At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:41-42)

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Their hearts were heavy as they buried Jesus on that dark Friday. They might have thought many things about that day, but as they laid him in the tomb, they almost certainly would not have called it “good.”

Johann Rist (1607-1667), a German Lutheran pastor, was a prolific writer. Two hundred of the approximately 680 hymns that he penned were in common use during his time. “Oh, Darkest Woe” is among those that continue to be used to this day.

Rist wrote “Oh, Darkest Woe” in 1641. When he published it, he included this heading: “A Mournful Graveside Song on the Sorrowful Burial of Our Savior Jesus Christ, to Be Sung on Good Friday.” He noted, “The first verse of this funeral hymn, along with its devotional melody, came accidentally into my hands. As I was greatly pleased with it, I added the other seven verses as they stand here, since I could not be a party to the other verses.” Rist objected to false teachings in those verses, so he took the first verse of what Friedrich Spee wrote in 1628 and added verses faithful to Scripture.

Christian Worship includes five of the original verses in Rist’s “mournful graveside song.” The first two lines of the second verse may reflect one of the thoughts swirling through the minds of those who laid Jesus in his tomb: “Oh, sorrow dread! God’s Son is dead!” The original German is forceful, even startling. “O grosse Not! Gott selbst liegt Tot”: “Oh, great distress! God himself lies dead.”

“God’s Son,” Jesus the Christ, was and is God and man in one person. He was and is “God himself.” Our jaws drop. “God himself lies dead”? How can this be? Why?

Why? The answer is the reason that we call this Friday “good”: on this day Jesus died for the sins of the world. As Rist put it in his hymn, “by his expiation of our guilt upon the cross,” Jesus “gained for us salvation.” “Expiation” refers to taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty. The Bible is clear: “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus paid those wages for the world. “God himself” took our place and shed his innocent blood on the cross. That changes everything. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

Satan and his demons celebrated when Jesus was laid in the tomb. Hell’s celebration continued Friday night, throughout Saturday, and into Sunday, but it ended early that morning. Jesus, who had been dead, rose to life and left that tomb empty. Jesus is alive, and death is defeated. Remember that while we wait for Sunday.

O Jesus blest, my Help and Rest, With tears I now entreat you: Make me love you to the last Till in heaven I greet you. Amen.

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Rev. Dr. Lawrence Olson serves Martin Luther College as a professor of theology and as director of the Staff Ministry Program and Congregational Assistant Program.