“Father Forgive Them”
(Ash Wednesday)
In
the name of Jesus, who is full of forgiveness, dear fellow redeemed,
How could they have known what they
were doing? How could those Roman soldiers known what they were actually doing?
How could anyone who was there that day known what was actually happening?
How could they have known that the
hands they were nailing to the wood had reached out to heal and help so many
people? Could they have known that the feet they were nailing to the cross had
gone to help so many people in their trouble? Could they have known that this
head now crowned with thorns had so many times been turned in mercy towards
those who cried out to Him for help?
Could they possibly have imagined
His glory—since the foundation of the world, but set aside so that He would
come into the world for sinners. Could they possibly have grasped the wonder of
His incarnation—God actually becoming a human being to one with us in
everything?
Could they have possibly known what
a cruel and wicked thing they were doing? Could they have possibly known how
many people He had helped, forgiven, and simply just loved? Whether they knew
it or not, they did it anyway.
They didn’t know what they were doing. No
one standing there at the foot of the cross knew what they were doing. They
thought they did, but how could they have possibly known?
What about us? We know what we are
doing. We know exactly what we are doing. When we sin, we know better—don’t we?
When you convinced yourself and your
family that doing whatever to be going on that weekend was more important than
going to church and hearing God’s Word, you
knew what you were doing.
When you harbored hate in your heart
against your coworker because they did something that to anyone else would seem
small and would not let it go, you knew
what you were doing.
When you looked at that other
woman—or other man—and thought about what it would be like to have her—or him—you knew what you were doing.
When you went out and trashed
someone’s good reputation at the gossip table or on line instead of building
them up, you knew what you were doing.
When you became jealous because your
friend had a better house, car, phone, computer or other meaningless piece of stuff
and let that destroy your relationship with them, you knew what you were doing.
The same is true when you trusted in
money rather than God, used God’s name carelessly, disobeyed authorities, stole
from your neighbor, wanted his relationships, and just about every other sin
you’ve ever committed—you knew what you
were doing.
Look at us! We know exactly what we’re
doing. We can’t plead ignorance. We can’t blame anyone else. At the end of the
day we all have to face up and admit what we have done. The people who nailed
Jesus to the cross didn’t know what they were doing. We knew better.
They didn’t know what they were
doing—but Jesus did. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing!
No one but Jesus knew what was happening
there on the cross. To the priests it looked like they had finally eliminated a
troublemaker. To the Romans it looked like they had just executed another
criminal. To the thieves who hung with Him it looked like they had just one
last person to mock.
But to us, who look at Jesus’ death
in the light of His resurrection, we see what God is doing there. Jesus knows
what He is doing—winning forgiveness for those who watch, those who mock, those
who hang there with Him, and those who put Him there—including you and me.
We can certainly say that Jesus didn’t
ask God to forgive them because they were ignorant—that's never an excuse.
Jesus forgives them because he is dying for them. Your sins put Jesus there, so
He’s praying that same prayer for you too.
Look at Jesus. See the blood drip from His
hands and His feet. Hear His groan. Smell the stench of death that covers Skull
Place. Know that your sins put Him there. Jesus is on the cross to forgive sins—your
sins. It’s no wonder that out of Jesus’ mouth flows words of forgiveness,
peace, and pardon.
Jesus loves His enemies. Remember how He
said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”? Here Jesus is
doing just that. That’s the radical power of God’s forgiveness. Paul would
explain it this way in Romans 5:8-10
“But
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall
we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are
reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10)
Jesus is all about forgiveness. That’s
certainly what we’ve seen from Jesus as we’ve been following Him. Even before
He was born this is what prophesied about Him. God’s forgiveness was proclaimed
by John the Baptist. Jesus proclaimed forgiveness in His preaching. He gave
forgiveness to a paralyzed man and then healed Him just to show He had the
power to do both! He gave forgiveness to a woman who came riddled with guilt
and wiped His feet with her tears. In just next verses He’s about to give peace
to the thief dying next to Him.
If Jesus is willing to forgive the people who
nailed Him to the cross, the people who mocked Him, and the people who put Him
there, then there is an ocean of mercy and grace for you and for me.
Throughout human history, people
have been trying to figure out how to get right with whatever god they know.
Many approach out of fear just trying to get god off their back. They offer
sacrifices and prayers, go on pilgrimages and quests, fast and deprive
themselves, all to try to get some little bit of certainty that they are loved.
But when you’re leaning on your own
works, you can never be certain. The world around us with its trouble and our
inevitable demise point to one thing: you haven’t done enough. You can never be
certain if you are depending on yourself.
Here at the cross we see something
different. Here we see mercy and love. Here we see grace poured out. You don’t
have to worry about what God thinks about you. Here at the cross you have
certainty. How do you know? We sang it:
If
for me He slays His Son,
God
must have compassion!
Amen
“Behold Your
Son, Behold Your Mother”
(Wednesdays in Lent for the Concordia Circuits Rotation)
If
one part of your family suffers, everyone suffers. If mom or dad has a bad day,
it can easily spill into the kid’s lives. If the kids are sick the parent’s
schedules must be changed. If grandma or grandpa dies, everyone mourns. Even 20
years later, the hurt may very well still be there. If one part of your family
suffers, everyone suffers.
No
where do we see this truer than when we look at Jesus and His family at the
cross. Here we see His mother, looking on her firstborn son once covered love
and laid in a manger, now scored and scourged and hanging on the cross.
Consider what the first
verse of our hymn says about what’s going on here:
7 Jesus, loving to the end Her whose heart Your
sorrows rend,
And Your dearest human friend: Hear us, holy Jesus.
So
many times Jesus had helped to bring families back together by His miracles. Other
parents had received their children back. There was the official whose son was
healed by Jesus, the father who brought his demon possessed son to the
disciples, but it took Jesus to drive it out. There was the Canaanite woman who
was persistence when Jesus seemed to reject her, and the parents of the man who
had been born blind. All these had their children healed.
Who can forget the
widow at Nain who was headed out of town to bury her only son when Jesus
stopped the funeral procession in its tracks and raised the man back to life,
giving him back to his mother? Who can forget Jairus, who came to Jesus in
desperation, but couldn’t make it home before his daughter died? Jesus walked
into her bed room said, “Little girl arise” and she got up.
All of these families had been restored
by Jesus’ miracles. Truly He had saved others, but He would not save Himself.
Mary must feel the brunt of this. Luther says this about the gruesome
spectacle:
“A mother can scarcely stand it
if her child falls from a bench or bleeds from the ear. Where shall we find a
mother who can see such things as Mary?...As for Christ, to see his mother
suffer was one of the greatest parts of his pain, that nothing should be
lacking in his suffering.” [1]
When
we see Jesus’ mother at the foot of His cross, we are reminded how real Jesus
death actually was. Even though John always calls Mary “His mother” and takes
great pains not to name himself, we know that we’re talking about real people
here. Jesus came and lived as a real person in a real family with real friends.
They would really miss Him.
But
Jesus has come for real families with real problems and real sorrows. Just
listen again to the next verse of our hymn:
8 May we in Your sorrows share, For Your sake all
peril dare,
And enjoy Your tender care: Hear us, holy Jesus.
Jesus
has come to share our sorrows. Isn’t it in our families where we share most of
our sorrows? Just think of all the problems which have come to human families
because there is sin in the world. We have to deal with disaster and
disappointment, depression and despair, disease and death as a family.
Those things may happen on their own, but
surely some sorrows are self inflicted. More than anywhere else, sin hurts when
it comes into our families. It hurts the most when those who are closest to us
hurt us.
Have you been hurt by
divorce? Have you been rejected by your children or your parents? Have you hurt
your children or your parents? Have you hated your brother or your sister? Have
you failed to honor your father and your mother?
We
all have. We have not loved our families as God commanded. We have not been
good examples to our children. We have let the sins of our fathers pass down to
our children. Our hypocrisy is the reason why the world laughs when we try to
stand up for family values.
What
is the answer to all of this? What is the solution? It surely doesn’t reside
with us. You will find it only in the one who is hanging on the cross. He has
come to share in your sorrows. He has come not only to share in them but to
take them away. “If for me He slays His son, God must have compassion!”
This
is the tender care of Jesus that we get to experience. Jesus doesn’t forget
about His mother standing at the foot of His cross and He doesn’t forget about
you either. Instead He makes us part of His family. Listen to the last verse of
the hymn:
9 May we all Your loved ones be, All one holy
family,
Loving, since Your love we see: Hear us, holy Jesus.
There
at the foot of the cross was the beginning of the Christian community, or at
least those who would confess Christ crucified. But here also was the very real
definition of the family of faith. From now on the bound shared by believers in
this crucified Lord would be united to Christ and to each other more closely
than their own families.
Look no further than
Jesus’ own family. Where are His brothers at the cross? They are nowhere to be
found. His brothers didn’t believe Him until after He rose from the dead.
Instead of His
brothers, Jesus gives Mary to John and John to Mary and creates a new kind of
family. This is a family that you have become part of. By His death and
resurrection Jesus has made us God’s children.
God
unites us with Christ in the waters of baptism. We united with Christ not only
in His death, but also in His resurrection. We become God’s children and get
billions of brothers and sisters in Christ.
God
unites us with Christ and with each other as we receive the fruits of the
cross—Jesus’ body and blood given and shed for you in the Lord’s Supper. Here
our heavenly Father invites you each week to come dine with your family. Why
would you ever be missing?
God
unites us with each other as we love one another. By our love, God’s love is
shown in the world. Christ’s family does its best when it does what a family
should do, caring, loving, defending, and speaking up for each other.
If
one part of the family suffers, everyone suffers. Yes it’s true, but the
reverse is also true. If one part of the family lives, then the whole family
lives! Jesus has overcome death for you and for your family. The nastiness of
death that rips our families to shreds has been defeated by this Jesus who died
for you. He will restore your family now with His forgiveness. He has given
your family new life through faith in Him. Just as He is risen from the dead,
so will we. May God keep you until that day! Amen.
“Father into
Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”
(Good Friday)
What have we done! What
in the world have we done? We nailed our savior to the cross! What did God do
to offend us? Is this how we treat our God?
What happened here was
incredibly unjust. Pilate knew it. The centurion knew it. Even the people knew
it. These people went home beating their breast because they had seen how
horrible it was. They had seen an innocent man hanged for something He did not
do. They went out to see criminals left to die and left feeling incredibly
guilty. The same should happen to you! Why?
You’ve got to look at that cross and see that
it is your fault. You and I are the ones who put Jesus there. We may not have
cracked the whip, but we have tried to drive God out of our lives by ignoring
what He has to say in the Ten Commandments. We may not have driven the nails
into His hands and feet but our hands have not shown love to our neighbor. Our
feet have not lead us to God’s house. We may not have mocked Him but our words
have mocked other people who were made in His image.
Look at the cross and
know this for certain—you did this to Him!
Where
do we have to go? Where do we have to run? To whom can we flee?
Think about how it went
when you were a kid. Was there ever a time when you broke a window while you
were playing baseball in the yard? Was there ever a time when you put a dent in
dad’s car after you took it out for the night? You know the feeling. When you
did something wrong as a kid you had two choices, didn’t you? You could either
run away from your dad trying to hide, or you could go and tell him what you
did.
You knew there was a
good chance that dad would be angry, but you knew that he’s still your dad. He
might be angry for a while, but a good father loves his children more than a
broken window or wrecked car.
Like the prodigal son
we come saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” In
these final words of Jesus, that’s what we see Him doing. He is carrying all
our guilt and where does He go? He goes to the Father and commits His spirit to
Him. If Jesus can do this bearing all our sins, then we can do this with our
sins too.
This is the good news
for us and the surprise of Good Friday: Jesus, the one whom we have offended, to
one whom we nailed to the cross, is the answer to our offenses. Look at the
cross. Hear Him groan. Watch Him bleed. Smell the stench of blood and death.
Know that He is there for you.
God’s
Word says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” There on the
cross, Jesus was completely guilty—not because He had His own sin, but because
He had yours.
With
the death of Jesus, everything is taken care of. His guilt and yours are gone. You
see this even in the reactions of the people who watched. The people, who had
mocked Jesus, go away beating their breasts in repentance. Like the shepherds
at Jesus’ birth, the centurion glorifies God and declares Him innocent. The One
who was guilt has taken away all of our sins. Now there is innocence again.
Listen to what Jesus
has to say from the cross. He gives words of forgiveness for those who crucify
Him. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He gives words of
comfort for the one who dies next to Him. “Truly I say to you, today you will
be with me in paradise.” Now, at the end He gives words of confidence in the
One who will receive Him. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” By His
death on the cross he gives you the same forgiveness, comfort and confidence.
These last words are a quote from Psalm 31—a
Psalm of confidence. In this Psalm, David committed his spirit to God hoping
that he would not die—and God granted his request. When Jesus committed His
spirit to God, He knew that He was going to die, but He trusted God. He knew
that in dying He would not die. His spirit would be in God’s care.
Jesus
quotes this verse with confidence. He gives you that same confidence. Just
listen to the verses around it:
“In
you, O LORD do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your
righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock
of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You take me out of the net they
have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.” (1-2)
You
can see the theme here is God being our refuge. God will be your refuge even
when it seems like He is against you. You know what He thinks of you—just look
at the cross and see His love.
“Into
your hands I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful
God.” (5)
God
is redeeming you with Jesus on the cross. He is showing everyone that He is
faithful.
“I
will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my
affliction; you have known the distress of my soul.” (7)
Jesus
knows your affliction. He is no stranger to suffering. He knows what distress
you go through and He is there with you through it.
“Love
the LORD all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly
repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD” (23-24)
That’s
exactly what Jesus is going to do. He’s going to wait for the LORD. He’ll wait
for three days and then His body and soul will be put back together again. Jesus
ends His life by entrusting Himself to His Father. By entrusting His spirit to
the Father, Jesus shows that He is sure that He is going to get it back. God
would give it back to Him just three short days later.
This
is good news for you. You have been united with Christ Jesus in the waters of
Holy Baptism. You died with Him, you were buried with Him. You can expect to be
raised with Him on the last day.
Jesus
wants you to have the same confidence when you approach the Father. His Father
is now your Father. Think of how we begin the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art
in heaven.” Luther says, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe
that Hi is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all
boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”
Luther
wrote this about the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, but it could just as
easily be said about Jesus’ final words from the cross. His death opens the
way. The temple curtain is torn. The old way of relating to God through priests
and sacrifices is over. The temple is now obsolete. Now we come to God through
this one who hung on the cross for you.
In
both the morning and evening prayers, Luther captures what Jesus is saying
here. Both end, “For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all
things, let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe would have no power
over me. Amen”
We
can commend all things into God’s care and know that they are safe there, be it
the beginning or end of the day, or the end of our life. We have the confidence
that all things entrusted to God are safe in His keeping. The souls entrusted
to Him will be reunited with the bodies they have left. Jesus’ confidence
guarantees it. His resurrection makes it true.
[1]
Bainton, Roland. The Martin Luther Easter
Book. Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1983. p 63-64.
