“Christ, Lifted Up and Drawing Us”
Holy Tuesday
St. John 3:14-17; 12:31-33
April 7, 2009
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
IN NOMINE JESU
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree, As Thou hast promised,
draw us all to Thee” (LSB 837:4)…words we sing in the hymn “Lift High
the Cross.” The cross has a most prominent place in the worship life
of the Church. The cross is central in the liturgy, hymnody, and
preachment of the Church. Why is it so important? The One who died
to take away our sins was crucified—nailed to a cross to die. In many
Christian congregations, the cross is front and center and up
high…lifted up, if you will. Take a look at the cross that graces our
chancel. It is big; there’s no denying that. It is also elevated,
above eye level, so that we would lift up our eyes and behold the
means upon which our Lord bled and died in our place. When we enter
for Divine Service, our eyes are drawn to that giant cross. We also
have a processional cross. When it is used to lead a procession at
the beginning of the Divine Service, it is lifted up for all to see.
This is an ancient practice in the Church. In the early days of the
Church, as she moved from house churches to larger venues like
basilicas, there was no room for seating; everyone stood, but not all
were able to see everything that was happening. So a cross was lifted
up at the back of the nave, and all were able to see it and knew then
that the Divine Service was about to begin, as it would with the
Introit, the Entrance Psalm. The worshipers were drawn to the cross,
and their focus was on the gifts won on the cross of Calvary and given
in Word and Sacraments. For this reason, it is also a common practice
in the Church for the worshipers to bow in reverence toward the
processional cross as it passes by them.
We recall the account in Numbers 21 of the bronze serpent lifted up
on a pole. All who were bitten by serpents and looked up to the
bronze serpent on the pole would be spared. They would see it and
live. Likewise, all who are bitten by sin and look up to the beloved
Son of God once on the cross will be saved. This is no mere optical
exercise, for the promise is for all who look to the crucified Christ
in faith, for we walk by faith and not by sight, and, seeing with the
eyes of faith, we behold our Lord lifted up on the cross and coming
down to us, hidden in His Means of Grace, using His Word and
Sacraments to draw us to Him, that we would receive the gifts Christ
freely gives to you and me, the gifts He won for us on the cross and
the means by which He lifts us and draws us to Himself.
Our Lord dearly desires to draw us to Himself because we cannot by
our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to
Him. We are unable to believe in Him or come to Him because we would
rather run away from Him. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with
the Christ, His cross, or His gifts. We live in fear because we do
not want our sins exposed in the light of God’s Word—namely, His Law.
We would much rather walk in the valley of the shadow of death—our
death—our eternal death. To us sinners who are perishing, the message
of the cross is foolishness. We who are by nature sinful and unclean,
spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God, would rather seek the
Lord, if ever, where He has not promised to be found. Put me on the
highway. Show me a sign. We want to see the glitz and glamour that
we think God will bring. We want special effects. We expect God to
give a big production of His presence, about who He is and what He
gives. We expect something grand like what we have seen in the movies
The Ten Commandments and The Passion of the Christ. We look for Him
in the earthquakes, fires, and windstorms of our lives. We expect,
and even demand, an extraordinary God to come in extraordinary ways to
do His extraordinary things.
Our God, the Triune God, is most extraordinary. Yet we think He acts
in ways that are ordinary, that are beneath Him; instead of being
lifted up, we think He thinks He has to stoop down and act. We are
only partially correct. Our Lord does indeed act in ways we deem
ordinary, but He does not have to do so. He does so because He loves
us. We try to rationalize God, to try to make Him fit what we think
of Him, as if we finite creatures can quantify or contain the infinite
God, as He was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. He does
come down…to us. He comes down to our level, sending His Son, Jesus
Christ, from heaven down to earth to live in human flesh—as one of us.
The sinless Son of God came down from heaven to be lifted up on the
cross, that we would be drawn to Him and His redemptive work of taking
away the sin of the world, that we would receive this forgiveness He
has dispensed from the cross and gives to us at the font, the pulpit,
and the altar.
In our texts, both from John 3 and from John 12, the Greek word used
for “lifted up” is the same. It can also mean “exalted.” We can say,
therefore, that our Lord was exalted on the cross. The cross served
as the throne of the King of kings and Lord of lords. His was not a
crown of jewels but a crown of thorns. There He was on the throne of
His cross: stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He descended from
heaven down to earth, down to our level, to be exalted on the
cross—where we should have been to die the death that we by our sins
deserve. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus
Christ, the victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil, the
same Jesus who said to Nicodemus and says to us: “And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”
(3:14-17), and again He says: “‘Now is the judgment of this world; now
the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up
from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This He said,
signifying by what death He would die” (12:31-33). St. Paul tells us
by what death our Lord died: “Let this mind be in you which was also
in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it
robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil.
2:5-8). Our Lord humbled Himself and came down in human flesh to be
one of us—He who knew no sin and became our sin—and was lifted
up—exalted—on the cross, drawing all peoples to Himself, that the
world through Him might be saved, by giving His body and shedding His
blood for the forgiveness of sins, for the forgiveness of your sins
and mine, so that you would not perish but have everlasting life.
This all-atoning work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the
center of our preaching. What you hear from this pulpit is the same
message, whether it is preached by Pastor Poppe, Pastor Berndt, Pastor
Russert, or Pastor Schlamann: “we preach Christ crucified…Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23a, 24b). Yes, we
preach a bloody, crucified, and dead Christ, but we preach not only
Christ crucified, we preach Christ risen. We preach Christ ascended,
lifted up—exalted—into heaven. We preach Christ descending and coming
to us in His Word read and proclaimed, coming to us in Holy Baptism,
in Holy Absolution, and in Holy Communion, the means by which our Lord
descends to us to lift us up and draw us to Himself. “Beloved in the
Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God
our Father, beseeching Him in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to
grant us forgiveness” (LSB, p. 184), so that forgiven, renewed,
refreshed, and lifted up in the forgiveness of sins, we would “Lift
high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim Till all the world adore
His sacred Name” (LSB 837:refrain).
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
--
The Rev. Pr. Mark A. Schlamann, Lincoln, NE
Sermons available at http://lcmssermons.com/Schlamann
Catch the NEW "Issues, Etc." at http://www.issuesetc.org
"When you are baptized, partake of Holy Communion, receive the
absolution, or listen to a sermon, heaven is open, and we hear the
voice of the Heavenly Father; all these works descend upon us from the
open heaven above us. God converses with us, provides for us; and
Christ hovers over us--but invisibly. And even though there were
clouds above us as impervious as iron or steel, obstructing our view
of heaven, this would not matter. Still we hear God speaking to us
from heaven; we call and cry to Him, and He answers us. Heaven is
open, as St. Stephen saw it open (Acts 7:55); and we hear God when He
addresses us in Baptism, in Holy Communion, in confession, and in His
Word as it proceeds from the mouth of the men who proclaim His message
to the people."--Martin Luther (1/19/1538 [LW 22:202])
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