Good Friday 2004

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bwsmith

Puritan Board Freshman
The relentless pounding of iron into wood reverberated through the sanctuary, out of sync with the worship music – worship of the One whose feet and hands were long ago pierced by rough Roman nails upon a barbaric wooden cross. We nailed no flesh, no sacrificial lamb, this Good Friday past; we nailed the record of our offenses – just as Paul said God had done.

He blotted out the charges proved against us, the list of his commandments which we had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross. In this way God took away Satan's power to accuse us of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ's triumph at the cross where our sins were all taken away. (Col 2:13-15)

Our pastor invited us to come to the Table Christ prepared for us, but not empty handed. Would we bring a record of our wrongs and nail them to a roughly hewn cross, beneath the soaring, black draped Cross in our church’s sanctuary? For some it might be just their name, for others a scribbled list of transgressions on both sides of small card. I stared at my card – dreading the method of accounting – but certain that either I surrender that card to Him, my sin-bearer, or I stand condemned.

In his homily, Glenn Parkinson, described the consolation that the words of Psalm 22 had been to the Lord Jesus in His final passion. His first words from the Cross repeated David’s cry:"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? "(Matt 27:46-47; Mark 15:34) This no intellectual inquiry! It was an anguished plea in the midst of appalling tribulation. Yet, David steadied himself, remembering his purpose, though demeaned and smitten: serving God, so that, his posterity would declare God’s righteousness to a people yet to be born. This consoled Christ, when on the Cross He heard the abusive taunts to “Save Yourself!”(Matt 27:39-43; Psalm 22:8) What sustained Christ through those harrowing six hours was remembering His purpose – the same one that David’s foreshadowed – the thought of all the afflicted who would eat and be satisfied. (Psalm 22:26) As David thought of those who would come to God, so the Son of God saw all those who would come to God – His beloved disciples, and the ones who would believe because of the apostle’s teaching: you and me. (John 17:19-22)

We who could not keep ourselves alive are the reason He suffered! (Ps 22:29)

Then the first hammer blows echoed, “clank, Clank, CLANK,” mid the quiet chords of a familiar hymn: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross on which the Price of Glory died . . .” The music tapered off, yet, the discordant pounding persisted, “clank, Clank, CLANK.” Now, soft strains of music and voices swelled, and receded: “What Wondrous Love is this O my soul, O my soul?” Still the sound of hammering jarred: “clank, Clank, CLANK!” Lamenting, our voices intermingled with the blows: “O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, . . . Mine, mine was the transgression – and Thou, the deadly pain!”

More music, and then, the rude hammering subsided; hundreds of debts, slips describing crimes and their perpetrators, now were nailed to that unbloodied model of Calvary’s Cross. A fraction of His church confessed what David foresaw, and Christ knew: “Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal-born to die - shall worship him. Our children too shall serve him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord; generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles he did for us.” (Ps 22:29-31 TLB)

And those miracles He did for us? O how I love to proclaim it! That debt – that written charge of all my sins, sins of omission and commission, was assigned to Christ; and His righteous reputation, imputed to me. “It is finished!” . . . paid in full. (John 19:30)

While you and I were yet dead in our sins and trespasses, Christ died for us – the righteous for the unrighteous! Let no outstanding debt remain between us and the Lord, this Easter —

O God! You have forgiven me all my sins, healed me and ransomed my soul from hell. And you surround me with loving-kindness and tender mercies . . . Though my sins may well knock me down – You never will! . . . Let everything everywhere bless the Lord. And how I bless him too! (Ps 103; Ps 37:23-24)
 
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