https://app.dropwave.io/episode/f06169b8-916e-4ea1-ab67-ee0d1b093f14/good-friday-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

[The Lord] has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up. (Hosea 6:1-2)

“On the third day.” This is one of the great mysteries of the Scriptures.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place of sacrifice from afar. In that place, he was to offer the sacrifice. In faith, he binds his son to the altar. He believed that God would raise his son from the dead. He raises his hand to slaughter the boy… On the third day, Abraham receives his son back from the dead.

On the third day, the Lord comes down on Mount Sinai to give the law.

On the third day, Old Testament sacrifices that had been left until the third day were to be burned up with fire. Any sacrifice that remained until the third day was no longer valid.

When the Jews were to be slaughtered in Persia by order of the wicked Haman, Esther and her people fasted and prayed. On the third day, she sought deliverance from the king.

On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana. Jesus was invited to the wedding. On the third day, Jesus manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.

Jesus went about doing good, doing many signs upon the sick. He healed diseases, granted sight to the blind, and speech to the dumb. He fed thousands. Yet the Jews asked Him: what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? But Jesus says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

They said: “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But Jesus says: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Of all the signs that Jesus does, He says there is really only one sign: it is the sign of the third day. On the third day, Jonah is raised from his tomb that he might preach to the Gentiles. And so will it be for Jesus. On the third day, He will live. On the third day, He shall be raised up.

Both Jesus and Saint Paul declare: It was necessary for Jesus to rise on the third day. It was necessary in accordance with the Scriptures. Yes, we hear in the Scriptures the mystery of the third day, but how is anyone to know that this must be about Jesus? We ought to remember our Lord’s Word in John 5: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. All of the Scriptures are about Jesus, so this mystery of the three days in all these accounts is certainly about Him.

The closest we get to any kind of direct Old Testament prophecy about Jesus’ third-day resurrection comes from today’s reading from Hosea. But this raising of Jesus on the third day does not match what we heard from this reading. We read: After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up.

But before we can talk about raising, we must hear what Hosea says first: The Lord has torn us… He has struck us down. The wages of sin is death. This certainly applies to us all. We have all earned God’s wrath and eternal damnation. He has struck us down.

But God has provided a Substitute. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin. His death is your death. The death He died, He died to sin, once for all. The life He lives, He lives to God.

His resurrection is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. His resurrection is your resurrection.

The mere fact of the death of Jesus is not, in itself, good news. The death of Jesus is incomplete without His resurrection. Good Friday is incomplete without Easter Sunday. For His resurrection declares that the Father has received and accepted His sacrifice.

You shall not die. But in the same way, His death must happen first. If there is no death, then resurrection has no meaning.

Since His death is your death, therefore His resurrection is your resurrection. In Holy Baptism you have been united with Jesus in His death. So you are also included in His resurrection.