel proclaimed in the Epistle reading is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. And of course in the Gospel reading for Good Friday we have the Word of the suffering and death of our Lord. It is the purest Gospel. It is the Word of the Lord which endures forever. It is Christ in the flesh, the Word that has dwelt among us and brought to an end in death on the cross. It is this Word, Christ Himself, who endures forever. Because death could not hold Him. And it was, in fact, in that very death, where the life was secured that endures forever. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
