Good Friday Sermon +2021

Text: John 18-19

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“What is man?”

In the beginning, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) 

What is this image and likeness?

As a child is an image of their parent – their appearance, receding hairlines, how they walk, the way they speak. But, the likeness and image of the Creator go deeper. Man, also known as Adam, receives God's character – God's law, His will written upon his heart. 

Then, Genesis goes on to say, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." (Genesis 2:15) The man carries out the will of God as a manager and steward of creation. His labors are not punishment, nor are they toilsome. 

The question is often asked, what if Adam wouldn’t have sinned? Or, why didn’t God prevent Adam from being led into the Serpent's temptation?

It is because God did not create a machine. In fact, as we confess in the meaning of the Creed, we learn how Adam is given as you have been given - body and soul, eyes, ears, all his members, his reason and senses, and the promise that God will continue to care for them. 

Adam was not made to be a machine but given a body, soul, and mind – he was given the ability to reason, to think, and to speak. 

The first temptation of Scripture began with the ancient Serpent leading Eve, Adam’s wife, into doubting God's Word before turning both of them to reject it and ending with Adam and Eve as their own arbiters of right and wrong. 

Here it is said, “[The devil] turned Adam and Eve into enthusiasts. He led them away from God’s external Word to spiritualizing and self-pride.” (SA III VIII 5) He led them to seek a word outside of God.

From this moment and throughout the ages, philosophers and worldviews have struggled to answer the question, “What is man?” 

Is he the product of a god that creates and then walks away from his creation? Or was Adam created as a machine, one part of the universe’s single substance mutating in time? Or is man a free and responsible agent, determining his development through the acts of his own will?  

What do all these philosophies and worldviews have in common? They rely upon the mind and will of man apart from God. They revolve around the created, answering the question of creation while becoming lords over the Creator.

All the worldviews and philosophies reveal the brokenness of a world no longer connected to its Creator and His love. Love that did not abandon His creation but sent His only Son into it to become man through the incarnation. 

The incarnation – the enfleshment of Jesus. 

Jesus becomes the Second Adam. “By the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary” He becomes the Son of Man, “because He was born of a human mother and assumed all the properties of a true, natural man, yet without sin.”

But, when Pilate announces to the crowd, "Behold the Man!" He reveals to you this night your Lord and your God, He who was handed over to death for…

You - who are Judas, betrayers of your Lord, those who are quick to give Him up for the gods and philosophies of this world.

For you - who are Peter, those who deny your Lord, close your ears to Christ and turn your eyes away from Him, rather than risk being seen as His brother or sister.

For you - Barabbas, insurrectionists who rebel against God’s Will; robbers and murderers who use your members to destroy your neighbors through your words and through your actions.

For all of you, Pilate announces, “Behold the Man!”

As Isaiah foretells, 

        There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. (Isaiah 53:2b-3)

But, for you, the cross becomes the instrument in which “God demonstrates His own love toward [you], in that while [you] were still sinners, Christ died for [you].” (Romans 5:8) In this way, the Creator reveals His compassion on you, His creation.

What's more, another brief sermon is revealed to you this night. 

After Jesus’ death, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of the Lord so that he and Nicodemus could place it in a tomb within a garden. 

If you examine the name of Nicodemus, it is a compound of two words. The first being, Nikos (or, as many of you would say, Nike), meaning “Victory.” And the second, demos, meaning “People.” Do you hear that? Into the ground, into the tomb, Nicodemus is placing God’s Son – He who is the victor of the people who have persecuted Him. He who is the victor for you, God’s people. 

Through the use of Nicodemus, God's victory over sin, the devil, and the world is already being proclaimed. 

As you depart this night, take this joy with you, treasure it in your heart, and return with it as we prepare to sing our praises for the resurrection of the Son of Man. +INJ+

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Associate Pastor, Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church

Alexandria, VA