Easter Friday
Sermon Review / Service Format
10 April 2001
Isaiah 53Easter Friday is an important moment in the lives of all people, even if the majority are either ignorant of it, or are disinterested in both the events and their significance. Easter Friday represents that historic day long ago when Jesus was betrayed by one of his own, our archetypal Judas; He was arrested, unlawfully interrogated and mistreated by the Jewish religious authorities; he was questioned and brutally mistreated by both a Roman Governor and a Galilean puppet King; He was forcibly propelled along the via Delorosa – the Way of the Cross, and finally cold-bloodedly killed upon a wooden cross or stake. The whole event, from betrayal to crucifixion would have been terrible to witness - the inhumanity of it all, the injustice of it all, the sorry tale of pride, envy and resentment motivating the key adversaries involved in it all. But it happened, and time cannot erase this fact, nor the astounding significance of it all.
You see some today might say that Jesus fell foul of his own stupidity by antagonising the religious authorities of the day. Or some might think that Jesus was slave to an outdated ethical code – a morality that called for hypocrisy to be condemned and injustice to be confronted; or that he was a foolish follower of his own teaching which promised much but in the end gave little. The truth is that in Isa 53, 750 years before these events unfolded, a prophet named Isaiah both foretold as well as framed an understanding of what was taking place on Good Friday. It was entirely clear to him that the servant of God, Jesus of the future, was not so terribly treated, nor so unfairly killed due to either his own mistakes, flaws, or foolish misreading of social forces around him, but under both the planning and the sufferance of God, to die for the sins of all mankind.
According to Isaiah, others contributed to the death of Christ. Their acts and attitudes were sufficient to cause the holiness of God to cry out for justice, and the love of God to implement mercy ie. letting someone else, his own son in fact, take people’s rightful judgment , so that such people could be forgiven if they so chose – hence, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, allowed himself to die on the cross so that both justice and mercy, holiness and love, could harmoniously act together.
Today, this would just be an act to applaud, an extraordinary movement of God to marvel at, if it were not for the fact that all of us here today, are included amongst those who contributed to the need for Christ to come into this world and die on the cross in the first place. Paul, in the New Testament makes clear that those people who contributed to the need for Christ to die on the cross for them, are actually all people, for ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’ Rom.3:23. We might not have been around at the time, but for God, the past, present, and the future are all as one, and the wrong rebellious and self-centred attitudes in our lives, the little and big acts which our own consciences have afflicted us over, whether in the 20th. or the 21st. Century, have all provided their own particular contribution to the need for Christ to come and pay the penalty for sin. We can argue and debate, resent and refuse to accept this, but the Bible is quite clear – all have sinned, and all have contributed to Christ’s death. Or to put it another way, even if you were the only human being to have ever lived since Adam & Eve, Christ would have had to die for you in order for you to be forgiven and accepted by God. To make sense of Good Friday, to make clear the state of things calling for Christ’s death, there needs to come a moment in our lives when we accept that we helped nail Christ to the cross. When we do this it is the first step towards experiencing the profound mercy that his death provided.
Activity: part 1.
As part of Easter this morning, if at some time in the past, or perhaps for the first time today, you have come to this personal and important realisation, then the opportunity is provided to come to the front, take a nail, and place it at the foot of the cross as a blunt acknowledgment of personal responsibility for Christ’s death. This is the first of two acts which you can participate in this morning, both of which combine together to help provide you with a profound sense of the grace which is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Come while the music is playing and take the opportunity to enter into a personal experience of grace.
(Personal Prayer)
Activity: part 2.
I imagine that participating didn’t come easy. It is never easy to own up to the true state of things, especially when it involves personal responsibility. Yet the best is yet to come for there is a marvellous conclusion to the death of Christ when one believes that He died for you – you are completely forgiven!
Rom.3:21-25 says:
"Now God says he will accept and acquit us – declare us ‘not guilty’ – if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like. Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’ of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins"
This forgiveness is of little account and seen of little value unless we first realise that we need it, and how God provides it! It is true that the nails we placed at the foot of the cross represent our personal failure and need for him to come and die for them, but it is equally true that once placed there, they have no right to remain there! You must take them back! In God’s mind, once a person places his own sinful contribution at the foot of the cross, it is taken away - removed from them as far as the east is from the west Ps.103:8-14. You and I are no longer guilty before God. Once you bring your sin to Christ, it is erased in so far as it counts to God. Take the opportunity to come forward and take your nail back. Cherish the reality and totality of the forgiveness that you have received. In doing so you have the opportunity to rest in a profound sense of grace, mercy, love and divine acceptance. Good Friday has the chance to be a good Friday for you!
Blessings