Death and Life: Sacrifice (Sermon for Good Friday: April 18, 2025)
- Rev. Raymond Doubrava
- Apr 18
- 5 min read
Texts: Psalm 22
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for this evening is all of our readings, especially these words from our Old Testament reading, “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:6-7).
Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, You gave Your Son as Sacrifice on the cross so that through His death we may have life and have it in abundance. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we always look to Your Son and, throughout every day of our lives, rejoice in His death for our sins; it is through His name we pray. Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And He made everything good. Heaven and earth, light and darkness, earth and space, water and dry land, sun, moon, and stars, birds and fish, beast and bug, and above all, God made man and He called it all very good, perfect, as God is perfect. Yet sin entered into God’s good creation. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they fell into sin and with them all mankind experienced the fall. And with them, all mankind experienced the fall. All creation experienced the fall. And we are no different. As children of Adam, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).
Yet in that garden, when death first entered, promise of life came as well. There the first lamb was sacrificed to cover the sins and the nakedness of Adam and Eve. Year after year, the sacrifices would continue, as the children of Adam had to continually offer up lamb after lamb to cover their sins. Throughout the ages, countless lambs would be slain for the sake of sin, yet none could make atonement, none could reconcile man to God. Throughout the years, man fasted and sacrificed, fasted and sacrificed, yet the weight of their sins continued to pile up against them.
To the Israelites, God would give special revelation as He redeemed them from slavery to Egypt. He would give them the Passover, in which, again, a lamb was to be slain to protect them from the angel of death. This also was supposed to be done year after year, reminding them of God’s hand of rescue. In the wilderness at Sinai, they also were given the Ark of the Covenant which included the mercy seat. And once a year, a lamb was sacrificed and sprinkled on the mercy seat by the high priest to make atonement for the sins of the people. Another goat would have the sins of the people laid upon it and be driven out of the city into the wilderness. Yet none of these could actually take away sin. For no creation of God which had fallen into sin through Adam’s fall could take away sin.
And God knew this. Thus, God sent forth one final, perfect sacrifice, not a lamb, but THE Lamb of God, true Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, true man, born of the Virgin Mary. The True Lamb to which people throughout the ages had faith in, the promised Messiah who would be sacrificed to atone for the sins of the entire world. From before the foundation of the world, the Son knew that He would have to suffer and die in our place. Willingly He did so.
“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Although He came to His own, His own did receive Him. Instead, He was arrested and falsely tried. He was “stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). He is our scapegoat. “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
And then He was driven out of the city. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away” (Isaiah 53:7-8). Carrying His own cross, He went forth to the hill Golgotha. There “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). There the Perfect Lamb of God, who had known no sin, suffered. He did not deserve to suffer. It was you and I who deserved to suffer. Yet He did so for you and I. For, “it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10). And “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous” (Isaiah 53:11). There, in His Sacrifice on the Cross, the Lamb died so that you may have life. There God died so that you may never truly face death. And this gift is yours through the waters of Holy Baptism where you are baptized into Christ’s death, so that, just as Christ has been raised from the dead, you too might experience everlasting life. Each time you confess your sins, they are absolved as you receive from God the fruits Christ won on the cross. Each time you partake of the Lord’s Supper, you eat and drink the salvation won for you.
Now we are called to sacrifice, not to gain salvation but as ones for whom salvation has been won. What are we to sacrifice? Our old sinful self that desires not to live according to God’s will but according to our own selfish wills. We are called to put to death that old Adam to live in the new life won for us, serving our neighbors in all need. Christ has done so much for you, winning for you eternal life and salvation through His sacrifice. May you this day and every day live in the fruits of the sacrifice and show that forth to all around you so that they may come to have the same hope you have. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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