Good Friday Tenebrae 2011

GOOD FRIDAY TENEBRAE
22 April Anno + Domini 2011
"It Is Finished!”

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"Tetelestai.”  The most beautiful word in the Greek New Testament.  We use three words to translate this beautiful Greek word:  "It is finished.”  To be most literal, we would use nine words to translate it, for the perfect tense of this most beautiful word provides the literal meaning, "It has been, is now, and remains forever finished (or, fulfilled, completed, accomplished, done)!”  Strange words to hear from the mouth of a Man who is preparing to give Himself up into death.  They are the words one expects to hear when the artist has finished the masterpiece, when the poet lays down her pen after writing the perfect poem, or when the craftsman runs his hand along the table he's been laboring over and at last is satisfied that it's all he intended it to be.  "It is finished.”

Strange as it seems for a Man preparing to give Himself up into death to utter these words, that strangeness is transformed into perfect sense when we consider that this Man utters these beautiful words on a Friday afternoon.  It's Friday.  Good Friday.  But, Friday - day number six of the week.  And the words spoken by this Man about to die on this Good Friday brings to remembrance the words spoken on the first Friday there ever was:  "And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.”  Finished!  And the goodness of this Good Friday also hearkens back to the goodness of that first Friday.  For at the conclusion of each of the six days of creation, like a craftsman or artist, God inspects the creative work He has done and declares, "It is Good.”  But, on the sixth day, the day on which God finishes His creative work, saving for this day the creation of man, the pinnacle of His creation, He inspects His work and adds an adverb to His declaration, saying, "It is Very Good.”  Tov maod, in Hebrew. Which is to say, flawless, perfect, exceedingly good - Paradise!  On that first Friday, "it is finished” and "it is very good.”  

Likewise, It is the Craftsman of the first creation, the One "through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that has been made,” who hangs on the Cross on this Good Friday, this sixth day of the week, and who declares, "It is finished!” just before He gives up His spirit.  He is there on that Cross today finishing up a new project.  His "good and very good” creation had fallen from its perfection by the deceit of the devil and the sin of humanity.   But, He comes to this Friday to restore His fallen creation back to its pristine condition.  He comes to this Friday to make all things new, to usher in a new age and a new creation, to perfect once again that which had been corrupted.

Here, then, is a Good and a Very Good Friday.  For here we meet not only the Carpenter through whom the world was made, but we meet Him as a Man, the Carpenter from Nazareth.  As the New Adam born of the Virgin soil of Mary, He stands in the place of the first Adam to whom dominion over this world had been entrusted, and who surrendered it all to the devil and brought in sin and death and placed this world out of joint with God, under wrath and judgment. And the New Adam, unlike the old, has no share with the devil.  The New Adam has come to destroy the works of the devil, to expose his lies and to deliver humanity from his clutches and to reconcile fallen humanity to His Father.

Satan had implied that God was holding out on Adam and Eve and convinced them to look out for themselves, and we, their children, conceived and born into the sin they ushered into God's perfect creation, have been doing that ever since.  We're so curved in on ourselves, so adamant about having our way and fulfilling our fleshly desires that we are naturally prone to create "god” in our own image - a "god” that loves us just the way we are and wants us to have everything we want; a "god” who answers our beck and call like some heavenly ATM machine in the sky. 

But here for once stood a Man, true Man, our very Brother, who refused the lie, who knew that His Father was not holding out on man, but holding out to man more hope and life than man could ever desire or deserve. And He was that gift in our flesh.

That, dear friends, is why this is Good Friday.  For on this day in our flesh Jesus completes the task given.  The first Adam fell into disobedience, but Jesus the Christ, our Lord, our Brother, displayed perfect obedience to His Father from the moment of His conception until we behold Him this Day on the Cross.  Perfect human obedience!  And so, the obedience which man owes His Creator and which we - all of us - have failed to render in countless ways, He, the Creator Himself, comes into our flesh to offer for us, on our behalf, to His Father - His unbroken "Yes!” to everything His Father commanded and willed - that He might give it to us as our very own.  He was obedient unto death, even death upon a Cross!

Tetelestai.  Finished.  Done.  Perfect human obedience rendered in our place and now offered to us as our own.  And this, because of the perfect Sacrifice rendered on the Cross by the perfectly obedient One - a Sacrifice that paid the price in full for every single act of disobedience, every single sin ever committed by you sons and daughters of Adam.  And so, our Lord Jesus ushers in a new creation.  And in this creation, the verdict of "good and very good” rests secure upon you, for its basis is not in YOU, but in HIM - in His finished, completed work of obedience - all the way to death on a Cross for your sins - exquisitely rendered to the Father on your behalf.

How can you know it was on your behalf?  By the blood and water.  They run together from His riven side.  And they testify to you that God "has given you eternal life and this life is in His Son."  This water, rich in blood, has splashed your life in Holy Baptism.  That's where He lavished on you His perfect "yes” to the will of the Father, His unbroken obedience.  He gave it you as your own, covering all your disobedience and death, breaking sin's power in your life.  And this blood, rich in the water of life, He pours down your throat in the Holy Eucharist, toxic to sin, rich in the Spirit, imparting life.  And both cry out together: "For you!  Offered in your place! Your sins forgiven, forgotten, and gone.  Hidden and dissolved beneath this blood and water. It is finished!”

The old liar, Satan, wars against the Lord's tetelestai, His "it is finished.”  He screams at you:  "No, it's not over.  It's not finished.  You can't rely on Him and His work.  Don't believe Him!”  Satan is a master of deceit, my friends.  First, he tries to convince you that you don't need God and His work, that you can go it alone.  He entices you into sin, promising that no harm will come to you.  But, then, when you have fallen prey to his lies, He is Johnny on the spot to accuse you regarding the very sins he enticed you to commit:  "What a despicable sinner you are!  God demands perfect obedience to His Law and look at what you have done!  Do you really believe that God will save a wretch like you?  No, you are on your own, now.  You've made your own bed and you'll have to lie in it.  How will you face the Holy and Righteous God now, O sinner?!  You are not good enough and He will chew you up and spit you out!”  worse!”

Against his lying mutterings, learn to take up the deep joy of the Lord's "Tetelestai,” beloved.  Learn to remind the evil one and your own doubting heart:  "Yes, it is true, devil, I am not good enough to face the Holy and Righteous God.  Yes, I deserve to be chewed up and spit out by Him.  Yes, I have earned nothing but His condemnation, wrath, and temporal and eternal punishment.  But, 'It is finished!'  A perfect obedience and a perfect sacrifice has been offered in my place and has been given me as a gift - the perfect obedience and perfect sacrifice rendered on my behalf by Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.  In my Baptism and in His Eucharist God has given me the blood in which is life, because it was the blood of the perfect 'Yes' to the Father's will - the blood that atoned for my sins not in part, but in whole - and not mine only, but the sins of the whole world.  I, poor, miserable sinner that I am, am saved.  I am redeemed.  I am reconciled to my Father in heaven.  I belong to His Divine Family.  For my salvation is complete.  It is finished!”

Good Friday, people loved by God!  Good because on this Day a goodness was brought to perfection in human flesh by your Lord Jesus in which you may all live forevermore.  Good because your Lord Jesus left no stone unturned, no task unfinished, but did everything necessary for your salvation.  Good because your Lord Jesus lived the perfect life you can't live and suffered, bled, and died in your place on that Hill outside of Jerusalem.  Good because there is no one left to accuse you.  You are forgiven.  You are saved.  You have eternal life in Christ.   Tetelestai!  It IS finished!

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your Holy Cross You HAVE redeemed the world.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.