Date : Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion, March 28, 2010

Text : Luke 23:1-56

Title : Christ crucified for you!

As we heard the story of our Lord’s crucifixion, everything that could possibly be wrong, was wrong. I guess that makes sense, since Jesus was paying for the sin of the world, and the sin of the world is everything that we humans have done wrong against God and each other.

It’s begins with Pilate. Someone asked me, the other day, whether Pilate was a good guy or a bad guy. He sure tried to be a good guy. He really weighed the evidence. He truly found Jesus to be what He in fact was: innocent. Pilate wanted to be a good guy.

But, he wound up playing the bad guy by doing wrong. He tried to wheedle his way out of the fix he was in by offering up Barabbas in the place of Jesus. And, who wouldn’t choose Barabbas, since he was in prison for trying to overthrow the government and committing murder?

Remember, however, that everything that could be wrong was going to be wrong, because the Lord of glory was being treated as a man of shame. The people rejected Jesus and chose Barabbas. They were so zealous to destroy Jesus that, though they could read the resume of both men, they were blind to seeing the right thing to do.

Now, Pilate found himself stuck. Plan A failed. Plan B rose to the surface. Pilate let the majority rule. He feared a riot. In the end, his hide was more important than Jesus’. But, that’s no surprise to us; we know that’s the way it is with us sinners. The moment the going gets tough, we toss the Golden Rule out the window.

To the cross goes Jesus. Why did they seize Simon of Cyrene to help Jesus carry the cross? It is good for us to remember the beating that the Lord has already taken. If you saw The Passion of the Christ, try to multiply the bloody mess of hamburger they made of the Lord’s body—multiply it until it matches this Old Testament prophecy: "His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness."

Maybe, just maybe, this fact helps us grasp how the people could have called for Jesus’ death, for the freedom of Barabbas. When Pilate had presented Jesus, saying, "Behold the man," the Jesus now before them was so disfigured that His own momma wouldn’t recognize Him—so wrong had this day went.

On His way of suffering—what has come to be called the Via Dolorosa—what is this little speech that our Lord makes to the women, who are wailing at His being led out to be crucified? The Lord tells them not to weep for Him, but to weep for themselves and their children. Jesus is speaking to the future of the Jews. Most Jews will reject Jesus, after His resurrection, as they had been rejecting Him, on Good Friday. Jesus is concerned for their eternal lives, and their lack of repentance for forgiveness.

And, what of this odd saying: "For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" Since the Lord has just been talking to these people about their own repentance, now He turns their attention to their final deliverance.

If they crucify this innocent man—the green tree of His statement—what will happen to all the world when it is a dried out tree, that is, at the end of time, when He, the Christ, comes back in judgment? If they do not repent, how much more damning will their judgment be than this horrific beating and crucifixion of Jesus?

There is the warning to all. If your faith goes no deeper than to find Jesus’ crucifixion to be a heart-rending event—if you will weep for Jesus, but you don’t weep over your sins against God and against your fellow man—then Jesus’ Via Dolorosa was a waste of His life for you.

If your heart is not cut so deeply that even your own momma wouldn’t recognize it, then on the Day of Judgment you will cry out what Jesus told these women: "Mountains, fall on us!" For it is child’s play to be crushed by a mountain when compared to the crushing eternal damnation of hell.

Everything that could be wrong continued to be wrong. The Son of God, the second person of the perfect, holy Trinity, is strung up between two criminals. To the onlookers, these three would appear to be a perfect unholy trinity of criminals, deserving what they got.

The next thing that happens, most people would say was completely wrong, but it was one of the few things of Good Friday that was oh so right. The Lord wastes no time in making His first word what simply must be the first word: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," yet how many would argue that He should have cursed His killers?

Ah, but forgiveness is at the heart of love, and God is love, and Jesus is God. Forgiveness is at the heart of love, and God is love, and you are a child of God. Thus, you have the answer to the common question: "How can I forgive people when they hurt me, so badly?"

Jesus forgave those who were murdering Him. He is God, and He is love, and love forgives. God has set you apart to be His own, remade in His likeness—His likeness of love. You are of God. You are of love. You forgive. Always. Gladly. Forgiveness is the first word from the crosses that you bear in your lives.

Finally, Jesus cries out from the cross, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" and He breathed His last. Jesus was dead.

Since Jesus is not only true man, but also true God, this means the ultimate thing of all time that could go wrong has gone wrong: God has died.

But, God can’t die. Well, neither can God be a human being, but that all changed when the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary and was conceived in her womb. And, the moment that God the Son was conceived a woman’s son, it became possible for God the Son to die.

For you, God the Father abandoned His Son, to die alone upon the tree. For you, the perfect, holy Trinity was ripped apart. So that you could be rejoined to God the Father—so that you would not be left to die alone for eternity in the damnation of hell, for a brief time God allowed Himself to be torn asunder in the death of the Son of God.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God!

God so loved you that He allowed everything to go wrong so that He could make right everything you need to have life, and have it to the full as His eternal child.

Now, you are the new Barabbas, whose name means "son of the father," and you have been set free despite your crimes against God—free to be a child of God the Father.

Now, you are able to heed Jesus’ warning to the women, so that you repent of your sins, so that you teach your children the fear and admonition of the Lord, so that you need not fear the day of the dry tree, and the judgment that the unbelievers will suffer.

Now, you have God’s love to forgive the trespasses of others in the manner that God forgives you: always and gladly, for Jesus’ sake.

Now, you have confidence to commit your spirit into your Father’s hands. He has sealed your eternal life through Baptism. Christ continues to nourish you in it with the meal of His body and blood. He continues to strengthen you in every proclamation of the Gospel, the good news that everything that could go wrong for Jesus, He gladly allowed to go wrong, because He was making everything right for you, forever. Amen.