Matthew 27:27-32                                                                                          Lent 2017

Inspired by our Suffering Lord to bear a cross

²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

³² As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Here we are once more in the midst of another Lenten Season. This year our focus is on our Lord Jesus as he approaches his death on the cross, and are hopefully inspired and helped in our lives as his people through his example. Today I have the theme: Inspired by our Suffering Lord to bear a cross.

Now this is a challenging thought for us all. Now I am not sure that any one of us wants to be inspired to bear a cross. I know I for one would much prefer to not have to bear any cross at all. I certainly don’t want to go looking for a cross to bear. And I also would prefer not to put too much of a focus on my attempts to bear that cross if I do. I know that my attempts are very poor indeed.

At the same time our Lord tells that we will have crosses to bear in our lives. Throughout my life I have faced many crosses of which I did not choose; or would want to undertake. I think of the excess bullying at school; the hard work, droughts and difficult finances of the farming years; or in ministry, the unjust criticism and condemnation for holding to the truth of God’s Word; or a broken leg that will never mend. None of them I would have chosen; none of them I liked; none of them I was inspired to undergo. I have not liked any one of them. But I am sure that God has used them for good, because he promises such.

But it is here also I am very wary with a theme like this that I do not make me, myself and I the centre of this message. At a time when our society and a growing element within the church also are so heavily focussed on self, that the core of our faith is pushed to the side. It can be so easy for us to get a theme like this all wrong. That I and my cross becomes the focus rather than Lord.

It is not for me to focus on my crosses and how I would like it or not; or how I am coping or doing it or anything. For when I do, as I all too often have done, I get it all wrong. Often it is ‘poor me’ and that kind of thing. Me, myself and I have become the focus. So I have added to the disaster.

Surely when we come to this time of the year and as our focus is drawn to Jesus and what he has gone through, our centre and focus is in one place and one place alone; our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the importance of the cross. There alone is what is important. There alone is our salvation and hope for the future. There alone do we see what is important with regard to cross-bearing.

As we look to Jesus and his approach to this subject we find some things that are somewhat surprising. As he is about to undertake his most significant cross-bearing we hear his prayer to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus knows full well what lies before him and he would like ‘out’. Even though he knew very well that this is what he came into the world to do, now that it is eminent, he pleads to his Father that this cup might be taken from him; that he might be spared from the cross that is before him. He does not like what he is about to go through. It is going to be extremely rough and tough.

Never the less he says to his Father: Yet not as I will, but as you will. He leaves himself and what is in front of him into the hands of his Father, for him to do as he sees best. The Father knows it is important for us and for our salvations. His love for us, despite our sinfulness and rebellion, is such that he will have his innocent, only begotten Son, undergo all of this and perish, so that we might be forgiven and restored back into a right relationship with himself.

With that Jesus then gets up and allows himself to be arrested, falsely judged and tried, beaten, flogged, humiliated and rejected. His very own people; their leaders, being the main protagonists. They want him killed: removed from their lives, so that they can continue as they please.

Then they led him away to crucify him. Even here they make him carry his own cross out of the city so that they can hang him on it. But along the way, so weakened by the beatings and floggings, he just can’t manage it any more. Anyone who saw the movie; The Passion of the Christ, will have some idea of the brutality that he endured and the experience that he endured.

Absolutely horrible! Yet he continues resolutely on. He does what has to be done, and to receive what comes his way, knowing that it is necessary for our salvation.

Now then, when he can no longer carry his own cross, the soldiers grabbed a man from Cyrene out of the crowd, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. He now has to carry a cross, even though he most likely would not have wanted to.

He could well have been on his way into town for a party; a meeting; or a round of golf, or whatever they played back then. Why should he have to carry some criminals cross for him? Carry that heavy cross all the way out of town, just so the Romans can horribly crucify another person to a slow agonising death. Why should he have to do it? He just has to, whether he likes it or not. Whether there is a purpose in it or not. There is no inspiration here, other than a pointy end of a sword.

Then when they get to Golgotha, they nail this Jesus to this cross and leave him to hang there till he is dead. This is a most horrible way to execute someone; and here Jesus, God’s very own Son has to go through this. Here he continues to focus on what he is there for: Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.

Then to make things far worse, he is forsaken by his very own Father. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? He here endures what no one of us here in this life has to bear. He is abandoned by God and suffers the full punishment and rejection that results from our sin. This is the absolute worst that could ever happen.

But he does what he has to do, no matter what the suffering and pain; no matter the rejection of the religious leaders and the people; and even the wrath of God. He endures to the end: till he can say: It is finished, and give up his spirit. The task he has come to do is done – he dies – taking the punishment that you and I deserve on himself.

He endures it all to death, so that forgiveness of sins, life and salvation can be extended to each and every one of us. He suffers it all and gives his all, for our benefit. He dies so that we might live. Absolutely amazing!

We then read in Philippians 2 :

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

There is nothing more that can be or needs to be done. He bore his cross so that we can live with our Lord for all eternity. Now he and what he says is all important. He is Lord; and that means that our whole focus is on him and what he wants. We will forever look to him and allow him to lead and control our lives. We know that in connections with him there is the certainty of eternal life in heaven. It also means that in everything that happens in our lives, he is there with us, to help us through and to use it all for good.

When he puts or allows a cross to be there in our lives, we therefore will continue to look to him, and continue resolutely on to endure whatever he has ordained. Even though it might be rough and tough; it is nothing compared to what he went through. We also know that he will bring good out of it; even if we lose our life here on earth. So we face and do the best we can in the face of whatever is before us.

Naturally because we are still selfish, sinful people, we will get it wrong; we will bemoan our cross, and we will become disheartened and disillusioned, and more. So the only inspiration we can find and have, is to look to our Lord Jesus and what he has gone through so that we might be forgiven and have the assurance of eternal life in heaven; and there also in him seek the help that we need to do what needs to be done. In him we also have the assurance that he will turn our poor efforts into something that is good and useful.

So this Lenten season may we again be drawn to focus on our Lord Jesus and what he has done for us through his suffering and death. There then be absolutely amazed and thankful to the point that we want to know nothing but him and him crucified. There in him then, to go forward each day facing whatever is before us, with the assurance that he is with us and for us, for good.

To him be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish