Mark 15:33–34

But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

⁶²And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

⁴And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you."

⁵But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mar 15:33-34 ESV) ³⁷And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. (Mar 15:37 ESV)

Which of these statements does not fit with the others? "We shall overcome"? "Sweat plus sacrifice equals success"? "I've fallen and I can't get up"? or "No pain, no gain"?

All of these statements have an underlying presupposition of success, power, and victory, except for one:... "I've fallen and I can't get up." That is a statement admitting defeat, failure, giving up. That is a humble statement; not a bold and boastful statement. It exemplifies the humble road that Jesus took when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, a beast of burden. "Behold, your king is coming to you;...humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9) As we meditate today, Palm Sunday, on the humility of Jesus; as more modern church calendars have renamed today "Passion Sunday," and we meditate on the Passion of Christ, we encounter a Savior who "...did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-8) We see his suffering, we see his humiliation, we see his weakness, we see his death. Jesus did not take the road to glory. It was not the victory road. His was is the humble road, the lowly road, the donkey road. His was the road of suffering and death.

How many times St. Mark tells us that Jesus was silent and said nothing! The high priest was perplexed. Pilate was amazed. But Jesus did not put up a defense. He did not say, "We shall overcome." Nor did he say, "A little sweat and sacrifice and I shall have success, be popular, have a great and mighty army of followers." He "...was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." (Isaiah 53:7) He offered not a word in his own defense. He did not deny their accusations. He did not justify himself. When the indictment was read He did not plead "not guilty."

He was so unlike any of us. For when we are charged with a wrongdoing first we deny it. If we can't deny it, we blame someone else for what we did. It was their fault, or they did something to provoke us or entrap us. No matter what, we always have an excuse; some way to justify what we did. And if that doesn't work, well, "it was just a minor thing, not all that important; not really a sin at all, just a lack of judgment or a mistake." In fact, the majority of our sins, and the worst ones, we don't even consider sin. Our greatest guilt is not the bad things we have done, but the good things we have not done. We have not loved as we should. We have loved God, but not with our whole heart, soul, or mind, as he often takes second or third place in our busy lives that have so many other more important things. We have loved our spouse, but less that we should. We have loved our neighbor, but not as ourselves. We have helped those in need, but begrudgingly. We have been a good parent, but there were still those times we were too busy. We have been obedient children, but often resented having to obey. We have fed the hungry, visited the sick, and aided the poor, but from a sense of obligation rather than love. These are the sins we will have to answer for on the day of judgment. By not admitting to these sins, we deny our uilt.

In contrast, Jesus made no defense. He accepted all the charges and accusations. He never denied a single one. And because he did not resist his accusers, we can no longer justify ourselves. He accepted the guilt for our sins. He did none of the things that he was charged with. His silence indicts us. His silence is an admission of our guilt and says that our sins are real; our sins are serious. His silence means there is no defense we can put up. There is no way to get ourselves off the hook. There is no way we can justify ourselves.

Meditation on the Passion of Christ leads us to the ultimate reality: we are guilty. Even if our actions are good, our thoughts and attitudes are not. Our thoughts are sins just as real as our actions. Our attitudes toward others, our pride, our secret desires are just as great a sin as our outward deeds. If others could hear our thoughts on any one commandment, like the sixth commandment that says "Thou shalt not commit adultery," we would all have to slink out of here with our heads covered and never come back. We cannot deny our guilt, but must confess it. We cannot make excuses or blame others, but must accept our guilt and sin as ours; own up to it; and plead guilty. The cross of Jesus Christ must crush us under the law of God. We must despair of any goodness or righteousness of our own and give up trying to claim that there is some good in us. Only then can God give us his forgiveness.

Jesus did not make excuses. He did not justify himself. He did not speak in his own defense. He didn't try to avoid the charges against him. He accepted them. He accepted the punishment. Even though the guilt was not his, but ours. It was not his sins that he suffered for, but ours. He had done nothing wrong, we were the evil ones. It was our sin that he was accused of. But he accepted all of the guilt, without pointing fingers; without blaming; without denying guilt; he accepted it, and in many of the Psalms, he even confessed to sins—our sins.

He did it for us in order to pay for our sins; to free us from guilt; to release us from the curse of sin—death and damnation. By his condemnation we are made free from guilt. By his acceptance of punishment, we are justified by God, declared righteous. By being "wounded for our transgressions; and crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace." (Isaiah 53:5). He humbled himself to lift us up. He suffered shame and punishment so we won't have to. He died so that we might live. He went to hell so we can go to heaven.

Part 2:

Therefore, as we behold the suffering and death of Jesus, he was no innocent victim to be pitied. Jesus was not just an innocent victim of some evil people back in the days of the Roman Empire. Jesus was the victim of God's eternal wrath and punishment. "For it was the will of the Lord to crush him; putting him to grief, and his soul made an offering for guilt..." (Isaiah 53:10). The horrors he suffered; the cruel and inhumane punishment he received; the lashes and thorns in his flesh, the nails in his hands and feet, his ugly death on a cross were nothing other than God's attack on sin, your sin...my sin. It is our punishment that we see unfolding before our eyes. This is the hell that you and I deserve. This is the hell that would be ours if Jesus had not suffered it for us. But he did suffer it for us so we won't have to. He suffered it to release us from the gates of hell.

He did it voluntarily. He did it in obedience to his Father who gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). He did it out of love. Jesus tells us not weep for him, but to weep for ourselves and our children. It is our punishment he suffered, not his. "He bore our grief and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). And as cruel and ugly as it was, he did it for us. He did it on purpose, and He was in complete and total control of all that happened. He didn't have to suffer and die. He could have stopped it. But, He was completely resolved to suffer for us, and nothing could derail him or turn his eyes away from paying the price for our salvation; from releasing us from sin; and freeing us from the curse of death.

Part 3:

Ultimately, we are the ones who inflicted the wounds upon Jesus: Isaiah tells us that He was punished for our sin, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). It is your sin that pierced Jesus. Every thorn that stabbed his skin was one of your sins. Every lash on his back was one of your sins. Every nail that pierced his hands and feet was one of your sins. We killed Jesus. We are the ones who killed the Son of God. As we contemplate the Passion of Christ, what we contemplate is our own sin. What we see is our own punishment. It is God's punishment of our sin. It is ugly; it is terrifying; because it is our own sin we see. The cross of Jesus forces us to see our own sin. It demands that we see ourselves as sinners. We see Jesus bearing our sin in his body. His flesh was ripped apart by our sin. His side was pierced by our sin. His blood was spilled out by our sin. As St. Peter says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (I Peter 2:24).

We watch as our sin is being carved into his flesh, and his flesh is hung on the cross and crucified. Our sin was taken from us, etched into his body, hung on the cross, and put to death. Our sin is removed as far as East is from the West; as far as the heavens are above the earth. He has carried your sin away. By faith you grasp that word of promise and are forgiven. By faith you have died to sin and have been healed to live in righteousness. By faith God has begun his work of righteousness in you at Baptism, and is transforming you into a holy nation, a royal priesthood in Holy Communion. Now, on Palm Sunday, instead of throwing dead branches and articles of clothing in his path in reverence to the King, we place our own lives, our hearts, our bodies at his service, this is your "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1). Amen.