[Machine transcription]
When he had tasted the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” You may be seated. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, it is right that we should on this night gather together and remember all that our Lord Jesus suffered for us. It is good for us to consider the agony that he endured those 1,989 years ago, the beating and the scoffing and the mocking, the nails and the whip and the spit and the cross. It’s good for us to think about all that Jesus suffered for us.
But here’s the truly stunning thing: while we are gathered here to think of Jesus and all that He suffered on the cross, we realize that while He was there, the nails holding His hands and His feet to that beam, while He was bleeding and suffering and His life was leaving Him, while He was in the midst of that agony, He was thinking of you. He spent those six hours on the cross thinking of you, thinking of your sin, all of the commandments that you’ve broken, all the gifts of God that you’ve scorned.
And Jesus knows about your sin, this too. He knows that it’s not just that you’ve broken God’s law, but also that you’ve broken God’s heart. Even if we don’t realize this, Jesus knows it, and he says to you, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
He was thinking about you who are lonely. You who felt like you are all alone, like no one loves you, or no one understands you, or no one sees you. He was thinking about your broken family. He was thinking about your troubled homes. He was thinking about the distress that we feel. He was thinking about those of us who mourn, who are mourning the death of those that we love and feeling, especially at Good Friday and especially on Easter, realizing who’s not going to be there at the table with us this year.
He was thinking about the lonely in the morning and he says, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.” He was thinking about the guilty. He was thinking about we who have messed up our lives by our own sins and the things that we’ve done wrong, we who know that we deserve God’s wrath, and not only God’s wrath, we deserve wrath from the people around us.
He was thinking about those who feel lost, who don’t know which way to go in the world, who feel trapped by their situation and don’t know how to get out of it. He was thinking about those who fear the judgment of God when at last they die and will have to face Him, and he says, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
He was thinking about those who are filled with shame, those of us who have been sinned against, who are ridiculed or mistreated or abused or abandoned or forsaken, those who feel like their prayers aren’t answered, those who feel like their prayers aren’t even heard, those who are confused about their place in the world and are not sure how they fit. Those who have questions about God or about life or about death and can never seem to answer them.
Jesus was thinking about you and said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now, before we leave this fourth word, we want to maybe sit here for just a little bit, because while Jesus was praying and asking God why so forsaken, we know the answer. We know why Jesus was there in darkness, hanging from the cross, suffering the wrath of God. We know it’s because He has taken on our sin.
God’s wrath, remember, is like a heat-seeking missile, like a sin-seeking missile, and Jesus has taken all of our sin on Himself so that He is being stricken and smitten by the wrath of God in our place to give us life, forsaken so that we never would be. Jesus was thinking about the poor, the needy, the hungry, and the thirsty, and the weary and exhausted, and Jesus knows. He says, “I thirst.”
I also maybe want to say one more thing about this word before we leave it. It always seemed to me that this, the fifth word of Jesus, “I thirst,” was something of a transitional word. I think it is. I think Jesus needs to wet His lips so that He can preach the last great sermon that’s just about to come.
But I think that what should have happened when Jesus said, “I thirst,” is that all the kings of the world should have gone to their cupboards and found their finest cups, golden cups, and gone to get their finest wine and run on their knees to give Him a sip to drink, but there was nothing. I think that when Jesus said, “I thirst,” there must have been a thousand angels surrounding Him with cups ready to give Him some relief, and their eyes were looking to the Father, and the Father shook His head no.
That the clouds would have run to Jerusalem, that the rivers themselves would have jumped over the banks and flowed into Jesus’ mouth, but instead, “I thirst,” and a soldier puts a dirty sponge in some sour wine and wets his lips. Jesus is thinking of all of us who are convinced that we have to be good enough to attain God’s presence and eternal life.
He’s thinking about those of us who are trying to somehow manage to make our lives some sort of success so that we will be accepted by God, or by our friends, or by the people around us, or by ourselves. Jesus is thinking of all of those who are making the case for their own life and their own worth by their own efforts, and either feeling successful in a prideful illusion, or feeling of failure and despairing.
And Jesus says, listen to this, Jesus says, “It’s finished.” Salvation is finished. Forgiveness is finished. Opening the door to heaven and eternal life is finished. He’s done it. The sin that you could not overcome, it’s forgiven. The grave that you could not escape, it’s destroyed. The devil that had you is overcome and you are free. It’s finished. That’s his sermon for you.
Jesus was thinking of all of us who have to die one day and who are afraid to die. He was thinking about all of us who the devil tempts to be timid when it comes to sickness and death. Jesus was thinking of those for whom death would draw near. Jesus was thinking about those who are trying to control and manage everything in their life to make it work out just how they want it, and again feeling either the pride of success or the despair of failure.
And Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And having said this, he bowed his head and breathed his last. I think, dear saints, that this is stunning, that while we are tempted to mourn the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, He is pleased to rejoice in your salvation.
That all that He suffered, all that He endured, all that happened to Him, all the pain, all the mockery, all the darkness, all of it was for you, sinner, timid, prideful, afraid, weak, dying, all for you so that there is nothing to fear. His death is our life. His blood is our hope. His suffering is our salvation. And you can be sure that Jesus will let nothing separate you from this His love.
It is finished. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.
