The Crucified Lamb of God

Midweek 2 Sermon

Sermon: The Crucified Lamb of God

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

"Lamb of God, pure and holy"—that is our theme hymn for this season (LSB 434). Tonight, this second week of Lent, our attention goes to the next line of the hymn: "who on the cross didst suffer." "So what," some would respond, "I've heard all that before." And that is just the problem: we are in danger of losing sight of what St. Paul calls the very heart of the Gospel—the crucified Lamb of God.

Paul uses two very startling words to describe the Gospel of Christ crucified: "A stumbling block" and "foolishness". He wasn't just talking about the people of his day. We usually don't get it either. It's almost as if Christians have heard this message so often that it seems perfectly logical to us that God should be nailed to a cross to die helplessly, murdered by His own creation. We have been vaccinated with the cross so often that it has lost its clout. Just look around. There are crosses everywhere: here in the chancel, there on the windows. (Point out various locations in the sanctuary.) And many of you in the pews this evening probably have one around your neck.

I'm not preaching against crosses, and I don't want you to quit wearing one. Instead, but too often we don't come to grips with the full impact of the meaning of the cross for us and for our salvation. We have been lulled into a comfortable stupor by the whole story of Jesus' betrayal and arrest, His torture and execution, His redemption and atonement by which He won salvation as our substitute. We are so familiar with that story that it becomes easy to shrug off the message of the cross. After a while it becomes just another soothing mantra, empty of meaning. Tonight, however, our text and this hymn brings the cross into sharper focus so that we may ponder the depth of what it means that Jesus became the victim that we might win the victory.

First, it is important to understand that God's ways are not man's ways. The world has a wisdom of its own, and that "wisdom" runs counter to God's wisdom. Skeptics are always complaining that the Bible doesn't make any sense. They can't figure out how God created the world in six days or why bad things happen to good people. The world expects God to makes sense to our logic which would have him make our lives comfortable and successful without any pain or suffering.

But God will not be put into that box. God is bigger than human understanding. His judgments are unsearchable and His ways inscrutable. No one can know the mind of the Lord or serve as His counselor (see Romans 11:33–34), for He is the almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Yet misguided people insist on measuring God by a human yardstick.

It won't work. God is a lot bigger than that. People keep insisting that they want things their way, but their way is not God's way. There is a reason for that. Their way leads to death, while God's way alone leads to life.

Adam and Eve found that out the hard way. Satan claimed it would be better to know both good and evil rather than being stuck with only knowing the good, and Eve bought that lie. So she and Adam went for the wisdom that seemed to make more sense, rather than sticking with the wisdom of God, who had warned them that they would die when they ate of that fruit. So Adam and Eve ate anyway and they died along all their children after them. All of mankind since the fall of Adam has been in the process of dying. That is what human wisdom will get you—a plot in a graveyard.

But God's wisdom is different. His wisdom gives life—in fact. Even though to us it may not seem like that at first. God in His wisdom made Himself foolish that He might rescue a world hell-bent on destruction. So Jesus went on a fool's errand. He emptied Himself of His divine glory and majesty and lowered Himself all the way to become a tiny embryo within the womb of His virgin mother, to be cradled and cuddled and coddled like any other newborn, fed and diapered like all the rest, completely helpless and vulnerable just like any human baby.

Foolishness—that's what it is. A crazy idea by any human standard. But that wasn't the end. Having set aside His divine power, the Lord of all life lowered Himself still farther—all the way to death,.. death of a cross. This was not merely an agonizing death; it was a shameful death. For death by crucifixion meant you were the scum of the earth. It was a death reserved for criminals and murderers. It was a long way from the majesty of heaven's glory down to being the scum of the earth, but that's how far Jesus went to rescue us in that reckless, foolish love of His.

The preaching of the cross has never gone over very well among those who do not have the Spirit of God. Stupidity, the Greeks called it—idiotic. Shocking, the Jews considered it—humiliating. What weak kind of weak, foolish God would allow Himself to be defiled in that way? They just couldn't stomach it.

Many people today still don't get it, just like the Greeks and Jews before them. The cross still doesn't have much appeal in our success oriented, pleasure driven world today. That Lamb of God "who on the cross didst suffer" doesn't sell too well in our modern society. "Our God is an awesome God," people insist. He will give you a happy, fulfilling life if you just turn things over to Him. People want a God who will take away suffering and sickness and give them comfortable and easy lives. The very notion of a crucified God doesn't fit in a "can-do" success oriented world. Even in churches today we notice quite a bit of backpedaling going on regarding the central message of Christ crucified. Jesus as hero, Jesus as example, Jesus as paradigm for living seems much more attractive to practically minded folks like us. We all want to know what we can do to improve our own lot, and how God will make us successful and happy. The cross doesn't seem to make much sense when it comes to self-improvement. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25).

It is precisely on the point of Gospel outreach that our text speaks to us. "Because Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, therefore we deliberately preach Christ crucified." (1 Corinthians 1:22). There needs to be an intentionality about preaching a crucified Christ, especially when you are dealing with people who are looking for everything but a crucified Christ. Why? Because through what people think is foolishness and weakness, God is at work to rescue and to save. Precisely in the foolish, offensive message of Christ crucified, God calls sinners out of death and into life.

So the crucified Lamb of God may not be trendy, but that's OK. We Christians are often labeled "outdated" and "out of step with the world". But that's OK when the world is marching to the wrong drummer. It's OK if others call our gospel "foolishness" and "weakness," because "the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25). In the weakness of His incarnation, the Son of God shouldered our humanity that He might ransom us from the tyranny of sin and death. In the foolishness of His lowly, degrading death by crucifixion, Jesus Himself became the ransom price.

Lent may seem like a downer, but that is okay. We need to repent of our sin, not learn to live with it. If you are tempted to think that sin is no big deal, look at Calvary. If you begin to feel that God doesn't care about sin, look at the cross. And not just a bare and empty cross, but the cross upon which hangs the body of our Redeemer, who is God in human flesh. There the enormity of sin comes into focus. There the pure and holy Lamb of God was made to be sin for us; and as the sin-bearer He bore the just penalty of our sin. Jesus' sacred body and most precious blood were placed in the balance scales of God's eternal justice, and as the full weight of the guilt of all the world came down on Jesus, He died so that we might live. At the cross Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice, exchanging His righteousness for our guilt, His holiness for our shame, His purity for our filth. He became sin for us, dying our death on that cross at that place called Calvary.

The cross looked like a tragedy that day they nailed God's Son to the cross. But it was not tragedy, it was triumph! It was the very will and purpose of God the Father that His own Son, the pure and holy Lamb of God, would suffer death upon a cross. That cross was the intersection of God's love and His justice, the meeting place of His mercy and our sin. Jesus swapped His purity for the filth of our sin and exchanged His holiness for our shame. By God's express decree we all receive life for death, purity to erase our filth, and holiness to cover up our shame. It is the purity and holiness of the pure and holy Lamb of God, "who on the cross didst suffer."

Because Jesus suffered, you need not fear any suffering that may come your way. No matter how grievous the sorrow or heavy the load, no suffering of yours will ever be able to drive a wedge between you and the gracious love of God. Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, can ever sever us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Romans 8:38–39). And this is true precisely because Christ is the pure and holy Lamb of God, "who on the cross didst suffer." Nothing can touch you because you belong to Him.

When you were baptized, you were signed with a cross, to mark you as belonging to Christ the crucified. Then and there you were put to death with Jesus on His cross, buried with Him into His death. By the power of God's Word within that water, all that Jesus earned for you by His bitter suffering and death was transferred to your account. There you not only died with Him, but you also were raised with Him to live again by faith in His own never-ending life.

So what if some people reject the Gospel because they consider it offensive and foolish? So what if some people consider the preaching of the cross to be weak and ineffective? "The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25). The cross is not just the emblem of your salvation, but it is the sign and seal of God's redemption, the stamp of His approval. The cross is the indelible mark that your sins are gone and the power of Satan is broken, that the tyranny of death and the grave is over and done. Come what may, therefore, we preach Christ crucified. For this crucified Christ is our only hope in this world and the next. Since the pure and holy Lamb of God suffered once for you on His cross, now all His purity and holiness are yours as well. Take heart this night and live in Him who died yet lives forevermore.

Amen.