Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Good Friday | April 15, 2022 | Isa 52:13-53:12 | Samuel Zumwalt |

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. ¹⁴ As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—¹⁵ so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ² For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ³ He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. ⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? ⁹ And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. ¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

LAMB OF GOD

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The crowds that will not come today will come on Easter Sunday, and it will be a day of great joy for Christians. But many will be here, because we live in a death-denying culture that says we ought to be happy all the time. And what happier day is there than Easter when we celebrate that life is stronger than death?

Have you ever noticed how miserable many people are, or how much pain many people cause, because they want to be happy all the time? St. Augustine talked about our being restless until we find our rest in God. And so there is this God-shaped hole in our soul, that only God can fill. But our old enemy exploits the unhappiness that comes from having this God-shaped hole in the soul, and his temptations are all about suggesting that maybe this desire or maybe that will make you happy. So much misery comes from this: changing relationships, changing hairstyles, changing jobs, changing cities, changing vehicles, changing wardrobes, changing how you look. Maybe a baby will work. Maybe a country club membership. Maybe cosmetic surgery. Maybe some new friends. Maybe a little therapy…or too much? For some, including professional church workers and pastors, maybe changing churches will make me happy, and so they do every two or three years like a military posting. And others, including denominational leaders, say maybe if we change church radically I will finally be happy. Maybe…maybe…maybe…maybe…maybe.

So, into the God-shaped hole in the soul, some people pour alcohol or drugs or casual pleasure or food or incessant exercise but none of it really works, because the God-shaped hole in the soul cannot be filled by anyone or anything other than God. Meanwhile the spouse or child or children or parents or siblings or best friends who love you ride the rollercoaster until your quest for happiness wears them out. In AA they say, an addict hits everyone else’s bottom before he or she finally hits bottom. You see, bottom is not getting knocked on your behind. Bottom is being knocked down so low that the only place to look is up. It’s where you finally say, “Maybe it’s God!”
 

Now there are those who really don’t care how much pain they cause, because, after all, it’s all about me. Some of them are really mean people. But some who cause great pain ARE really, and this is hard to understand, some are really happy, because they only do what makes them happy quite apart from whatever pain or consequences that their being happy brings to others.  “Will church be happy? OK, I’ll go. Will I feel good? OK, I’ll go, because being happy is what I‘m all about always.”

Many of the crowds that will come Easter, that didn’t come yesterday or even Palm Sunday or any other days this week and will not come today, do not grasp the depth of the Christian story. Good Friday is not a day of despair. This is a day of quiet celebration. The plan that began in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world before we were created and rebelled against God; the Word that became flesh in Mary’s womb on the day she said “Let it be to me according to your Word” (Luke 1); the joyous song of the angels on that first Christmass night; yes, the Life of Jesus poured out in obedience to the Father for us and our salvation…all of that is finished today when Jesus, the Lamb of God, bears in His own body on the cross all of your sins and mine. 

Whatever you have done, whatever has been done to you, however you have failed, however you have failed others, however you have been hurt, however you have hurt others…God’s Son Jesus, the Lamb of God, carries all of our griefs and all of our sorrows on His dying shoulders. He suffers and dies the death that each of us deserves, precisely because we keep trying to fill the God-shaped hole with anything else but the God who says: “You shall have no other gods.” On His lonely cross, the Lord Jesus Christ wins the ultimate victory over sin, death, and the devil, our old enemy, but to the death-denying culture we live in, all they see is the pain and death from which they run.     

The paradox of Good Friday is the paradox of the Christian faith. God reveals Himself to the world in His Suffering Servant Son Jesus. Jesus Emmanuel, God with us, is always joined to our sorrows and struggles, and His baptized people with His. Martin Luther says that one of the marks of the true Church is suffering, bearing the cross of Christ day after day, trusting that the God who only can fill the God-shaped hole in our soul will never abandon us. The joy of Easter, like the joy of Christmass, is a mature joy that knows that the old enemy’s time is short; the reign of sin, death, and evil is on its last legs. This is why the old enemy’s fury is so great and why he longs to drive us to share his despair. Remember how Luther put it in “A Mighty Fortress”: He cannot win the day.

We Christians understand the difference between joy and happiness. Joy grasps hold of the cross, even the crucifix, as God’s promise that, by our Baptism into Christ, He is ours and we are His, no matter what may come in this life. We Christians know there is a season for losing, for pain, for crying, and, yes, for dying, as Ecclesiastes 3 says. And when we go through them we do not go through them alone. Christ Himself is with us, and He will bring us safely through even death to everlasting Life. We don’t pretend that suffering is an illusion. It is the mark of belonging to Christ and being united with Him.

When we call Jesus the Lamb of God, we remember Israel in bondage in Egypt and how the Israelites spread the blood of a lamb without blemish over the doorpost of their homes. Then, the angel of death passed over all those homes marked with the blood of the lamb. And the Lord God delivered them from bondage and made covenant with them by grace. And so it will be for each of us and so it is, that when our lives are marked with the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, whom we crucify by our sins; yes, when our lives are marked with His cross in Holy Baptism, we will finally be delivered from every bit of sin, death, and evil at the last. And death will have no more dominion over us. And that is the story of salvation we will remember tomorrow night at the Easter Vigil.      

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

©Samuel D. Zumwalt, STS

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

www.societyholytrinity.org

St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina