Text: Luke 23:34
33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
"If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me, if I hung around daily with the killer who drove the knife into my brother's heart? Surely, I too must be an accomplice in the crime you might think? The truth is that sin murdered Christ. The question … will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the God’s only begotten son … can you love it?"
C.H. Spurgeon.
As we begin this Lenten journey with Jesus as he follows the path and rocky road that leads to Jerusalem and the cross, we’ll begin by looking back and by looking forward.
The fall into sin.
God’s plan was perfection. God’s plan was peaceful. God’s plan … included his creation and God’s plan had a garden. We can imagine in our minds eye what a perfect, peaceful garden created by God might look like … beautiful and lush. God’s garden was located in the East of Eden. We are told that streams came up from the earth and a river watered the garden splitting it into four headwaters, the Pishon, the Gihon, Tigris and the Euphrates.
Adam, the man whom God had created, was given the task of working and taking care of the garden with God giving him this command:
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God also gave Adam a helper who he called bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh saying; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
In the midst of the garden man and woman had peace with God and felt no shame at their nakedness. But, there was another in the garden … a tempter … in the form of a serpent. His tempting was not boastful or coarse but beguiling and questioning. Simply asking … “Did God really say?”
You know the rest of the story. The tempter temps, the woman eats, and man eats, and sin and death take hold breaking the plan, the peace, and the life of God’s creation. Surly if they had only known what hardship lie ahead they would have not eaten of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and they would not have fallen. We would have hoped. But, they went against God and they disobeyed him and sin was brought forth.
Temptation leads to sin
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree or so the saying goes. Their children born in sin have lost the image of God as they now reflect the image of their parents being fully conceived in sin. Spiritual death now gives way to physical death as Cain in anger kills his brother Able, who’s offering of the best and first born on his flock, was accepted by God while Cain’s gift of some of his fruit of his hands was not accepted … Able’s gift having been offered in faith while Cain’s was not.
We too at times find ourselves being tempted to see our sin as not so great a problem and ourselves as pretty good and acceptable.
Ill.
A story is told of a King who found himself depressed and unhappy. He sent for his brother, a good-natured but rather indifferent prince. The king said to him, "I am a great sinner; I fear meeting God." But the prince only laughed at him thinking it silly. This didn't help the king's disposition.
Though he had faith in Christ, the king too had gotten a glimpse of his own guilt for the way he'd been living - the Law written on his heart reflected his sinful image of himself - and he seriously wanted help.
In those days it was customary if the executioner sounded a trumpet before a man's door at any hour it was a signal that he was to be led to his execution. The king sent the executioner in the dead of night to sound the fateful blast at his brother's door. The prince realizing with horror what was happening, quickly dressed, stepped to the door and was seized by the executioner who dragged the pale and trembling prince into the king's presence.
In an agony of terror he fell on his knees before his brother the King and begged “What have I done?”
"My dear brother," the king answered, "if the sight of a human executioner is so terrible to you, shall not I, having grievously offended God, fear to be brought before the judgment seat of Christ?"
Walk Through Rewards.
We too, being born in sin, can have the same worry and concern. Have I done enough to make amends for my wrong? Am I doomed to eternal death? That was Luther’s question and Luther’s worry:
“Does God hate sin … yes … am I a sinner … yes … does God condemn sin … yes … must I be condemned? Yes.
If left to ourselves we cannot have peace. We can never know if we had done enough. The knowledge of sin weighs heavy on us and that burden can only kill you and me by its weight.
The rescue
The Jews had known the promise. They had expected a Messiah. They looked for power to overcome those who oppressed them so they looked for and expected an earthly King.
But, God didn’t give what was expected. He sent what wasn’t expected. He sent a servant. Isaiah calls him the Suffering Servant.
In the first servant song God’s message of Law and Gospel is contained in the one, the Servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ, who will fulfill the Law and brings the message of the Gospel to the poor and to the oppressed. It is through this servant that God gives breath and life to His people through His church, so that He may, through the means of grace, be a light to the gentiles and open the eyes of the blind.
It is God Himself who will free the captives and release those who sit in bondage. The Lord’s glory will be found only in this humble suffering servant who breaks the bonds of sin and death by becoming the perfect sacrifice for sin, to appease God’s wrath, restoring the relationship between God and man and liberating His people from captivity.
As a nation Israel was at times called on by God to be His servant. But the Servant God sends, will be the one to rise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel and he will be a light for the nations so that God’s forgiveness reaches to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6
God’s servant will be despised because God’s Law brings condemnation and death, but also His servant will provide a way out delivering freedom from sin and the devil by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Isaiah points out Israel’s sin measured against the servant’s obedience. The servant is faithful and listens to the voice of this loving God. In contrast to you and me, who are a rebellious people, the servant listens to and does the will of His heavenly Father.
The servant is abused but also sustained by the Sovereign Lord’s help just as Jesus was in his passion at the cross.
Even this death on a cross will not bring disgrace to the servant who gives over his will to that of the sovereign Lord. God’s servant will accomplish the salvation that he intends but salvation will come through suffering.
Dear friends, our human condition knows God’s Law only as judgment. This judgment comes to you and me as we fail to live up to the laws in a civil society and God’s Law written on our heart.
The judgment of the servant, who was, stricken, smitten and afflicted by God for the sins of another, is something different. The punishment of this servant is in being numbered with we who are sinners. It is in this servant Jesus and his suffering where we find peace and by his wounds we are healed.
Peace and forgiveness
33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
May you have peace and joy in his forgiveness and may you rejoice that in him you are forgiven.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
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