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| The Sabboth Comes When No One Can Work (John 18:1-19:42) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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God’s Mercy and Grace be upon us all this evening … in the name of Christ the Crucified. Amen. We just heard the Passion of Jesus read from the account of the Gospel according to St. John … taking us from the pronouncement of Jesus’ sentence of death at the hands of Pilate … to His Crucifixion and finally … to His body’s placement in the tomb at the Hands of Joseph of Arimathea. What we’re looking at is about 8 hour’s time. From about 10 in the morning until just before sundown. Jesus’ body was in the grave by about 6 pm, otherwise devote Jews would have had to stop in the middle of what they were doing … for the Next Day which started at Sundown … was the Sabbath, and no work could be done, beginning at sun down Good Friday. … Just touching a dead body, anytime, made you unclean until sundown. And so, no Jew would ever knowingly or willingly allow himself to be unclean on the Passover Sabbath. And so, the Sabbath had come when No One Could Work.// Do you think that this timing was just a coincidence? Timing so that human hands were prevented by Law and tradition from doing anything with Jesus’ body from virtually the hour of His death … until after His resurrection? God’s economy doesn’t include coincidences, does it? In fact, instead of looking for a coincidence … perhaps we might listen instead to the message inherent in what actually happened. The argument we might advance is this: When it comes to our salvation … that is entirely God’s work. However, we human beings have this tendency, though, to want to have a part of it. We want to claim that we cooperated with God when He gave us His Holy Spirit. We like to say that we decided to accept Jesus Christ, as if our decision was necessary for our salvation to be complete. We want to have some part of the action when it comes to our being set right before God. But that isn’t how it works, is it? If we adhere to the Scriptural understanding that we are saved by God’s Grace through Faith alone … then we have no part in the matter. God gives us the gift of faith … and with that gift, the indwelling of His Holy Spirit … all that, solely by His grace without any merit or worthiness or cooperation or the lack of same on our part. And part and parcel with His gift of faith … is God’s promise of our salvation. And so … if we are saved, then, it is by God’s act of grace apart from anything in us or by us. And then… God gets what He deserves… all the credit and all glory. And so when it came to God’s act necessary for mankind’s redemption, namely: Jesus perfect life … His perfect death … His resurrection and His Ascension … what part do human hands have in that? NADA. They Crucify Him, and yet it is He Himself who yields up His Spirit. They Put Him in a tomb, they even seal it up. But between His death and His Resurrection, human hands are prevented from doing anything. Why? Imagine if the women had not been prevented by Law and tradition from fully anointing Jesus’ Body. Would not, then, there be some confusion as to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 16… as David wrote this about the Holy One, the Messiah, God’s Christ: “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” God’s Holy One, the Messiah, the Christ, would not see decay. Why? What if that could be seen as due to human intervention? What if the Mary’s had had the opportunity to see to that?? Would not then … Our salvation have been accomplished by God, but also with help from human hands?? And we, or the Devil, could argue, then, that God hadn’t accomplished it all … without us?? And our salvation, therefore, would have a human element in it … and thereby … would be no longer perfect. And then, of no effect. For God wouldn’t have “done it all” … and so for us… He couldn’t do it all, either … And so blessed be that Sabbath…that Sabbath when no one could add anything necessary for our salvation, beyond what God Himself had done … and was doing on our behalf. That Sabbath will have begun as we leave the church this evening … Thank God for it tonight and tomorrow as you thank Him for His gift to you of His Blessings of Salvation. Thank Him as you anticipate the Joy of Easter Morning. And thank Him that this is “Good” Friday. And now, we turn again… to the fateful events of this Day. The Day when Heaven and earth intersected. When God’s Son took the punishment and judgment for all our sin. When He did what we could never do… out of His Passion … out of His love for us… We listen … and we ponder that divine mystery. In Him … Amen. |