When Paul writes about the Messiah, Jesus, who was crucified, he knows that this is something that is really hard for people to understand.  When he describes God’s message about the cross, he says that it is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”  However, for those who come to see and to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the cross reveals both the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23-24).

    It is perhaps relatively easy for us to see why the idea of the Son of God being crucified would have been received with plenty of skepticism – especially by Greeks and Romans.  If you’ve ever heard stories about any of the Greek and Roman gods, many of them were warriors, most of them were powerful, and they played with human beings kind of like pawns on a chess board.  And so, the whole idea of a god, or even his son who would go and get himself crucified would have been received as utter nonsense.  What kind of God would allow human beings to do that to him?

    At the same time, many of the Jews were expecting a Messiah who would act a lot like King David did – conquering Gentile armies, restoring the glory of Israel, and above all getting rid of those pesky Romans.  Add to that the belief that anybody who was executed by hanging them on a tree was cursed by God, and many of the Jewish people also had a hard time believing that Jesus could be either the Messiah or the Son of God.

    However, for those who did come to believe, it was passages like the one that we heard today from Isaiah that helped to convince them – the righteous servant, who suffered and was put to death but was honoured and vindicated by God – the one who “took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven” (Isa. 53:12, TEV).  Of course, it also helped that those who were closest to Jesus and had witnessed his death and burial also proclaimed beyond the shadow of a doubt that they had seen him and talked with him and touched him and eaten with him after God had raised him from the dead!

    In one sense, those first believers kind of worked in reverse.  They started with what they had witnessed and what they knew to be true, and from there they tried to make sense out of why God would allow things to happen in the way in which they did.  Some focused on passages like the one from Isaiah in order to make sense of things.  Others, like the Gospel of John, understood Jesus as the final Passover Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

    Some of you will most likely have more background than others in understanding what the Passover lamb is all about.  It goes back to the time when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and each family was instructed to kill a lamb and to use the lamb’s blood to paint the door posts and lintels of their houses.  The lamb would then be eaten as part of the Passover meal.  However, it was the blood around their doors that would preserve their lives, as the angel of death “passed over” those houses.  And so, quite literally, it was the blood of the lamb that gave them life.

    Of course, the writer of the gospel of John saw all kinds of connections with Jesus, who is quite intentionally crucified at the same time as the lambs would have been slaughtered for the Passover.  John understood that the blood of Jesus also gives life to those who would otherwise be under the power of sin and death.

    While there have been many unsatisfactory explanations over the years of how, exactly, the power of sin and death is broken by the cross of Christ, it is proclaimed many times in the Scriptures that this is exactly what happened.  In fact, when you read any of the Passion Narratives in the gospels, it is as if all of the ugliness that human sinfulness can muster is aimed directly at Jesus as he is condemned and crucified.  He took it all, and then prayed that those same people would be forgiven.  When Paul writes about it later, he pretty much says that you can either live under the power of sin, or under Jesus Christ as Lord.  For when the Spirit of Jesus is within us, we are empowered to become more and more Christ-like – no longer giving in to our old, sinful, self-centered selves.

    As for the power of death, because of Jesus, it is no longer our final destination or anything to be feared.  For just as Jesus shared in our life and our death, so we are able to share in his holiness and in his resurrection.  It is sometimes referred to as God’s great exchange – Jesus took our death and our sinfulness onto himself, and God gave us his righteous life and his resurrection instead.  And this great exchange happens in baptism, and comes to fruition as we continue to grow up into Christ by the power of his Spirit.  This is why Paul writes about victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:54-57).

    In closing, I’d like to return for a moment to an earlier question, as many have asked what kind of a God would go and get himself crucified.  For in the answer to this question we find the God who is revealed to us through Jesus Christ.  And so, our God is one who is not afraid to experience all that human life has to offer – including pain and suffering and death.  Our God knows first hand what sort of ugliness human beings are capable of – and still loves us and forgives us.  Our God shares in the suffering of innocent victims everywhere and knows from first-hand experience whatever pain or sorrow we might experience.

    And so, wherever there is pain and suffering, God is there.  God is there, bearing the pain with that person, and God is there, working through others, in order to bring healing and relief.  This is the God who is revealed to us through Jesus Christ – the one who took our pain and suffering upon himself in order to bring redemption and salvation – the one who continues to love us and to forgive us through Jesus.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Good Friday                                    John 18:1 - 19:42
April 18, 2014                                Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2014 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved