"How to Meditate on Christ's Passion" Good Friday Chief Service 2025

18. April 2025

Good Friday Chief Service

John 18-19

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

This week we have heard the record of our Lord’s Passion according to the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and today, St. John. Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. We are called to be hearers, not simply in one ear and out the other. We are called to listen intently for faith. How should we hear and meditate on Christ’s Passion so that it benefits us?

Some wrongly meditate on Christ's Passion by being angry at the Jews and rebuking poor Judas. Some use the signs of Christ’s Passion as a magic talisman, such as wearing a cross and thinking it will keep them safe from fire, water, disease, and death. Some believe Good Friday is a holy day of obligation, and attendance gets them on God’s good side. Some mourn Christ as an innocent man suffering unjustly, an icon of all the injustice in the world. But these are not good ways to meditate beneficially on Christ’s Passion.

If we want to contemplate Christ's Passion rightly and for our benefit, we must first consider ourselves as the ones who tormented, flogged, crowned, and crucified Christ. We must regard Judas, Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas, the Jews, and the gentile soldiers as the servants and slaves of our sin, doing all these things to Christ on our behalf. When we imagine the scourges and stinging rod cutting through Christ's tender body, faith says, “Behold, those are our wicked thoughts; and the sharp spines and thorns piercing Christ's blessed head are our unprofitable, wicked words; and the dull nails penetrating Christ's divine hands and feet are our sinful works!”

But what good is such meditation? It sounds depressing! Yes, this is faith that moves us to terror and trembling so that we think, “O almighty, everlasting, merciful God! If it was so serious that God the Father did not spare His only and most beloved Son, but Christ had to make such a difficult atonement for us, then this sin must be horribly serious! God help us, what will become of us poor sinners?”

And hear what Christ said to the women, “If this is done to the green tree, what will become of the dry?” [Luke 23:31]. Or consider how St. Peter struck the Jews with such thunderous terror when he told them at Pentecost, “You crucified the Savior!” On the same day, three thousand people were frightened, grew anxious, and cried to the apostles, “Dear brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Christ's Passion is effective and active in doing and working faith in us. We are conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). As Christ, without guilt, was made to suffer for our sins, we, too, suffer in our conscience for our sins. This is the work of God’s law and all its threats and punishments poured into the cup of wrath given to Christ to drink. And we often fall into similar terror, trembling, and quaking either in life or in death, and given to know what Christ knew on the cross. This stern mirror in the cross does not lie or let anyone escape. So, is all hope lost? Can no one be saved? Should I despair in my sins of God’s mercy? Far from it!

We sometimes are given a foretaste of eternal death and damnation, even if it only lasts a moment, as the prophet Isaiah says. “‘For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,’ Says the Lord, your Redeemer” (Is 54:7–8).

By Christ’s Passion, you are made wise, first, when you are terrified by your sin, and then, see that a great Person, God’s own Son, is made to suffer for your sake. Hearing and believing again, God the Spirit will not allow your sin to remain in your conscience and devour you, for then doubt would follow. Instead, you are given to unload all your sins onto Christ and believe firmly that He defeated them and paid for them on the cross. As Isaiah says, “The LORD laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:6).

When we hear the Passion of our LORD Jesus Christ, we, too, are terrified of our sin. But the Spirit working through the Word turns us around and returns us to Jesus, taking us from our sinful life, and amending our ways. Jesus doesn’t leave us dead in our trespasses and sins, but fulfills for us all righteousness, redeeming us in His shed blood and innocent suffering and death. He gives us to eat and drink of His body and blood, to strengthen us in this faith and holy living. And “as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes!” (1 Cor 11).

We are given to meditate on Christ’s passion all our lives, in times of comfort and times of distress, in the midst of life and as we face death. As we sing in the famous English hymn, “Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.” And wear a cross around your neck and make the sign of the cross when you rise and when you go to bed. It’s not a magic talisman, but it is a little way to meditate on the Passion and the fruits of the Passion given in Baptism, Absolution, and Supper.

So, let’s get even more practical. When pride attacks you, look at Christ: how He was mocked, spit on, and railed against, and was surrounded by the thieves. If immorality assails you, see how hideously whips tore His tender body and cut it into ribbons. If sickness, sorrow, or poverty assails you, look at Christ: how from infancy to the cross He never had any rest, peace, or quiet, and had not even so much as a place where He might lay His head. And then your heart will be strengthened so that you will think, “Hey, wait a moment! Why can I not put up with a little affliction, since my Lord Christ sweated bloody sweat in the Garden, and was flogged, crowned, and crucified? I have His Spirit and all faith that knows nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus!”

It is good that we contemplate Christ's Passion and death, not merely with words and outward pageantry, but with our whole life and in truth. This is why we preach Christ and Him crucified for forgiveness, life, and salvation, even if it is a stumbling block and rock of offense. And “those who belong to Christ,” says St. Paul, “crucify their flesh together with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). There must be a new birth for us, followed by the mortification or putting to death of the old Adam and renewal of the Spirit, or else it is all in vain. It is good that we contemplate Christ's Passion and let our lives be conformed to it so that we stand upright before God in faith and toward our neighbors in love and with ourselves, putting to death the sinful flesh. Today, Christ’s Passion produces its proper fruit in us, every promise signed, sealed and delivered: remorse and sorrow for sin, true repentance and correction, forgiveness of sins, all grace and mercy, a blessed death, and eternal life. Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin

Based on Luther's tract, “How to Meditate on Christ's Passion” (LW 42:136ff)