Good Friday

Sermon for Good Friday, April 10, 2020 | Pastor Evan McClanahan |

Who is the man on the cross? What kind of person is he? What role does he fulfill?

On Good Friday, we can speak in the abstract, the theological, or the personal. Let me speak in the first two ways now, so I can be sure I have covered all my bases.

Abstractly, what is happening is the cosmic battle between God and the devil, between good and evil, is reaching its climax. Each force has thrown its best haymaker: God becomes flesh and the devil first tries to tempt him and then kill him, but wouldn’t you know, God is behind the scenes the entire time. Even the devil’s best shots are known and defeated by God. It was always the case that this cosmic battle would be won by the death of Jesus and then his resurrection and ascension. God demonstrates for all the world to see, including the devil, that the very worst that the devil can throw our way – death itself – is no match for God. Through death, God declares victory. Death is never the last word, and the curse of sin has lost its sting.

Theologically, Jesus’ death takes place in a very particular context:

• Among and by the hands of the Hebrew people, who claimed to have the only true

revelation of the one true God.

• Among and at the hands of the Romans, who represent the entire Gentile world, meaning everyone in the future who would ever hear the Gospel is symbolically present at the death of Jesus.
• During the week of the Passover, the Hebrew celebration that remembers freedom from oppression and slavery.
• In Jerusalem, the city that houses the Temple, the location of an entire sacrificial system instituted by God to remind people of their sin and offer a way towards being clean.

If you put all of that together, you see that Jesus’ death fulfills Old Covenant sacrificial law by being the propitiation – or satisfying God’s demands – for our sin and the sin of the whole world. From this one group of people with this singular revelation from heaven, one man satisfies the wrath of God and intercedes on our behalf. Through faith in this peculiar death and resurrection, we are grafted onto the tree of Abraham, and are rightly called “Children of God” and “Inheritors of the Kingdom of God.”

Abstractly and theologically, that is what is taking place at the cross. But who, really is the man on the cross? Let us do ourselves the favor and remind ourselves, lets we think of Jesus as a mere figure, a technical substitute, a prophetic fulfillment. For he is not just a holder of titles or a cold sacrifice. He did not just satisfy God’s wrath or offer a penal substitution. He revealed the fulness of God’s will and character and love and purpose for you.

Who is the man on the cross? Consider that he:

• Restored the sight of a man born blind.
• Helped a woman crippled for 18 years to walk upright again.
• Healed lepers and a woman hemorrhaging blood, thereby restoring them to community and removing the stigma of “unclean” from them forever.
• Raised widow’s only son from the dead.
• Raised the beloved brother to Mary and Martha, Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, from the dead.
• Exalted a sinner who washed his feet over and above a wealthy, but smug, Pharisee.
• Turned water into wine and loaves into food for 5,000, feeding and encouraging joy among his followers.
• Cast out demons who had destroyed lives through possession.
• Taught about God’s Kingdom in a way that made room for all who were poor, grieving, mourning, and humble in spirit.
• Sought the lost and gave no quarter to those who were self-righteous.
• Raised several children from the dead, and even indicated that true faith was like the faith of children!
• Could have acted as an immediate judge against wickedness, evil, and rebellion, but patiently taught repentance instead, allowing the woman at the well, those caught in adultery, and those who had rejected him yet more opportunity.
• Told parables about the lost who could be found, a God who shows mercy, and a beggar who ends up in paradise.

Don’t get me wrong, Jesus did not relax his actual judgment against actual evil. As stated when we spoke of Jesus in theological terms, his incarnation and death on the cross were precisely a judgement against evil, and his mercy toward the oppressed was always at the expense of someone else’s evil! So his message was – and is – inclusive of both judgement and mercy.

And yet, what Jesus reveals throughout his ministry is that the man on the cross is not only satisfying the wrath of God, he is positively showing his love for the world in the same way he did throughout his life. He stands condemned as a man about whom no one could say a single evil word, who was above reproach in every way, who was obedient to God at all times, and desired his fellow man to turn to God that they may live.

Yes, what is going on at the cross is not merely a mathematically-satisfying exchange of the sum total of our sins for the sum total of God’s holiness. No, it is much more personal than that. You can know what Jesus is doing on the cross by hearing of everything else he did during his life. He lived for others. And that means he lived – and died – for you.

So who is the man on the cross? He is the man who revealed the totality of God’s character to you, who, as an innocent human being, completed the same work of love you see throughout the Gospels. He is the one man who can die for the forgiveness of your sins, so that you can be free to have the kind of joy and peace and hope he wanted for you.

Observe the man on the cross. He is the one man who perfectly, completely, and totally, lived – and died – for you. That is who that man is. Amen.