It is not a pretty thing … Jesus’ cross.
We try to make it pretty – gold, decorating it with designs,
abstracting the crucifixion, even leaving it entirely out of the depiction.
Jesus’ cross –
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Looks like something went horribly wrong.
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Looks like hopes and dreams dashed
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Looks like failure
Even in prophecy these events are hard. Last night we read
from Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Hear the desperation and
confusion!)
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words
of my groaning?
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (Notice, they trusted, they were
rescued, they were not put to shame. What about Jesus? He is beaten, naked,
pierced, bleeding, dying.)
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
This
puts me in mind of Isaiah 53 - he had no form or majesty that we should look at
him,
and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” (Almost exactly what the priests,
scribes and elders said as Jesus hung on the cross.)
12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion. (Jesus was encircled by powerful
enemies seeking his death. Hopeless!)
14 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;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death. (Do you hear the sorrow in these
words, how lost, how broken, how forsaken?)
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots. (This image of being able to
count all his bones makes me think of pictures I have seen of those who
survived the prison camps of the Holocaust. Horrible!)
Tonight we look … we behold the cross. More specifically we
behold the man on the cross … and we listen … we hear His word – Last words,
spoken from the cross.
We remember the suffering, sorrow, and dying. We remember
the horribleness, hopelessness, and lostness of the whole thing … but we also
remember why Jesus went to the cross.
Our goal tonight is not some strange reliving by
remembering. We are not trying to re-experience the crucifixion. We do know how
all this turns out. It is Good Friday, after all!
Nor is our goal to work up our emotions as though feeling
sad, or guilty, or dismayed at the cross ourselves somehow makes us closer to
Jesus. Not that it is bad to feel sorrow and sadness as we remember Jesus’
death. It is right to feel contrition for our sins, but the feeling is not what
we’re after.
Nor do we want to sanitize these events. We must not sweep
the cross under the carpet, and skip over it to get to Easter. The body of the
man on the cross matters. The wages of sin in death, and he has paid the price
in full. This death matters. His blood atones for our sin.
Our goal tonight is to look at the cross. Look at the
God-man upon it. Remember what we have been told of this moment:
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life. For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God
did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him.
The cross looks terrible. The world sees failure, tragedy
and loss. Faith, however, sees something different. We see love, salvation, and
hope because Jesus was crucified for us. So we look. We remember. And by faith
we take hold of what Jesus is giving us – Himself.
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast
love endures forever.” That is the love we live in – the love that moved Jesus
to go to the cross. So we live in the power of the cross, the power of Christ.
You are his – bought at a price! That you might be his own and live under him
in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This
is most certainly true! Thanks be to God! Amen.
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