Lent Midweek – Part 5

***Our Lenten Midweek services are meditating upon the Passion of our Lord Drawn from the Four Gospels. Tonight, we meditated upon Calvary.***

+INJ+

As we consider the Passion reading this evening, it’s important to remember and have the story of Creation in the back of your mind.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. (Genesis 1:3)

So, how did God create? He spoke His Word of Creation.

But what is that Word?

Let’s hear the Gospel of John again,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

So, who is the Word but Jesus Christ Himself?

The darkness He has now entered is the world that fell into the corruption of sin at the hands of your first parents, eating from the forbidden tree of the Garden.

This sin of disobedience led Adam and Eve to usher into this world a perpetual darkness that often seems to abide with us wherever we go. 

Look around your lives and examine the words of your heart and lips. Do they continue to reveal a present darkness?

Do they call out to God in times of trouble and despair?

Do they confess the joy of heaven as Jesus Himself said to the criminal this evening, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Or do the words and meditation of our heart reflect an unending grief that has consumed you as many of Jesus’ followers shared as they looked upon His cross? 

Is this you?

If so, Jesus entered this darkness for you.

He entered this world taking on your lowly form – not only as a child in the manger on the night of His birth, but also we see his humanity, his human frame, hanging upon the cross of Good Friday.

The Gospel of Mathew recalls the period of Christ’s crucifixion, saying, “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.” (Matthew 27:45)

Our reading tonight says,
     When Jesus had received the wine, he cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!”

What a wonderful thing to hear, “It is finished!”

Or as the Greek renders it, “τετέλεσται!”

Honestly, there is no better word than this, “τετέλεσται!”

“It is finished!”

What is finished?

The God-Man, Jesus Christ, has paid the debt of your sin and redeemed you. He faced and entered the darkness of death brought upon the human race through the hands and heart of your first parents, only to defeat it and restore what was lost.

In fact, after saying, “τετέλεσται!” There was only one thing remaining for Jesus to do, and the Gospel records, “Then he said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

He gave up His spirit and died for you.

This is a transformational moment in time and salvation – for in it, the true light of the world shone upon the cross for all to see, and the darkness did not overcome Him.

Johann Gerhard, the great Lutheran theologian, wrote regarding these last words of Jesus,

The fact that Christ called out loudly caused one of the ancient teachers to express these thoughts: that death did not overcome Christ in the same way that it overcomes us humans. Death takes away our speech; it stops up our mouth so that no coherent word any longer proceeds from it. However, Christ here dies much differently. He calls loudly and coherently; and with [the cry] He gives us His spirit. Death, as it were, knew in advance that Christ was going to devour it and conquer it. That’s why death did not want to step up too close. Thus, Christ shouted out so loudly, and His clear voice causes Death to tremble, telling Death that it should step forth and carry out upon Him the right and power that it usually held over the human race.

Hear the great comfort in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians,

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
      “O death, where is your victory?
                  O death, where is your sting?”

Where is the victory? It’s in the very Word of God, the incarnate Son of the Father, as He said, “τετέλεσται!”

“It is finished!”

May this Word of God abide with you throughout this Passiontide and as we approach the cross of Good Friday. Remember how the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the true Light of the World who has overcome the darkness of your life for you. And now He, the Word of God, forgives you, feeds you, and makes you His new creation. +INJ+