St. John 18:1–19:42
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There was an old Jewish tradition that the
great patriarchs and prophets died on the same date as their conception. Some
early Christians believed that Jesus died on March 25 and so concluded that He
had been conceived on March 25 some 33 years earlier when the angel Gabriel
made his announcement to the Virgin Mary. Therefore, March 25 became the date
for the Annunciation of our Lord and, nine months later, December 25 became the
date for the Nativity of our Lord. But this year, Good Friday, the commemoration
of Jesus’ death, and the Annunciation, the commemoration of Jesus’ conception,
coincide. This coincidence will not occur again until the year 2157. This
confluence of holy days, a feast and a fast, a day of heavenly light and a day
of deathly darkness, should call us to pause in holy awe and remember: Jesus,
our God, came to die.
This tremendous truth was
revealed to sinful men long ago, even long before our Lord’s incarnation. On
the first day of sin, the date that marked death’s entrance into God’s good
creation, the Creator made a promise against the serpent, a promise for our
parents and for us: I will put enmity
between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your
head, and you shall bruise his heel. The seed of the woman is the son of a
virgin – a man born of a woman without a human father – that is the Lord
Himself, the very Son of the Father. God would come to die, but by dying He
would crush the devil and save His people from their sin. So through the
centuries the calendar pages turned, marking the passing of generation after
generation, each man in his time returning to the dust. No day dawned with the
arrival of a Savior, but the Lord’s promise to come and save remained.
Then a certain day arrived along
with the arrival of the angel Gabriel who came with an announcement that the
promise was about to be fulfilled. He delivered his annunciation to a virgin
called Mary and the Lord came to her, was conceived in her womb, and was made
man. “How can this be?” she wondered. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born
will be called holy—the Son of God.” And you shall call His name Jesus.
Jesus. It means, “the Lord saves.”
In the womb of Mary and on the cross of Calvary is the Lord who saves His
people from their sins. This man called Jesus, the Son of Mary, was born to
die. He lived a sinless human life until it was time for Him to be slaughtered
as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He began His life in the womb as all
humans do, but He began it in order to end it, suffering the pains hell,
thereby emptying death of its power.
When Pilate brought Jesus out to
the crowd he said, “Behold, the Man.”
He didn’t realize it, but he was pointing back to Genesis where the Lord
promised a New Man, a Savior, to come. This Man standing before Pilate with
thorns on His head, He is the Second Adam, the Second Man. By the one Man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one
Man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19) Where the
First Adam failed, the Second Adam lived the perfect life of faith and love for
God and neighbor and died in the place of sinners. This man on the cross with
bruised and pierced heels and hands, He is the One who crushed the serpent’s
head.
“How can this be?” we wonder. How
can this death mean our life? Because it was not merely the death of a man from
Nazareth. This Man is the Lord. The Power of the Most High overshadowed the
cross. The Glory of the Lord was revealed there on that rough wooden altar as
the blood of God was poured out in payment for the sins of all. No mere human
death could accomplish what was needed. Only God’s death could pay the penalty
for all sinners and earn forgiveness for the world. Only God’s death could
count for an eternity in hell. That is why our God became a Man. And He did all
of that for you.
What’s more, He did it with joy.
For the joy that
was set before him, He endured the
cross, despising the shame. (Hebrews 12:2) We celebrate and proclaim His
death because of the joy that comes from His cross. He endured it all because
He wants us. He is on our side and He will have us with Him. He would not let
the Devil take His creatures captive. He wants us and He will have us in this
way: by laying down His life, canceling out our sin, and silencing the
accusations of the Devil, the demands of the Law, and the sentence of Death. He
silenced them once and for all with His holy blood. There is no greater joy for
the Lord, or for us, than the joy of sins forgiven by the blood of Jesus.
In the end, the calendar dates
are not the most important thing. It’s unlikely that Jesus actually died on
March 25 and just as unlikely that He was conceived on this day. But the dates
do teach us who our God is. If you want to know who God is, look first for His name.
His name was given by the angel Gabriel. And His name was posted on the cross. Jesus
of Nazareth. The Lord who saves His people from their sins. Martin Luther once
said, “I do not know of any God except
Him who was made flesh, nor do I want to have another. And there is no other
God who could save us, besides the God Incarnate.” (Sasse, This Is My Body,
203)
The Annunciation and Christmas
tell us who that man on the cross is. That Man is our God. The God who entered
time and space on a particular date and in a particular place. The God who
spent nine months in a young virgin’s womb and was laid in a manger. The God who
walked on this earth for 33 years, preaching His Gospel. The God who suffered
at the hand of sinners. The God who was nailed to a cross and pierced with a
spear. The God who poured out His blood and died so that we might be spared and
live.
Upon
the cross extended
See,
world, your Lord suspended.
Your
Savior yields His breath.
The
Prince of Life from heaven
Himself
has freely given
To
shame and blows and bitter death. (LSB 453:1)
Our God is that Man who died and rose again.
Joy
to the world, the Lord is come! (LSB 387:1)
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
