The Means & The Price

Text: John 19:1-42

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In America, we tend to live our lives, work our jobs, and even approach spirituality in the least costly way possible. Truth be told, the ideology of the world has a way of pressing in on all of us so that we have become accustomed to comfort. That is to say, in America, we are used to ease. And so, when hardship, suffering, or sacrifice confronts us, we naturally shrink back from it. Indeed, we want things without a price. We want comfort without sacrifice, blessing without burden, and spirituality without religion. We are comfortable when things remain vague and abstract.  

Now, why mention this?  

I mention this because when it comes to Christianity, we have become comfortable speaking about God in easy, noncommittal, vague, and general terms. We like empty phrases such as,

“God loves you.”

We like prayers without substance:

“I am sending you positive thoughts in my prayers.”

Indeed, we like abstract and vague Christian art decorated with butterflies, flowers, and clouds, with snippets of Bible verses lifted out of context. 

We even like songs built upon the endless repetition of vague and sentimental phrases — lines repeated again and again.  Songs that stir our emotions while saying very little. 

To the point, we are all tempted to keep Christianity light, easy, abstract, vague, and without any cost. Perhaps this is why so many Americans say that they are spiritual but not religious.

Now, let me be very blunt: while it might be tempting to be sympathetic to the sentiment of ‘spiritual but not religious,’ we must be honest: when a person says that they are ‘spiritual but not religious,’ what they are upholding is a vague and abstract version of Christianity.  Whether they realize it or not, they are advocating for a cost-free spirituality.  

But this begs a question: what does this have to do with Good Friday?  

Dear friends, it has everything to do with Good Friday. You see, the ideology of the world wants Christianity - without doctrine. It wants comfort - without confession.  It wants blessings -  without burden. And it wants eternal life, without a cost.  The way of the world wants a God without the offense of a dead Savior hanging upon a cross.

And so, tonight, it could be said that Good Friday confronts us with the very thing that the world’s ideology would rather avoid: a bloody, scandalous, and costly death of Jesus Christ for sinners.

* * *

Some 500 years ago, Martin Luther talked extensively about this.  He said that the Muslims and the Jews believe in God, but they do so without the means and the price.  Let me repeat that, he said that the Muslims and the Jews believe in God, but they do so without the means and the price.  

Let’s take a moment and unpack this. 

It means that we do not have a God without means.  We do not have a God without a price.  In other words, a god without the means of the cross and a god without the costly shed blood of Christ is not the God of Christianity but a false god.   

Hear this loud and clear tonight: 

God without the means of a Savior for humanity is a false god.

God without the costly blood of Christ on the cross is a false god.  

No Savior and no costly shed blood means that there is no true God.  

To the point; if your spirituality has no Christ and no cross — no means and no price — you have nothing. You are spiritual but dead.

But listen up – tonight, we hear that there is a means, that there is a price. Thanks be to God, Christianity does not leave us with a vague god, an empty sentiment, or a spirituality without substance. No, it gives us Christ — the One sent into our misery and the One who pays the full price for our redemption.  

An old professor used to say to us young seminarians, 

“Gentlemen, God did not love the world that he felt a fuzzy. No, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son – Christ Jesus.”  

You see, Christianity teaches that Jesus was sent into our misery, our hell, and our death that Christmas Day long ago. His birth was not some divine birthday gift from heaven given merely to make us feel special. Tah dah!  No, He was born for this very purpose: to bear our sin, to carry our curse, and to go all the way to the cross. The manger was always pointing to Golgotha. The wood of the manger was always leading to the wood of the cross.

And so, the means of our salvation is Christ, who was sent into this world of sin, death, and the devil.  

But what about the cost?  What about the price?  

I have said it before from this pulpit that we have a problem in America with people wanting the empty tomb without having the bloody cross.  I have lamented ad nauseam that we don’t want the darkness of Lent but want the glory of the empty tomb.  We don’t want Good Friday, but we want Easter Sunday.  But dear friends, without Good Friday – without the price of Christ’s blood - Easter Sunday makes no sense.  

Mark this: there must be a price paid.  

Faith in God alone without a price is not sufficient, for this is what the Muslims and Jews do, and they are outside salvation.  

Dear friends, there must be faith in the price paid. We must gaze deeply into what happened on Good Friday. 

Dear friends, tonight the liturgy itself preaches this very truth. The service has been stripped down so that nothing distracts from Christ and Him crucified.

You may have noticed that things are quite different for this Good Friday Service – compared to our other services.  

- There is no opening hymn

- The Gloria Patri is omitted

- Candles are extinguished

- Lights are dimmed

- The Gradual and Verse are removed

- Black paraments are in place

- There is no offering music

- Singing is kept to a minimum with sober songs

- No alleluias are spoken or sung

- No Creed

- And the crosses have been covered – perhaps next year we should cover the Jesus statue as well  

Everything is taken away, except for one thing that has been given back to you this evening.  One cross has been unveiled.  It has been unveiled to direct your attention to nowhere else but Christ and Him crucified.  

Now, please keep in mind that all of this is done not because we are having a funeral for Jesus.  We are also not necessarily doing this to mourn the death of Jesus, but this is done so that tonight we can mourn and contemplate our sin with great humility and reverence.  Indeed, all of the liturgy is meant to push everything to the side, so that you and I would be left with nothing else but the reality of our sins and the price paid for them.  

Baptized Saints – Christ was crucified for you, and you were bought with a price.  

The price you were bought at was the shed blood of Christ - for you.  The price you were bought at was the suffering of Christ - for you.  The price you were bought at was the death of Christ - for you.  

To deny or diminish the price of Christ’s death on the cross is to deny the Gospel, and to deny the Gospel is to deny God the Father Himself.  And deny God the Father is to deny everything and worship a false god. 

* * *

Baptized Saints, the means of God is Christ sent to you.  The price of Christianity is Christ crucified for you.  

Baptized Saints, Christ is both the means by which God comes to you and the price by which you are redeemed. Christ is the way, and He is the ransom. Christ is the Lamb, and He is the blood. 

And so now, dear Baptized Saints, the sermon returns to where it began. The world gives vagueness, but Good Friday gives certainty. The world avoids costly spirituality, but Good Friday shows the price of Christ’s blood - for you.  

Tonight, you do not have vagueness. You have a Savior. You do not have sentiment. You have Christ crucified. You do not have empty, cheap words. You have the cross.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.