Sermon 81
Glorify the Cross
Mark 15:39
April 1, 2012
Grace and peace to
you, in the name of God the Father, Son (X)
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we have before us the Passion of Jesus Christ – culminating
in his death on the cross. Now even though its impact on us is huge, we
still wonder what to make of it. Shall we, like some early Christians,
“live as enemies of the cross” (Philippians 3:18)? – either, deplorably,
by disdaining salvation by blood (Luke 18:9-12; Colossians 1:20), or
simply, by lovingly wishing, that our Savior Jesus be spared all the
shame and pain (Matthew 16:22)! Either way, should we take a stand
against Christ’s horrible death? Or should we, with Martin Luther
(1483-1546), the progenitor of our little corner of Christendom, exclaim
instead with full hearts:
The cross was the altar on which
[Christ], consumed by the fire of the boundless love which burned in His
heart, presented the living and holy sacrifice of His body and blood to
the Father with fervent intercession, loud cries, and hot, anxious tears
(Hebrews 5:7). That is the true sacrifice. Once and for all it takes
away the sins of all the world and brings an everlasting reconciliation
…. It deserves to be praised to the utmost and to have every honor given
to it …. What man can praise and exalt Him enough? …. Willingly … He has
mediated between God’s wrath and our sin. By His blood and death He gave
Himself as the sacrifice or ransom and thereby far outweighed both of
them. No matter how great or burdensome sin, wrath, hell, and damnation
may be, this holy sacrifice is far greater and higher! (Luther’s
Works 13:319-320).
What Luther says here rings true with
Galatians 6:14 – “far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ!”
Struggling to Say Amen
But can we follow suit? Can we glorify
Christ’s gruesome, salutary crucifixion just like Luther does, or will
we – and shamefully at that – become modern day enemies of the cross of
Christ? Will we join the Muslims and follow their teachings (Qur’an
4:157), that Jesus didn’t die for us on the cross to save us from our
sins [Louay Fatoohi, The Mystery
of the Crucifixion (2008) pp. 133-134]? Joining Luther then, and
saying Amen to Christ’s crucifixion, won’t at all be easy (Matthew
7:14). That’s because entrusting our lives to the glories of the cross,
by faith in Christ – and exclaiming that the crucified One is God (Mark
15:39) – that is a fight (1 Timothy 6:12, 1:18, 4:10). It’s a war
(Romans 7:23). It’s a battle (1 Corinthians 9:27; Philippians 2:12). To
believe, then, is to “slug it out with death” (LW
17:389). And when we do, we
cling fast to celestial things and [are]
carried away and … dwell in things that are invisible [Hebrews 11:1]
[and so] the believer hangs between heaven and earth, … suspended in the
air and crucified (LW
29:185).
That makes this battle very
unconventional – hanging there, being crucified and all the rest! It
turns the battle of faith into more than our effort, but a gift as well
(Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:24). And so in this battle, unlike almost every
other altercation we will ever encounter in this life, we “fight most
effectively when [we] fight the least” (LW
16:90)! Just think of it! And Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) does just
that. This devout Lutheran author writes:
How true it is that the one who conquers
himself is greater than someone who captures a city [Proverbs 16:32].
Greater than the one who sets everything in motion in order at least to
do something himself is the one who, in relation to God and to receiving
the forgiveness of sin, is able to become still [Psalm 46:10] in order
devoutly to let God do everything, fully understanding that in this
regard he himself is able to do nothing at all, and that everything,
everything a person is able to do himself, be it even the most glorious,
the most amazing, still in this regard is infinitely nothing (Kierkegaard’s
Writings 18:157).
So there you have it – you fight the
good fight of faith by being still in the presence of God, as he draws
you to himself (John 6:44, 12:32)! No wonder then that it’s so hard for
us to say Amen to what God does for us! And on this Kierkegaard helps
again:
In praying aright it is difficult to be
able to reach the Amen – for the one who has never prayed, it seems easy
enough, easy to finish quickly, but for the one who felt the need to
pray and began to pray, it surely happens that he continually seemed to
have something more upon his heart, as if he could neither get
everything said nor get it all said as he wished it said, and thus he
does not reach the Amen (KW
18:169).
God Did It
What shall we then do? If we’re not able
to follow through on God’s call to us to love and follow him, and in
stillness say the Amen, are we forever lost? Are we left with nothing
but the wrath of God weighing down heavily upon us (John 3:36)? What if
we can’t stop fidgeting – spiritually – before God? What then? Well,
with Kierkegaard, let us just listen to the Gospel (Romans 10:17):
Oh, but would that the Gospel, … might
teach you, my listener, earnestness, and … to make you completely silent
before God! Would that you in silence might forget yourself, what you
yourself are called, your own name, the famous name, the wretched name,
the insignificant name, in order in silence to pray to God: “Hallowed be
your name!” Would that in
silence you might forget yourself, your plans, the great,
all-encompassing plans, or the limited plans for your life and its
future, in order in silence to pray to God: “Your kingdom come!” …. Then
nothing would be impossible for you …. [For] just as the fear of God …
is the beginning of wisdom [Proverbs 1:7], so also is silence the
beginning of the fear of God (KW
18:18-19).
So let’s give it a try, together, today, right now. Let’s listen,
in silence, to Acts 2:23 – “this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan” – definito
consilio, in the old Latin Bible – “and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Now mull that over –
definito consilio! Scared
yet? Yes! for our Lord’s brutal crucifixion was then no accident – nor
was it bad luck! Rather it was just what God wanted to have happen –
lies, spitting, nails, and all! Why? Because it is only by Christ
suffering and dying that sinners may have peace with our Holy, Just and
Almighty God (Romans 5:2; Colossians 1:20). For according to our God,
the forgiveness of sins requires his blood (Hebrews 9:18)!
Definito consilio! Mull it
over. Definito consilio! Let
the fear of God well up in you. It was
his plan to have his only
begotten Son murdered, so that sinners might be saved. He loved you that
much to sacrifice his Son (1 John 4:10)! And this is just the reversal
we need – for as Luther famously instructs, “the gospel teaches
exclusively what has been given us by God, and not – as in the case of
the law – what we are to do and give to God.” And so in matters of
salvation, God “disannuls the old testament. For the little word ‘new’
makes the testament of Moses obsolete and worthless, one that is no
longer in effect” (LW 35:162,
84).
Lighten Your Load
So receive Christ today in the Lord’s
Supper. For the one who died for you, has done more than that for you.
He indeed has “lavished” his grace upon you (Ephesians 1:7-8). He has
been raised from the death, and so “death no longer has dominion over
him” (Romans 6:9)! And so he’s free – free to be with us in the Lord’s
Supper today. So, as Kierkegaard, lovingly reminds us all:
Hear it aright, take it altogether
literally, the forgiveness of sins. You will be able to go away from the
Communion table as light of heart, divinely understood, as a newborn
child, upon whom nothing, nothing weighs heavily, therefore even lighter
of heart, insofar as much has weighed upon your heart. There is no one
at the Communion table who retains against you even the least of your
sins, no one – unless you yourself do it (KW
18:170).
And maybe you will. For no one leaves
the Lord‘s Supper “completely unburdened.” But that shouldn’t ruin it!
No, all it does is “make us as imperfect as we are,” says Kierkegaard,
which keeps us from being, “intoxicated in dreams, [to] imagine that
everything was decided by this one time, nor in quiet despondency, [to]
give up because this time we did not succeed” (KW
18:170-171)! So come today, surely – but also all the remaining weeks in
your life!
Sharing in Christ’s Sufferings
And finally, glorify the cross of Christ
by sharing in his sufferings (1 Peter 4:13) – using this question by the
great Isaac Watts (1674-1748) to guide you [Service
Book and Hymnal (1958) Hymn 554]:
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Amen.