Sermon -- Good Friday: The Third Word (April 15, 2022)

 THE THIRD WORD — John 19:25-27

     When God created the world, he also created vocations for us to fill.  These vocations are the practical ways we keep the second table of the Law: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

     The first commandment in the second table is: “Honor your father and mother.”  The family relationship is the most basic vocation in the world.  No one comes into the world without a father or a mother.  We may lose them early in life, but we have all had them.  Young children are taught to honor, serve, and obey their parents.  While the age of children may alter how they honor, serve, and obey their parents, the 4^th Commandment is never abolished.

     Even while he hung from the cross—weakened from the scourging, in agony from the nails, tormented by divine wrath—Jesus fulfilled his vocation as the firstborn son of Mary.  He kept the Commandment when we could have excused him from it because of everything he was enduring.  Nevertheless, he loved his mother.  He assured her that she would be cared for.

     Jesus had brothers, probably step-brothers, who could have taken up the obligation to care for Mary.  Instead, Jesus gave this responsibility to the apostle John.  John would care for her physical well-being. 

     But Jesus’ ultimate desire was for her eternal well-being.  He was dying for her sins.  He entrusted her to the apostle who would preach forgiveness, administer the Lord’s Supper, and absolve her in the stead and by the command of Jesus.  In this way, Jesus fulfilled his vocation as her faithful son and her faithful Savior.

     The Commandment is fulfilled by Jesus’ obedience.  The sins of disobedient sons and daughters are paid for by Jesus’ death.  Everything is covered by Jesus.  We are reconciled to the Father.  We are gathered into the family of saints.