Sermons 2024

Video

Text: Isaiah 52:11-53:12

Theme: Gilded words of a Sin bearing Sufferer

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation tonight is the Old Testament lesson from the book of Isaiah the fifty-second and fifty-third chapters.

The pounding of hammer and nails. A constant cry of agony and pain…. a quick intake of breath before it is ripped away as his body slumps down with effort. The victim’s full weight borne by his wrists and feet and the points at which the spikes had been driven through them and into the wood. To breath in and out, Jesus would have to move up and down on the sipes. He would have to lift Himself up by pulling on His writs and pushing up on His feet. With any movement the spikes driven through His feet would have sent sheering pain up both legs. Likewise, with the movement upward to exhale, His arms would have rotated around the spikes causing excruciating pain to shoot through His upper body and arms. It is difficult to imagine the agonizing pain. Each breath forcing Jesus to push up on His feet, pushing His back against the cross. Shredded flesh and muscle grating against the trough timber. Every breath, exhaustion soon followed then death. Truly, crucifixion is a horrible and brutal process. One that the Romans perfected and made efficient and deadly use of, killing thousands of people. Many of those crucified were for their own sins that the criminals and murderers had brought upon themselves, harsh examples of what would happen to you if you tried to break the law against the might of Rome. A very effective deterrent to not commit a crime.

Yet, one crucifixion was different. That of Jesus our Lord. Still horrible in its agony, pain, and torment. Still brutal in its method and mockery.  Jesus ”had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  ” He had nothing that we should adore him. He was not strong. He was not handsome. He appeared just the same as any other human upon the earth. In fact, He was marred to the point of no longer looking like a human being. Why does this horrible pain and death happen to Him? Not because of anything sinful or wrong that He Himself has done. He is the spotless, perfect, Lamb of God. Yet, He dies. 

“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.4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;    yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”   

Did you catch it? As Luther writes, these are indeed words gilded in gold. Why does Jesus die such a horrible and painful death? Why is there a split within the Holy Trinity as the only begotten Son is estranged from His Father? Why has the Father forsaken the Son? Because of us, because of our transgressions, Our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, our chastisement, the iniquity of us all is laid upon Him to give us peace. Our sins demanded payment in blood. Those vile deeds that we do. Our lies, our slander, our murder, our adultery, our covetousness, our stealing, our putting other gods in the place of the true God, and much more that I could name. All of this demand’s payment in blood, who pays? Because of us the Creator of the Universe is mocked, beaten, scorned, bleeds, and dies.

God established from before the foundation of the earth were laid, that He would have mercy upon us. He sends us His own Son. There, at the cross, Jesus takes our pain, our scorn, our shame, our guilt, every single one of our transgressions, our iniquities, everything is laid upon Christ. He bears it all on our behalf so that we, as sinful humans, are reconciled to a Holy and Just God now and forever. The price has been paid; Jesus’ gruesome death in place of ours.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen.