Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + Amen.
Dear friends in Christ, we’ve come to the end of another church year. Next Sunday we begin the season of Advent, the beginning of a new church year directed toward and preparing for the coming of Christ in His birth at Bethlehem as well as His Second Coming on the Last Day. For the past few Sundays our Scripture Readings and Hymnody has been directed in toward the end of all things and the coming of the Last Day. Now, as we face our “New Year,” we end with something that seems somewhat out of order: Our Last Gospel reading of the year is the story of Christ on the cross. And then it just… ends. No resurrection, no burial, not even an “it is finished?” At first thought, it may seem somewhat strange.
Our whole lives, and all of creation, center around the cross. From cradle to grave, it all circles around the most important moment in the history of all creation.
When we are born, we are given life from the LORD who knew full well every sin that we would ever commit… but he still made us. He knew He would place you on this earth before the foundations of it were formed. He knew every way you would break His commands, all the sin that would come from you that would place His very own Son on the cross. Yet He made you anyway out of love. You were created with your redemption already in mind.
As Christians, then, we are brought to the font in baptism for a second, greater birth. We receive the name of the Lord Jesus sealed upon us, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Our baptism washes away our sin. Christ took this sin upon Himself, through His own baptism soaking it all into Himself, and took it to the cross to kill it forever. When the Father looks at us, He does not see what we have done wrong, but sees His Son. Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness, His holiness our holiness. Through Baptism and the Cross, the Father sees only Jesus.
As we grow, we learn. Our faith in Christ and His all-availing sacrifice grows and develops and we come to know Him more and more. We’re told of the great heroes of the faith, how they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah and believed in the LORD. We see how the LORD rescued His people time and time again, but also how each time it pointed to the greater rescue that comes with the death of Jesus. But we also sin more and more: against one another, against God, from birth on we discover how corrupted in sin that we truly are, driving us toward the only one who can help us.
In our church body and many others we have developed the rite of Confirmation, a public affirmation of faith where we confess before the church that we would rather die than give up faith in Jesus. We can say this confidently as the death of Christ has broken death forever, and that there is no thing that can separate us from Him. Only our Lord is worthy of worship and praise, and so we boldly confess Christ as Lord and join together as a whole church.
Accompanied with Confirmation is often the receiving of these believers to the Lord’s Table in the Sacrament of the Altar. In the death of Christ, we are given the ability to partake in His true flesh and blood, delivered straight from the cross to our own bodies in, with, and under the simple elements of bread and wine. The true gift of the cross, the forgiveness of sins, is imparted to us in this divine meal around the Lord’s Altar, gathered together as the true communion of saints.
For those given the gift of marriage, the cross is there too. Marriage is given by God as a gift to be a symbol of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church. When we live rightly in the vocation of marriage, the sacrifice of spouses for one another turns them toward Christ. Love itself is exemplified in the Cross, and all earthly love given between people exists in the shadow of the love God had for us in sending Christ to suffer and die for our sake. The forgiveness that comes from Christ helps heal marriages from the sins that are committed against one another. Christ promises to be the foundation of this relationship for those who look to Him in faith. In the gift of children and parenthood, a new understanding of the significance of God giving His own dear Son for us becomes clear. The blessing of salvation and freedom from Sin also becomes more important as parents and children grow with one another in faith and love. Even for those who remain single, Christ crucified and risen provides a reassuring truth that no one is truly alone, but is accompanied by their friend and brother who died for their sins.
Everything we do on this earth is touched by the cross of Christ. When we sin, in Christ there is forgiveness. When we serve others, the love of God presented on the cross is communicated in our actions. When we gather together in faith, we celebrate His death and resurrection every Sunday of the year and then some.
And then, when our last days on earth come, those too are touched by the cross. In death, we are brought away from this life of sin and evil, and brought to join Christ in His kingdom. This new life for us, bought upon the cross, is a gift given only out of the mercy and grace of God. When we breathe our last, just like the thief on that cross who looked to Christ in repentance, we will join Jesus that very day in paradise.
So yes, the end of our Church Year, right before Advent begins, is a perfectly appropriate place to consider the events of Good Friday. In Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ. Jesus came for the explicit purpose of dying for the sake of our sins and redeeming us all. Without the cross, Christmas is meaningless. Without the cross, there would be no reason to even be here right now. Yet God in His infinite mercy has provided us salvation through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, and through this we gain the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Everything in the life of the Christian finds Christ and the Cross at the very center. Throughout the Church Year, beginning to end, and throughout our whole lives from beginning to end, it’s all about Christ, crucified, died, and risen for you.
In the Holy Name of Jesus + Amen.