Sexagesima
January 31, 2016
Think about the many people who were there when Jesus was hanging on
the cross. Two of them were right next to Him. Several of them were below Him, the
Roman soldiers overseeing the crucifixion. Some were bystanders. Some of the
disciples were watching from a distance. His own mother was there, watching her
Son die.
All of these people were witnessing something that was part of society in
the Roman Empire at that time. And yet, they were witnessing something that was
unlike anything else that had ever happened. They didn’t fully realize it at
the time. What was going through the minds of the people who were there? One of
the criminals being crucified with Jesus was beginning to see that Jesus wasn’t
a criminal. He asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. One
of the Roman soldiers ended up seeing in Jesus the Son of God.
The religious leaders saw in Jesus their enemy finally coming to a just
end. They continued in their mockery of Him. Many of the soldiers saw Jesus as
just another criminal, one who deserved crucifixion like all the rest. Some of
the bystanders mocked Him, some realized there was something different about
Him, some were there just to see a crucifixion.
Then there were the disciples. They should have known that this is what
Jesus had chosen; that He knew this had been coming; that He was willingly laying
down His life. Instead, as they watched Jesus die, they were seeing all their
hopes die with Him. They were wondering how it had all gone so terribly wrong.
All of these people were seeing the same thing. They had different
feelings about it and different reactions to it. None of them fully understood
what was going on. But this one event changed the world regardless of what
people believe about it. To grasp the crucifixion of Jesus as more than just an
event in the past we must see it through the mind of one other person who was
there, and that was Jesus Himself.
What was going through His mind as He was suffering and dying on the
cross? He had indeed known it was all coming down to this. It was now here.
What thoughts flowed through His mind now that He was actually on the cross,
dying as He had known He would?
The Holy Spirit has inspired the Word of God to be written down for us and
so we can know what Jesus was thinking at the moment when He was suffering and
dying on the cross.
When one of the criminals beside Him was reviling Him, did Jesus think,
“You deserve this. You have no idea that I’m suffering unjustly”? When the
criminal who asked Him to remember him in His Kingdom, did Jesus say, “You’ve
got a lot of nerve to request that of Me, I think I’ll leave you to your doom,
which is what you deserve”?
Did Jesus return the reviling of the religious leaders upon them, telling
them that they were the ones who deserved to be here whereas He deserved honor
and worship? Did He condemn the soldier who now saw Him as the Son of God as a
hypocrite? Did He shake His head at His disciples as they continued to not get
it and finally give up hope in them since they were too dense to be faithful disciples?
Did Jesus, now that He was actually bearing the sin and the guilt of
the world, finally see that it wasn’t worth it? That so many people willfully
sinning, so many people seeking the things of the world over against the true
God, were not deserving of such a sacrifice as to take away every single sin?
Did Jesus begin revising His method and offer His sacrifice only for those who actually
got it, who actually put their hope in Him no matter what?
Did Jesus recoil in horror at the action of His dear Heavenly Father
who was now forsaking Him? Did He begin to descend into despair at the prospect
that Satan appeared to be victorious? Was He seriously contemplating the very
doable action of coming down from the cross as the religious leaders chided Him
to do?
All of these were temptations. Satan had tempted Jesus before and Jesus
retorted with the Scriptures. Jesus was being tempted on the cross to the
extreme. But there was no wavering. We see Jesus going once again to the
Scriptures in His time on the cross suffering. Every word He uttered was a
trusting and confident prayer to His Father in heaven. Everything Jesus had
been preparing for was now coming about, He was taking upon Himself every sin
of every person of every time and place.
Nobody else there saw this. But He knew this was happening. The Holy Spirit
has given us this clear proclamation that God Himself in the flesh was
suffering so that we human beings would not suffer eternally. In His agony
Jesus knew this. It was crystal clear. The salvation He was accomplishing was
not for a few. It wasn’t only for certain people. It was not for those who followed
Him or who were good, decent people. It was not for those who were poor or
downtrodden. It wasn’t just for those who didn’t know better.
He was suffering and dying for every single person. We know clearly
what was happening when Jesus was dying on the cross even though those who were
there saw in a glass dimly. Many today see in the crucifixion nothing more than
an event in the past. They don’t believe what was actually happening. If you
were to think about how salvation would be accomplished you probably wouldn’t
think of it being accomplished through suffering and death. But God knows that
this is the only way.
In the Gospel reading Jesus says that a sower sowed his seed. When a
seed is planted in the ground it is no longer seen. But there is something
going on in the ground as that seed is nourished by nutrients and water. The
seed is only temporary. Something happens to it and that something is that it
dies. The seed is no longer a seed, it becomes a plant and grows and
flourishes.
Jesus knew He was going to the cross to die. There’s no plant unless
the seed dies. There’s no salvation unless Christ dies. Jesus is the Word made
flesh. He says in the Gospel reading that the seed the sower sows is the Word
of God. The very Word God sent to the world is His Son Jesus Christ. The Word
made flesh suffered and died on the cross.
The Word made flesh was not garnering forgiveness and salvation for
only some. This was the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. The sower
in the Gospel reading didn’t pick and choose which types of soil to sow the
seed in. He sowed it in all types of soil. Every person is who God wants to
save. Jesus died for everyone.
Jesus wasn’t disgusted with the fact that most everyone who was there
as He was dying wasn’t understanding what He was doing. He was joyful that He
was doing it for them. He was joyful that He was dying for us and every person.
The seed is the Word of God and the Word of God goes to everyone. We
don’t need to determine who is ready for it or not. We don’t need to wonder if
they are able to understand it or not. We don’t need to discount people who are
hostile to God and His Word.
The Church is the place where the Gospel rings forth. The Church is the
place where the Gospel forgives people. The Church is the place where the
Gospel equips the people of God to go out into the world to tell people of the
one who died on the cross for every single person. They may not get it. They
may be hostile. They may despair. But they need the Gospel and so we the people
of God bring them the Gospel.
Jesus has not set up salvation as a club that is only for some people.
He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Something happens to you in
Baptism that is unseen. You die. When a seed dies, new life comes forth and
flourishes. When you die in Baptism you are brought forth to new life and you
flourish as you are nourished by the Gospel, hearing it and eating and drinking
it.
Isn’t it amazing that when Jesus wants to show us what His Kingdom, His
salvation, His grace is like He says it’s like a sower sowing seed? It doesn’t
seem like much, and maybe that’s because it isn’t much. What happened to you is
what happened to Jesus. You died in Baptism into His death and were raised in
Baptism into His resurrection. You hear the Gospel, the proclamation of the
suffering and death of Jesus for all of your sins. You eat the very body of
Christ given into death and drink the very blood of Christ shed on the cross.
The seed is the Word and the Word is for all people. As a seed dies and brings
forth life, so Jesus died and brought forth life for all. It doesn’t seem like
much, but then, that’s the point. Amen.
SDG
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