Perhaps one of the biggest questions for the earliest followers of Jesus to work out is why all of this had happened to Jesus. Why crucifixion? Why such horrible suffering? As the Son of God and the Messiah, why would any of this be necessary? In fact, why would God even allow this to happen? These questions probably became clearer in the minds of the disciples after Jesus had been raised from the dead. For it was only then that they knew for certain that Jesus really was the Son of God and the Messiah. Before the resurrection, he could have been just one more misguided prophet who got on the wrong side of the authorities and got himself killed. But afterwards? - That's when they knew that God's power really had been at work in all that had happened. And so why was Jesus' suffering and death necessary, and what result did it achieve? These are questions that still are being asked today.

One of the first places that those early followers of Jesus went in order to try to understand what had happened was to the Scriptures - to what is now the Old Testament for us. They found there some passages that seemed to shed some light on what had happened to Jesus. One of those passages was read earlier this evening from the prophet Isaiah. In this passage, they noticed many things that seem to be referring directly to Jesus. It's a description of a suffering servant who is lifted up - maybe like on a cross? His appearance is distorted, he suffers greatly, and he is wounded and bruised. He is silent like a lamb led to the slaughter, is condemned by a perversion of justice, and is crushed with pain.

It sounds like Jesus, and so they looked at the same passage to try to understand why he would have to go through these things. In this passage from Isaiah, the servant takes the disease and the suffering and the sins of the people upon himself. He takes the punishment for sin instead of the people who deserve it. He makes his life an offering for sin in order that others will be able to share in his righteousness. Others will be considered righteous in God's sight because their sins have been carried and paid for by God's righteous servant.

Out of this passage in Isaiah, those who followed Jesus began to understand why crucifixion might have been necessary. After all, if Jesus is going to have the sins of the whole world put upon him, and all of the suffering that goes with that sin, that has got to be a tremendous amount of pain. It certainly had been as if all of the sinfulness and human fury that could be mustered had been directed at Jesus. Yet, Jesus willingly endured it in order to "make his life an offering for sin" (Isa. 53:10).

The question then becomes what we are going to do with all of this. If Jesus has, in fact, given himself as an offering for our sins, in order that we might share in his righteousness, what are we to do with this? If Jesus has, in fact, been raised from the dead, confirming his identity as Son of God and Saviour, what does this mean for us? There are, of course, answers to these questions stated in many different ways in the Scriptures.

1 Peter states it this way: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness" (2:24). That's our job now: To live for righteousness, something which we do through faith in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. In other words, we have been made righteous in God's sight because of the sacrificial death of Jesus - and so we are to become what God has already made us through our baptism into Christ.

At the same time, we are to live out of our relationship with God. The apostle Paul writes about how we now have peace with God because of Jesus, and access to God, which we wouldn't have had otherwise (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:18). The way has been opened for us to have a relationship with God, one that is based on the righteousness of Jesus rather than on our sinfulness. Are we going to acknowledge and nurture this relationship or ignore this gift that has been offered to us?

Another thing to consider is the many passages that talk about how we have been set free. We have been set free from slavery to sin (Gal. 5). We have been set free from slavery to the fear of death (Heb. 2:15). We have been set free from the tyranny of the law, which shows us how far we have strayed and how sinful we are in God's sight (Rom. 3:20ff.). Are we going to live as if we have been set free, or will we allow our lives to be ruled by sin and fear and death?

Finally, will we allow grace and love to rule in our lives? The Scriptures make it clear that Jesus' offering of himself for sin and purchasing us by his blood is an act of pure grace (Eph. 1:7). It is God, through Jesus Christ, who has first loved us. In response, we are called to live out of love for God and for one another (1 Jn. 4:10-11). Once again, this can only happen when we are nurturing our relationship with God and living by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately, it is impossible to believe in Jesus and do nothing about it. It is impossible to accept what Jesus has done for us and yet live only for ourselves. It is impossible to expect eternal life while ignoring God's will for our lives. We are saved by grace, through faith for lives of service (Eph. 2:8-10). May our lives be a testimony to the love of Christ, which has so generously been shared with us. Amen.

Good Friday Isaiah 52:13-53:12 March 25, 2005 St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

? 2005 Lynn Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved