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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You may not be aware that today our observances of two different important events in the life of our Lord essentially coincide! Good Friday, on which day Jesus was crucified, and which has been observed since the second century, this year occurs on March 25th, which, since at least the sixth century, has been the date of the somewhat lesser Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord, which day marks Gabriel’s telling Mary that she would bear Jesus, and so the day also marks Jesus’s conception by the Holy Spirit. Although I cannot tell you how often these two observances have happened together over their common centuries, I can tell you that they reportedly last concurred in 2005 and will not concur again until 21-57, 141 years from now (so probably never again in the lifetimes of any of us here tonight). More than the two festivals’ corresponding on our modern calendar this year, however, some in the Christian Church also have held that the two events and at least one other actually took place on the same calendar date but years apart. By their thinking, Adam and Eve fell into sin on March 25th (Johann Gerhard, cited by Lindemann II:159; confer Pfatteicher, Commentary, 315‑316), the same date as Jesus’s Conception and the same date as Jesus’s Crucifixion. Whether or not we individually might think that the three events actually all took place on March 25th, we all certainly can relate to sin, conception, and death, and so, on this Good Friday overlapping with the Feast of the Annunciation, we focus our thoughts for the next little while on the theme “Conception and Crucifixion”.
You and I probably are at least somewhat familiar with St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired account of the angel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary, but please permit me to read it now, so that it is fresher in our memories as the primary text for this sermon.
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38 ESV)
The angel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary of Jesus’s person and work alluded to Old Testament prophecy and itself prophesied. From the Annunciation to Good Friday, from Jesus’s Conception to His Crucifixion, from the first moment of Jesus’s Incarnation to today and even to eternity, at the center of it all is the God-man Jesus’s graciously saving people from their sins.
A few verses later in St. Luke’s Gospel account, even the blessed Virgin Mary refers to God’s saving her (Luke 1:42, 47). How much Mary’s sinfulness played a role in her reaction to Gabriel, St. Luke does not report, but, as if the angel’s appearance was not enough, St. Luke does report that Mary was greatly troubled, perhaps thoroughly confused, at the angel’s saying; St. Luke does report that she tried to discern, perhaps debated within herself, what sort of greeting it might be; and St. Luke does report that the angel then told her not to be afraid. Yet, in some sense, the Annunciation was just the beginning of troubling and frightening things for Mary: we might think of Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce her own soul (Luke 2:35), and we might think of her standing by the cross during the Crucifixion (John 19:25).
Someone I was talking to yesterday commented about how difficult for Mary her standing by the cross during the Crucifixion must have been, and that person said that, although our hearing and reflecting on the Crucifixion can also be difficult for us, at least we have a more‑complete revelation. To be sure, we do have a more‑complete revelation, but we do not yet know, understand, and appreciate all things. We also can be greatly troubled at God’s Word to us; we also can try to discern what things mean; and we also can need to be told not to be afraid. Whether or not sin is involved in those things, we are sinful by nature and, even we, who believe, continue to sin in countless other ways. Just like the Virgin Mary, we are sinful and in need of a Savior from sin, which is just what we have in the God-man Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit leads us to be sorry for our sin and to trust God the Father to forgive our sin, then God the Father truly does forgive our sin—God the Father truly does forgive our sin not because of anything in or about us but because of God the Father’s favor and grace for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.
The Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—was mentioned and arguably was present (along with the Virgin Mary), both at the Annunciation and on Good Friday, at both the Conception and the Crucifixion (Luke 23:46; John 19:30). Yet, only the Son is personally united with human flesh in Mary’s virginal womb, which flesh ultimately was laid to rest in Joseph of Arimathea’s previously unused tomb (confer Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chapter V). Jesus is declared the Son of God by Gabriel at the Annunciation and by the centurion at the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39), not to mention by others in between, such as the Father Himself at Jesus’s Baptism and Transfiguration (for example, Matthew 3:17; 17:5). That Son of God is miraculously conceived as the “offspring”, or “seed”, of the woman, Who, in His crucifixion, goes on to “bruise”, or “crush”, the serpent’s head, even as the serpent “bruises”, or “strikes” His heel (Genesis 3:15 ESV; compare NIV; confer Luther, Postil Sermon on Luke 24:14-35, AE 77:54-55).
In the person of the man Jesus, God Himself miraculously dies for us, for our sins! The angel commanded that God and Mary’s Son be named Jesus because He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21, 25; Luke 1:31; 2:21). The Epistle Reading appointed for the Feast of the Annunciation from the book of Hebrews (10:4-10) cites and expounds a version of Psalm 40 regarding the body prepared for the Son in order to do the Father’s will of offering Himself once and for all people. And, from that passage we believe, teach, and confess that the Son’s death on the cross was the one atoning offering and satisfaction not only for our original sin but also for all our other sins (Augsburg Confession XXIV:24-27 ; Apology XXIV:22). Far more important than the graphic, brutal details of His suffering and death is what that suffering and death means for us! The Old Testament Reading for Good Friday (Isaiah 52:13‑53:12) refers to the Suffering Servant’s making many to be accounted righteous, and the Epistle Reading for Good Friday (Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9) refers to the days of the Son’s flesh and his becoming the source of eternal salvation to all who “obey” Him by harkening to His Word in repentance and faith.
We who repent and believe cannot go to the cross some 2000 years ago (confer Luther, AE 40:213-214), but we can receive the benefits of the cross how and where God offers them to us. In the Good Friday Gospel Reading (John 18:1‑19:42), we heard how, after Jesus had given up His Spirit, water and blood came out of His pierced side, and how the evangelist bore witness that we might believe. The Spirit, the water, and the blood themselves now bear witness (1 John 5:6-8). God gives the Holy Spirit through the Gospel purely preached and the Sacraments rightly administered by His Office of the Holy Ministry, and so He creates saving faith when and where He pleases (Augsburg Confession V). We can be sure that God makes disciples by sprinkling people of all nations in Holy Baptism (Matthew 28:19), and He strengthens and preserves them in body and soul in the Sacrament of the Altar, where Jesus’s Body and Blood are sacramentally united with bread and wine to forgive our sins. As God worked through Gabriel’s words to conceive Jesus miraculously in Mary’s womb, so God can work through a pastor’s words to make Jesus present miraculously in bread and wine for us.
Through God’s Word and Sacraments, He mystically unites us with Himself in His Kingdom. As the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that the Lord was with her, so God is also with us (Immanu‑el); He is with us as our King. The angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that the Lord God would give Jesus the throne of His father David, that Jesus would forever reign over the house of Jacob (all the tribes of Israel), and that of His Kingdom there would be no end (so much for just one-thousand years). As we heard in the Good Friday Gospel Reading, Jesus discussed with Pilate His person and work as a king; Jesus was mocked as a king; and He was crucified as a king. As our King suffered in this world, so also we suffer in this world. But, His Kingdom is not of this world, and its glory is still to come. God, for Whom nothing is impossible, will raise us to eternal life on the Last Day. In the meantime, with repentance and faith we live every day in His forgiveness of sins. At the Annunciation, Mary apparently was afraid but was comforted, and no doubt her fear was also met with comfort on Good Friday, as she stood by the cross and was provided another son of a sort. In all of our fears, God likewise comforts us and, as we are in His Kingdom, He grants us peace and joy.
When I was in seminary, one of my friends gave me a small triptych, which now has a place of prominence on my desk in my study; its three panels of carved wood, joined to each other with hinges, in this case, has three images, one each depicting the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. As is the custom, I have had the triptych closed for the season of Lent, similar to how we had the crucifix above the altar veiled and now have removed it. Closing the triptych deepened my meditation on what it ultimately represents, and, at the same time, closing the triptych hid something that can be regarded as joyous and so somehow inappropriate during a time of reflection on our Lord’s Passion. As we have now realized, the joy of the Annunciation and of Good Friday, the joy of the Conception and of the Crucifixion (each of which is necessary for the other), are one and the same joy: the joy of God’s delivering His people from their sins. No wonder the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary to “Rejoice” (apparently a better translation than “Greetings” [for example, NKJV]). As told at the Annunciation, Mary could—and we should—“rejoice greatly” and “shout for joy” because, as we heard Jesus say in the Gospel Reading, and as the banner says, the Lord’s work delivering us and all believers was “finished” on Good Friday. Jesus’s work, from His conception to His crucifixion, makes us righteous and makes holy every aspect of our existence: from our conceptions, through our earthly deaths, unto our eternal life with Him. Rejoice, indeed!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +