Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4–9
4The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 9Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty?
Orders are shouted... marching footsteps thunder ... weeping,... wailing,... sobs,.... One painful step after another staggered Jesus. He stumbles...He trips...he collapses...crushed under the weight of a heavy load. Blood...crown of thorns...blood covered face...lashes...bloody back...bruised face....sweaty eyebrows.... The captain shouts orders. Simon hauls the heavy cross onto his own shoulders. Footsteps...slowly plodding down the Road of Sorrow...the via dolorosa...to the place of the skull. Hammers pounding...nails piercing human flesh...jeering...scornful laughter...blood gushing...the Son of God hanging in the air...arms stretched out...head bowed. The sun turns dark...the earth quakes....a cry pierces the air, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then Death. Then Silence. "Truly this was the Son of God."
But he was not rebellious. He turned not back. He set his face on Jerusalem and never flinched from his journey to the cross. On that Sunday he entered into Jerusalem on a donkey, heading straight toward suffering, humiliation, agony, and excruciating death, never looking back, never retreating one step. He didn't answer the accusations. He remained silent without giving a defense. He gave his back to the scourge. He turned his cheek to those who would strike. He hid not his face from mockery and shame and spit. He gave his head to a crown of thorns. He gave his side to the spears that pierce. He gave his hands and feet to the nails to stab and fasten him to a cross. He gave his life to the executioner. He gave His spirit to God...
He gave it all! He emptied himself. He took the form of a servant. He put up no fight. He humbly submitted to the insults. He doesn't cry out or lash out at his mockers. He let them make a laughing stock, a public spectacle out of him. He gave himself to the Roman soldiers to make sport of him as they stripped him of his clothes and put a purple robe on him and crowned his head with thorns. He gave himself to mockery and ridicule. He humbled himself to the point of death, even a shameful death on a cross. And he did it! It was not done to him. He gave himself to suffer and die for you. It was his own will and desire to do this, to suffer this, in order to save you from this same suffering, humiliation and death which you deserve on account of your sin.
He bore it all willingly and silently for you. He was not a mere victim of an angry crowd. He was not just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nor is this a matter of a hateful mob out of control grabbing him and killing him. He volunteered for this. He even orchestrated the whole affair. He was entirely in control the whole time and he was the one who planned it all out. Our blessed King was pleased to be crowned with ugly thorns in order to crown you with glory and honor. He was pleased to be dressed up in a scarlet robe that you might be dressed up in his robe of righteousness in Baptism. He was pleased to spill his blood right into the chalice for you to drink in Holy Communion. He was pleased to suffer the torments of hell to pay for your sin so that you will never have to suffer what he suffered. He did it all for you, because he loves you.
How are we to meditate on the Passion today and during this coming Passion Week? Does it mean to feel pity for Christ, lamenting and bewailing his innocence? Are we to mourn for him? Are we to feel his pain in our hearts? No! When they wept for him he told them, "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." (Luke 23:27-28). Weep on account of your sins. "Contemplate his passion with a terror-stricken heart and a despairing conscience. This terror must be felt as you witness the stern wrath and the unchanging earnestness with which God looks upon sin and sinners. [For if God] was unwilling to release sinners even for his only and dearest Son without his payment of the severest penalty for them;... [if his] dearest child is punished thus, what will be the fate of us sinners? It must be an inexpressible and unbearable wrath and anger that forces such a great and infinite person to suffer and die to appease it.... If you seriously consider that it is God's very own Son, the eternal wisdom of the Father, who was made to suffer, you will be terrified indeed. The more you think about it, the more intensely will you be frightened (Luther)." If God did that to his Son, what will he do to you? For it is your sin that is being punished here. That blood and gore and shame and ridicule is your punishment playing out right before your very eyes. God says, "I have chastised him for the transgressions of my people (Isaiah 53:8)."
"You must get this through your head and not doubt that you are the one who is torturing Christ thus, for your sins have brought this....'You crucified him! (Acts 2:36-37)' says St. Peter. Consequently three thousand alarmed and terrified Jews asked the apostles on that one day, "O dear brethren, what shall we do now?' therefore, when you see the nails piercing Christ's hands, you can be certain that it is your work. When you behold his crown of thorns, you may rest assured that these are your evil thoughts. For every nail that pierces Christ, more than one hundred thousand should, in justice, pierce you, yes, they should prick you forever and ever more painfully! When Christ is tortured by nails penetrating his hands and feet, you should eternally suffer the pain they inflict and the pain of even more cruel nails, and that will be the lot of those who do not avail themselves of Christ's passion [by having faith]... The main benefit of Christ's passion is that man sees into his own true self and is terrified and crushed by his sin...The real and true work of Christ's passion is to make [you] conformable to Christ, so that [your] conscience is tormented by [your] sins just as Christ was tormented by [them] in body and soul. "This does not call for many words but for profound reflection and a great awe of sins," says Luther.
"Here the passion of Christ performs its natural and noble work, strangling the old Adam and banishing all joy, delight, and confidence which derive from other things, just as Christ was forsaken by all, even by God (Luther)."
But once you have thus contemplated Christ's passion, and have become aware of your sin and are terrified in your heart, you must pour your sin onto him and free your conscience of it. Cast your sins from yourself and onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sins, borne and paid for by him, as the Prophet tells us, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6)." And as the Apostle says, "In his body he has borne our sins on the wood of the cross (I Peter 2:24)." And as St. Paul says, "God has made him sin for us, so that through him we should be made righteous (II Corinthians 5:21)." "Stake everything on these words. The more your conscience torments you, the more tenaciously you must cling to these words. For if you allow your sin to remain in your conscience and try to deal with it yourself, or if you look at the sin in your heart, it will be much too strong for you. But if you behold it resting on Christ [in his passion and death, and then you] see it overcome by his resurrection, and you boldly believe this, [then your sin] is dead and nullified. Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now, in the resurrection, look at him. You see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of your sin (Luther)." For your sin is gone, forgiven, paid for.
"No longer contemplate the suffering of Christ, for it has already done its work and terrified you. Now pass beyond his suffering and see his friendly heart. See how his heart beats with such love for you that it impels him to bear your conscience and your sin with such great pain. Then your heart will be filled with love for him, and the confidence of your faith will be strengthened (Luther)." Then you will be drawn to the kind, paternal heart of the Father through Christ. Then you will understand the words of Christ, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Then you will grasp God, not in his might, but in his kindness and love. Then you are truly born again in Christ.
And after your heart has become firm in Christ, and love has made you an enemy of sin, then Christ's passion must become a pattern for your entire life. If pain or sickness afflicts you, consider how trivial it is in comparison with the thorny crown and the nails of Christ. If you are tempted by pride, see how your Lord was mocked and ridiculed along with criminals. If lust and desire burn in your flesh, remember how ruthlessly his tender flesh was scourged, pierced and beaten. If hatred, envy, and vindictiveness beset you, remember that Christ, who had more reason than you to avenge himself, interceded with tears and cries for you and for all his enemies. If sadness or physical or spiritual adversity distress you, then strengthen your heart and say, "Why should I not be willing to bear a little grief, when agonies and fears caused my Lord to sweat blood in the Garden?" (Luther). As St. Paul says, "Those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with all its desires" [Galatians 5:24].
Thus are we to contemplate the Passion of Christ. Thus, says St. Peter, "Strengthen and arm yourselves by meditating on what Christ suffered in the flesh (I Peter 4:1)." Amen.