"Bog Da"

In Nomine Iesu
Gen. 22/St. John 19
April 10, 2009
Good Friday

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus~

Many of you, I know, have personalized license plates on your vehicle. Growing up in Kansas, my parents always called personalized license plates, “vanity” plates—which has sort of a judgmental, almost sinful, ring to it. Needless to say, my family’s vehicles didn’t have vanity plates. We were far too humble for that sort of ostentatious display. In fact, I was forbidden to socialize with those who had vanity tags. (I’m being a little facetious . . .)

But as you drive around town, you do see some interesting personalized license plates. Some are fairly easy to figure out. Others appear to be just a random collection of letters and numbers, the meaning of which can only be known by the drivers. That was the case with friends of ours in Whitefish Bay on whose license plates are inscribed the words: “Bog Da.” “Bog Da” is one of those personalized plates, the meaning of which can be known only by the driver.

That is, unless you happen to be from Croatia in Eastern Europe. That’s the place from which these friends of ours with the strange license plates emigrated many years ago. Back in the old country, everyone knew what “Bog Da” meant. It’s apparently a well known saying. It means “The Lord will provide.” In English it’s too cumbersome to squeeze onto a license plate, but in Croatian it fits very nicely: “Bog Da: The Lord will provide.” For our friends it was simply a good reminder—a statement of faith—in both good times and bad—in all of life’s busyness and errand-running: “The Lord will provide.”

Those words are actually ancient words—words that go all the way back to Genesis chapter 22. There God approached a faithful old man named Abraham. Abraham was at the top of his game. After decades of waiting, God had given to Abraham and his wife, Sarah, a precious child—a son named Isaac. All of God’s promises to Abraham hinged on Isaac—that his descendants would comprise a great nation and settle in a land of promise, and that through Abraham all people on earth would be blessed. The birth of Isaac to his geriatric parents was the great confirmation that God always keeps His promises—no matter how outlandish they may be.

It must have been a terrible shock then, for Abraham to hear God make this dreadful demand: “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Gen. 22:2). Nothing could have prepared Abraham to hear those words. Every step of that journey must have been agonizing for Abraham. On the third day, when Mount Moriah came into view, Abraham’s anguish must have been unbearable. As he and Isaac walked along, the boy carried the wood for the burnt offering, while Abraham carried the fire and the knife. From Isaac’s perspective there was only one thing missing. Abraham’s heart must have shattered when Isaac asked him, “Father, the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham, the man of faith, replied: “The Lord will provide the lamb for the offering.”

At what must have been the darkest moment of his life, Abraham could still say with faith and conviction, “The Lord will provide.” Abraham said it. Abraham believed it. Abraham was right. God Himself provided the Lamb for sacrifice. On this day, Good Friday, we understand this statement in all of its fullness and grandeur. “The Lord will provide.” For some two thousand years later, near the very spot where Abraham had come within seconds of sacrificing his own son, God Himself offered up His one and only Son for sacrifice on the cross. So that there could be no doubt, God had sent John the Baptist to point his boney finger at Jesus and make a positive ID: “Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb that God Himself has provided—the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.”

Today we follow the finger and voice of John and we behold—we look upon the Lamb God provided. We look to the Lamb because He hangs on the cross in our place. He gets what we deserve. The curse of our sin and death is laid upon Him. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The Lord has provided this Lamb, Jesus Christ. By His wounds, Isaiah says, we are healed. So contemplate those wounds of the Lamb with me for just a moment. Consider first the wounds of His sacred head, punctured by the crown of thorns He wears. In the wounds of His head is healing for our sins of thinking—for covetous and lustful thoughts, for selfish schemes and blind ambition, for pride and for vanity. By the blessed wounds of His head, you are healed of these. You are forgiven. And your mind is now a place of repentance.

See also the wounds of His hands. In the wounds of His hands is healing for the sins that find expression through our hands—for finger pointing and assigning our blame to others, for pointing at others in mockery and gossip, for striking out in rage and for holding, hoarding and stealing what is not ours. By the blessed wounds of His hands, you are healed of these. You are forgiven. And your hands are now made fruitful in service to God and your neighbor.

Behold the wounds of His feet. Here is healing for the times when you have walked with your feet in the counsel of the wicked and stood in the way of sinners—when you have run away from responsibility and repentance, when you’ve kept your distance from the Savior and the gifts He offers in the Divine Service. By the blessed wounds of His feet, you are healed of these. You are forgiven. And your feet are now readied to delight in His will and walk in His ways to the glory of His holy name.

Behold the wounds of His lacerated back. In the wounds of His back is healing for all the times when you have stood ramrod straight, so as not to bend over and see those who need you to lift them up, who need you to listen, who need to hear from you that yes, even in life’s darkest hour, the Lord will provide. By the blessed wounds of His back, your back is healed to stoop down low and to lift up on your shoulders the lost and the straying and the hurting.

And from the side of the Savior, where the spear was thrust to ensure His death, there flows the mystery of the love of God. Come in close to that wound—that wound from which the Lord provides for you and for His whole church. From that wound flows the water of Holy Baptism—water that cleanses you of the filth of your sin—water that soothes and cools that burning conscience of yours. From that blessed wound also flows blood—blood that fills the chalice from which you drink. That lifeblood of Jesus flows into your mortal and condemned body, riddled with disorder, and it re-orders everything with the sweetness of God’s forgiveness, God’s life, God’s salvation.

Beloved in the Lord, on this Good Friday it is clearer that ever that Abraham was right when he said, “The Lord will provide.” In Jesus Christ God has provided—and still provides you—with everything that you need. Your sin has been atoned for and the gates of heaven have been thrown wide open. But also this day—whatever the burden you carry, whatever it is that causes you to be fearful and frightened—whatever your own trials and temptations may be—on this Good Friday, I say to you as a child of old Abraham, “Bog Da.” The Lord will provide. Amen.