It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2
Death.
Unique among all religious traditions - Christians commemorate today the death of God. In no other religion does God willingly die. No other religion is symbolized by an emblem that represents one of the cruelest methods every devised for capital punishment. The image of the cross is objectively more representative of something akin to a guillotine or an electric chair and yet rather than striking fear into hearts it is a symbol of hope. Millions of people around the globe are gather today to gaze in adoration at a symbol that represents the death of God himself. How could this be?
Over the last few weeks I have spent hours asking myself these kinds of questions. Why did God have to die? What message was he trying to communicate through his death and suffering? What truth is being spoken to me through his death? What should my response be to the example of a loving God who dies .. for me? How should I identify with the cross of Christ?
As I have read through hundreds of scriptures in both the Old and New Testament I have been amazed to see how the cosmic struggle with death permeates nearly every page. We all know were it began. Paul explains in Romans (5:12): " just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned".
God created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose good or evil. Satan enticed them to disobey God, lying to them when he said ' You will not surely die'. Death entered the world lock step with Sin and God resolved from the beginning that death must also die. He promised: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Gen 3:15)
So begins a cosmic struggle - sin and death loose upon the world - God planning not just to buffer the pain and suffering of sin but to eliminate death entirely.
Imagine Isaiah climbing to the top of a hill outside of Jerusalem, oblivious to what will transpire in this same location 700 years later, as he cries out these words of prophecy: (Isa 25:6-8)
On this mountain the LORD Almighty .will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
God hates death. His plan is to destroy it . but how? Isaiah foretold this amazing plan.( Isaiah 53)
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. . He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. . After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Prophecy after prophecy lay out precisely the cruel agonizing death that was going to face God's anointed. Jesus himself was absolutely clear on this. An amazing sequence of passages captured by the gospel writer Mark illustrate how his own disciples could not grasp the method of his mission.
In Mark 8 he taught them ' that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected . and that he must be killed and after three days rise again" only to have Peter rebuke him about talking about his death. Jesus rebukes Peter telling him "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
This same teaching is repeated again in the next chapter. His disciplines listened politely and then went on arguing about who was going to be first in the kingdom. Finally in Mark 10 he again takes the twelve aside to tell them that he will be arrested, condemned to death and killed. James and John immediately followed up his instruction with a request for one to sit on his right and one on his left when he came to power.
The disciples were not only in denial about Christ's death - they did not recognize the roles they must play as well. Repeatedly he made it clear that he expected them to be part of this process. In the gospels of John, Matthew, and Luke we repeatedly hear words such as these:
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matt 16:24-26)
Only after his death did they finally understand. The apostle Paul encapsulates a full understanding of Christ's words repeatedly in his letters to the churches:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14 )
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. . I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:7-11)
We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? . Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.( Rom 6:1-11 )
I am a scientist and every part of being has wanted to explain how the death of Jesus on the cross 'works'. Like some metaphysical machine I want to describe to you the cause and effect, action and reaction of how Christ's death and our salvation are linked.
Instead I have found myself swallowed up in a mystery far beyond anything I can define. In fact 'mystery' is actually the word Paul uses throughout the New Testament to try to capture the meaning of the work of Christ on the cross.
But the thing about a mystery is this - to fully understand it you have to enter it. It is foolishness to try to explain what being in love is like if you have never been in love. So in the last few days I moved from trying to understand it as a mechanism to trying to enter it as a mystery. I will let you listen in on a couple of pages from my journal entries from the last week
'March 27, 02 Thoughts on Good Friday'
In one of the most courageous acts of history God created humanity in his image, granting them a free will to choose either good or evil. The enemy of our souls must have thought he had it made when the choices of Adam and Eve lit a fire of sin and brokenness that began to sweep from generation to generation.
Each generation of humanity thought the answer was to work harder to stay ahead of the fire. More meditation, more rules, more disciplines, more religion .. Yet sin and brokenness overtook every generation ending in death.
Then God became man and was faced with the same raging fires. Although more fleet than any person every could be - capable of outracing sin and brokenness without breaking a sweat - he chose rather to turn and willing enter the fire - taking on the sin and brokenness of us all.
He showed us that Salvation was not based on outrunning the fire it is about dying to the fire - dying to ourselves, our sin and our brokenness. He demonstrated that the fire has no power to hold him - the flames cannot consume the giver of life, in this lies our hope - we are to die to the race against the flames of sin and brokenness - dying to become alive to life in Christ.
March 22, 02 - Meditation on Philippians 4:7 - 'I want to know Christ - the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings'
How self serving my faith if it simply provides a way of experiencing peace and hope and eternal life. Most of us would follow anyone who would offer us eternal life - it would be of little consequence as to whether we loved them or knew them. Like the doctor who saves our life by removing a tumor we are deeply grateful but we don't need to know them.
But to love someone so much - to desire the giver not the gift alone means that I would follow them and be with them no matter what. I would die to my own desires, I would suffer as they suffered, I would place all my hope and trust in their power to raise me. I would know them - the giver not the gift.
All of us have faced the fire - sin, and the consequences of sin in our own lives and in the lives of others. All of us know we are going to die. But honestly - we still believe that if we could live good enough lives we can avoid the fire. Even as Christians we have used the cross - our faith in Christ - simply has a some form of spiritual steroid - hoping to boost our performance enough to avoid sin, and suffering, brokenness and death. We fail to see that sin and death still rule over our hearts and lives.
Why God had to die is still a mystery to me. But this I know - he didn't die to provide an end run around suffering or death or brokenness. He died to show me how I too can die.
Needles once terrified me. I remember as a child how my Dad would take me to the infirmary to get my needle - but to show me how little power it had he would have me watch him get his needle first. Christ's demonstrated his power over death not to give me an easy ticket into heaven but to show me that I could die as well.
When I die to myself - when I die to my own brokenness and sinfulness and trust only in Christ's demonstrated power over death then death and sin and brokenness no longer have power over me. I no longer fear.
My friend Bill died just about 1 year ago of cancer. The day before he died I was sitting with him in his room. We talked about death - he really hated it by the way. I remember he told me that he knew he was going to die and we both wept.
A few minutes later he said he was tired and was going to have a nap. I said that was fine and said I would stay until he woke up. Peace like a mantle settled over his face and in fact over the entire room - so much so that I found myself at rest. I laid my head back and fell into a deep, much needed sleep myself. We both awoke sometime later and talked and laughed. In the very face of death there was rest, and peace and joy.
I came to realize in new way how powerful the work of Christ was in Bill's life. He demonstrated power over death not by running from it but through the power of the cross, he stared it down. Death has no victory!
This is how death is destroyed - by dying - both God and me. The poet from the 1600's - John Donne captures the death of death in his Holy Sonnet Six:
DEATH, be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go-
Rest of their bones and souls' delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!
The apostle Paul wrote:
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:54-57 )
When you were dead in your sins . God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, . he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col 2:13-15)
We are not a church of whole people trying to show broken people how to get whole. We are a group of broken people inviting other broken people to join us on a journey - a journey in which we learn to die, and in dying our sin is forgiven and through dying our brokenness is redeemed.
Communion
This morning we invite you to enter this mystery of death's demise as we partake of communion together. I invite you to act out a simple liturgy with me. No formal service of communion - no written liturgy, only a liturgy of the heart and hands.
When you came in this morning you were given a short piece of wood. I want you to take and hold that piece of wood. Think of it as a symbol of your life. Think about your life for a moment.
What thoughts sweep through your heart and mind? Hopefully some great joys and thankfulness but I expect many great sorrows as well. All our lives experience brokenness.
I want you to focus on the brokenness of your life. Not sin specifically but the consequences of living in a sinful world. Maybe it is broken relationships you wish were whole, broken bodies as the result of sickness, broken hearts and emotions as the result of abuse.
Name your brokenness in your heart and mind. (pause) Now, to symbolize your own brokenness - when you are ready - break your wood into two pieces.
As you hold the brokenness of your life in your hands hear again the words of Isaiah:
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. . and by his wounds we are healed.
In the night of His betrayal, Jesus took the bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
The body of our Lord Jesus Christ - broken for you - feed on him in your hearts by faith and be thankful.
Take the broken pieces that you have in your hands and form them into a cross. We recognize that our lives are also full of sin. The writer of Hebrews encourages us (Heb 12:1-3); let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles . Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame
Take a moment and let God speak to you about the sin that entangles your life. (pause)
Now use the string to tie that sin to the cross you've made. You might find it is awkward to tie your sin to the cross. Wrap it around both open arms of the cross, use extra knots any many wrappings. It may take several tries to secure it firmly but that seems to be the nature of sin isn't it.
Hold your cross and hear the words of Isaiah:
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
In like manner, after supper He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of this all of you, for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for you, preserve your soul and body unto life everlasting. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for you, and be thankful.
Now enter a mystery. We hold in our hands nothing but our brokenness and sinfulness, each carrying our own cross. I am going to invite you as you are ready to come forward, walk up on the platform along the outer steps, and leave your cross at the foot of the cross of Christ. If steps are a problem or you are uncomfortable with coming to the platform please feel free to come directly to the front.
Pastor Dean and other leaders will be ready at the foot of the cross to met you and offer you the body of Christ. Some will need to make use of the tray of glutton free bread. Take the bread and dip it into the cup and then feel free to use the altar or return to your pew - but make a quiet place to express your gratitude to God for his gift of grace.
Place your brokenness and sinfulness in the cross of Christ knowing that he has victory over sin and that in dying to ourselves we become alive in Christ.
Come enter the miraculous mystery described by the apostle Paul: "the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:26-27). |
