Sermon for Good Friday: April 2, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

For nearly 1500 years, the Passover observance waited to be fulfilled. When that festival was kept, the lamb’s blood was brushed with hyssop on the door-post of the house. The lambs were slaughtered just as darkness came across the sky, and the blood dripped down the wood of that door post. And as it did, that blood bore witness to several things: inside could be found those who had faith in the Lord’s unmistakable words, they were a household, or small group of households who shared a feast together, the feast of unleavened bread, which was a most unusual feast, even for them. The blood on the door post also bore testimony to what was outside, namely, the angel of death, darkness, and sin’s dreadful plague. Indeed this night is not like any other night.

But now that the Passover finally has come to its fulfillment in Christ, you could say that there is a new door-post. This door post is also marked with blood. This time the blood comes not from a year-old lamb but from the 33-year-old Lamb of God, the true Lamb who was sacrificed once for all in the middle of the day, and then sudden darkness came across the sky. It is this Lamb who was nailed to the lintel-beam, and it’s His blood dripping down that gnarled wood. This time the blood is brushed on not with hyssop, but with His very own battered and bloody body suffering for you and for me.

So have you never thought of the cross before as a door-post? I understand—it doesn’t seem like an obvious connection. After all, where’s the rest of the house? You can’t see it. The cross means very little to the outside world except to exact one of the cruelest forms of torture known to human history. But look at the cross as God sees it, for to Him it is indeed the door post of the Church, His household of faith. It doesn’t matter that you and I can’t see it, at least not yet, because while we live on this earth it will only be God Himself who can see faith by itself. We may see a few signs and fruits of faith, but as Jesus says, it’s only similar to seeing the wind. And if the cross is a door post, then inside the Cross of Jesus Christ, you have the household of believers who believe the Lord’s words and trust in His one and only forgiveness that was paid for and won by the Blood of the Lamb. Those who publicly believe and confess in agreement with everything the Bible teaches about this Lamb and His death, they are the ones who share a meal that He Himself serves as head of the household. He’s also the feast itself, for the meal is His very own Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

The Blood of Christ on the “door post” of the cross also testifies to those outside. If someone were to despise the cross, insist on another way to receive God’s eternal kindness and salvation, and reject Jesus’ offer to wash away sins, then there is darkness, chaos, destruction—basically everything brought about by the curse of sin. We get a little reminder of this in the unique Good Friday service we observe tonight, the candles slowly going out little by little, saying that without the cross you have nothing else but rejection of the gifts Christ freely gives. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without faith there remains only the desire to remain in sin. So the cross is the new Passover door-post for the spiritual house of the Church. It only seems right—for as Peter says, this spiritual house is built of living stones, which is exactly what you are as the Body of Christ, forgiven and washed in His own sacrificial blood. As we move closer on this Good Friday to the door-post of the cross, we notice something else along with the Blood.

As you know, we have reached the high-point of the whole Passion story. And to tell the truth, reliving this historical account certainly puts you through a lot. First you have Jesus’ betrayal, then total abandonment, spitting, insults, false charges thrown here and there, and don’t forget the beating, the bloody scourging, crown of thorns, His carrying the cross, getting nailed to the cross, and His suffocation on the cross—now you’ve finally come to His death. You would think the whole ordeal is over by that point. But no, as if that weren’t enough to endure, there’s one more thing that happens after Jesus begins His temporary sleep of death. The Roman soldiers, after breaking the legs of the other two, comes to Jesus and pierces His side with His spear. Out of this violent opening flows out blood and water, so John reports, and he’s so adamant to say that he really was there to see it, so that whenever you hear this holy story, you would believe that it truly happened.

Now, an expert in human anatomy could probably give you all the gory details of what may have been the internal source of this blood and water, but St. John knew that the Blood of the Sacrament and the Water of Holy Baptism, these gifts from Jesus’ pierced side are in agreement with the Holy Spirit (1 John 5) as the foundation of the Church and the source of her life. All the disciples (and yes, Thomas also, the second time around) see this gaping wound after Jesus rose from the dead and recognize that they are distributors of the Water and Blood that flows from that source like a never-ending spring.

Just as Eve long ago at creation received her life and being from the wounded side of a temporarily sleeping Adam, so the Bride of Christ, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, is built from that which flowed from the wounded side of Jesus. He slept the temporary sleep of death in a borrowed tomb but awoke and arose victorious on the third day. Adam may have had his side-wound closed up with flesh, but Jesus keeps His gash still visible as a sign of truly exalted majesty. Thanks to this flood of blood and water from the Lamb who was nailed to the door-post of the cross, the fruits of Eden’s Tree of Life are guarded no more, but rather handed out to you—these fruits are forgiveness of sins, physical and eternal life, and everlasting salvation, rescue from death and the devil, and the true spiritual medicine. The disciple who saw it has told you by his solemn testimony that it is true, so that you may believe and have life in Jesus’ name. Passover need not wait to be fulfilled anymore. The true Lamb’s blood and water are on the door post of the cross as a sure sign that the law’s condemnation has passed you over. No wonder they call this Friday, Good!

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.