Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Good Friday

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Lamentations 2:8-15 (NKJV)

8 The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The Law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground and keep silence; They throw dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My bile is poured on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they swoon like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out in their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I console you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.

15 All who pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that is called ‘the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”

Devotion

Today is Good Friday. It bears repeating. Today is GOOD Friday. This is the day that gives meaning to Christmas and Easter, those two days favored by most Christians. Without Good Friday and the death of Jesus, there is no hope for a world filled with sin and death. Christmas would only be a Baby in a manger and Easter just an empty tomb that was never occupied. Without the death of Jesus, our lives would have no purpose, because all there would be is sin and death.

The people of Jerusalem rejected the Lord and had Him crucified. They paid the price for their rejecting Him as Jerusalem was later destroyed and brought to rubble. They had listened to the “false and deceptive visions” of false prophets. The false prophets were not interested in God’s unchanging message of repentance: “They have not uncovered your iniquity.”

Such false prophets can be heard this very day. They do not preach about sin and grace, but about how God wishes for their hearers to be happy. All their hearers need to do is follow the right formula and God will bless them with health, wealth, success, and fame.

Be thankful that God has opened your eyes to the truth of your sin, and the truth of Christ crucified for you. Our Lord was crucified “and indeed it was very good.”

Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast willed that Thy Son should bear for us the pains of the Cross that Thou mightest remove from us the power of the adversary, help us to remember and give thanks for our Lord’s Passion that we may obtain remission of sins and redemption from everlasting death. Amen.

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