Father: You Gave, Now Grant

Father: You Gave, Now Grant

First Sunday after Easter

Collect: Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sermon Text: The Collect

Texts on which the collect is based:

...Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:24,25, ESV)

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8, ESV).

Think about moods. Not the kinds of moods in which you may wake up and go to bed. Rather the moods of verbs - which we learned about long ago in school. One mood is the indicative mood. The indicative indicates or says what is - it states a fact. The other mood is the imperative. The imperative says what should be - it issues a command. Fact: “You are the dog.” Command: “Get out of my chair.”

The Collect is based on two verses in St. Paul’s letters. One uses indicative verbs. It declares a fact. The other uses imperative verbs. It gives a command.

This “grammar lesson” is important because it tells us something very important about Paul’s theology. For Paul the indicative comes before the imperative. Paul states facts before he gives commands. “What is” comes before “what you must do.”

1. Indicative: Fact

The Collect begins “Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification.”  It is based on Romans 4:25: “(Jesus) was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

1.1. Paul says 3 things if the first chapters of Romans: (1) Gentiles are sinners. (2) Jews are sinners. (3) All are are sinners. If we are not sinners, then Romans 4:25 is a solution for a non-existent problem.

There is a sense in which almost everyone will admit to being a sinner. “I do things I shouldn’t do.” “Sometimes I don’t live up to my own standards.” “I have disappointed my family.” “I have let down my friends.” The problem comes with the qualifications we make after saying we’re sinners. “I’m a sinner, but basically I’m a pretty good person.” “I’m a sinner, but there are a lot worse ones.” “I’m a sinner, but not that kind of sinner.” We may think if we have not killed anyone, or embezzled any money, or  committed a serious sexual sin, we are more or less ok.

But St. Paul says:

...all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

        no one understands;

        no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become  

 worthless;

    no one does good,

   not even one.”

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short    of the glory of God… (Romans 3:9-12,22,23).

1.2. Paul is addressing the fact that we are sinners when says Jesus was delivered up for our sins, our tresspasses. The word “sin” means “missing the mark” as when you shoot a pistol and miss the target. We miss the mark of perfect obedience, which includes our motives. We do not love God with all our being, and we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. The word “trespass” means to violate a boundary, as when you cross a property line marked “no trespassing.” We trespass when we cross the boundaries of conduct God has set for our conduct in the 10 Commandments.

1.3. Christ was delivered up for our sins and trespasses. He was delivered up into the hands of wicked men - the Jews who demanded his death and the Romans who crucified him. But more importantly he was delivered up to the penalty for our sins. He was delivered up to the judgment we deserve for our trespasses. This is how our sins are forgiven. Christ took our sins and was delivered up to death and condemnation for us.

1.4. But Christ not only was delivered up for our sins; he was raised for our justification. “Justification” is a legal word. When a person is charged with a crime, and his case goes to a jury, and the jury acquits him, he is justified - considered innocent in the eyes of the law. Had Christ died and remained under the power of death, we would, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, still be in our sins. But the resurrection declares that God is satisfied with the work of salvation Christ did for us on the cross. We are justified - God declares us acquitted of the guilt of our sins and righteous in his court of justice. It is not that we have somehow achieved righteousness by our good deeds or received an infusion of righteousness through the sacraments, but we are accounted righteous and treated as righteous for Jesus’s sake.

All who put their whole hope of salvation in Christ and his saving work, are forgiven their sins and looked upon as righteous in

God’s sight.  

2. Imperative: Command

The collect continues with “Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth.” This is request is based on the command in 1 Corinthians 5:8: “Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

2.1. Paul has in mind the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread which lasts for 7 days after Passover. Leaven is not yeast but a fermented grain that works like yeast. It is placed in the bread dough to make it rise. When the Jews left Egypt in a hurry, they did not have time to let their bread rise so they ate unleavened bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates that time. God commanded, “For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses” (Exodus 12:19). Over time customs developed about thoroughly cleaning houses to remove all traces of leaven. Today observant Jews can spend weeks cleaning every nook and cranny of their homes to remove the slightest trace of leaven.

2.2. Paul tells Christians that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, so it is now time for us to keep the festival of salvation by getting rid the old leaven of of malice and evil. Malice is an angry disposition, having ill will toward other people. Evil is a broad word that includes every imaginable kind of wickedness. However, here Paul is thinking particularly about acting out our malice. We show malice when we gossip about other people, when we slander them or run down their reputations, when we wish bad things to happen to them, when we take pleasure in their misfortunes. I don’t need to tell you that malice is something that exists in the world among unbelievers and is exhibited in business and politics, marriage and family, and every kind human relationship. But, what should concern us is that it exists also in churches among Christians. A spirit of malice is like leaven. Once it begins to be indulged and expressed it can corrupt the whole person and then spread throughout the whole church. It can make worship unacceptable to God, cause broken relationships, disrupt fellowship, corrupt the conduct of members and, and destroy a church’s reputation. So Paul says, “Put it out of your own heart,  and remove it from your congregation.”

2.3. With the leaven of malice removed we are prepared to keep the festival of salvation with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. These two things ought to characterize us as Christians in our relationships with one another and should be seen in the way we live together in the church. We are called to be sincere, not hypocritical, but real and genuine in our dealings with one another.  We are called to be true - not playing games with one another or betraying one another -  but honest and faithful in all our relationships.

2.4. A lot is riding on putting away malice and evil and practicing sincerity and truth. These things make it possible to serve the Lord in pureness of living and truth. We want purity in our lives so that we please the Lord in our conduct. We want pureness is truth, or doctrine, so that what we believe is not what we want to believe or what we hear some TV preacher say, but is in accord with the truth revealed in God’s Word.

In the Christian life the indicative always comes before the imperative - the facts before the commands. The fact is that Christ was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification must come first. We cannot obey the command unless we are forgiven and justified. The command is that we put away malice and evil and live in sincerity and truth so we can always serve God in pureness of life and truth.  

2.5. But getting rid malice and evil and living with sincerity and truth is not easy. We must ask the Lord for help. He gave his Son for us. Now we ask that he would also give us these blessings of character and conduct. We know the weakness of our sinful selves, how easy it is to let the old leaven begin to spread through our hearts and then within our church. We know how challenging it can be to be sincere and truthful.

Even in our asking God for help we come, not by our own merits, but by the merits of Christ. We can never come to God in prayer trusting in anything good about about us to gain God’s favor. We come trusting the merits of Christ. No matter how much progress we may make in the Christian life, no matter how consistent may be our Christian living, we never have the merit to gain God’s mercy. It is always and only be the merits of Christ, his Son.

That is what we do as we come to this Table. We ask that by faith we may eat the sacrificed body and drink the shed blood of Jesus. We don’t have a right to these blessings because we’ve been good this past week. We ask by the merits of his Son that by this Sacrament we may be preserved in body and soul unto eternal life. We ask that by Christ’s merits we may feed upon him in our hearts by faith.

Alive But Dead

Raised but Dead

Easter Day

Collect: Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee that, as by thy special grace preceding us, thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen

Epistle: Colossians 3:1-4 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (BCP, p.187)

Sometimes we get surprised because what happens is not what we expected. Friday morning the man who is going to connect the rectory plumbing to the county’s sewer connection caught me in my pajamas when he knocked on the door at 8:30. He said, “I hope I didn’t wake you up,” and I said, “Oh no I’ve been up a long time. I often do some work before I get dressed.” I’m afraid he left thinking, “Sure he’s been up several hours working. Those preachers work only one day a week.” I forgot the man was coming. I wasn’t expecting him, so I got surprised.

I am surprised by the Prayer Book’s choice for the Epistle for Easter. I would expect a reading from the great resurrection chapter - chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. Rather the Prayer Book give us St. Paul’s  letter to the Colossians, chapter 3, verses 1-4.

There are three noteworthy about this reading. One is that, when St. Paul speaks of Christ’s Resurrection, he takes only a glance at the Resurrection before focusing on Christ’s place in heaven after his Ascension. Another is that  the Apostle’s main concern with resurrection is not Christ’s resurrection but ours. The third is that his concern about our resurrection is not with our future bodily resurrection but our present spiritual resurrection.

1. St. Paul tells us about Jesus.

He assumes the bodily resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was an absolutely essential part of the Apostolic preaching. Only two of the Gospel writers tell us about the birth of Jesus, but all four record his resurrection. We read this morning St. John’s account: how Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John discovered the empty tomb. In 1 Corinthians 15 St. Paul summarizes Gospel by which we are saved:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).

He goes on to say that if the Resurrection of Christ didn’t happen the whole Christian house of faith falls down:

...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:17-19).

Make no mistake about it. Christianity is a religion that cannot stand if there was no bodily resurrection of Jesus. I once read a theologian who said that if the dead bones of Jesus Christ were found Easter weekend, she would still go to church on Easter. Not I. No resurrection, no Christianity. But St. Paul, having described the consequences if Christ was not raised, goes on to say, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…” (1 Cor. 15:20).

Assuming the resurrection, Paul goes on to tell us where Christ is now. He is above, seated at the right hand of God. He is above because 40 days after his resurrection he ascended to heaven. St Luke describes the event: “As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Then, as they were gazing up into the heavens, two angels, taking the form of men, said, “Why are you gazing up to heaven?” Their message was, “He is gone for now. Your fellowship with him on earth is over until he comes again at the end of this age.” In heaven Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the place of honor and power. As the victorious Messiah, who has won the battle against sin and Satan, he has been vindicated by the resurrection, and now, ascended to heaven, he has all authority in heaven and earth. He will reign till all his enemies, even the last enemy, death itself, are conquered.

• Jesus is the risen Savior.
• Jesus is the ascended Messiah.
• Jesus is the reigning King.

2. St Paul tells us about ourselves.

We are already dead, already raised, and already with Christ in heaven.

At first that may startle us. How can we be dead, if we know we are still living? How can we be raised to immortal life, if our bodies are still mortal? How can we be in heaven, if we are still here on earth?

To understand we need to know that St. Paul picks up on Jesus’s teaching, “I am the vine; you are the branches. St Paul says Christians are united or joined to Christ. You are united to Christ in his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and life in heaven.  In chapter 2 Paul explains that we were buried and raised with Christ in baptism and by faith, so that we are no longer dead in our sins, but are alive in Christ (Col. 2:12,13).

Paul tells us there is an old world order dominated by the devil and  demons, and there is a new world order brought into existence by Christ through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and life in heaven. Left to ourselves by nature we are part of the old world order and dead in our sins. But we are now in Christ. With Christ we are dead to that old world order. With Christ we are raised to live in the new world order he brought into existence. All our sins forgiven and we have begun to live a new kind of life. With Christ we ascended to heaven and the new world order he created. We begin life in that new world order now, but it is fully revealed now only in the life of Christ in heaven. If you want to know who you are in Christ now, and what you will be in Christ we he comes again, look at the risen and ascended Christ and his glorious life in heaven. That is your true life and destiny. When Christ comes again you will be raised with him to glory.

Being united with Christ by baptism and faith is something like getting married. You give or receive an engagement ring that commits you to marriage. That is your baptism. You love and want to unite your life to the life of another person. That is your faith. You go through a formal ceremony in which you and the other person confirm your commitment to one another. That is your confirmation.

• In Christ you are dead to the world controlled by demons.
• In Christ you are raised from spiritual death.
• In Christ you have ascended to new life in heaven.
• In Christ you have begun to experience that new life now. When Christ comes again you will share fully in the glorious life he now lives in heaven.

3. St. Paul tells what to do.

Assuming we have been raised with Christ, we should seek the life that is above and set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

The first time I went to Ukraine to teach I was very homesick. I was glad I could serve there, and I taught the course I had been asked to teach, but my mind and heart kept going to Pittsburgh. Why? Because that was where Susan was. And my real life was not in Ukraine. My life in Ukraine was temporary. My real life was in Pittsburgh with my wife and sons, my church, and my home.

That is the way it should be with us and Christ. He is our life. Our permanent existence will be in the new heavens and the new earth that exist in Christ and which he will create for us when he comes again. This life is good. Sin in this world is bad, but the things of this life are good when we use them rightly. But this is a transitory life where we experience trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, and many other adversities. That is why we should lift up our hearts to Christ and the life he has in heaven now and will make ours fully when he returns.

Do you know where you come closest to heaven in this world? It is not when you’re with family around the table for a holiday meal. It’s not on the top of a mountain you’ve climbed. It’s not in a beautifully manicured garden. It is here in worship of God’s people. That is why it is such a serious thing to be absent from worship. We cannot seek the things above and set our affections on things above unless we set our hearts and minds on worship.

Now in  Holy Communion we give ourselves, body and soul, to the Lord and pray that we may be filled with grace heavenly benediction and be made one body with Christ, that he may dwell in us and we in him.

With God It Wasn't Possible

With God It Wasn’t Possible

Maundy Thursday

Collect: Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, did institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood; Mercifully grant that we may thankfully receive the same in remembrance of him, who in these holy mysteries giveth us a pledge of life eternal; the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Homily Context: Matthew 26:36-45 (KJ21NT, p.57)

36 Then Jesus came with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, “Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38 Then He said unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me.” 39 And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” 40 And He came unto the disciples and found them asleep, and said unto Peter, “What, could ye not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them and went away again, and prayed a third time, saying the same words. 45 Then came He to His disciples and said unto them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Homily Text: And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

Optimists focus on possibilities. Pessimists focus on impossibilities. Sometimes pessimists are surprised when something they thought impossible turns out possible. Sometimes optimists are disappointed when something they thought possible proves impossible. The truth is that there are  possibilities and impossibilities in our lives, and often it’s hard for us to tell the difference.

But we are not used to thinking of anything being impossible for God.

• God created all things visible and invisible out of nothing. When there was nothing, God spoke the universe into existence.
• When Sarah the wife of Abraham overheard the heavenly visitors tell Abraham that in a year Sarah would bear a son, she laughed. The Lord asked Abraham:  “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?’ Is any thing too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:13,14).
• When Israel left Egypt and faced annihilation with the Red Sea in their front and the Egyptian army was fast closing from their rear, God parted the sea and Israel safely passed through to the other side.
• The Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem, and the king of Judah had put the prophet Jeremiah because he prophesied the city would fall and counseled surrender. While Jeremiah was in the prison, the Lord told him to buy a field. Jeremiah did what the Lord told him to, but it made no sense sense to buy real estate when the city was about to fall. Buying real estate implies there is a future for Judah, but there is none. The Lord challenged Jeremiah, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:18).
• When the angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary she would bear a son, she asked, “How can this be, seeing I know not a man?” But Gabriel told her that not only would the Lord give her a baby miraculously but also that her childless cousin, Elizabeth, was already in her sixth month of pregnancy, and added, “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
• When the rich young ruler sorrowfully left because his wealth was more important to him than eternal life, Jesus said, “How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.” His disciples were astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus responded, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

Just about everything we learn about God in the Holy Scriptures says, “Don’t ever put limits on God. Nothing is impossible with him.”

But that leads us to the question, “Why didn’t God grant the prayer that Jesus prayed?”

• Thursday night, as Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Jewish Passover in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus transformed the Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper. They concluded by singing one of the Psalms, then went out of the city to the Mount of Olives, about a half mile outside Jerusalem’s wall. At the foot of the mountain was a Garden called Gethsemane which means, “Oil Press.” When they reached the Garden, Jesus told eight of his disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray.” He took Peter, James, and John and went a little further. Those three could see from Jesus’s face and demeanor that something was very wrong. Jesus was not only fully God but fully man, and he experienced all emotions we do in this fallen world. Jesus opened his heart to his friends: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me.” He told them what he could, and asked them to share as they could in his sorrow.
• Then Jesus went a little further. He fell on his face and poured out his heart to  Father, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” We know Jesus was not a coward. We can understand that cry from his heart to his Father, only if we understand the cup he was asking to be spared drinking. In the Bible sometimes the cup is the cup of salvation, and sometimes it is the cup of condemnation. The cup Jesus must drink is the cup of judgment for the sins of the world. We cannot taste how bitter the contents of the cup were. We would have to be in hell to know. Jesus was anticipating what he would experience the next day upon the cross. The hymnwriter, Cecil Frances Alexander, expressed it well:

We cannot know, we cannot tell,

What pains he had to bear,

But we believe it was for us

He hung and suffered there.

That is why Jesus poured out his heart to his Father, and said, “O my Father, if there is any way that I can be spared drinking this cup, please let it be so.” Yet there is something remarkable in his prayer. He does not stop with the request but goes on to say what is so hard for us to say when there is trouble and we are desperate, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”

• The issue is not with God’s power but God’s will. It was God’s will to save us, so it was God’s will that that his Son should suffer for us. If we may speak of an eternity past, it was then that in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, knowing the human race would fall into sin, agreed that they would not leave us to perish in our sins, but would rescue us from guilt, condemnation, and hell. In their divine wisdom and righteousness the plan of salvation they devised was that the Son would become man and die in our places for our sins. To save us the Father, must let the Son’s plea go unanswered. To say yes to our salvation, the Father must say no to the Son. In this the Son fully agreed. Just a little later he said, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” If we are not going to have to drink the cup of wrath, Jesus must drink it for us.

What shall I render to the Lord

for all his benefits to me?

I will take the cup of salvation,

and call upon the name of the Lord.

                              (Psalm 116:12,13)

Where Was God When They Killed His Son?

Where Was God When They Killed His Son?

Palm Sunday

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection.

Gospel: St. Matthew 27:27-50 (BCP, p. 162)

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; and set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

Where was God when those Syrian babies were choking on sarin gas? Jewish people ask, “Where was God in the Holocaust?” There are thousands upon thousands of incidents that provoke the “where was God?” question. If God is all good and all powerful, where is he when evil happens?

But never has that question been more focused than when wicked men killed the only perfect man who ever lived, God’s Son Jesus Christ

The Psalm Fulfilled

On what this day we call Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Many of a multitude of pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for Passover cheered, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

But Thursday night of the same week Jesus was arrested, tried by a Jewish court, and convicted of blaspheming God. Friday morning they took him to the Roman governor, Pilate, charged him with insurrection, and demanded he be sentenced to death.  Faced with an angry Jewish mob on the verge of riot, Pilate  pronounced on Jesus the sentence of death.

Prisoners condemned to death were first scourged. These whippings were so brutal that they flayed the skin and could expose muscle and bone. Sometimes men died of the beatings before they were executed.

Then Pilate turned Jesus over to soldiers who had fun before they carried out the sentence. They stripped Jesus of his clothes. For a kingly robe, they put on him a soldier’s red cloak. For a crown, they wove thorny branches into a circle and put it on his head. For a scepter, they put a reed in his right hand. Then they fell  on their knees and shouted, “Hail king of the Jews!” They spit on Jesus and took the reed from his hand and slapped him about the head with it. It was all mockery of Jesus who when asked by Pilate if he were King, said, “Thou sayest.” They did all they could to humiliate and shame him.  

The soldiers then took Jesus a hill called Golgotha, The Place of the Skull, where they laid him on a cross on the ground, and nailed his hands and feet to the beams. Then they lifted up the cross and dropped it into a hole in the ground. Their work done, they sat to watch him die, while the cast lots for his clothes.

People from town and the Jewish leaders who instigated the crucifixion came out to watch the spectacle of men dying. They mocked Jesus by throwing back at him the claims he made. “Look at at the Son of God and King of Israel him hanging naked on that cross to die. If he’s the Son of God surely he would get down off that cross. If he is God’s King surely God would rescue him.”

All these events fulfill the prophetic Psalm (22) we read this morning:

In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

To you they cried and were rescued;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

All who see me mock me,

they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;

let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Yet you are he who took me from the womb,

you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

On you was I cast from my birth,

and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help.

Many bulls encompass me;

strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

they open wide their mouths at me,

like a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;

it is melted within my breast;

my strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to my jaw,

you lay me in the dust of death.

For dogs encompass me;

a company of evildoers encircles me;

they have pierced my hands and feet —

I can count all my bones—

they stare and gloat over me;

they divide my garments among them,

and for my clothing they cast lots.

                                       (Psalm 22:4-18 ESV)

Where was God?

Where was God when all that was happening to his Son? In one sense, God was standing by watching. He did not act to deliver his Son from the hands of men as they condemned, beat, humiliated, shamed, scoffed at, and killed his Son.

In another sense God was active. God sent darkness. What was transpiring was the darkest event in human history, and God sent darkness to cover the land. There is no natural explanation for it. A solar eclipse can occur only when there is a new moon. At Passover the moon is full. This was a supernatural darkness caused by God while men who love darkness because their deeds are evil, did all the evil could imagine to do.

What’s the meaning of this darkness? In the Bible, darkness is sometimes a sign of wickedness. Men’s hearts are dark with depravity, and they do dark deeds of wickedness. But darkness is also often a sign of condemnation and judgment. One of the judgments God visited on Egypt was utter darkness. Jesus talked about those who will be cast into “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:13). St. Jude wrote of those “for whom the gloom of outer darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 13). St. John wrote in the Revelation about an angel of judgment plunging the throne of the wicked beast into darkness (Rev. 16:10).

But if God was visiting his judgment on the earth, who was God condemning? Surely it was a sign of his righteous displeasure on the people who carried out this most wicked act. But God also sent the darkness of judgment upon his own Son. Out of the darkness we hear him cry out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus found in Psalm 22 the words to express his experience of abandonment. There a righteous man suffering at the hands of wicked men cries out to God:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me,

                      from the words of my groaning?

        O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

    and by night, but I find no rest.

Last week someone asked me if anyone goes to hell. I answered, “Yes, I am afraid they do.” I was then asked what goes on in hell. I replied, “The main thing about hell is that God utterly forsakes those who go there.” In this world, however bleak life may become, no one is outside the the merciful presence of God. But in hell, there is no loving Presence, there is no mercy; people who abandon God and his grace, are abandoned by God forever.

Why did God abandon his Son in the darkness? If he is all good, why did he allow it? If he is all powerful, why didn’t he stop it? So that our sins may be forgiven and we may live in the light of his Presence forever. God let his Son be humiliated that we might be freed from the shame of sin. Jesus died alone that we might live in perfect community with God and his people forever. God turned his back on Jesus that he might turn his face toward us. Jesus was rejected that we might be accepted. Jesus voluntarily suffered God’s wrath that we might know God’s love.

The poet Isaac Watts gives words to express our response to all this:

• 
  

• Alas! and did my Savior bleed

  
  

  • And did my Sov’reign die?
  • Would He devote that sacred head
  • For such a worm as I?

  
  

  • Was it for crimes that I had done
  • He groaned upon the tree?
  • Amazing pity! grace unknown!
  • And love beyond degree!

  
  

  • Well might the sun in darkness hide
  • And shut his glories in,
  • When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
  • For man the creature’s sin.

  
  

  • Thus might I hide my blushing face
  • While His dear cross appears,
  • Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
  • And melt my eyes to tears.

                     
  

  • But drops of grief can ne’er repay
  • The debt of love I owe:
  • Here, Lord, I give myself away,
  • ’Tis all that I can do.