Imagine what it must have been like to have watched Jesus die on the cross. Imagine what it must have been like to have been one of his followers, or one of his disciples, who thought he had died for nothing. Imagine that you were someone who had hoped that he was the Messiah, the holy one of Israel who was supposed to lead his people to victory over their enemies only to see him dead and then buried just like anyone else. Imagine sitting in a room with others like you, scared that all of your work had been pointless.
But now, Jesus, the one you thought was your Messiah, the one you thought had died, was standing in front of you. And now, Jesus the one you had hoped would save you, was breaking bread with you. And now, he was forgiving you for your doubts and explaining how it had all come to pass. And now he was calling upon you to tell the story of what happened. And now he was sending you to forgive sins. How would you explain it all? How could you talk about what happened? To someone who had never believed? To someone who didn’t care?
These men and women were Jews. They followed the Torah. They knew the stories. They sang the psalms. The knew God’s promises. But they had always expected the Messiah to be a great warrior king. Someone who would lead them out of despair and inspire them to acts of greatness! To sit upon his right and his left, as the disciples James and John put it, like generals in the seats of honor beside the great king! How was anyone going to understand that this dead man, now living, was actually the Messiah? How were they to believe it?
I certainly don’t know how, or when, but these Jews began to see that the truth of Jesus’ words and the power of his life shouldn’t have been such a surprise to anyone. Jesus was written about everywhere—throughout the psalms and the prophets and engraved onto every Jewish person’s heart there was the promise of a Messiah who would suffer and die and, somehow, be called to victory. And knowing all this not only told them something new about this Jesus that they had followed, but they began to understand why he had to die and for what he had come to do.
A reading from the prophet Isaiah, written 600 years before Jesus ever stepped into this world in his humanity, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
When the Devil drives people into despair and they seek the solace of suicide to quench the sadness in their hearts—no one is with them, but Jesus alone. When our loved ones lie still, only barely breathing, so weak that we listen with trepidation for every heartbeat and are surprised when, almost suddenly, we don’t hear the breathing come again, Jesus is the only one weak enough, strong enough, to lie still with them and cover them completely with his peace. Jesus died because we are too weak to live sometimes. That’s what the Bible means by infirmities, our weakness . . . the fact that in the primes of lives we realize how fragile our bodies can be. Star basketball players die of heart arrhythmias just out of high school. Healthy babies still die of SIDS even with watchful parents in the very next room. Jesus came for them too. “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases.” But is that all he came for? To comfort us with a little chicken soup for the soul in the troubles of the world? Not hardly.
Isaiah continues, “Yet, we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.” Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. We know that this is true. But when bad things happen to people we think are bad, we figure they deserved it. We applaud God for his justice! Jesus was killed for blasphemy. He called himself God and so everyone figured he got what was coming to him: death. “Come down from the cross and prove that we are wrong about you! Show us that you are God and come down!” the crowds screamed. And when he did not fly away free, “We accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.” And we agreed with God’s judgment. The disciples agreed with God’s judgment. They abandoned their master on that cross. Why did Jesus have to die? The disciples, the Jews and the Romans thought that they knew why.
But in the passage from Isaiah, the truth comes out. Imagine what it must have been like to see the living Jesus when you had believed he was forsaken by God forever. Imagine what it must have been like to realize why did Jesus really had to die? “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on HIM the iniquity of us all.” Why did Jesus have to die?
This morning little Caylyn was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Why? So that she might know that no matter what happens in her life. No matter how far she goes astray. No matter how often she might go her own way against the wishes of her parents, or her family, or the world or the church, that the Lord has laid all of her sins on Jesus Christ. That’s why he had to die: for her. For those of you who have been baptized, you have also been washed in the blood of this lamb—in the cleansing waters of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. Because that’s why he had to die: so that you might be saved. The Lord has laid on Jesus the sins of us all.
Do you find joy or sadness in these verses? Do you hear accusation or grace? I hope that you hear both. Why did Jesus have to die for you? Can you imagine why you might stand unworthy before God? If not, and if someone doesn’t tell you, then Jesus’ death will mean nothing for you. But if you stand unworthy and miserable before God, then Jesus’ death means everything. Your hope, your life and your salvation. Only sinners can be assured they have a Savior.
We have a little sign outside our doors that say, “All are welcome”. But let’s be honest about who, exactly, we are talking about. Only sinners are welcome here and no one else. Only hypocrites. Only people with problems. Only the helpless and the hopeless. Only the proud and self-righteous. Only the unwelcome. Only people without a chance. Only gossips and liars; murderers and adulterers. Only sinners are welcome here because they are the only ones who will ever find grace here. This place is NOT for perfect people. Not for the righteous. Not for the healthy. That’s why I know you are all welcome here. That’s why ALL are welcome, so that you and they can be forgiven. For if anyone could save themselves, then Jesus died for nothing. Until you hear that you have no hope you will not hear the joy of your salvation. Sinners are the only ones for whom Jesus Christ has died. So if you know the dread of death, know that eternal life is yours.
Why did Jesus have to die? Because you and I would have it no other way. Just like Jesus’ disciples, you and I will not take responsibility for our sins, and so, Jesus just up and died for them. He was killed because he tried to forgive. If you see blood on your hands, take heart, for it is the blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross and has washed you clean in the eyes of God.
This is the most inspirational story that I can tell you. That your life and your joy is hidden with Christ in God. It’s more than chicken soup for the soul folks—it’s a feast of life and it is for you. And you don’t have to imagine it after all—your sin is really dead and you are now alive to God by faith in Jesus Christ alone. The faith that comes from believing that Jesus actually had something to die for—and he died for someone like you. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Showing posts with label Isaiah 53:4-12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isaiah 53:4-12. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sermon for Good Friday
A little girl at my dinner table recently asked me a question about Jesus over supper, “Why did Jesus choose to die?” It’s a good question spoken at an age where this issue becomes important. You see, most of her life, her mom and I have been trying to express how when we talk about God we are talking also talking about Jesus and when we talk about Jesus we are also talking about God We remind her again and again that Jesus died to forgive her sins and that since Jesus loves her, then God loves her. The lesson must at least be making some headway or else this question, at dinnertime, might not have come up.
When you hear about a murder in the newspaper, on the internet, on the radio or on TV, do you ever ask this question, “Why did that person choose to die?” No. Most of the time, nobody deliberately chooses to die. Especially at the hands of somebody else. Ernest Becker explains in his book, “The Denial of Death” that even those heroes who choose to fight in wars by jumping out of boats and running out into the line of fire can only do so because they feel pity for the person running next to them because they are worried that the other person might get hit by a stray bullet. If we could possibly be aware enough to truly consider our own death, no one would ever get out of the boat. No one would ever step out of their house. But when Jesus dies on the cross, there is a need within all of us to ask this question,:”Why did Jesus choose to die?”
We are driven to ask this question only when we realize somewhere within us that Jesus is more than just one of us, he is God himself. And for God himself to be on that cross, the creator of heaven and earth, well, there must be more to it than a simple homicide that you’d hear about on the news. Unfortunately, this also betrays something even more interesting about both that little girl at my table, and about all of us in fact: she is already trying to wiggle out of her responsibility regarding the cross, just like the rest of us sinners. “Why did Jesus choose to die?” it’s a question we sinners like to ask, because if we can explain to ourselves and to each other why God wanted to die then it gets us off the hook. Then we can sing the hymn, “Were you there when they crucified my lord,” and smirk to ourselves that “no, we weren’t there.” We can place the blame of Jesus’ death on someone else.
Our reading this evening from the book of Isaiah references this way of thinking, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed for OUR iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” We like to put the blame on God for Jesus’ death. The gospels tell us that Jesus knows he is heading for Jerusalem to suffer and die, so how can we be culpable? Why would it be our fault? Jesus must have chosen to die and we had nothing to do with it. We weren’t even there!
In fact, as Isaiah writes down a few verses later, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.” If God wanted his son Jesus to die, who was really going to stop him, not I. Yes indeed, none of us would have stopped the death of Jesus. We would have run away like the rest of the disciples, looked on from a distance, or deny Jesus in the heat of the moment.
“He was wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed for OUR iniquities.” Why did Jesus choose to die?” It wasn’t that Jesus chose to die as if he didn’t want to rather live, but Jesus had to die, it was necessary for him to die as scripture puts it, because you and I would have it no other way. He came to earth forgiving sins, casting out demons and healing the sick and so he was killed for it. Jesus didn’t whip himself to the point of death, hammer nails into his body and raise himself up on the cross—sinners like you and me did this to him. Perhaps the only good answer to the question, “Why did Jesus choose to die?” is this, “Because there was no other way to get through to you and me.” He had to choose to give us the choice to kill him, so that when he was resurrected from the dead, we would realize what we had done. So that we might realize the length and depth and breadth of our sin and then, finally, understand the full extent of what he had done on the cross.
Jesus chose to die for you, by being born on Earth and letting you kill him, so that you might realize that even though you are completely responsible for his death, just as much as any person alive 2000 years ago, Jesus has wiped your sins away in the blood of his cross. You made you choice to kill Jesus Christ and now he has made his choice to give you eternal life.
Ironically, as Jesus is dying, he says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But the truth is, sinners back then and sinners today know exactly what we are doing, given the choice, sinners want Jesus dead. What we don’t know, is that by making our choice, God can finally make his choice once and for all in a way that we might all understand and believe. We cannot hide our sins any longer, Jesus’ blood is on our hands and on our children’s children. Thankfully, though, that same blood washes us clean in the sight of God. We have made our choice and God has made his choice. By his bruises we are healed. Amen.
When you hear about a murder in the newspaper, on the internet, on the radio or on TV, do you ever ask this question, “Why did that person choose to die?” No. Most of the time, nobody deliberately chooses to die. Especially at the hands of somebody else. Ernest Becker explains in his book, “The Denial of Death” that even those heroes who choose to fight in wars by jumping out of boats and running out into the line of fire can only do so because they feel pity for the person running next to them because they are worried that the other person might get hit by a stray bullet. If we could possibly be aware enough to truly consider our own death, no one would ever get out of the boat. No one would ever step out of their house. But when Jesus dies on the cross, there is a need within all of us to ask this question,:”Why did Jesus choose to die?”
We are driven to ask this question only when we realize somewhere within us that Jesus is more than just one of us, he is God himself. And for God himself to be on that cross, the creator of heaven and earth, well, there must be more to it than a simple homicide that you’d hear about on the news. Unfortunately, this also betrays something even more interesting about both that little girl at my table, and about all of us in fact: she is already trying to wiggle out of her responsibility regarding the cross, just like the rest of us sinners. “Why did Jesus choose to die?” it’s a question we sinners like to ask, because if we can explain to ourselves and to each other why God wanted to die then it gets us off the hook. Then we can sing the hymn, “Were you there when they crucified my lord,” and smirk to ourselves that “no, we weren’t there.” We can place the blame of Jesus’ death on someone else.
Our reading this evening from the book of Isaiah references this way of thinking, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed for OUR iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” We like to put the blame on God for Jesus’ death. The gospels tell us that Jesus knows he is heading for Jerusalem to suffer and die, so how can we be culpable? Why would it be our fault? Jesus must have chosen to die and we had nothing to do with it. We weren’t even there!
In fact, as Isaiah writes down a few verses later, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.” If God wanted his son Jesus to die, who was really going to stop him, not I. Yes indeed, none of us would have stopped the death of Jesus. We would have run away like the rest of the disciples, looked on from a distance, or deny Jesus in the heat of the moment.
“He was wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed for OUR iniquities.” Why did Jesus choose to die?” It wasn’t that Jesus chose to die as if he didn’t want to rather live, but Jesus had to die, it was necessary for him to die as scripture puts it, because you and I would have it no other way. He came to earth forgiving sins, casting out demons and healing the sick and so he was killed for it. Jesus didn’t whip himself to the point of death, hammer nails into his body and raise himself up on the cross—sinners like you and me did this to him. Perhaps the only good answer to the question, “Why did Jesus choose to die?” is this, “Because there was no other way to get through to you and me.” He had to choose to give us the choice to kill him, so that when he was resurrected from the dead, we would realize what we had done. So that we might realize the length and depth and breadth of our sin and then, finally, understand the full extent of what he had done on the cross.
Jesus chose to die for you, by being born on Earth and letting you kill him, so that you might realize that even though you are completely responsible for his death, just as much as any person alive 2000 years ago, Jesus has wiped your sins away in the blood of his cross. You made you choice to kill Jesus Christ and now he has made his choice to give you eternal life.
Ironically, as Jesus is dying, he says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But the truth is, sinners back then and sinners today know exactly what we are doing, given the choice, sinners want Jesus dead. What we don’t know, is that by making our choice, God can finally make his choice once and for all in a way that we might all understand and believe. We cannot hide our sins any longer, Jesus’ blood is on our hands and on our children’s children. Thankfully, though, that same blood washes us clean in the sight of God. We have made our choice and God has made his choice. By his bruises we are healed. Amen.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Sermon for March 21st (Good Friday)
I would like to repeat just one verse again from the psalm we just read, “The Lord did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.” The Lord did not hide his face from me, the psalm says. And yet, hear what the prophet Isaiah wrote, a reading which is often understood to speak about Jesus’ death and crucifixion, “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.” He was as one from whom others hide their faces.
Why do we hide our faces from Jesus on the cross? Why? Because we did this to Jesus. Jesus hangs from nails because of us. It’s probably the same reason that I have more trouble looking at a dead cow carcass than a dead raccoon on the side of the road—I know that cows are killed because I really like hamburgers. I realize that I am partly responsible for cattle yards and slaughterhouses, but racoons just die sometimes, and, at most, I might just feel sorry for them . . . or pity them. It is so easy to pity Jesus on the cross and forget that we are the ones that put him there. That we are responsible.
“He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.” We do not hide our faces because Jesus looks so awful, but because he makes us look so awful. He is disgusting to us, how he hangs there on the cross like a limp noodle. The Son of God, dangling from a piece of wood with no fight left in him. You can hear the soldiers mocking him to come down, “If you’re the Son of God then come down!” We all want him to come down, to prove us wrong, to forget that we just crucified him, Jesus our Savior. It’s our last chance at vindication, as if Jesus coming down off the cross would somehow save our rear ends in the sight of God.
But as psalm 22 says, while we hide our faces from Jesus’ suffering, God does not hide his face. And so, we even use this as our defense. We are only human, of course, we do some bad things. We sin sometimes, we swear sometimes, we gossip sometimes we nail people to crosses to die sometimes. Sure, ok, so we make mistakes! That’s just who we are! Thank goodness God is still there, so that Jesus doesn’t have to suffer all alone.
But we are all wrong. All wrong. God does not hide his face from this suffering, the suffering of his Son on a cross. But, with his mouth pointed directly at Jesus Christ, looking at his beloved Son face to face, God curses Jesus. He leaves him there to die. God forsakes him there. And so Jesus screams, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!” Jesus dies alone. Completely alone.
Christ became a curse. He was cursed by God, his Father. “Christ became a curse for us. Chapter 23 in the book of Deuteronomy says it very clearly, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” That’s the law. And Jesus is condemned by that law. Jesus did not only suffer, but he was cursed by God. So, we hide our faces not just because of what we have done, but because of what God has done because of us. He has made our sin even worse. We did not just kill Jesus, but allowed him to be cursed by his Father.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Paul writes in the book of Galatians. This is the final reason we hide our faces. We realize that we are no different than Jesus. We realize that we have as little hope for salvation as Jesus does, hanging dead on that wooden cross. The light of the world has gone out. Hope has become despair. Jesus’ death means that all have died.
What is there left to do then? Only wait. We wait and hide our faces. We wait with the disciples behind closed, locked doors, scared that someone will find us out. We wait in the darkness with Peter, crying at our betrayal. We wait to find out what God will do. What will God do with a dead, cursed Jesus? Because in God’s answer, you will discover what he intends on doing with a dead and cursed you. Amen.
Why do we hide our faces from Jesus on the cross? Why? Because we did this to Jesus. Jesus hangs from nails because of us. It’s probably the same reason that I have more trouble looking at a dead cow carcass than a dead raccoon on the side of the road—I know that cows are killed because I really like hamburgers. I realize that I am partly responsible for cattle yards and slaughterhouses, but racoons just die sometimes, and, at most, I might just feel sorry for them . . . or pity them. It is so easy to pity Jesus on the cross and forget that we are the ones that put him there. That we are responsible.
“He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.” We do not hide our faces because Jesus looks so awful, but because he makes us look so awful. He is disgusting to us, how he hangs there on the cross like a limp noodle. The Son of God, dangling from a piece of wood with no fight left in him. You can hear the soldiers mocking him to come down, “If you’re the Son of God then come down!” We all want him to come down, to prove us wrong, to forget that we just crucified him, Jesus our Savior. It’s our last chance at vindication, as if Jesus coming down off the cross would somehow save our rear ends in the sight of God.
But as psalm 22 says, while we hide our faces from Jesus’ suffering, God does not hide his face. And so, we even use this as our defense. We are only human, of course, we do some bad things. We sin sometimes, we swear sometimes, we gossip sometimes we nail people to crosses to die sometimes. Sure, ok, so we make mistakes! That’s just who we are! Thank goodness God is still there, so that Jesus doesn’t have to suffer all alone.
But we are all wrong. All wrong. God does not hide his face from this suffering, the suffering of his Son on a cross. But, with his mouth pointed directly at Jesus Christ, looking at his beloved Son face to face, God curses Jesus. He leaves him there to die. God forsakes him there. And so Jesus screams, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!” Jesus dies alone. Completely alone.
Christ became a curse. He was cursed by God, his Father. “Christ became a curse for us. Chapter 23 in the book of Deuteronomy says it very clearly, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” That’s the law. And Jesus is condemned by that law. Jesus did not only suffer, but he was cursed by God. So, we hide our faces not just because of what we have done, but because of what God has done because of us. He has made our sin even worse. We did not just kill Jesus, but allowed him to be cursed by his Father.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Paul writes in the book of Galatians. This is the final reason we hide our faces. We realize that we are no different than Jesus. We realize that we have as little hope for salvation as Jesus does, hanging dead on that wooden cross. The light of the world has gone out. Hope has become despair. Jesus’ death means that all have died.
What is there left to do then? Only wait. We wait and hide our faces. We wait with the disciples behind closed, locked doors, scared that someone will find us out. We wait in the darkness with Peter, crying at our betrayal. We wait to find out what God will do. What will God do with a dead, cursed Jesus? Because in God’s answer, you will discover what he intends on doing with a dead and cursed you. Amen.
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