` Good Friday - 2007

Good Friday - 2007



Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Good Friday (April 13, 2001, rev. April 6, 2007)
Psalm 130
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, please CLICK HERE.

TITLE: “Divine Forgetfulness”


If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.  Thus far the Psalmist from Psalm 130.

What would happen to us if God kept score?  What would happen if our Lord had a divine scorecard, where every deed and every misdeed is added up?  Every time you sin, it counts against you, and every time you do something out of completely selfless motives, well, then those count in your favor.  What would happen?  Would you win or would you lose?

That how we would run the world by nature.  That is how we would seek to keep things going and make things go.  It would be fair, wouldn’t it?  And that’s how things work in the world.  In the world you get what you pay for, or, you get what’s coming to you.

But if God kept score, we would all languish in hell forever.    God reminds us of this again and again in His Law.  Sometimes an event will happen in your life or a sermon or scripture passage will hit you right between the eyes, and God’s Law slams you against the wall, as it were.  If God kept score, I would be lost.  If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  That is the question.  The answer, of course, is no one.  Not one of us could stand up to the unending gaze of God’s Law.

This is why the Psalmist cries out, Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.  As we gaze upon our Lord’s Passion and death, it is clear that He is dying upon the tree because of you.  You are the crowd crying CRUCIFY HIM.  You are Herod who gaped and hoped for some show. You are Pontius Pilate who committed Jesus to death.  You are the soldiers, who nailed him to the tree.  You are the disciples who scattered at the thought of being caught on the wrong side.  It is your sins that put him there.  They are real, and you killed the son of God.

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But.  Left to ourselves, we are lost, alone and dead.  But we are not left to ourselves.  That is the great, wonderful message of salvation that comes to you today.  But.  But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.

We learn two things from seeing God die on the cross that Good Friday so many years ago.  First, we learn that our sins put Him there.  Second, we learn that God forgives.  Forgiveness.  It’s a word that slips off our tongue like it cost nothing.  Yet it is the most expensive word in the whole world.  That word, forgiveness, cost Jesus Christ the Son of God.   His life.  That word sent Him down to earth to be mocked and killed for you.

But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.  When Jesus cried out from the cross, It is Finished, He paid the price for that word, forgiveness.  He cried from out of the depths, for He was abandoned and smitten by God, so that you would never face that great pain and suffering which He endured.  It is in His death that we have forgiveness.  It is only in His death that we may rejoice in God’s forgiveness.

As the Psalmist prayed, He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.  God bought back your soul from Satan.  God Himself brought you out of the pit.  And His work for forgiving your sins goes on to this very day.  His Word of absolution and forgiveness is like the sweetest wine upon our lips.  Long for that gift from God.  Flee to His Word of forgiveness!  Don’t let the sun go down upon your sins.  Confess your sins and God will nail them to that tree.  For that tree of death is a tree of life for you.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  It was your sins that put Him on the cross, but it was also God’s love that put Him on the cross.  Jesus could have come down.  He could have given in and gone His own way.  But He stayed the course.  He said AMEN to God’s love for you.  And His love for His Father meant that His love for you would never end.

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.  God forgives.  He gives you Himself.  He washes you and makes you clean.  He feeds you with His very body and blood.  He puts the word of absolution into your ears.  You will not die, but live, and proclaim the great works of God.  Truly this is Good Friday.  For the greatest good was accomplished by Jesus Christ today.  Your life.

In the name of Jesus, our only mediator and redeemer.  Amen.
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This page was created on 04/09/2007 and last edited on: 04/09/2007
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