[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text is the gospel reading where crucifixion comes before glory. Throughout the months of summer up until last Sunday, we were using Divine Service setting four. And one of the repeated phrases that was in that setting right before communion goes like this: “In your righteous judgment, you condemned the sin of Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit, and you justly barred them and all their children from the tree of life. Yet in your great mercy, you promised salvation by a second Adam, your son Jesus Christ our Lord, and made his cross a life-giving tree for all who trust in him. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may faithfully eat and drink the fruits of his cross and receive the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation that come to us in his body and blood.”
Here is the cross rightly portrayed as a living tree, though hanging upon it is death and condemnation. It brings life. Rightly so did Jesus say, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Poignant, indeed, is the Old Testament reading, where it was proclaimed to you and to me that that serpent was placed upon a pole, lifted up, and it brought life to those who had been bitten by serpents, whose poison coursed through their veins.
Interesting. Of all the animals that God could have used, of all the ways that God could have brought judgment upon the people, he chose to bring judgment through serpents. The very animal that Satan used to bring judgment, condemnation, and death to you and to me. The same animal that God used here to bring death to the people if they did not look to the life-giving tree upon which the serpent hung. The serpent is judgment. The serpent is death. The serpent is everything that brought them pain and sorrow, and yet they’re supposed to look to it to be saved.
Christ hung upon a tree cursed. There is damnation. There is judgment. There is all the unrighteousness which courses through your and my veins, by which we have been healed as we look to it for eternal life. It’s interesting, isn’t it? The cross of Christ. We wear them. We have them as a part of our culture as Christians. And yet, we don’t always consider what it is to die upon a cross. Hence, we’re celebrating Holy Cross Day.
When Constantine’s mother, Helena, became a Christian, and ultimately her son, Constantine, too, became a Christian, in the early 300s A.D., Helena, her name, she went to Jerusalem to try to find where Christ had been crucified and where the empty tomb was to be found. They had to search through piles of rubble. And in basically the month of September, they said that they found the cross of Christ. About 15 or 20 years later, in September again, did they build the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, where it was enshrined within the church and there one could go and worship.
Now, the cross, whether or not it really was found, is not the important issue here. This is a great date for us to look at the cross and Christ crucified for us. We’re very close to when day and night are equal, aren’t we? The vernal equinox. And from that point forward here in about a week or so, the nights become longer, all the way until we celebrate the light that comes into the world, Christ at his birth, at Christmas time. So, as we are heading into this era of time when daylight begins to be shorter than darkness with each passing day, what a great thing to have placed before our face as we go to the dark days of winter, the very cross of Christ. For as Christ said in the text, the Father glorified the Son through the Son’s death and resurrection on that cross. And through the Son’s death and resurrection on that cross, did he draw you to himself, joining himself to you and you to him, united as one body, the one holy Christian and apostolic church.
And how important to remember, as Paul said, that the message of the cross is one, the power of God. And yet, the world looks upon this message as the folly that we preach and believe in. But not you and me. Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God that we will look to when we close our eyes in death.
Now, at the beginning of the text, there are some Greeks who come to Philip and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Of all the times in Jesus’ ministry recorded for us, when someone could have walked up and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” it could have happened when he fed the 5,000. Wouldn’t that have been a great opportunity for him to see Jesus? It could have happened when Lazarus was raised from the tomb. That would have been a great opportunity for them to see Jesus. But of all the times, God chose this moment. For those Greeks to come up and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” they bring him to Jesus, and Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man to be glorified.” And he’s referring to that moment on the accursed tree. In other words, you wish to see Jesus? He will be shown to you as having meaning only in his death, his crucifixion for you.
The world loves to see this Jesus in another light. God reveals him to us here, in this light. The writer of the Hebrews said this: “Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” But the death that he tasted isn’t like everyone’s, in that this, he didn’t die of a heart attack, did he? He didn’t die of cancer. He didn’t die of emphysema. He died of sin. Sin. He died of sin, and sin made him extremely repulsive to the world and to you because it was your sin that killed him.
700 years before Christ ever was hung upon a tree, 700 years before the fruit of that tree brought life and salvation to the world, did the prophet Isaiah write this about him who was crucified for you. He wrote, “He was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Where is there glory in that? Isaiah went on to say, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” which sounds great. Yet Isaiah adds, “Yet we esteemed him stricken by God, smitten by God, and afflicted by God.” Because he was numbered with the sinners, the transgressors, the damned, the pedophiles, the adulterers, the voyeurs, and all the other of us all.
You see, it’s interesting. When we think of the type of death that Christ died, it was the cross and crucifixion, which he made very clear is the method and means by which he would die. Because of all ways to die in the early world, this was meant for those who were condemned. Right? This was the death to show they’re different than the rest of society, for they are other than the rest of society. They are sinners, horrific people, bloodied with thoughts and actions that bring God dishonor and incite his anger and wrath.
If we say, “I want to know Jesus,” then the only way you’re not going to know Jesus is through miracles. You’re not going to know Jesus through everything going along in your life peacefully and harmoniously. You’re not going to know Jesus by quickly answered prayer. But you will know Jesus as he has made himself known on the accursed tree for you. Then there is depth of meaning. For we all must die. But none of us here will ever die like he died. In fact, no one in the world will die like he died.
Consider this. As a believer, you will face death. We all will, won’t we? But as a believer, we face death not without faith in God’s forgiveness, not without his declaration of our absolution because of Christ. We will face death, but not without his blood upon our lips and his flesh upon our mouth, that we may eat and drink salvation, the very fruits of the cross. He did, though. He died that death, for God abandoned him because he won’t abandon you.
Now, unbelievers, they too will die, too. They will also face death. But as they face death, they will come up with some self-justifying thing in their head, all kinds of mental gymnastics, all kinds of ignorance. But then they will know upon their closing of eyes the horror of what Christ endured, and they will never know anything else for eternity except that horror of God’s abandonment.
This brings up kind of a difficult situation, doesn’t it? Because sometimes we are tempted to make Jesus very palatable to the world, thinking that if we make Jesus palatable, people will want to believe in him. But Jesus never made himself palatable to the world. In this morning’s text, he proclaimed that his death was our glory. “Glorify thy name, O Father.” And in his death for you was the Father’s name glorified.
You see, in this world, there’s a whole bunch of people, in fact, most of the people of this world can admire Jesus. They can admire how he handled children, how he loved the destitute, how he completely brought love and forgiveness to other people. Those are admirers. But you know what? They’re not followers. There’s a difference. Jesus talked about those who follow him hate this world and our life in this world. Hmm.
To hate this world and our life in this world is to swim in a different direction than the rest of the world. It is to be different than the rest of the world. It is to be marked by the cross upon your forehead and upon your heart that you have been redeemed by Christ crucified for you. And it manifests itself in that which you and I cling to for comfort, for hope, for good. Amen.
It was the same Apostle John that wrote this about the world: “For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, pride in possessions, for all of this in the world, this is not from the Father. It’s from the world,” John says. “And the world is dying, is passing away along with those desires. And whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
What’s the will of God? To believe upon the one crucified for you. To believe upon the one who embraced your worst fears and hopelessness and died with them, was buried with them, was damned for them, and rose again. The will of God is to believe upon the one who was judged guilty, who became the serpent for you. And all of the wrath of God was poured out on the serpent for you that you may be called the beloved of his.
When Jesus said, “Let him follow me,” he’s inviting you to follow him as one who has been redeemed from such a cursed death, from such a damnable state in which to be. When he says, “Follow me,” he’s inviting you to a life that is without that for the future. Amen. And that the glory that was revealed in Christ’s resurrection and ascension is your and my glory to come. Just as we share in his suffering, so shall we share in his glory and resurrection. That’s our lot.
It was his joyful willingness to stand in the stead for you. It was his desire to prevent the Father’s wrath from claiming you. It was to the glory of the Father that he would be the most horrible sinner of all, that you would be his most beloved child of all. And when that most powerful grain of wheat was crushed and buried in the ground, it bore fruit. And you are the fruit of that accursed tree. And you eat and drink the fruit of that accursed cross.
To see Jesus and to know Jesus is to see and know the one crucified for you and the one risen for you. You’re not admirers of Christ; you’re followers of Christ. And God feeds you during that time of following him until you follow not by faith and you see him by sight. That’s why our closing hymn is a fantastic resurrection hymn from Easter, and we will sing it with gusto and joy. In the name of the one crucified and risen for you. Amen.
