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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Whatever you and I might think about the potential indictment of Former-President Donald Trump on criminal charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, we probably would have to grant the historic nature of a former U-S president’s potentially being put in handcuffs and having his mugshot and fingerprints taken. The former president’s defense attorney recently said that Trump would turn himself in if he is indicted (CNBC), which certainly sounds better than a protracted fight over Trump’s extradition from Florida to New York. Even in less-historic cases, there are a number of good reasons for the accused to turn themselves in to the authorities, whether those accused are guilty or innocent. The matter of an accused’s giving himself or herself into the hands of the authorities—for such things as being put in custody, judged, condemned, punished, scourged, tormented, and put to death—comes to mind as we conclude our Midweek Lent Special Sermon Series on the theme, “Who handed-over Jesus for you?” As those who have “handed-over Jesus for you”, we have already considered God the Father, Judas Iscariot, the Jewish Leaders, and Pontius Pilate, and tonight we consider God the Son, as the fifth and last of those who “handed-over Jesus for you”.
The Divinely-inspired St. Paul writes to the Galatians and to us, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 1:20 ESV; confer Galatians 1:4). The Son of God gave Himself—handed-over Himself—for Paul, for you, for me, and for the whole world. St. Paul refers to the Son of God’s “handing-over” Himself with the same Greek word that we have heard used of the “handing-over” by God the Father, Judas Iscariot, the Jewish Leaders, and Pontius Pilate. At least some of that “handing-over” would not have happened without the Son of God’s going along with it (confer Matthew 26:24; Mark 14:21). For example, after Jesus had been betrayed by Judas Iscariot and was being arrested into the custody of the Jewish Leaders, and one of His disciples drew his sword, apparently trying to resist the arrest, Jesus told him to put away his sword and said that He could have appealed to His Father, Who would have sent Him more than twelve legions—perhaps more than six-thousand—angels, but, Jesus said, then the Scriptures could not be fulfilled that it must be so (Matthew 26:51-54). Similarly, after the Jewish Leaders had handed-over Jesus to Pontius Pilate, and before Pontius Pilate handed-over Jesus to the soldiers to crucify, Jesus told Pontius Pilate that Jesus’s servants could have been fighting so that Jesus would not have been delivered-over to the Jewish Leaders (John 18:36-40).
You and I might be very reluctant to hand-over ourselves to the civil authorities if we are innocent of their civil charges against us, as Jesus was innocent of the civil charges against Him. You and I are reluctant enough to hand-over ourselves to the civil authorities if we are guilty of their civil charges against us, though, if we are truly sorry for what we have done, then we should willingly suffer the civil consequences of our sins. To be sure, our “handing-over” ourselves is hardly necessary in order for God to hold us spiritually accountable for our sins—to kill us here and now and to torment us in hell for eternity—and we certainly are guilty of sinning, for we are sinful by nature. We sang in tonight’s Psalm (Psalm 143:1-12; antiphon v.1) that no one living is righteous before the Lord, and yet we asked Him not to enter into judgment with us, to hear our prayer and give ear to our pleas for mercy, in His faithfulness to answer us, in His righteousness. And so, the Lord forgives us for the sake of Jesus, Who was innocent but took on our sin (for example, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
As we have considered previously, God the Father handed-over Jesus for our trespasses (Romans 4:25; confer Romans 8:32). That God the Father’s will to hand-over Jesus could somehow be kept from being fulfilled by God the Son is hard for us to imagine, though we have seen in the garden of Gethsemane how Jesus struggled to submit His human will to the Divine will (for example, Matthew 26:36-46). No doubt the Holy Spirit assisted Jesus in His struggle! Ultimately, Jesus said to the Father, Thy will be done, and He permitted Judas Iscariot’s, the Jewish Leaders, and Pontius Pilate’s handing Him over. As we heard in tonight’s Reading (Matthew 27:27-66), Jesus permitted the soldiers’ mocking Him. Jesus permitted the soldiers’ crucifying Him. Jesus permitted Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus’s burying Him (confer John 19:38-42). So great was the Son of God’s self-sacrificial love for you, for me, and for the world, that He was willing to die for you, for me, and for the world (confer Büchsel, TDNT 2:170). He was willing to die on the cross for us, to die in our place, to die in order to save us from an eternity of our always dying but never being dead, which we otherwise would deserve. And, when the Son of God so died on the cross, He handed-over arguably not only the spirt, as it were, of His life, but also the Holy Spirit (John 19:30), before He was resurrected.
Now, God the Father and God the Son give the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and the Sacraments (Augsburg Confession, V:2). Tonight’s Opening Hymn called us to “Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain … in sorrow and contrition” and find “free remission” and “peace” (Lutheran Service Book 435:1, 3). Of course, we do not literally go to Calvary, but we literally come here: to hear the Gospel read and preached to groups such as this group and to have the Gospel applied to us individually with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us. We might think especially of Holy Baptism, for, when the Divinely-inspired St. Paul writes to the Ephesians about Christ’s loving the Church and giving Himself up for Her, St. Paul says that Christ gave Himself up for Her so that He might sanctify Her, having cleansed Her by the washing of water with the Word—which is nothing else but Holy Baptism!—so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27). And so the Church is: so you and I are.
In tonight’s sermon text, we heard St. Paul say, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 1:20 ESV). Likewise we can say that Christ lives in us, and the good that we do is really Christ doing it through us. As Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, so we walk in love (Ephesians 5:1). Arguably by God, we are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11). Like St. Paul and his coworker Barnabas, we are even willing to hand-over our own lives for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 15:26; 1 Corinthians 13:3). As we sang in the Office Hymn (LSB 427:4), “Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure”—even our death on Chris’s account—“By the cross are sanctified”.
For five Wednesdays now we have considered God the Father, Judas Iscariot, the Jewish Leaders, Pontius Pilate, and God the Son as those who handed‑over Jesus for you. If you forget some of the five, at least remember that Jesus was handed-over for you. With Holy Week now ahead, may God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit continue to bless our Lenten walk together, to the glory of His Holy Name.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +