Golgotha: A Place of Simple Love

Good Friday
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Luke 23:44-49

“Golgotha: A Place of Simple Love” (Places of the Passion)

If you stood there in Jerusalem on that Friday nearly two thousand years ago, you’d have seen an amazing sight. All around the temple mount, you could just look up and see the towering image of the Lord’s temple. It had been rebuilt by Herod – the same Herod you hear of in the Christmas story – with the intent that it would be greater than the temple that King Solomon built a thousand years earlier. Inside the temple, though, was something even greater.

You couldn’t have seen it, though. Gentiles weren’t even permitted to enter into the temple beyond the outmost courtyard. A barrier divided that courtyard from the inner ones, which only Jews could enter: prominent notices warned others against going further, on pain of death. The Women’s Court came next, then the Court of the Men of Israel, and then the Priest’s Court, the last before the temple sanctuary. The sanctuary was the holy place, where the priests burned incense and came before the Lord in the service of the people. But it wasn’t the Most Holy Place.

That space, the Holy of Holies, stood apart. Since the days of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the Holy of Holies was a singular space: it was the place of the presence of God. It was the place where the Ark of the Covenant had once rested, the place where the Lord would meet His people. Only one man, the high priest, could enter in to the Most Holy Place; and that was only on one day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The high priest would go in to God’s presence, offering incense and sprinkling blood as part of the order God established for paying for the sin of the whole people of Israel. A massive curtain separated the Holy Place of the sanctuary from the Most Holy Place. Composed of 72 thickly woven squares, the curtain was thirty feet wide and sixty feet high, incorporating those colors which adorned the temple: sky blue, purple, scarlet, and gold. The curtain was a majestic sight, honoring the Presence of God dwelling with His people. And then, one day, the curtain was torn in two from top to bottom.

If you stood there at Golgotha on that Friday nearly two thousand years ago, you’d have seen an amazing sight. All around that place, the place called “the skull,” you could just look up and see the towering image of three crosses. The crosses weren’t amazing; they were horrific, as crucifixion is an awful way to die. It was the figure at the center of it all who stood out, arms outstretched as he hung there between two criminals. He didn’t look nearly as majestic as the temple curtain that hung in its place some 1,500 feet away. You couldn’t see any sky blue at the cross, because the sun had failed and darkness covered the land. No purple adorned this man, as his captors had removed the royal robe they’d mockingly put on him as “King of the Jews.” His crown of thorns didn’t gleam gold. The lone color that linked the curtain and the cross was scarlet, the color of the blood of the sacrifice.

A life needs to be offered up for all the lives that have been ruined. That truth has not changed in three thousand years. The people of Israel needed the high priest to go and represent them before the Presence of God in the temple. None of them – not even the high priest – had the right to stand before the Lord because of their sin. Nor do you or I. Tonight, we sing the Solemn Reproaches, a series of antiphons and responses that call us to consider all the ways in which we as God’s people, as individual Christians and as the Church, prepared a cross for our Savior. If you reflect on the Reproaches, it’s simple to see that we don’t deserve forgiveness. We don’t deserve to be in God’s presence. Yet standing at the foot of the cross, we are.

At Golgotha on that Friday nearly two thousand years ago, the Lord offered the one sacrifice to which that all the other sacrifices looked ahead: Himself. The death of Jesus on the cross is part of the judgment of God against our guilt, bringing forgiveness to sinners and opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. This is God’s work for all creation that lies at the heart of all worship: God, through sacrifice, brings about the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, who is both the high priest and the sacrifice, takes the wrath of God for you, so that you may enter into God’s presence. God has paid the price for sin, and nothing need separate you any longer. The curtain is torn in two from top to bottom.

On the cross, the only place where a man must die with arms outstretched, Jesus’ arms are outstretched to welcome you into reconciled life with God. Good Friday is the Day of Atonement for all nations. Hear God’s word from the book of Hebrews: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19-22a) Jesus draws us all together on the cross, people of Abraham and Gentile foreigners, joining us both together in Himself. And he does it all out of love.

Golgotha is a place of simple love, but please don’t take simple here to mean “foolish” or “unsophisticated.” This simple love is pure love: the crystal clear, undiluted, uncompromised, giving of oneself for another. God gives Himself for you on the cross so that you can be with Him – now, and forever. Jesus, our great high priest, has offered the sacrifice to atone for us in the temple of his body. There is no longer any curtain, because you have been reconciled to God. The blessing of one day of atonement has been brought into every day. And it’s here for you.

Look to the cross this Good Friday and see God’s simple love.

Amen.

n the cross, people of Abraham and Gentile foreigners, joining us both together in Himself. And he does it all out of love.
Golgotha is a place of simple love, but please don’t take simple here to mean “foolish” or “unsophisticated.” This simple love is pure love: the crystal clear, undiluted, uncompromised, giving of oneself for another. God gives Himself for you on the cross so that you can be with Him – now, and forever. Jesus, our great high priest, has offered the sacrifice to atone for us in the temple of his body. There is no longer any curtain, because you have been reconciled to God. The blessing of one day of atonement has been brought into every day. And it’s here for you.
Look to the cross this Good Friday and see God’s simple love.

Amen.