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Judas betrayed Jesus. Instead of trusting the Lord, instead of believing that the Nazarene was truly the Son of God, instead of fearing and loving Him above all things, Judas did things his own way. You all have betrayed Jesus also. Sin is your common denominator. Not all sin is the sin of apostasy/unbelief……..but all sin springs from the same "old adam," the same fallen condition. Don’t cry for the traitor surnamed Iscariot, His end is beyond your control to alter. You should weep and grieve over the fact that you still have such a "thing" as a sinful nature buried in you.

Peter didn’t understand the Lord’s mission. He didn’t like the way God’s plans were being carried out. He drew a sword and cut off a man’s ear. He probably was aiming to kill the fellow, but then fishermen are not gladiators. You sin like Simon when you too fail to be content in letting the Lord work His will according to His plans and schedules. You sin when you, in impatience and unfocussed restlessness, lash out at those you perceive to be "enemies" of Jesus. He told you clearly to love your enemies and to do good to those who persecute you. Don’t cry for the Apostle, His spirit is now in heaven. You should weep over the reality that you act with the same misunderstandings, angers, and impetuous faith blunders.

Caiphas knew Jesus had done nothing worthy of being executed over, but cynically thought it was expedient that Jesus die so that the nation of Israel would survive the occupation of the conquerors from Italy. Mourn heartily that you too have done many wrong things because they were the "easy way" out, but not the right way. Do you ever tell "little white" lies in order to avoid unpleasantness? Even your little fibs cost Jesus a whole lot of unpleasantness. Cry for your own lying tongue.

There have been times when you should have told someone about Jesus’ love and what it means to be one of His followers. But you were silent. The work place, the grocery store, the ball park, the office party, the dorm room, "it just wasn’t the right place to interject with His Holy Name, and with your confession of Faith in His Body and Blood." Really? You have denied by your sins of omission, that you ever even knew the Man.

Shed no tears for the remorseful Peter, but hang your head that your heart is also filled with the expedient treason of denial.

Do you think that Pilate was just a "fall guy," put in to a difficult no-win situation? Then again, cry for your own lack of righteousness. The Governor knew an innocent man was going to be horribly tortured and then unjustly executed. The Governor had "Truth" standing, literally, eyeball to eyeball with him, and he still voluntarily, of his own free, will chose to do evil. How many times this very past week have you also chosen to "do that which you would not do" or have failed to do "that which you know you should have done?" Are you more obedient, righteous and self-disciplined than St. Paul? No. You also have been like Pilate. Don’t attempt to avoid responsibility by "washing your own hands," rather let your tearsyou’re your repentance flow from your sorry eyes to the pierced feet of the Savior.

We as poor, miserable, trespassing, congenital, obsessive, chronic, DAILY SINNERS…. we on our own get it all wrong. Why, we can’t even get "Good Friday" right. We look at our Lord’s suffering and death; we observe the accounts of His mockery, beatings, and Calvary-sufferings and we still many times miss the whole point. We are not to feel sorry for Jesus. We are not to sniff, and get choked up, and emotional because this poor innocent man was so hideously abused and mistreated. We are not to say, this just wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right, it shouldn’t have happened to the Lamb of God. Jesus isn’t some pathetic figure fit for your sympathy. He is your Lord fit to receive your confessions of guilt, so that He might freely dispense His soothing balm of Free and Total forgiveness.

The point is not the physical suffering, or the grisly death. Thousands and thousands of humans have been tortured longer, and yes, even more severely than the Carpenter’s Son. We don’t have our throat’s constrict, and feel the salt-solution tearing up in the corner of our eyes because of Jesus…. we cry-- because in our shame, in our law-produced guilt, we know we are to blame! We cry for ourselves. For mercy.

As the Lord once said to a group mourning the loss of the Galilean pilgrims, whose blood Pilate had mixed with the sacrifices in the temple: "Do you suppose that these…were worse sinners than all other Galileans…? I tell you no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men… I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." [Lk 13. 1-5]

The "worse" sinners in the world, are ones that are preached to every Sunday morning (or Friday evening). The worse sinner in the world is the one, who by the Spirit’s aid, has written this manuscript and who is now proclaiming it. The worse sinner in the world is the face you see when you stare into the mirror in the morning. You echo the Apostle Paul’s words: "…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." [1 Tim 1.15b]

You cry not at what is Good, of God, you cry over what is bad, spoiled, and without God.

We shed no tears this evening for our Lord’s Bloody Passion; His glorious scarlet & crimson trophies won. It is good that He came in the flesh. It is good that He kept the Law inviolate on your behalf (for you do not keep it as you should). It is good that He was betrayed, falsely accused and convicted. It is good that He was spit upon and whipped. For by His stripes writes Isaiah, you are healed. It is good that He was lifted high over the earth on the cross, The First Christian Crucifix, for by the Blood of the Atoning Lamb streaming forth from His head, hands, back, feet, and side (His sacred heart) the sinner is washed clean in the fountain of Grace… washed from Immanuel’s veins.

On Good Friday, you mourn not for your dear, sweet Jesus. He is Alive, never more to suffer or die, or be entombed again. You lament your daily trespasses. You sob over your repeated sins… for each and every one of your sins, laid Him low, and cut Him, and bruised Him. Your sin killed Him.

You gather together this evening to join your mournful cries with those of the publican, "Lord be merciful to be a sinner," with the blind beggar Bartimaeus, "Lord have mercy," and with all your fellow brothers and sisters who gather before His Throne every Lord’s Day to confess that they too are sinful and unclean, but nonetheless "are heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them."

On Good Friday, you remember what He did for you, by remembering what your sins did to Him. What He gladly suffered so that you would not be lost or condemned, but might live with Him in His kingdom.

You do well to remember Calvary…. The event… the Atonement. But remember His life giving words. Remember what He spoke to the wailing women who were crying as He passed them by on the via dolorosa, the path of suffering, as He approached the hill of the skull. The Christ stopped, looked at the women and spoke to them (and you): "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children….For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" [Lk 23. 28, 31]

Good Friday is not the end, it is the means. You don’t weep for the sake of weeping. You don’t indulge in the feelings of guilt to win any merit. You repent, but you are restored even as King David was, as Peter was. You fast tonight in spiritual ash and sack-cloth, yes, but you eagerly await the Feast of the Third Day when you will again proclaim His Death till He comes again. You proclaim Christ Crucified when He feeds you His very Body and Blood that was crucified, and that was raised. And when you thus "commune" with Him, you are again completely and totally forgiven.

Pray with me now: "Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us."

And hear the word of the Lord: "Father Forgive them….. It is Finished."