Peace to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Narrative Story Opening

The city was crowded, and the streets were filled with voices. Some whispered in sadness, others murmured in confusion, and still others shouted in scorn. The air was heavy with a strange tension as people moved toward the place just outside the city walls. Three crosses stood there against the darkening sky.

A man, beaten beyond recognition, was being led through the crowd. His steps were slow, his body weak from pain, yet his eyes held a resolve that could not be broken. The people watched, but did they understand? Did they truly know what they were witnessing?

Introduction: A Love That Speaks

We talk about love all the time. We say we love our families, our homes, even a good meal. But true love, love in its purest form, is most clearly seen in sacrifice. The dreams, goals and personal plans parents so willingly give up for their children can be one of the clearest examples.

Tonight, we come together at the foot of the cross, the place where love has never spoken more loudly in all of creation. That is where the shout of love shook creation. Not in grand speeches or words skillfully smithed, but in sacrifice, scars and wounds. Not in crowns of wonder, but in thorns or ridicule. In suffering for you. The cross is God’s ultimate statement of love.

What does the cross say to you right now? If we listen closely, we will hear it speaking of a love that endures, love that forgives, love that redeems and saves, and a love that calls for a response.

Love That Endures

Jesus didn’t stumble into suffering by accident. This was the path. This was the plan. Centuries before this moment, Isaiah spoke of the One who would carry our sins:

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.¹

Isaiah was speaking of something already promised thousands of years earlier.² This was God’s first promise being fulfilled. Jesus knew what was ahead, and yet He walked forward anyway, enduring it all. Because love does not run. Love it endures all things.³

When we face challenges and hardship, we can look to that cross and know we are not alone. Jesus understands because He walked a harder road before us. Jesus endured suffering so that even in our pain, we can know His love.

Love That Forgives

As He hung on the cross, in agony, Jesus spoke words that changed everything:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.⁴

Those words still echo deafeningly throughout time. Forgiveness, even in His deepest suffering. He had once said the most important of all the commandments is:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.⁵

Even on the cross He was faithful and true. He prayed to His Father for and about you. Have you ever been wronged in a way that felt truly hard to forgive? The kind of betrayal that echos: traitor, saboteur, back-stabber. The kind of betrayal that destroys trust, friendship, respect and soils honor. Imagine Jesus, looking down at those who had beaten Him, mocked Him, nailed Him to the cross, and yet His heart was filled with mercy and compassion for them. That Splagchnizomai⁶ kind of compassion.

If Jesus could forgive from the cross, what example does that hold for us? What bar should we hold up for ourselves when forgiveness is the question? Especially when it’s hard to do.

Love That Redeems

Jesus’ suffering was not just an act of love, it was your only means of our salvation. If He gave up on you there was nothing for you. It was this moment or nothing, forever. One time. One shot. One chance. It all hung on this One who hung on a cross. There in that moment you see the heart of God and the sympathy He has for you.

The Bible tells us:

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.⁷

Do not think, even for a moment, while He hung there that He was not tempted to give up on you; that he was not tempted to think, “You’re not worth it.” Do not think, even for a moment that Satan wasn’t accusing you of every misstep and mistake you’ve ever made, trying to convince Jesus to quit on you, give up on you. You know you. Are you worth it? Should Jesus think you are?

If we dig deep into our own hearts we know the real answer we have to those questions. Linger there for a moment. Then leave, because you’re answer to those questions is wholly irrelevant. You’re opinion doesn’t matter. What you think has no value here. It is Jesus’ answer that matters. Jesus stepped into our place. He became the sacrifice we needed. He gave His answer to your worth. “Father forgive them.” Without the cross, we remain separated from God. Because of the cross, we are made new, and a new way is opened for us.

The chasm was so vast, no bridge could ever span it. Sin is that great divide. It created the division between us and God. Jesus became the bridge. The cross is the way back home.

Love That Calls Us to Respond

Love always requires a response. We either receive it or harden our hearts against it. You cannot stand at the foot of the cross and remain unchanged. There everyone see the love of God, the heart of God poured out for us. Can you imagine that there are some who reject it? Can you imagine the pain in God’s heart as some reject it and walk away from it? Will you embrace it? Will you allow it to change your life? Will you leave here tonight carrying your burdens, or carrying the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.⁸

Conclusion: It Is Finished

As Jesus breathed His last, He spoke three words that changed eternity:

“It is finished.⁹”

This was not a cry of defeat. It was a declaration of victory. The debt for sin, all sin, your sin was paid in full. The work of saving you was finished.

Tonight, we leave in silence, in reflection. But we do not leave without hope. It is not over. There is more to this record of events you need to hear.

Join us tomorrow as we “Wait in Hope.” Then on Sunday morning, as we gather again, not at the foot of the cross, but at the entrance of an empty tomb.

Narrative Story Closing

The voices in the crowd grew quieter as the sky darkened. The earth trembled, the Temple curtain tore, and a centurion looked up at the man on the cross and whispered, “Truly, this was the Son of God.¹⁰” The people had come to watch an execution. They witnessed the greatest act of love the world had ever known.

The man walks away wondering why this man had to die. Wondering why he has been led on this journey. What was the point? He thinks, and then whispers to himself, “Why am I here?”

The answer to his question is the most important thing you need to hear. Part of that answer comes tomorrow. Be here to hear it.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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