“Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see Him dying on the tree! ‘Tis the Christ by man rejected; yes, my soul, ’tis He! ’tis He! ‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord; proofs I see sufficient of it: ‘Tis the true and faithful Word.”
Holy week. The most stressful time of the year for our pastors and church workers, and the one week of the year that has more services than any other. It is also the one week that 2,000 years ago changed the course of human history through the person of Jesus Christ. This week, we especially remember how God in the form of man took on every sin that was ever committed from the beginning of the world and every sin that will ever be committed until the end of the world, suffered under that weight, and gave up His life for us. I believe this is the most sobering and yet comforting thought in the world. That God would come into the world as a human is sobering enough, but that God would willingly give up His life for His creation that rejected and continues to reject Him is cause indeed for silence and reflection.
For even we who have heard the good news that comes on Easter Sunday cannot believe that Jesus is Lord without the help of the Holy Spirit. Though we were not physically present at the crucifixion 2,000 years ago, through our spiteful human nature we too have rejected Christ and caused His death.
“Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning, was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, foes insulting His distress; many hands were raised to wound Him, none would interpose to save; but the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that Justice gave.”
“Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Mark the Sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load; ‘Tis the WORD, the LORD’S ANOINTED, Son of Man and Son of God.”
The prophet Isaiah reminds us in chapter 53 verse 6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have t
urned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” There is a penalty for sin. These days when you hear people apologize, the person who has been wronged generally says “that’s alright” or “don’t worry about it.” We are trying to pretend that sins are not as big of an issue as we know they are, and since we pretend that among ourselves we also want to pretend that God will brush away our sins as if they are not important. We try to run away from our sins just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Ed
en- we think that if we hide ourselves, God will not notice the sins we commit daily both against God and against each other.
The only problem with that line of thinking is that sin IS a big deal. Adam and Eve could not hide their sin from God and neither can we. God hates sin, and we run after sin and away from God just like sheep. We run distracted by the cares, troubles, and temptations of the world, and we always fail to see why that is wrong. We think that what we do does not matter; that since Christ died we are fine to do whatever we want since we have forgiveness. Yet consider what God went through for us. Consider the pain, suffering, and death of One who never sinned, who never disobeyed God, who gave up eternal life for humans that He created out of dust. When faced with the stark reality of the cross, how can we do anything more than fall befo
re God and beg Him for mercy?
“Here we have a firm foundation; here the refuge of the lost; Christ’s the Rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast. Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt! None shall ever be confounded who on Him their hope have built.”
Holy week allows us to focus our attention firmly on Jesus Christ-the author and perfecter of our faith, and the one foundation that can never be taken away from us. The death of Jesus is a sobering fact yet it had to happen or else we would be lost forever, trapped in our sin, and separated from God. While we always want to jump right to the resurrection and the joy found there, let us not forget that Christ first died before He rose from the dead. He took the entire weight of the world’s sin upon Himself, was forsaken by God, and died so that we, His creation, might never know what it is like to be abandoned by God and damned for all eternity. What a comfort that thought is and what a marvelous foundation upon which our faith is built. Christ took everything that we deserve and everything that we should have suffered upon Himself because He loves us. On that cross, He stands between us and the wrath of God, shielding us from everything we should suffer. Thanks be to God for His mercy!
