4-18-2025  Good Friday

“THE HAND OF THE LORD WHO WAS PIERCED FOR US”

Text: Isaiah 52-53

Friday April 18, 2025 – Good Friday

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Our text for this evening’s message is from Isaiah chapters 52-53.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that it was your hands who were pierced for the sins our hands committed.  Redeemed by you may we use our hands to serve all with this eternal truth.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Over the course of our series, we have continually seen how the Lord’s hands have been at work for us. Our broken hearts are in His hands, as He is the master physician who is able to bring us back to life. His hand is strong to save and pull us from the depths of despair.

He has bound the strong man the devil by the finger of God. He reached out to heal people with leprosy, and He continues to bring eternal healing to the untouchable. His hand of compassion stops death its tracks and gives life. All things are in His hands, and we can trust this day that He, in fact, does have the whole world in His hands, including our very lives.

 Last night, having all things in His hands, He served His disciples and fed them, and He continues to serve and feed us with His Holy Supper. But it has all been leading up to this moment. For on this Good Friday, He was delivered into the hands of sinful men, indeed, even our hands.

What did the hands of this world do to Jesus? His betrayer led a band of soldiers to arrest Him and take Him to Annas. One of the officers of the high priest struck Him with his hand when Jesus testified to the truth. He was handed over to Caiaphas. All the while, Peter was warming his hands by the fire and denying his Lord.

Then Jesus was handed over to Pilate, who wanted to be hands-off on the whole matter. Soldiers used their hands to twist a crown made of thorns, press it into His brow, clothe Him in purple, and strike Him with lashes. But the cries of “Crucify Him” echoed all the louder as Pilate attempted to wash his hands of the matter.

Just like that, the Lord of glory—the one through whom are all the wondrous works of God, the one in whom all things were given—was crucified. Nails driven into the hands of the Lord.

This is the work of the world’s hands. This is what the world has to offer the Lord. This is what we have offered to Him. The world rejected Him, refusing to see the work of His hands as the hands of the King. So those hands were pierced with nails driven into a cross.

We put so much stock into the work of our hands. And above that, with our sense of entitlement, no matter how great or how little we do, we think that we deserve to be elevated and exalted.

Our power grabs, desires to place ourselves first in all things, and desires to even put ourselves above God Himself are to say that by the work of our hands, we deserve to be the ones in charge. We think that we deserve to be king. But there cannot be more than one king.

Our desire to elevate ourselves means that anyone else who claims to be king must die. That is just what we have done to the King of kings and Lord of lords. The sinful work of our hands hoisted Him up on a cross and drove nails into His hands.

What can Christ do with hands nailed to the cross? It may appear that such hands are unable to do anything. To those who witnessed these events, it all looked like only the hands of sinful men were orchestrating everything. What can hands do when pinned to the cross?

Isaiah foretold it all. Isaiah writes of a Suffering Servant who “shall act wisely; He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (52:13). But He will be “marred, beyond human semblance” (52:14). His exaltation will not be what people expect, and people will be astonished with the great question “to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (53:1).

Throughout Isaiah, the arm of the Lord carries much of the same meaning as the hand of the Lord in the Old Testament. The arm of the Lord displays His might, glory, care, judgment, and salvation. Upon looking at this Suffering Servant, how could this be the arm of the Lord?

He had “no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (53:3).

Isaiah is not just speaking for himself or his own time or Jesus’ time. Even we today are all a part of this. This is our sin. This is what we have to offer the Lord’s Servant. Our sin drove those nails into the hands of the Lord. Likewise, to those who saw these things take place, it appeared as if this was only the work of the hands of sinful men.

But Isaiah helps us see that Christ’s suffering and death was not only the work of our hands. He continues that this One whom we “esteemed . . . stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (53:4) has accomplished something that we could not do.

For “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.” This “chastisement” was done to bring us “peace” and healing by “His wounds” (53:5). This world’s sin, our sin, “has [been] laid on Him” (53:6). It was the Lord who did it! “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief” (53:10).

This was the arm of the Lord all along! It is true that this sinful world did these things to Christ. However, it was the will of the Lord that this is how salvation would happen. “He . . . makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Christ has atoned for all our sin. In fact, He has atoned for the sin of the entire world.

Every misdeed. Every hateful action. Every sinful thought. He has taken the punishment we actually deserve for the work of our hands. He willingly took our place in order to bring forgiveness and life and salvation to us sinners.

Willingly remaining silent, like a sacrificial lamb, He took all our transgressions upon Himself (53:8). He took all of it to the cross and received in His body the full punishment that we have deserved. The wrath of God and condemnation that this world has earned and deserved by its hands poured out upon Him. It was all nailed to the cross.

What can those hands do while nailed to the cross? Those are not just any hands. Those are Jesus’ hands. When it is Jesus’ hands on the cross, they are the hands of the Lord. They are life-giving hands. Hands of the Lord who is strong to save. Even if it looks like weakness. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The cross is the powerful hand of the Lord at work.

For “the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10). The will of the Lord prospers in the hand of Christ, who was nailed to the cross. Because, in Christ, we have the forgiveness of our sins! And with His hands and feet and pierced side, in this very act itself, He is able to do more than the most powerful mere human being. He is able to do what no one else can!

And He has done it. For He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30)! All His work to atone for our sins was concluded on that cross nearly two thousand years ago. What can Jesus do with His hands nailed to the cross? He atoned for the sin of the whole world.

Isaiah says that the Suffering Servant shall “see His offspring” (53:10)—all those who are now a part of the family of God by faith in Christ. That is you, brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why it was the will of the Lord for Christ to suffer and die. It was in order for the Lord to gather His people under His merciful hand to forgive their sins.

Jesus went through all of this suffering in order to see you with Him forever. And He continues to extend His hand to you today through the preaching of His Word, through the forgiveness of your sins, through the pouring of water and Word in Holy Baptism, and through feeding you with His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

What can Christ do with hands nailed to the cross? He does what only He can do. This is the will of the Lord prospering in His hand. This is the power of God’s holy arm for salvation. It may not be what we would expect, but it is what we need. The One with the pierced hands is drawing you close to Himself to be with Him forever. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

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