Good Friday Sermon 2021

 

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.  He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. John 19:33-35

 

You have learned that of the many trees in the Garden of Eden, there were two of special importance.  The first was the tree of life, which Adam and Eve were allowed to eat.  If anyone ate of this tree, he would live forever in continual health, youthfulness, and joy.  But there was one tree in all the Garden that God forbade the man and the woman to eat from.  It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God said, “The day you eat of it, dying you will die.” 

 

God put this tree into the Garden so that the man and the woman might exercise their freedom to love Him, obey Him, and marvel at Him.  Luther opines, and I think he is right, that Adam had church at this tree, since God had given such an important message there, that showed His genuine love for them.  God did not tempt Adam and Eve.  The command He gave was that they worship Him, and this was something they willingly did.  They understood that He was not the source of evil, but only of good.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil proved this.  God did not want them to know evil.  He only wanted them to know good.

 

And you have learned how the devil spoke to the woman as a snake, and how he lied, and contradicted God’s word by saying, “Did God really say?” and “You shall not surely die” and “You will be like God.”  And the woman saw that the fruit was good to eat and desirable for gaining wisdom, and she took the fruit and ate it and gave it to the man who was with her.  And so we all fell in Adam’s fall.   Adam and Eve knew evil.  They used to know only good, but now they knew evil, and so do we.  

 

But we don’t.  This is the great lie.  God did really say.  We surely did die from this sin.  We are not like God, and we don’t really know good and evil.  Every step of the way that snake lied.  And so the cherubim waved a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.  And we return to the dust from which we came. 

 

But God promised a Savior to Adam and Eve, who would crush the devil’s head.  And God fulfilled His promise.  From a virgin God’s Son was born a man.  He took on Himself our human nature, and took our place in the desert of this earthly life. 

 

This only begotten Son of God did battle against the devil.  He said what God said.  He shunned evil.  He was and is God, but He acted as the man He was.  He took our place.  And when He took our place, He put Himself under the Law that tells us what evil is. 

 

We underestimate sin.  People think that because sin is so common it is therefore not deadly.  We are accustomed to evil more than to good. But we don’t even understand the depth of evil.  The Ten commandments tell us what not to do.  They inform us and teach us of evil to teach us to recognize the good.  The Law was given because of sin.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil taught us evil, but not so that we understood it properly.  We suffer from the knowledge of evil we don’t understand, while we lack the knowledge of good that Adam and Eve once enjoyed.  Sin is death, as God said.  And so we know death, and it overshadows all that is good.

 

But Jesus comes and dies on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He is all good.  He is the source of all good.  All things come through Him and are for Him, and all things means only good things.  God is not the author of evil. 

 

The cross is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Jesus, who knows only and all good, and is entirely without evil and sin, is made to be sin for us. This means that He truly, as none of us can, knew evil.  He knew evil not to enjoy it, because he thought it tasted good or could gain something from it.  No.  He knew evil and sin for what it actually was.  He knew the pain and misery and agony and death of it.  He knew and felt how it alienates us from God and each other. He is naked on the cross and knows the shame of sin.  He is beaten and whipped and pierced and He knows the pain of sin.  He is forsaken by God, because God has nothing to do with sin, and yet He is God, and remains one with the Father, but in His flesh that He assumed, our God becomes the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Whoever eats of this fruit will surely die to sin, because He has tasted sin’s wages for everyone.  He knows.  He knows what sin is, and He has overcome it.  He surely died.  He surely died in our place.  All good is on that tree and all evil as well.  All good and all evil are in the body of the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. 

 

In the beginning of creation there were two special trees.  In the new creation there is one tree that we all look to.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil Jesus has changed into the tree of life.

 

Do you have sin that is too strong for you?  Eat of Christ, and you will find the knowledge of your evil removed from God’s memory and mind by the sufferings and death of He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Do you remember guilt with shame and regret, and long to remember what is good again?  Eat from this tree of the knowledge of all good.  Here is Christ’s obedience and righteousness that you lost and that you lack, but it is here for you.  Know who this is, and live.  Eat of the fruit of the knowledge that Christ is all good and has done away with all evil, and you will live forever. 

 

You know good and evil only in the death of the Son of God.  God cannot die because He is God and good cannot but be who He is.  But God became a man, and the man who is the second Adam is also true God, and so in this great mystery, the Truth who is God, dies on the cross, and accepts the sentence that He laid on us, “The day you eat of it, you will surely die.”  He has swallowed all our sins, not to enjoy them, but to know their pain and in His suffering and with His divine blood to put an end to the lie that God didn’t really say.  He does what God promised.  The snake is crushed as His heel is bruised.  He surely dies.  His eyes are opened to be like us sinners, but without sin, and yet with the sin of the world in His own body on the tree.

 

We are poor and weak sinners.  We need life because life should not be full of evil.  We have sins that are too strong for us, evil that is too much for us, shame that frightens us.  But you have no knowledge of any evil that Jesus did not have better than you.  He truly knew evil in your place.  He knew what destroys you, because He was destroyed in your place.  He knew what you are afraid of because He felt the wrath of God against all of your sin. He, who knows all good, knew all evil, and He has changed the tree that brings death into the tree that brings life. 

 

He gives you life by giving you the knowledge that all of His good is yours, and all of your evil was made His, but now it is no more.  It died in Him.  He paid the wages of sin.  He tasted evil for what it really is, and there is only good flowing from Him.

 

And now the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, flows from His side, blood and water, forgiveness and cleansing, mercy and truth for those who were held in bondage by lies. 

 

So confess your sins, and then taste and see that the Lord is good.  You will taste it on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil turned into the tree of life, which if you eat of it, you will never die.  It is the fruit that takes away your knowledge of evil, the guilt and shame and fear, and replaces it with the knowledge of all that is good, peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ. The blood and the water both testify that Jesus is your Savior from sin, that God really does say that your sins are forgiven, and so you will surely not die, but you will be like God in a way that is not sinful.  You will be righteous and holy, completely spotless, washed in the blood and the water, tasting the knowledge of good overcoming evil, eating of the fruit of the tree of life and rejoicing that God is at peace with you through the death of His Son. 

 

At this altar today the fruit of the tree of life is offered to you.  It is the forgiveness of sins, that is, the knowledge that God is good and the knowledge that He takes all your evil away, and so you have life and salvation.  Believe in Him, and you have eaten.  Trust in Him, and you will never.  Amen.