[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon Good Friday 06 April 2007 "The Cross Comes to You" John 19:12-16a LSB Series C Vicar Hans W. Fiene Soli Deo Gloria!

When Katie and I first started talking to each other, she told me about a conversation she once had with one of her coworkers in Texas during Holy Week. This co-worker was describing the type of service her church had on Good Friday-where two men dressed as Roman soldiers would carry in a big wooden cross and set it up in the front of the church. Then everybody would be given a small piece of paper and a little nail. You'd write down what your biggest or most troubling sin was and then everybody would come up to the front of the church-I don't know if they had an altar. And everybody would nail their chosen sin to the cross. After describing this part of the service to Katie, this lady asked, "So, do you guys do anything like that?"

I think Katie's gave the best response possible. She looked at her coworker and said, "No. We just have Church."

Here, at Immanuel, we also just have church-or perhaps more accurately, our church also just has the Divine Service. Though the Good Friday service is a bit different than the regular Divine Service, there's still chanting and the singing of hymns. There's still the reading of the Word and an overall historical, liturgical structure to the service. So, why is that we don't do something like the nailing our sins to the cross thing? Well, it's not because that kind of theatrical production would make us uncomfortable, even though it might. And it's not because we haven't allotted any money in the budget for quality first century Roman military uniforms. The reason we don't do this thing where everybody comes up to the cross and hands their sins over is because that would actually teach something false about the Cross of Jesus Christ. You see, we don't come to the Cross. The Cross comes to us.

If you look at what happens in Christ's passion from a spatial kind of way, you'll see something very interesting happening with everyone involved. Everybody is trying to put a great deal of space and distance between themselves and Jesus. Everybody's basically pawing Christ off on someone else.

The Chief priests try and create that distance by handing Jesus off to Pilate. Pilate tries to distance himself from Christ by releasing Jesus back to the Jews, who refuse to take him. As all of this action was beginning to take place, Peter, the brave disciple who was willing to defend Christ with the sword, isn't excluded from the separation trend. In his three denials, Peter is clearly trying to keep himself as far away from Christ as possible. And all of this action where everyone wants to be far, far away from Christ reaches its apex when Pilate says to the Jews, "behold your king." And they cry out in response, "Take him away. Take him away. Crucify him." So, even though they want Jesus dead, they don't want to kill him themselves. They want that death to happen while they sit back at a safe distance.

There's a very simple reason for why everyone wants to be at a distance from the Cross. You see, everyone recognizes that there's some sort of cloud of judgment hanging over the situation. Obviously not everyone involved realizes that the Son of God is about to be put to death. But when they're all echoing that chorus of "take him away," this shows that they realize something is going wrong here. And so they try and keep their distance from Christ so that, if that judgment does rain down, their sin will be far away and out of sight.

Sin is what put the cries for Christ's death on the lips of the chief priests. Sin is what turned the bold and courageous Peter into an absolute coward. And because sin trembles at the thought of judgment, everyone wants to keep their distance from the Cross and no one is going to run up to Christ. And this is why we don't do this theatrical thing where we all come up and gladly hand our sins over to the cross. Because sin doesn't work that way. Sin doesn't give itself up or turn itself in-quite the opposite actually. Sin revels in hiding itself and pretending as though it doesn't exist because it's terrified of being exposed.

If you want to know how sin responds in the presence of judgment, the greatest example you can find is in the first sin. After disobeying God, Adam and Eve realized they were naked. And what did they do in response? Did they run up to God and shout about their disobedience at the top of their lungs? Did they chase Him down and apologize profusely to Him. No, they hid from Him. They tried to make themselves unseen. They tried to make it seem like their sin didn't exist so that they could escape God's judgment.

Adam's sinful reaction to God's judgment in the garden is exactly our sinful reaction to God's judgment when Christ is on the Cross-that is, to hide our sin in whatever way we can. Like Pilate, when we have failed to stand up for those who are being persecuted and hated, we may try to distance our sin from the Cross by claiming it wasn't our responsibility to help them. Like the chief priests, when we have slandered people and lied about them, we may try to hide this sin in pious clothing by saying that our words are born from true concern-either for that person or for the Church. These are only a few examples. And there are countless sins that we try to hide in countless ways. But in whatever manner we try to hide from the judgment of the crucifixion, we're revealing that, because of our fallen nature, we're never going to come to the Cross and hand our sins over.

The fact is, if it's all about us coming up to the Cross and giving our sins over to Christ, then the Cross is useless. It's a waste of wood and nails and thorns and blood because our sinful nature is never going to turn itself in. If Christ is waiting up on that Cross, if He can't forgive our sins until we get up and willingly hand them over to Him, then forgiveness is never going happen. Christ has died in vain and our sins still live within us.

But we don't come to the Cross. The Cross comes to us. You see, in its historical sense or physical sense, the Cross is the immovable object, stuck in place and all the sinners are free to move around and get as far away from it or as close to it as they want. But in its theological sense, things are exactly the opposite with the Cross. We're the immovable object because, no matter where we go and how much distance we try and create, we can't outrun the atonement. And, because of that, when the Cross comes to us, there's absolutely nothing we can do to stop Christ from doing what Christ has come to do.

When you've tried to pick up your sins and run away from the Cross, the crucified Christ has chased you down. When you have tried to hide your sins in the clothing of piety, Christ has thrown away that pious dressing and taken your sin upon Himself. When you have refused to turn your sins over, when you have dug your fingers tightly into those prized transgressions and tried to run away from the Cross, the crucified Christ has tackled you to the ground and ripped those sins out of your hands. Overpowering you, Christ digs into you. He removes every sin from within you-even those you've never known existed-and after removing every ounce of sinfulness from your flesh, He puts that into His own flesh as He hangs upon the Cross. Nothing can stop Christ from dying for your sins and nothing can stop His loving forgiveness from pouring out over you.

People use the word Gospel quite often, but it's not always used rightly. The Gospel isn't that Christ can forgive you or that Christ wants to forgive you. The Gospel is that Christ has forgiven you. The Gospel isn't that great things await you if you'll only come to the Cross. The Gospel is that the Cross has come to you and has already put to death all of your sinfulness. And when the Holy Spirit grants us the faith to trust that Jesus has already received the judgment for our sins in His death, we no longer see the Cross as God's judgment. Rather, our eyes are opened to see the Cross as the ultimate act of God's love and mercy. When we see God's love and mercy given through the forgiveness of sins in the Cross, then our lives become centered in trusting in that forgiveness and living in that forgiveness. But how do we do that? Where do we find that forgiveness? The answer is quite simple. We find the forgiveness of the Cross where God has promised to give it.

In his work, "Against the Heavenly Prophets", Martin Luther makes this statement: "If I now seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. Nor must I hold to the suffering of Christ…in knowledge or remembrance, for I will not find it there either. But I will find in the sacrament or gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers and gives to me the forgiveness which was won on the cross."

You see, in its historical sense, the Cross was a momentary event that began at one point in time and then was over at another. And if our forgiveness is only given in that historical moment, then we're in trouble. Because, to answer the question raised in that old spiritual song, "no, we weren't there when they crucified our Lord." And we can't get back to that historical moment just by thinking about it. But in its theological sense, the Cross is far more than just a singular occurrence. It's an ever-living, eternal event. In its theological sense, the Cross never stops coming to you. It comes to you when you feast upon the body and blood of Christ and are dismissed from the altar without the weight of your sins. It comes to you when Jesus forgives you through the lips of your pastor when he proclaims the Gospel.

Though the death of Christ occurred in a specific location at a specific time, the benefits of His death break through the barriers of space and time and logic. And it's not that we get a little bit of forgiveness here and some more there and eventually, we'll finish getting it all. Where and when Christ's forgiveness comes to us, it is always complete. It always covers all of your sinfulness-every single one of your transgressions. And yet, the Cross never stops forgiving. The forgiveness of the Cross is complete in the water, complete in the blood, complete in the word. And yet, it never ceases. It continues always.

Here at Immanuel, we don't do this thing where we all get up and hand our sins over to the Cross because that's not how the Cross works. We don't come to the Cross. The Cross comes to us. In fact, the Cross comes to us always-yesterday, today and tomorrow.