Good Friday – Chief Service
30 March, Anno Domini 2017
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Pr. Kurt Ulmer
In the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Just yesterday, I read an article which said that a 3D “carbon copy” of Jesus has been produced using the Shroud of Turin. If you’re not familiar with it, this shroud is believed by many to have been the burial face cloth of Jesus. And from this, someone has recreated what they believe is an actual likeness of Christ. They believe that he was unusually tall for his time and that he had a very regal look about him, not pompous, but majestic.
And while, naturally, we want our saviors to be regal and impressive, that isn’t how Holy Scripture describes Jesus. Isaiah the prophet paints a very different picture of our Lord, one that is so utterly contrary to all reason and wisdom. Nonetheless, viewed through the eyes of faith, there is nothing more beautiful in all of creation than this marred and stricken Jesus. Indeed, the true beauty of our Lord is just how ugly and wretched He allowed Himself to be made.
And how could He be anything else? Is there anything uglier than humanity? While the animal kingdom may be excused for its ugliness and brutality, what excuse do we have? We were once the beautiful crown of all God’s creation. We were once perfectly holy and righteous. But we threw all that away for a lie. We thought there was something more beautiful than to be made in God’s image. And now there is nothing more vile to look upon than human nature. From the womb, to the streets, to the battlefield, to the deathbed, men are all to eager to slaughter one another in cold blood. We take pride in our ability to welcome and applaud ever more twisted sexual perversions. Our mouths are filled with all kinds of cruel, vindictive, hateful, disrespectful speech. We are an ugly people who no longer look anything like the God of love and compassion who made us. God had every right to turn away from us in disgust and never look at us again.There was nothing beautiful about us. Nothing regal. Nothing to make God desire us.
But that would have meant certain death for us and God loved us. That is His character. His love meant that He couldn’t just sit by and watch as the whole human race fell off in eternal damnation. And there is only one way by which we can be saved. We must look upon God’s Son, marred and beaten and spit upon. We must first confront the truth of our own ugliness. We must see Jesus bruised by the reed, torn apart by the scourges, bruised and swollen from the punching, pierced by the nails, crying out to God as the one who has been completely forsaken and in that see the great damage that our sin has done. We must see the head of God’s Son fall to His chest as life left Him and see the truth that we are completely and utterly dead in our sin and our trespasses, that there is nothing at good in our sinful flesh.
If you walk in the delusion that apart from Christ you are beautiful, then you will be among those who are baffled by the cross and ashamed of it. If you say you have no sin or that your sin is not so bad, you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you and you will hide your face from Good Friday and desperately look for a prettier more regal and palatable Jesus. If you are right and your sin is not so ugly, then why is God’s Son made to be? Repent.
The stripes, the bruises, the Blood – it was all for you. The Son of God, fairest among the children of men because He was spotless without any sin, became ugliness, became your sin for you, so that He might make you like Himself, beautiful. The ugliness of Christ is rightfully yours. But He would have it no other way. He would gladly bear it a thousand times over if necessary. Your griefs and sorrows are His so that you might know the joy and gladness of peace with God and the complete forgiveness of all your sins. God laid your iniquity on Jesus and in turn laid the beauty of Christ’s righteousness upon you so that you could be made a child and heir. Christ Jesus was cut off and forsaken by God so that you would be brought near to God and might confidently seek every good and perfect gift from Him.
Such is the will of the Lord, to crush the faithful Lamb that the wandering sheep might be gathered back to the fold and saved. You have been made beautiful again because for you, Christ was made ugly and now the Father is pleased to lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
In the Name of +Jesus.