%20(Mt%2026.47-57).tif)
In the name + of Jesus.
When the Lord Jesus was about to be born,
the priest Zechariah proclaimed, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited
and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68)! When Scripture uses the word for visit, it
could be an occasion for something very good or something very bad. It depends upon who is coming to visit and
why. If you hear that your children or
grandchildren are coming to visit, you are understandably excited. If you hear an IRS agent is coming to visit,
you are understandably upset. When the
Lord comes to visit, it could be for blessing or for judgment. Zechariah’s praise reveals that the birth of
Jesus is good news of great joy. The
Lord God of Israel comes to redeem them from their sins and to deliver them
from death. He has come to visit his
people because he has sympathy on them.
Some recognized that Jesus is the Christ
and the Savior, and they rejoiced.
Others did not recognize it and rejected him. Of those, some simply walked away; others schemed
to destroy him. Perhaps the most alarming
thing about the people who rejected Jesus most vehemently is that they were the
Bible scholars. Of all people, they should
have recognized how Jesus was fulfilling all the promises God had made. At first, Jesus was patient and sympathetic
to them. He repeatedly pointed them to
the Scriptures which he was fulfilling. If
they believed the Scriptures, they would believe in him. In Matthew’s Gospel alone, Jesus asked them six
times, “Have you not read…?” (Matthew 12:3,5; 19:4; 21:16,42; 22:31). He made many references to the Law and the Prophets,
urging them to search the Scriptures they claimed to know and believe. But they would not believe Jesus because they
would not believe those Scriptures.
As a result, the leaders had no sympathy
for Jesus. They arranged his arrest, went
through the motions of a trial, and sentenced him to death. Then Jesus was handed over by Pontius Pilate
for crucifixion. Pilate knew Jesus was
innocent, but self-preservation outweighed his sympathies. Jesus received no sympathy from the Roman
soldiers. They decided to have their own
fun at Jesus’ expense and then led Jesus out to be crucified. They forced Jesus to carry his own cross. But since Jesus was badly beaten and exhausted
from lack of sleep, he collapsed under its weight. It was not for sympathy that they had Simon
of Cyrene carry his cross, but for convenience.
The soldiers had no interest in doing it, so they conscripted an out-of-towner
to do it.
There was a group, however, who did display
sympathy for Jesus. “A great multitude of the people and of women … were mourning and
lamenting for him” (Luke 23:27). There is no reason to doubt that their
sympathy was genuine. These are the crowds
who had seen and even benefited from Jesus’ miracles. Whether they honored him as the Christ or
only as a good man, who knows? But they
knew that this crucifixion was unjust. They
did the only thing they could do for Jesus—weep. For, who would dare to interfere with Roman justice?
Jesus’ response to the sympathy of the
crowd, specifically to the women, is startling.
“Jesus said, ‘Daughters
of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children’”
(Luke 23:28).
Jesus extended his sympathy to these women because he knew what was
coming upon them in the not-too-distant future.
Jesus informed them, “Behold, the days are coming when they will
say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts
that never nursed!’ Then they
will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the
wood is green, what will happen when it is dry” (Luke 23:29-31)?
Jesus is the green tree. He is the true vine from which we receive our
faith and by which our faith produces the works which please God. The Lord Jesus had come to visit his people. He came with sympathy, with compassion, with
mercy, and with grace. He came to be the
source of true life and everlasting life for all. But both Jesus and all the blessings he came
to deliver were rejected. If this is the
response when the Lord is with his people, what will it be like when the Lord
has abandoned and rejected his people?
Actually, Jesus
had already said what that would be like. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he said, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the
things that make for peace! But
now they are hidden from your eyes. For the
days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around
you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your
children within you. And they will
not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time
of your visitation” (Luke 19:42-44). The Lord Jesus
had come to visit his people with sympathy and for salvation. But they rejected God’s grace. If they despised God’s grace when the tree
was green, what would it be like when it was dry?
The Lord did come again and visited his
people—this time with no sympathy and with unspeakably harsh judgment. In 70 AD, the Roman army laid siege to Jerusalem. The people inside the city ran out of
supplies and faced starvation. Some resorted
to cannibalism. Those who tried to
escape were slaughtered by the Jews for deserting. Those who remained were slaughtered by the
Romans when they finally broke through the city walls. Those women who had never given birth to
children would be blessed because they would not have to see their children
suffer so ruthlessly. All this was the
sad and bitter judgment upon the Jewish leaders for demanding the death of the promised
Messiah. Because Pilate wanted no part
of this injustice, he stated, “I am innocent of this man’s blood” (Matthew
27:24). The priests replied, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25)! And so it was. When the tree was green, God’s mercy was reviled. When the tree grew dry, God’s mercy was
revoked.
During the
Lenten season, we ponder the sufferings and death of Jesus. The point, however, is not to muster up some
sympathy for Jesus, as if our meditation should be, “Oh, poor Jesus!” Yes, Jesus was treated badly—without sympathy
and without justice. But Jesus would
never have had to visit our world if it were not for us. We are the reason Jesus came to suffer and
die. We are sinners who treat people
badly. We are not patient. We do not try to understand another’s
burdens. We assume the worst about other
people, and we treat them accordingly.
Our sympathies
are biased. Sometimes they are
imaginary. When we watch a movie, we
develop sympathy for a character because the writers made him such a sympathetic
character. We see the bullies pick a
target and rough him up, usually for no good reason. We feel bad for that person because the
writers showed us some hardship he was enduring. We might boast, “If I had been there, I would have
had compassion on that mistreated victim.”
That was easy to say, because my sympathy was merely hypothetical. But there are many people who we actually do
meet with whom we can sympathize—people suffering from sickness and the medical
bills that come with it, people who suffer from aging and the frailties that
come with it, people who have made poor choices and suffer the consequences of
them, people who suffer from loneliness, anxiety, and so forth. Are we as moved with compassion and sympathy
for them as we are for fictional movie characters? Or do we find ways to avoid them? It cost us nothing to feel bad for the movie
character. But for real people with real
life problems, we know it will cost us time, expense, or effort. That is where our sympathies run dry. It is this loveless attitude that Jesus suffered
for. Repent. Weep for yourselves.
Jesus
treated many with mercy. In turn, Jesus
was treated mercilessly. Jesus relieved the
burdens of people who were bearing a heavy weight. Jesus, in turn, bore the heavy weight of the
cross which the soldiers thrust upon him to carry out to Mt. Calvary. Jesus spoke words of blessing and comfort to
hearts that were afraid or overwhelmed.
Jesus, in turn, had words of mockery and cursing hurled at him. And while the Roman soldiers were affixing
Jesus to a cross as a condemned man, Jesus prayed that they would not be
condemned for their deeds. Jesus prayed:
“Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
And isn’t that why Jesus was affixed to
the cross? To pay for the sins of people
who have harmed him, despised him, and spoken against him? Whether we knew what we were doing and did it
anyway, or whether we gave into sin because of our weakness, Jesus was affixed
to the cross to win forgiveness for all our sins. This is the great sympathy Jesus has for the
whole human race.
And it is rightly called sympathy. Sympathy is a feeling of compassion or pity
for someone who is miserable even though you are not sharing in that misery. So, if your friend’s pet hamster dies, you
will feel bad for your friend even though you had no attachment to the hamster. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not know the misery
of sin and guilt. He is the green tree
who always produced the good fruits that the heavenly Father seeks. He knew that Father’s good pleasure rested
upon him. Nevertheless, he had sympathy
for us in our wretched condition.
Therefore, he made himself one with us.
He took into himself our wretchedness and suffered in our place. We do not need to weep for him because Jesus accepted
the curse of sin and the wrath of God willingly. He did because he desired to save us and to
seek our highest good.
And now the Lord Jesus visits you. He comes to you in his word by which he consoles,
guides, and strengthens you. He visits
you in the sacrament of the altar by which he gives you his body and blood to cleanse
you from sin. He also works in you so
that you desire and do the works of God, bearing the fruits that are in keeping
with repentance. The green tree supplies
you with life, makes you fruitful, and transforms you so that you are more like
Jesus.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68)! He visits you for your good. He redeems you from you misery. And he will come again so that you will be blessed forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Due to recurring spam, all comments will now be moderated. Please be patient.