Sermon preached at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church (Sioux Falls, SD) by Pr. Benjamin Tomczak.

You want power? At the cross the earth went dark. At the cross the temple curtain tore in two. At the cross a condemned man saw the light. At the cross the earth shook and the saints rose from the dead. At the cross, a pagan soldier said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” Because at the cross Jesus said two words, f-words, f-bombs: Forgive and Finished. And there God exploded all our speculating, all our wondering, all our scheming, plotting, and planning. He showed himself to us. He showed us his power. He showed us his love. He loved us not because we made ourselves so attractive to him. We were attractive because he loved us, he loved us enough to step into the breech, God did, God in the flesh. He loved us into his own death, into his own tomb: our death, our tomb. This is the power of God. So powerful that finished didn’t mean dead. It meant alive again too.