Isaiah 53:1-6
Dearly beloved,
The church prays for wisdom precisely because the content
and preaching of the Christian faith defies all logic. To say that God
suffered on the cross? Or that God died on the cross? To preach that God
took on flesh and became a man and saved the human race? I am sorry. This
is not logical to the world. Isaiah 53:1 says it, “Who has believed what we
have heard?”
Even the prophet attests to the strangeness of this sort of
preaching. So, yes, the church prays for wisdom. Not worldly wisdom, mind
you. It cries out for the mind of God. Proverbs tells us, “To get wisdom
is better than gold; to get understanding is to be chosen rather than
silver”(Proverbs 16:16). The reason the church seeks wisdom is because on
this day we focus with great intensity on how our salvation was won.
It is a tough day. Its’ a day of deep reflection and the
reminder that your sins and my sins put Jesus on the cross. The world
hated, but Jesus loved. The world cursed, but Jesus spoke words of
absolution. The world whipped and beat Him, but He gave us His back to
beat. He gave us His head on which to press down a crown of thorns. It is
important to look at it this way. He gave us His back. He gave us His
hands to pierce with large nails. Jesus gave His side to be pierced with a
spear.
And this is revolutionary. The prophet speaks of Christ’s
humanity: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out
of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and
no beauty that we should desire him.” If Jesus were in His radiant glory,
then it would have been different. But God being made man and dwelling in
our image? That makes it more difficult, because the world didn’t see Jesus
for who He really is—God.
He gave us His back, His hands, His side so that the world in all its’
futility would take out its sadness and anger and inflict the One who brings
peace. Because He was in the flesh, we have a more difficult time grasping
it all. Our devotion is weak. We look upon a crucifix and we wonder if it
could really be true. Did God do this for us? Was He just a man? Or was He
really God, too? We are afraid to kneel. We are afraid to bend down to the
ground and bring our faces to the earth beseeching Jesus to help us.
Truly, we really need a Savior. Even on a good day we are
weak and beset by sin. How can we press onward to heaven? “Where is my
faith,” you ask yourself, “so that I don’t doubt and grow spiritually numb?”
You see, you need a Savior to take this burden from your shoulders. Those
people watching Jesus die on the cross needed a Savior. Those Roman guards
who beat Jesus needed a Savior. Isaiah speaks of this: “All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has
laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Godly wisdom and a maturing of faith is the recognition that
it is Jesus Christ who saves. The heavenly Father laid the iniquity of us
all on Christ’s shoulders. There is more to all of this than meets the eye.
Jesus literally bellows “Eloi Eloi Lama Sabacthani,” “My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?” Many men died by way of crucifixion according to the
Roman judicial system, so Christ’s reconciliation of the world to the
heavenly Father goes deeper than just the crucifixion.
If that wasn’t bad enough, we learn from Christ’s words that
I mentioned that the heavenly Father turned His loving presence away from
the Son. Jesus experienced what it feels like. What Jesus experienced on
the cross was hell. The absence of God’s loving, merciful presence is hell.
It is deep and utter despair that no one in this world has ever experienced
except Jesus Christ. If God the Father had turned His back on this world,
the world would have been snuffed out in an instant.
This world has never felt what Jesus felt. This is the
payment for sins. Not His sins. Your sins. Jesus is the only one who
could have done this. Someone had to pay the penalty and it could not be
someone with sin. It had to be a spotless and pure lamb. Jesus willingly
became that lamb for the sins of the world. Jesus therefore allowed the
world to inflict that pain upon Him. We are told by the prophet Isaiah that
“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.”
But wisdom calls out from the darkness. This is the
church’s proclamation. An ordained man in vestments calls out and proclaims
in the midst of a dark world that the light doth shine in the darkness. A
suffering servant unraveled a tight, spiraling destruction. God saved
creation. Jesus, tired, in pain, in anguish mutters from the cross as He
ushers out His last breath—“it is finished.”
And He dies. God dies on the cross. It is for you that He
did this. He came down from His glorious throne and paid for all the sins
that you have committed. And we need constant reminding. Jesus prepared
the apostles to go out because it is a dark world. Jesus knew that by Him
taking on flesh and being made man, the world would not see any comeliness
or beauty in Him. It would be difficult to sway people to believe that
Jesus is God.
So, the eyewitnesses are sent out to utter Godly wisdom
which defies the world and all understanding. The sacraments were
instituted before His death. Everything is in order, so that we and His
disciples may not lose hope. Jesus knew the dangers. He knows what you
contend with. You contend with your own arrogance, your own pride. You
contend with doubt and fear. You contend with lust and hate. Peter knew
it, too.
Peter, in great wisdom, wrote later in His ministry: “And we
have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention
to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the
morning star rises in your hearts.” Jesus died for all these sins that I
mentioned that are in you. Jesus wiped all of your sins completely away
and replaced them with His love and with the Holy Spirit through
Baptism. Salvation
to the church looks like a man hanging dead on a cross.
Blood dripping, a pierced side, dirt and smudges all over
his naked body, are to the church the very statement of redemption. It is
fitting that we always behold a crucifix, because we need to be reminded
everyday that our salvation resides in that act in human history for all
mankind. In this is your peace. And so you carry on. Your doubts and
failures are wiped away and dispelled by the prophetic scriptures, which St.
Peter said is a lamp shining in a dark place.
For you, for the church, the lamp shines brightly forever. The
Lord Jesus imparts His wisdom to you and bestows a peace that says He will
never let you go. Your spiritual weakness is replaced by the strength and
love of Christ. Now the hour is at hand. Our Christ has been handed over
to the guards. He has been crucified and now the church meditates on His
death and our life. The body of Christ is laid into the tomb. The tomb is
shut…Now the world waits. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, for by
your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
