Sermon Notes - March 25, 2005
"Thinking Clearly About the Cross"
Thinking Clearly, part 7
Good Friday Service
“Father, forgive them
…”
Word 1
Luke 23:34
I wonder whom Jesus meant when he uttered these
words. Was he looking to the
thieves on His right hand and on his left?
Was he thinking of the soldiers when they hammered the nails into his
hands and feet? Or when they
were gambling for his clothes? Was
he thinking of Pilate and Herod who had washed their hands of Him?
Was he thinking of the Jewish leaders who had orchestrated his death?
Or was he thinking of His disciples and friends, most of whom had
fled in fear?
It could have been any one
or all of them. Each bore some
guilt, some shame, some blame for the events of the last day.
Each was in need of this offer of forgiveness.
And yet I wonder if perhaps Jesus was calling out on my behalf –
‘Father, forgive him. He knows
not what he is doing.” Or on
your behalf – “Father, forgive her.
She doesn’t know. She
doesn’t know.”
Is Jesus looking down
through the annals of time at each of us whose sins held him there on that
cross and pleading with the father, “Forgive them?”
In this moment of pain and torture is He looking at you and I?
Does he see the hidden darkness of our lives and the myriad ways
we’ve fallen short and still offer us forgiveness?
In just a few decades after
His death, Jesus’ followers would be called on to give their lives for the
faith they had in Christ. As
they reached the end of their days, similar words would escape their lips;
“Father, hold this not to their account.”
“Heavenly Lord, count this not against them.”
Like their savior they offered forgiveness in the face of unspeakable
tragedy.
Since the first century,
mercy in the face of brutality has been the consistent witness of the
church. There is something more
powerful than death, than cruelty, than horror and pain.
More powerful than them all is the power of forgiveness.
“Father, forgive them
…”
Forgiveness is the most
authentic utterance of the Christian faith.
It has its origins in Jesus’ willingness to forgive his accusers
and his torturers. It continues
today in His willingness to offer forgiveness to each of us.
It goes out to all times and to all places, the universal language of
love.
Today, our greatest calling
is to bear forgiveness to a world in need of wholeness.
Jesus is still making this same offer on behalf of us all; “forgive
them.” Don’t stop now, but
continue to show yourself to them; keep offering forgiveness.
Even if they act like they don’t want it.
Even when they deceive themselves into thinking they don’t need it.
Don’t withdraw your hand of forgiveness from them.
And in his longsuffering mercy that forgiveness remains.
Offered to us with arms wide open.
The words of Jesus from the
cross begin in dramatic fashion. Jesus
doesn’t accept his punishment with passive resignation.
He enters into it with action and resolve.
He breaks into it with a promise of deliverance.
He knows what will be required of Him, but also what will result from
His death.
The words of Jesus from the
cross begin as only Jesus could begin. “Forgive
them.” They don’t get it.
They don’t know. They
can’t possibly understand. “Forgive
them. They don’t know what
they’re doing.”
“Today, you will be
with me in paradise …”
Word 2
Luke 23:43
There’s something about
this that offends my sensibilities. Something
about picturing my Savior hanging by a cross between two common criminals
that makes me angry. After all
of the injustice and ridicule heaped upon Jesus since the time of his
arrest, this just takes the cake. It
couldn’t possibly get any worse than crucifixion surrounded by thieves.
But then I remember that Jesus came for those two thieves just as
clearly as he came for me. That
he loves them deeper than I could ever imagine and that he would have come
if they were the only two in need of salvation.
“Remember me.”
Simple enough. Don’t
forget me. Don’t go on without
me. Don’t let even the small
kindness of defending you pass without notice.
I’m getting what I deserve for my crimes in this life.
This death is sufficient for the way I lived, but if you could find
it in your heart to ease the torment of my suffering … remember me.
Like most of us caught in the act, a little mercy would go a long way
toward softening the blow of our just reward.
This man, this criminal,
gets so much more than he asks for or deserves.
He begs to be remembered and he receives life eternal.
That day, he is in paradise. I
picture a man even now just inside the gates of God’s heavenly kingdom.
He’s been there for millennia and never leaves his post.
No one cheers louder when a soul comes home to eternal rest.
No one is more excited by the newest face that peers through those
gates. He is this thief on the
cross beside Jesus. He asked for
a remembrance and got so much more. How
could he do anything less than cheer and sing and shout until his throat is
raw?
I am that thief.
You are him as well. We
have received so much more than we could have asked for, so much more than
we deserve. In the face of all
that we have been forgiven, should our rejoicing be anything less than his.
Jesus gave all so that we could have all.
As Jesus hung on the cross,
I believe He looked down trough all of history and saw a small, frightened,
hurt little boy kneeling on a dirty concrete floor.
He took that young face in his nail scarred hands and quietly said,
“Today, you will be with me.” I
believe He looked and saw the face of Martin Luther, John Wesley, Catherine
Booth, and you and you; and said, “today, you will be with me.”
Should it come as a surprise
to us that the first one to respond on this day of crucifixion was a thief
condemned to die a horrible death? Not
at all. Not at all.
Jesus always had a special place for those the world had given up on.
He always seemed to find that small shred of decency left in someone
and bring its seed to glorious flower. He
did it with Matthew (a tax collector and now a disciple), he did it with
Mary (a prostitute and now a devout follower), he did it with Jairus (a
soldier responsible for the oppression of Israel).
And this day, the day of his death, is no different.
Jesus takes the smallest expression of faith from a condemned man and
it blossoms into eternal life. That
thief, that low life, that scum, leads the parade of victory into heaven
that very day.
Interestingly, sometimes
life is best seen in the light of death.
Sometimes our life; its mistakes, its value and worth become crystal
clear at that moment. A
condemned man is the first to know the peace of paradise upon Jesus’
death. Isn’t it still the
same? Today, condemned men and
women (condemned by their sin) turn to Jesus when all other hope is
exhausted and are greeted by the same sweet promise.
“Today, you will be with me.”
“Woman, here is your
son.” “Here is your
mother.”
Word 3
John 19:26-27
Of all the words from the
cross, perhaps this one is the most startling.
This one stands in sharp contrast to the other six.
In the midst of utterances of cosmic proportions, Jesus utters these
simple directions that have such seemingly mundane consequences.
Somebody needs to watch out for his mom.
Jesus is in the midst of dying for the sins of all humanity.
He is about to shoulder the burden of all sin throughout all time.
He is showing God’s unending love and compassion for the whole
world; and taking care of his mom. While
showing compassion for the whole world, Jesus also shows compassion for the
one.
Isn’t that so like him?
While teaching to a huge crowd by the sea of Galilee he recognized
the courage of one boy who was willing to share his lunch.
While speaking to a house crowded to capacity with people Jesus
stopped to heal a paralyzed man who had been lowered through the roof on his
mat. While walking with a huge
group of disciples and followers on the way from Jericho, Jesus stopped to
heal Bartimaeus of his blindness. And
now, most extraordinary of all, while dying on the cross for the sins of the
world, Jesus makes one final gesture of compassion and caring to his mother.
We are fond of quoting John
3:16. “For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish, but have eternal life.” It
reminds of that Jesus (out of His great love for us) died for all. But we
also need to be reminded that Jesus died for one.
That one, being you. When
we recognize that Jesus died for the world, we run the risk of forgetting
that Jesus died for us, each one of us.
Because the world needed saving doesn’t negate the fact that you
need saving; that I need saving.
Jesus died for the world, but he also died for you don’t you see?
Perhaps as children we
should have learned John 3:16 this way: “For God so loved [John
Wunderlich] that He exhausted the very treasure vaults of heaven and
relinquished His most prized and valued possession – His son.
And if John believes in Him and calls on His name, he will be saved
and have everlasting life.” Even
while this cosmos changing event is taking place (the salvation of God
coming to Man), Jesus died for me.
Jesus’ concern for his
mother seems natural and fitting. She
gave him birth. She nurtured him
and helped him to grow. She
followed on the outskirts of his ministry and was a part of this new
movement because she never forgot what the angel had told her.
And now she stands at the foot of her son’s cross.
Most of his disciples and followers had fled for fear of their
safety, but there she was watching her son die.
I can only imagine what was going through her mind, the anquish she
must have been feeling. Certainly
her first concern was for Jesus, but His death had tremendous implications
for her as well. Alone, without
a husband, who would care for her?
Jesus, even in the midst of
his dying, dares to think of others while he bears the weight of sin for an
entire world. His humanity
endures until the very end of his life.
“Someone has to take care of my mom.”
What makes the incarnation so powerful and so heart changing is that
this was God on a cross dying for the sins of the world.
But this was also a man, concerned about his mother and entrusting
her care to his closest friend.
Never think for one moment
that your trials, your problems, your questions, your well-being are beneath
Jesus’ notice. Never wonder if
you’ve fallen between the cracks. While
Jesus dies for the whole world, He still ministers to the need of any one.
“My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?”
Word 4
Matthew 27:46
When I was younger I heard a very dramatic
sermon by a dynamic preacher on Good Friday.
He spent some time on this verse talking about the reality that Jesus
took the sin of the world onto Himself.
And at this moment, God turned his back on Jesus.
God is holy and cannot abide the presence of sin, therefore he
couldn’t bear to look at Jesus during this moment when he bore the sins of
the world.
As
I grew older and reflected on that sermon, it didn’t seem to completely
fit with other verses from the New Testament that were coming to my mind.
Verses like, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Verses
like, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And I struggled with a picture of God who would abandon his own son
at his most desperate time of need. “Why
would God forsake His son on the cross during the last, most brutal moments
of his life. My answer was and
is; he didn’t.
The
chapter and verses designations in our Bible are a relatively new innovation
that came into being about 400 years ago.
Before that time it was impossible to say, “Read Joshua 24:1.
So how did you reference a specific part of the Scripture?
How did you call someone’s attention to a passage from the Bible?
You did so by quoting the first line.
And that’s what Jesus is doing here.
This
is not Jesus’ lament in the moment of his abandonment.
It is Jesus, even from the cross, trying to teach and explain what is
happening. What is happening on
a human level and what is transpiring before their eyes is one thing.
What is happening on a spiritual level is another thing entirely.
Jesus is trying to direct the crowds attention away from the obvious
physical event and onto the more subtle spiritual event.
He
does so by quoting the first line of Psalm 22.
And in doing so, he hopes we will be reminded of the words of that
Psalm. He is hoping that the
words of that Psalm will seem familiar and important in light of his death
on the cross.
The Psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Why
are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”
And then continues; “All
who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: “He trusts in
the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let
him deliver him, since he delights in him.” Sounds like an apropos
description so far.
Verse 5 begins, My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of
death. Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
It still sounds about right.
But then the whole tenor of the Psalm changes.
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I
will praise you. You who fear
the LORD, praise him! All you
descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere
him, all you descendants of Israel! For
he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has
not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
So you see what is happening on the cross is just what is happening
in Psalm 22. Feelings of
abandonment, loss, and defeat are being turned into reverence, acceptance,
and victory.
The Psalm ends with these words: “Posterity will
serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn— for he
has done it.” What we
thought was a cry of defeat is actually a cry of victory.
“For He has done it.”
Thanks be to God!
“I am thirsty.”
Word 5
John 19:28
The Scripture says, “and
so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
Which brings a rather irreverent image to mind.
I picture Jesus nailed to the cross, silently cataloguing all of the
Old Testament prophecies about His death and crucifixion in his head to make
sure He hasn’t forgotten one. And
then suddenly he thinks of that verse in Psalm 69 and says to himself, “I
better get a drink.” The text
and that image that forms in my mind make this request of Jesus a very
utilitarian, very mundane event -- almost perfunctory.
But there is so much more at
work here than that. Jesus does
more than fulfill a prophecy as though he were checking an item off of his
to-do list. He is expressing a
very fundamental human need and demonstrating the power of his ministry at
the same time.
That fundamental human need
is of course thirst. Loss of
blood, carrying a heavy wooden cross through the heat of the day up the hill
to Calvary, the injuries that have caused his body to go into shock; all of
this has taken its toll. So much
so that Jesus is reduced to human rubble before they ever put him up on the
cross. He is truthfully very
nearly dead already. Even for
Jesus the needs of his body must have been overwhelming.
He pushes himself up on the nail in his feet, gasps for a quick
breath and says, “I am thirsty.” That
kind of effort for such a small reward conveys the depth of Jesus’ human
needs in the midst of his passion.
God didn’t somehow deaden
the pain or reduce the damage inflicted by each blow.
God didn’t want Jesus to “put on a good show.”
Jesus needed to suffer the punishment for sin in order for his
sacrifice and his life to overshadow our corruption.
Jesus had to take it all. And
all God could do was watch, and weep as His only Son died a most agonizing
death.
Jesus shares our human
struggle. He is made like us.
He was tempted as we are tempted.
He experiences pain, loss, frustration, disappointment and anger just
as we experience all of those things. Even
on the cross, Jesus’ identification with us is so clear that he
experiences in His body the punishment (the pain, the torture) of our sin.
I wish that our
identification with Jesus’ crucifixion were as clear as His with our sin.
If we had a clearer picture of how our sin (each act, each omission)
caused Him pain on the cross, would we alter our behavior?
Would we think twice about willfully disobeying God’s Word?
Would we cry genuine tears of remorse when we come to the Lord in
repentance? I truly hope we
would.
In the midst of this suffering, both physical
and spiritual, is a ray of hope. It
is found in the response of the Roman soldiers to his feeble words, “I am
thirsty.” It’s a small
miracle really – they hear his words and they actually respond.
They aren’t interested in Jesus’ comfort.
In fact, they would normally do anything they could to speed Jesus’
death. But they are moved by Him
to respond in concern. Think of
it! At the time of Roman’s
final victory Jesus manages to receive comfort from the enemy.
Even on the cross Christ is still at work!
I am reminded of Jesus’ words to the woman at
the well earlier in the Gospel of John.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
“It is finished.”
Word 6
John 19:30
“It is finished.”
All is completed. All is
accomplished. All that Jesus was
sent by God to do He has done. This
is not Jesus’ sigh of resignation. This
is His cry of final triumph! This
not, “I’m finished.” This
is “I’m finished!”
As Jesus prayed for himself in the Garden of
Gethsemane he said, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the
work you gave me to do. And now,
Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the
world began.” God answers that
prayer now as Jesus stares death in the face and wins.
Wins, you say!
How can you believe that Jesus wins?
He’s beaten. He’s
dead. He’s been defeated.
He has no more power.
Do you really think so?
Are you sure? Are you
positive this is the end? The
reality is that it’s all just beginning!
This is just the start of something utterly fantastic that God is
doing. The world sees a broken
Jew on a cross. I see the King
of Glory. The world sees death
as the end, but I know it’s just the beginning.
The world believes that its all over, even the disciples believe that
its all over, but its not all over. Not
by a long shot. Jesus has done
what He needed to do; He has accomplished all that he needed to accomplish.
Now God the Eternal One, Creator of the earth steps to the fore
again. There is still more to
do. It’s Friday, but
Sunday’s coming.
Jesus fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets in
his coming. There was nothing
spoken or written about the Messiah’s advent that He left undone.
He completed His task. All
that was left was for Him to say, “It is finished.”
Now God goes to work. God
the Father will raise Jesus Christ from the dead.
God the father will send Jesus to appear before His disciples to give
them courage to be His witnesses. God
the father will send the Holy Spirit to give power to the Apostles and
through them give birth to a church. It’s
far from over.
What’s over, what has been accomplished is
this – my salvation, your salvation. Nothing
else needs to be done to right the relationship between God and humanity.
The debt has been paid in full. The
sacrifice has been made once and for all by the perfect Paschal Lamb.
That is finished. That is
done. The rest spring from that.
As Jesus’ earthly tenure ends I imagine God
the Father watching this scene unfold from heaven.
I can almost hear Him utter the words that initiated Jesus’ earthly
ministry as that same ministry comes to a close.
“This is my beloved son, in Him I am well pleased.
“Into your hands, I
commend my spirit.”
Word 7
Luke 23:46
Jesus took on a tremendous responsibility.
There were undoubtedly time when he bore it lighter than others.
And there were certainly times when the weight of that burden came
crashing down upon him. In the
Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this
cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
In this moment on the cross the task that he
bore, the sin that he became, the weight of the responsibility on his
shoulders descended upon him like never before.
In that moment of testing, in that moment when accounts must be paid,
Jesus says, “into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Those are words spoken of a commitment fulfilled.
Those are the words of a trust fully discharged.
It echoes in the words of Paul some years later, “I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”
This too, is neither surrender nor resignation.
This again is victory.
From all outward appearances, things have gone
horribly wrong. The King of the
Jews is dead. The lifeless body
of the Chosen One is suspended between heaven and earth on a cross.
The kingdom of God that Jesus promised hasn’t come.
But nothing has gone wrong. In
truth, it has all gone eternally right.
Jesus, fulfilling all righteousness, has chosen
the time and the place of his own death.
The hour had come, the curtain of the temple was rent in two, all had
been accomplished, and Scripture says that Jesus “gave up His spirit.”
Now was the time, and he breathed his last.
God in us at Bethlehem!
God for us on Calvary!
God with us in Resurrection!
God beyond us in Heaven!
God through us at Pentecost!
God’s plan of salvation was complete, but
God’s plan for humanity and the world was far from over.
What appears to be an ending is in fact a new beginning, a new
covenant. One written not on
tablets of stone but on the human heart.
The faithfulness of the moment (Into your hands
I commend my spirit) is reward three days hence.
When a man appears to the women at the tomb and says, “Why do you
look for the living among the dead?”