Good Friday

The sixth day of creation was Friday; and the day of our redemption was also Friday.  Both Fridays were good Fridays, as it is written: God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

On the sixth day, God made the beasts, and he also made man in his own image.

On the sixth day, Satan, that old serpent of old, envious of man and indignant for having to endure the status of a beast, entered into Judas, to betray Jesus, and entered into the rulers, to have him taken and crucified, to reduce him to the status of a worm, a reproach of men and despised of the people.

On the sixth day, God gave man dominion over all the creatures of the earth.

On the sixth day, the Lord in the flesh regained the lost dominion of man for him.  He gained dominion especially over the devil and over the devil’s domain of death; he destroyed death by dying.  By dying he became lord – dominus – of all the earth.

On the sixth day, God created man in his image, male and female created he  them.

On the sixth day, Jesus gave his beloved disciple to his mother, to care for her; and he gave his mother to his disciple.  In doing this he also showed forth the giving of his bride, the church, into the care and keeping of his ministers, his brethren.

On the sixth day, God gave to man every herb bearing seed, for food.

On the sixth day, man gave to God sour fruit of the vine—vinegar—upon hyssop, in his thirst.  And by this partaking in the sour fruits of a fallen world, our Lord Jesus Christ transformed it into a redeemed world, one purchased by his passion and death.

So it was that on the sixth day, God finished all his work which he had made, and behold, it was very good. 

And on the sixth day, when Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished.

It is finished: all the work of restoration of a fallen creation; the returning of the devil to his serpentine station; the reestablishment of man as lord over all the earth; and the new provision of all the herbs bearing seed for the good of mankind: the herbs of wheat and of the vine, now to produce bread and new wine.  This wine is not sour, is not vinegar.  Behold in the blessed Supper the fruits of the vine, of the vine hanging upon a lattice, our Lord Jesus Christ upon the tree of beauty and royal, purple dight.  And the Lord God has given this to you to eat, that you might live forever.  For the seventh day is a day without ending.

The sermon.