Good Friday Homily

Good Friday Homily

4/03/2015

Lynchburg, Virginia

Prayer of Illumination- O Father in Heaven, we thank You for sending Your Son to die on the cross for us and for our sins. Grant us Your Spirit, we pray, that we might be empowered to fully lay down our lives for You, for our Lord Jesus and Your Holy Spirit. Help us to know and believe that as we lay ourselves down, forsaking our own desires, only then do we truly and fully become all that You desire us to be in Christ. Amen.

        

         This is Good Friday and it is good. We may think of it as Bad Friday for this is the day our Lord was murdered. But He was not simply murdered, His life and potential cut short of doing all that He could or should do. No, He gave His life for sinners and He did so at just the right time and in just the right place.

Wicked men killed Him but just as the Father had planned. For Acts 4:26-28 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.

         So, wicked men did wicked deeds but our Father accomplished His good will through them. It was good that it be so. It was good for us that Jesus died on the cross. Otherwise, we would still be dead in our sins.

We understand that we cannot pay for our sins. Only Jesus can do that and He has done so. But we can choose to hold ourselves back from Him or fully give ourselves to Him.

We will only refuse to give ourselves to Him if we do not believe that He is good and that He desires the very best for us. We might choose to retain our own wisdom, our own freedom, our own desires. But Jesus has died to make man fully man. As long as we refuse Him and hold onto ourselves, then we will never be what God meant us to be. Jesus said, “Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

Jesus has died to bring peace between God and man. Jesus has died to bring peace between man and man. All those who have died with Christ on the cross are also those who have been raised with Christ on the third day. But those who refuse to die, who refuse to submit themselves fully to Jesus, will also fail to receive the life that is in Him.

So, we are reminded on this horrible day, we are reminded on this glorious day, that we must die. But we are also reminded that our Father is the Creator of the universe, that He speaks to the darkness and it produces light. He speaks to the weak and they are made strong. He touches the sick and they are healed. He touches the blind and the deaf and the lame and they see and hear and walk. He calls to the dead and they come forth from the tomb and cast off their garments of death and walk into life.

Our Lord Jesus goes to the cross and we do not fear to go there with Him for He will arise and we will arise with Him. Amen.