Saturday, March 30, 2013
Holy Saturday
Luke 23:44-46 Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." Having said this, He breathed His last.
NO MISTAKE ... THANK GOD
He Died. Jesus, the Son of God, died. Dead. The soldiers examined Him to be sure. No mistake about it.
No mistake? No mistake you say? The kindest, strongest, most thoughtful man who ever lived, innocent even of the daily mistakes, misdeeds and sins that afflict us, is gruesomely executed as the lowest of criminals -- and you say "no mistake"? Yes. No mistake. For, you see, this was all part of God's plan to free sinful mankind from the just condemnation we deserved for our sins. No mistake -- because on Calvary God turned evil back on itself and used man's injustice -- the condemnation of the innocent Son of God -- to work the ultimate justice of God.
No mistake because He chose to die. Death didn't take Him -- He took death. He came into this world to destroy Him who had the power over death -- Satan himself.
And on the Cross, having defeated the devil, He turned to death and defeated it also.
For us.
All for us.
How could we call the remembering of this day anything but GOOD? Good Friday.
See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 175:3)
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ. In Your dying moment You commended Your soul unto Your Father's hand, wholly assuring us that You had finished the work of our redemption and that Your Father is well pleased in You. We pray, grant us by Your Holy Spirit such confidence in Your redemption that washed of our sins in Your blood, we too in our dying hour may confidently commend our souls into the Father's hand, trusting wholly in Your merit, You who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the one true God both now and forever. Amen.
