Good Friday – Pr. Faugstad homily
Texts: Genesis 3:14-15,20, St. Matthew 27:45-46

The very same statement can be a blessing for one and a curse for another. That’s how it was when the LORD confronted the devil in the Garden of Eden. The devil had successfully tempted the man and woman to disobey God. They were now hiding from God with him. They were on his side.

But the LORD God said, “No! You cannot have them; they are not yours. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring.” The woman and her Offspring would be opposed to the devil, hostile to him. They would not remain in his clutches; they would not continue to be wound up tightly in his coils.

And then God said the thing that really troubled the devil. It was bad enough that he would be cursed more than all livestock and beasts, that he would crawl on his belly and eat dust, and that he would not have mankind fully in his control. And then God told him that the woman’s Offspring “shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

The serpent would get his head stomped on by one of those humans he had just overcome. And the damage inflicted on his conqueror would only be a bruise on his heel. The devil was destined to lose, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. God made a promise, and His promises cannot be broken.

The first man and woman believed this promise. We see it in the name Adam chose for his wife. He called her “Eve,” a name that means “life.” She could have been called the “bearer of death,” since she had listened to the serpent, and because her children would die just as she would. But she was called Eve, “because she was the mother of all living.” The serpent-crusher, the Savior, would come from her. He would bring life to the dying.

But Eve was not given the privilege of bearing this Child. God’s promise would wait, generation after generation, century after century, thousands of years passing by, until God sent His angel to the woman Mary of Nazareth to tell her that she was the one.

It is her Offspring, it is her Son, hanging on the cross that first Good Friday, a day which looked anything but “good.” The only perfect man who had walked the earth since the fall into sin was now pinned to a cross. This is how the world esteemed Him. This is the honor that was shown Him—nailed to a tree to die.

He was put on the cross at 9:00 in the morning. At 12:00 noon, the sky went dark, and the darkness hung over the land for the next three hours—what is typically the brightest part of the day.

Jesus was in great anguish. He was suffering the eternal fires of hell in that darkness. He was paying for the first sin of that fateful day in the Garden of Eden, and for all the sins committed from that time forward. He was suffering hell for your selfish actions, your false words, your wicked thoughts. He felt God’s wrath for every single sin, whether large or small.

Under this burning wrath, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” We cannot imagine it. We cannot comprehend it. But we can see how the innocent Christ was suffering what we deserved. We can see what the wages of our sin added up to. Beholding Jesus in this great anguish, we see the price of our redemption.

The very same act—His crucifixion—was curse for Him and blessing for you. The Son of God willingly accepted this curse. He willingly took your place, so He could take your punishment. This is how the devil’s grip would be broken. This is how his lying mouth would be shut up. This is how his head would be crushed.

Our Lord Jesus had to die, in order to cancel the curse brought into the world by Adam and Eve, the curse that consigned us all to hell. Galatians 3 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (v. 13).

Christ’s crucifixion looks like defeat, but it is victory. The devil seems to win, but he utterly loses. Death appears to succeed, but it is conquered once and for all. Jesus died for you, to save you.

This is the promise God made long ago in Eden. This is why Adam named his wife Eve. This is why Mary said to the angel, “let it be to me according to your word” (Luk. 1:38). This is why Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luk. 22:42), and willingly went to the cross.

The devil knew this was coming, but he didn’t know when. He knows now. And so do you. Seeing Jesus on the cross, you see God’s Promise Kept.

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