+ We preach Christ and Him crucified +
John 19,16-30 Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum
Karfreitag 031 schwarz Soter and Caius, Bishops and Martyrs at Rome 177 and 296
22. April 2011
1. O Almighty, Eternal God, who for us has caused Your Son to suffer the pains of the cross, so that You put away the power of the enemy from us, grant us to observe the memory of His suffering so that we may attain the forgiveness of sin, and the certain release from eternal death, to serve You in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness (Löhe). Furthermore, we beseech You graciously to behold this Your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed, given up into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross (Book of Common Prayer) so that by His holy and righteous merit we, by virtue of His penal substitution, His vicarious atonement, and the blessed exchange, receive by faith the promise of everlasting salvation. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this evening, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to John where the holy apostle writes: 16So Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus over to the chief priests to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, „Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.“ 20Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, „Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’“ 22Pilate answered, „What I have written I have written.“ 23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also His tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24so they said to one another, „Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.“ This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, „They divided My garments among them, and they cast lots for My clothing.“ So the soldiers did these things, 25but standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, „Woman, behold, your son!“ 27Then He said to the disciple, „Behold, your mother!“ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. 28After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the Scripture, „I thirst.“ 29A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. 30When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, „It is finished,“ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. This is our text. 3. Shortly before Jesus was baptized and began His ministry, John the Baptizer proclaimed: »Behold, the Lamb of God who is taking away the sin of the world!« (John 1,29). When Jesus began preaching, His message was: »Repent, for the reign of heaven/God is at hand!« (Matthew 4,17). For six hours on Good Friday: „I. The crucified Jesus is proclaimed before all the world as the king of Israel, and II. The Scripture is fulfilled in His suffering“ (Wenz 1 §3).
I.
4. The crucified Jesus is proclaimed before all the world as the king of Israel. Pilate had an inscription (titulum) written and placed above Jesus’ head when He was crucified. It was common for the Romans to place the criminal’s crime upon his cross so that passers by would know why the person was being executed by the Roman State. Jesus’ criminal offense was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek: מנצרת, מלך היהודים ישו, Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum, Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, thus in English: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and as it is commonly rendered today upon crosses and crucifixes INRI. This was the charge the Jewish rulers levied against Jesus before Pilate. 5. Jesus, then, hangs upon the cross in great agony and suffering as the King of Israel. The Roman emperor had established the Family of Herod as the sanctioned kings of Israel. Any other claim to the Judean throne was officially a challenge to Rome’s rule and if considered serious such a claim could be punished by death. Barabbas and some of his compatriots had been captured for attempting to incite rebellion against Rome. The Jewish crowd cried for Barabbas’ release instead of Jesus’. Jesus took Barabbas’ place and He was crucified between two insurrectionists as an insurrectionist. Jesus is the King of the Jews.
II.
6. The Holy Scriptures are fulfilled in His suffering. Jesus, the King of the Jews, fulfilled the Law and the Prophets when He was crucified. The law declares that the sinner will die (Ezekiel 18,20). The law is unrelenting and fierce. The law condemns each sinner with a horrific judgment: sinners are enslaved to the devil, sinners will suffer in this earthly life and will one day die in punishment for their sin, sinners will suffer eternal separation from Yahweh. The law leaves sinners in utter despair. The law brings us to the foot of the cross. 7. Roman law condemned Jesus to die as a rebel against Rome. The titulum announced Jesus’ crime against Rome. Mosaic law condemned Jesus as a filthy sinner: cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deuteronomy 21,23). Jesus suffering on the cross shows us how serious sin is. Sin must be punished. Sin must be eradicated. Sin must be killed. Thus Jesus suffers on the cross as a sinner. »Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by having become a curse for us« (Galatians 3,13).
8. Behold, the Son of Man on the cross! Look at Him; do not shy away. Behold the high price of the law necessary to pay for sins! It began when Jesus was beaten to a bloody pulp: twenty lashes from a cat-of-nine tails formed deep cuts in an „x“ pattern across His back, and then nineteen more lashes across His chest. Roman whips used broken pottery, bits of metal, and even nails to tear into the condemned’s flesh. A crown with 6-inch long thorns was pressed down hard into Jesus head. Then Jesus was forced to carry the cross beam out to Calvary where He would be crucified. Crucifixions were shameful and gut wrenching. The Romans didn’t accord criminals any dignity: they were crucified naked. There was the smell of sweat mingled with fear, along with urine, and other bodily releases. The body was caked with blood. Groans and cries for mercy were uttered by the crucified and the onlookers. Jesus’ dying words portray the utter depth of sorrow and degradation. Jesus turns to His dear mother, Mary, and says, »Woman, behold, your son!«. Then Jesus said to His disciple, John, »Behold, your mother!« Jesus was being parted from His family and friends, and they from Him. His last will and testament is that John care for His beloved mother. And from that hour John took Mary to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill Psalm 69, »I thirst.« John mentions this statement of Jesus in his Gospel and thus points us to verse 3: »I am weary with My crying out; My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for My God.« Please take a moment tomorrow and read Psalm 69; it is only 36 verses long and can be read in a few minutes. Read the psalm and see how David prophecies Christ’s crucifixion in vivid detail.
9. Crucifixions were excruciating deaths. „As the criminal slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. As he pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he placed his full weight on the nail through his feet. Again, there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of his feet. Hanging by the arms, the pectoral muscles were paralyzed and the small muscles between the ribs were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. The crucified fought to raise himself in order to get even one short breath. He suffered hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue was torn from his lacerated back from his movement up and down against the rough timbers of the cross. Another agony was a deep crushing pain in the chest as the sac surrounding the heart slowly filled with serum and began to compress the heart. The compressed heart struggled to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood to the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a frantic effort to inhale small gulps of air“ (Dr. C. Truman Davis).
10. Jesus suffered this way for six hours. The way to end this horror was when the crucified could not or would not push up on his legs to breathe – asphyxiation would occur in seconds. „The cross of Jesus grieves us not only because we are sorry for Him in His suffering but also because of what it says to us. To each sinner the cross shows, „This is what your sin means.“ We cannot dodge that accusation“ (Nagel 116). The cross reveals the deadly seriousness of our sinful nature. Christ crucified is the costly ransom made paid in full for our sinfulness. Behold, there is Jesus, the King of the Jews!
11. The full condemnation of the law is hung on Jesus when He is crucified. His Heavenly Father’s holy and terrible wrath against sin and the sinner is poured out upon Christ in all its Divine fullness. In this very action of God the Father, He is also showing us His abundant and merciful gospel. John the Baptizer had pointed to Jesus three years earlier and cried out with joy: »Behold, the Lamb of God who is taking away the sin of the world!« (John 1,29).
12. Behold, the Son of Man on the cross! Look at Him; do not shy away. Behold the rich gospel shown to pay for sins! Jesus told Nicodemus three years earlier: »For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned« (John 3,16-18a). On the cross Jesus thirsted on our behalf, and to those who also thirst for God’s forgiveness, Jesus proclaims: »If anyone thirsts, let that person come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, „From His heart will flow rivers of living water“« (John 7,37-38). And finally, there is the magnificent promise spoken by Jesus in the midst of death: »I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though that person dies, yet shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die« (John 11,25-26).
13. After Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, »It is finished,« then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. This final dying word of Jesus is not a statement of defeat, but a simple and powerful exhortation of victory. Jesus’ suffering and humiliation under the law is over. The sin of the entire world has been purchased. The ransom price has been paid, and the Heavenly Father’s wrath and anger against sin and the sinner has been sated. The gospel leaves sinners in ecstatic joy. The gospel brings us to the foot of the cross and shows us Jesus, the Lamb of God, the King of the Jews, who redeems us back to God.
14. Behold, the Son of Man, the King of the Jews, hangs lifeless on the cross. Jesus suffered and died for you. Your sins, all of them, are forgiven. Eternal life is now yours. Salvation is given unto you. On the cross, Jesus reconciles you back to God the Father. Jesus has made peace between God and us. Behold, Christ crucified for you. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, who desires all people to be saved, on this night we remember the great gospel proclamation, »For God has loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not be lost, but have eternal life« (John 3,16). Jesus Christ our Savior is the gift of salvation that You have given Your fallen creation. On the cross we see the law in all its fierceness as it condemns Jesus as the Chief of Sinners and He was therefore rightly and justly punished. We also see on the cross the gospel in all its loving-kindness as it shows us the great love of Christ Jesus who willing and gladly took upon Himself our sins, bore our punishment in our place, suffered and died so that we may now have forgiveness and life everlasting in His glorious fellowship. May the loving sacrifice of Your Beloved Son instruct our minds and impassion our hearts so that we daily remain confident of our forgiveness and joyful in our right standing before You, O Lord. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, John © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Davis, Dr. C. Truman. “The Crucifixion of Jesus”. http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/crucifixion.html. Copyright © 1982 New Wine Magazine.Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
Wenz. Armin. A sermon preached on John 19,16-30 on Karfreitag, 10. April 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Rev. Dr. Armin Wenz. Translation © 2011 The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind.
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