Good Friday Vespers, 2018
7 PM Central Daylight Time
The hymn tunes are linked to the hymn name.
The words are linked to the the hymn number.
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Hymn # 172:1-5 O Sacred Head
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 22 p. 128
The Lections
The Sermon Hymn #143 O Dearest Jesus
The Lections
The Sermon Hymn #143 O Dearest Jesus
The Sermon – The Suffering of Christ
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45
The Hymn #151 Christ the Life
The Hymn #151 Christ the Life
Psalm 22 KJV
1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. 
Isaiah 52 KJV
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: forthat which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
John 19 KJV
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, 3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands. 4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
5 Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! 6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. 8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; 9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. 12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! 15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. 16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. 17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. 19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. 22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. 25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and putit upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. 42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
For Holy Communion Preparation on Easter Sunday
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee, that of Thine infinite mercy Thou hast instituted this Thy sacrament, in which we eat Thy body and drink Thy blood: Grant us, we beseech Thee, by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not receive this gift unworthily, but that we may confess our sins, remember Thine agony and death, believe the forgiveness of sin, and day by day grow in faith and love, until we obtain eternal salvation through Thee, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
The Suffering of Christ
Psalm 22 1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Two passages in the Old Testament are directly predict the Passion of Christ and its mean. One is the Suffering Servant passage that begins at the end of Isaiah 52. The other is Psalm 22.
There is a saying Luther's which is sent around and often used.
"If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. But I will find in the Sacrament or Gospel the Word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me the forgiveness which was won on the cross" (Martin Luther).
This makes perfect sense if we first consider the piety of the Middle Ages, where people were directed to objects, often Virgin Mary statues or relics of saints. No Roman Catholic church is started without a relic of a saint. So people were also directed to view the cross or statue and hope for a vision. So Luther says, after many years of this distorted devoted, that forgiveness is found in the invisible Word of teaching and preaching, the visible Word of the Sacraments.
The forgiveness won on the cross is atoning death of Jesus. Although the deluded think this means they were born forgiven, Luther always meant the Atonement is accomplished and preached to us for faith in Jesus as the righteousness of God. Of course the forgiveness is already there, but that is conveyed to us through God's appointed Means of Grace.
No Means? Then Emotions?
What happens when the Means or Instrument of Grace are not taught from the Scriptures. People think to be forgiven they must suffer enough, be sorry enough, torture themselves long enough. When is that point reached? They depend upon feelings of elation and joy. But feelings come and go easily, as we discover when we despair over the smallest problem and then feel peace when it is taken care of. Likewise, if we wait for a feeling, it can be a long time before that happens, and it is not reliable.
The Instruments of Grace Bring Grace
The opposite is true. When we know the objective truth that Jesus is the Son of God and has suffered for the sins of the world, then we know its truth, trust in that truth, and realize the peace that comes from the forgiveness of sin.
We know this is true because we experience it when hearing the Scriptures and someone who clearly teaches the Word - like Luther. The greater our clarity about the Word, the more we appreciate its message. People tell me this when we study the Gospel of John together, when we work on Luther's sermons together.
Why did Jesus quote this Psalm from the cross? This Psalm and Isaiah's passage are two anchors that show us the direct relationship between the Old and New Testaments. They verify and confirm each other because neither testament makes sense without the other.
As Christians we can read those passages and ask, "What did they mean to people at that time?" They must have been mysterious to everyone, because they are quoted in the Easter appearances of Jesus and in Acts. What does this mean, the Ethiopian eunuch asked, and it was shown that Jesus fulfilled the prophetic passage.
By the way, the liberals hate to admit that the Old Testament predicted what would happen far into the future. So they say, "They were forth-tellers, not fore-telling." Haha. That is funny - picking a similar word to deny the astounding Old Testament predictions.
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
The Psalm include the most honest cries of pain that people experience, and Jesus was left alone to experience the same abandonment. But this also expresses hope and trust in God in spite of the agony of the moment.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
Is this not a true portrait of the Crucified Messiah? They knew Him as the Son of God, because He confessed that truth, and He raised Lazarus from the dead. There were two others at least, but we know how people can be in denying the truth. "I don't know about that." And "I wasn't there." And "You cannot trust rumors."
But Lazarus was a bigshot buried in an expensive tomb for days. Many important people attended his funeral not far from Jerusalem and they saw him raised from the dead by Jesus. Moreover, Lazarus came to Jerusalem with Jesus, and the Jewish leaders plotted to kill him, the evidence of Jesus' divine power.
He was accused of being the Son of God, not a crime for Rome, where they celebrated all gods, but that was their deepest fear. Once Jesus was captured and brutalized, they became bold and their fears turned to mockery.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
This is not only a statement of faith, but one of infant faith. Even a newborn has faith. The Fourth Gospel constantly emphasizes the close relationship between the Father and Son, so this expresses trust and hope in the midst of the most terrible conflict, inside and out. And that is the strength and power of the Word, because the stormy distress of mankind was fully experienced by the Son of God and so He has empathy with us.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
This is a clear portrait of the crucifixion. The angry and humiliating crowds surrounded Him, mocking Him. It was not enough that they already falsely accused Him, picked another to set free, and forced Him to carry His own cross. For Jesus, bearing the cross was literal, and He took it up. So He said, "If you would be my disciples, you must take up your cross daily." If the Word caused Him the actual cross, then we should assume the Word will bring us the cross too.
The description of the crucifixion is true to life, many centuries before the Roman Empire existed and crucified people for their crimes - dehydration, weakness, pain, inability to breathe, and horrible pain when trying. They pierced His hands and feet.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
Jesus' cloak was valuable, the soldiers gambled to see which one received the prize.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
In the midst of this Psalm of pain and loss, is this paragraph about praise. In the worst of times, we feel forgotten and abandoned, but God still deserves praise. We cannot fathom His wisdom at the moment, so faith means trusting where there seems to be no reason for that trust and thanks. The meek will still be taken care of. I have read of famines when the strong, who already had food, tore the food away from the starving. The meek wait for God to deliver them.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
This Psalm turns from horrible pain and abandonment to a glorious ending. Why is that? Because the Gospel will accomplish what was promised Abraham. From that Promise to the Psalms - many centuries lapsed. From Psalm 22 to the birth of Christ, even more centuries. Only God could see this and foretell/forthtell it.
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
This is a prediction of the cross and resurrection. Jesus as the righteous Son of God, took on our sins and died for us, capturing Satan and defeating death. So when we declare the Atoning death of Christ, all those who believe in Him alone for their salvation receive His righteousness, each and every day. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel.
