"STRAYING SHEEP"
Good Friday, the Crucifixion of Our Lord
March 30, 2018
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
All 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.
Isaiah 53:6 (ESV)
Some things never change. After the very first act of disobedience by our very first parents, they immediately covered themselves because now that they were guilty they couldn't face one another as they were. When God confronted Adam with his guilt he blamed it on his wife, who in turn blamed it on the serpent. Centuries and even millennia have come and gone since that day in the garden, and still we are trying to cover up our guilt and blame others for our sin. Our initial reaction when we are confronted with our sin and guilt is the same as Adam's was: We assume that nothing is ever our fault. There always has to be something or someone else that caused us to do the evil that we have done. As far as sin is concerned we all too often see ourselves not as the offender but as the victim.
Perhaps Good Friday is the time when we do this more than at any other time. The mental image that we have of our crucified Savior confronts us with the reality of our sin (which caused His miserable suffering and death), but instead of "owning up to it," so to speak, we try to place the blame for His death elsewhere. And on Good Friday there seem to be a lot of people to blame. We can blame Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Him. There's Peter and the rest of the disciples, who denied Him and deserted Him. We also have Annas and Caiaphas, who arranged for His arrest and did everything in their power to see to it that He was condemned to death. And then there's the mob, which demanded His blood, and cowardly Pilate, who bowed to their demands and passed the death sentence on Jesus, even while he judged Him to be innocent. And don't forget the Roman soldiers who beat Him, mocked Him, and crucified Him. We like to blame the death of our Lord on one or several or all of these but, my brothers and sisters in Christ, this act is ours. We know that it's ours and, more important than that, God knows that it's ours. But this knowledge is for us Good News as well as bad news, for while the death of Jesus is our shame and responsibility, it is also our glory and salvation.
The death of Jesus Christ is our shame and responsibility because, whether we want to admit or not (and usually we do not), it is our sin that sent Him to that cross. A lot of people deny this responsibility simply by directing their attention away from the cross of Christ. They either ignore it, as are so many people are doing right now (people for whom tonight is no different than any other Friday night) or they speak of it as being barbaric and uncivilized. That should not come as any great surprise to us, because no one wants to look at the ugliness that he or she is responsible for. That's why drunk drivers don't want to see or hear about statistics on highway deaths caused by drunk drivers. That's why the people who support and promote legalized abortion don't want to see those ugly pictures of aborted babies. And we are no different. Not a one of us here tonight wants to see the tragic and terrible results of what he or she has done. The sight of our Savior in agony on that cross isn't a pleasant one but, friends in Christ, this is the reality of our sin. This is our shame.
You would think that being aware of the fact that the death of our Lord is our shame and responsibility would have an effect on us. You would think that this realization would move us to think twice before we succumb to temptation--to think twice before we brush off our sin or take it lightly or treat it as if it is something that is harmless or innocent or perhaps even cute. You would think all of that, but if you did, you would be wrong. The truth is that the knowledge that Jesus' suffering and death is our shame and responsibility has little, if any, effect on us at all. We still go out of our way to subject ourselves to temptation and we still laugh off our sin. If knowing that our sin killed the Savior is our shame and responsibility, knowing it and not caring about it only makes it worse.
But I'm not going to leave you this evening with a message that's all gloom and doom. The death of Jesus Christ, which is our shame and responsibility, is also our glory and salvation. It is our glory and salvation because it is through His suffering and death that He forgives. Very often we are afraid to approach someone who we have offended, even if we want to apologize and make amends. We're afraid to go because that person might still hold a grudge, or might be unforgiving, or might let us go through the humiliation of apologizing and begging for forgiveness only to laugh us to scorn and refuse to forgive us. We never have to worry about that with our Savior. His love and grace for us know no bounds. He forgives again and again and again, as often as we repent and ask for forgiveness. That forgiveness and that salvation are ours as a free gift of His grace--the grace that He demonstrated so graphically and eloquently on Calvary's cross.
Not only does Christ forgive; He also pursues those who He forgives even when they aren't interested in His forgiveness. How appropriate that Isaiah's prophecy speaks of us as straying sheep, because the One who has come to retrieve us and to restore us to the fold is none other than the Good Shepherd. He is the One who goes to any and all lengths in order "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). That's what this whole gruesome story is all about. You know, we didn't ask Him to save us. We didn't ask because most people most of the time don't even know or care that they need to be saved from anything. And when they do realize it, all too often their reaction is to try to justify their sin on their own or to futilely attempt to make up for it themselves. Despite the indifference that we often show, the Good Shepherd came to live and die for us and for our salvation.
So who is to blame for the crucifixion of Jesus? You are and I am. There is no point in pushing the blame off on someone else or trying to justify our sins or make them seem not so bad. The death of Jesus is ours, and we may as well own up to that. But owning up to that isn't necessarily so bad. True, it is our shame and responsibility, but it is also our glory and salvation. And it is so much more than that. It is our life. By the power of His Spirit we claim it as our own, with thanksgiving for the fact that our Good Shepherd has gathered us, His wandering sheep, into His fold and has provided us with everything that we will ever need in this life and the next.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.