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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.
This image depicting Matthew 26:63 is by French painter and illustrator James Jacques Tissot (1836-1902), rendered in opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, owned by the Brooklyn Museum, and used from this site.
When you and I hear the word “smitten”, what meaning comes to our minds? Someone who or something that has been beaten down? Or, someone or something so in love so as to be foolish or unreasonable? I suppose either meaning might come to our minds, depending on the context. In the title of our Office Hymn, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” (Lutheran Service Book 451), the meaning is more obviously someone Who has been beaten down than the meaning is someone so in love so as to be foolish or unreasonable. Likewise, in the theme for the tonight’s service and title for the sermon, “Smitten on the cheek”, the meaning has to do with being “beaten” or “struck”, as more-recent Bible versions are likely to translate the verb. I could have translated the word that way in the theme and title, if not for my desire to keep the connection both to the Office Hymn and to Old Testament prophecy where, even in some more‑recent Bible versions, the word “smitten” is still used. So, as we continue our special Lenten midweek sermon series with the general theme “Passion Prophecies fulfilled for you!”, tonight we reflect on prophecy and its fulfillment regarding the Messiah, Who was “Smitten on the cheek”. With the now “usual” illustration by French artist J-J Tissot on the front, the service outline lists the prophecy as from Micah 5 verse 1 and the fulfillment from Matthew 27 verse 30, but other passages could also have been listed, such as prophecy from Isaiah, both 50 verse 6 and 53 verse 4, and fulfillment from Matthew 26 verse 67.
Some might argue both whether or not the Micah passage even points forward to Jesus’s passion and, if it does, whether or not the listed Matthew passage reports its fulfillment. God through Micah is telling of the mistreatment of Israel’s king at the hands of the nation’s oppressors; He writes, “with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek” (Micah 5:1). Such physical striking on a cheek, or even a form of striking with words, was an insult to the person so struck long before God recorded those words through Micah (see Job 16:10; 1 Kings 22:24; 2 Chronicles 18:23; and Lamentations 3:30). Yet, not long after, the nation’s king was so mistreated. Essentially every successful siege of Jerusalem ended with mistreatment of the nation’s king; her “last” king, Zedekiah, was blinded, bound, and led away to Babylon (2 Kings 25:7). So, Micah prophesies that they will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek, and Matthew reports that, having pretended to honor Jesus as the “King of the Jews”, the governor’s soldiers struck Jesus with a reed on the head (Matthew 27:30). We can hardly let the difference between “cheek” and “head” keep the Micah prophecy from being fulfilled by Matthew’s report, for in the Old Testament a part such as “cheek” can often refer to a whole such as “head”, and in the New Testament the word for “cheek” is rarely used.
When we think of the governor’s soldiers’ stripping Jesus, putting a scarlet robe on Him, twisting together a crown of thorns and putting it on His head and putting a reed in His right hand, kneeling before Him and mocking Him as “King of the Jews”, spitting on Him, and taking the reed and striking Him in the Head—when we think of all that they did we may be inclined to think of them, of their guilt in that mistreatment. Indeed, in some ways, they are examples of humanity at its worst, malicious and unrestrained. Yet, by nature, we are no better. The whole of Jesus’s treatment was because of your guilt and mine. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, which is why we even could esteem Him “stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). Hymn‑writer Thomas Kelly points us to the cross and warns us with these words that we sang:
Ye who think of sin but lightly / Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly, / Here its guilt may estimate. (LSB 451:3.1-2)
The Lord strikes the earth with the rod of His mouth (Isaiah 11:4); He strikes enemies on the cheek (Psalm 3:7). Seeing Isarel’s king shamefully mistreated shows us the defeat of the whole people; nothing else shows more clearly the misery and shame we deserve for our sins.
Having seen Jesus, Who was “smitten on the cheek”, crucified on the cross, some of the people returned home smiting or beating their own breasts or chests (Luke 23:48). They were as we should be: stricken in the conscience with grief and lamentation over our sin, with self‑contemplation and penitence (see 1 Samuel 24:5). Like the author of tonight’s penitential psalm (Psalm 102)—possibly a member of the royal house in exile in Babylon—we should lament our sin but remain confident that the Lord will hear and deliver us. When we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive us, and want to do better than keep on sinning, then God forgives our sin, whatever it might be, and He even forgives our sinful natures. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus’s being “smitten on the cheek” truly was because of us, our sin, and so, in a sense, His being “smitten on the cheek” shows us our sin. But, Jesus’s being “smitten on the cheek” also truly was for us, to save us from our sin, and so, in a sense, His being “smitten on the cheek” also shows us our salvation from sin. Micah prophesies that “with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek,” but, in the very next verse, Micah also prophesies, as we heard in Advent, that from Bethlehem will come forth for us “One Who is to be ruler in Israel, Whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2). Born at a time when it seemed the scepter had departed from Judah, that “ancient” God born into Jesus’s human flesh in Bethlehem is “the Christ, by man rejected”, “the long expected Prophet, / David Son, yet David’s Lord”, “the true and faithful Word” (LSB 451:1). Unbelievers may think Him “smitten” in the sense of so in love so as to be foolish or unreasonable, but we who believe know that He was “smitten”, beaten down, for us.
In tonight’s reading of “The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” as “Drawn from the Four Gospel [accounts]”, we heard how, after Jesus gave us His Spirit, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’s side with a spear and water and blood flowed out (John 19:30, 34). On that event, tonight’s Closing Hymn bases an invitation, with these words:
Come to Calv’ry’s holy mountain, / Sinners, ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain / Flows for you, for me, for all,
In a full, perpetual tide, / Opened when our Savior died. (LSB 435:1)
We cannot go to Calvary literally and find the water flowing from Jesus’s side, but we can come to the baptismal font and find Him in water with the Word that gives birth to us from above (see Exodus 7:17; 17:6). We cannot go to Calvary and hear His words “Father, forgive them” or “Today you will be with me in paradise”, but we can come privately to our pastor and have him, by Jesus’s authority, individually forgive our sins in His Name. We cannot go to Calvary and find the blood flowing from Jesus’s side, but we can come to the rail of this altar and find Him in bread that is His body and in wine that is His blood that gives us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We cannot go to Calvary, but we can come to His means of grace—Baptism, Absolution, and the Supper—and in those ways receive the benefits won at Calvary, by Him Who was “smitten on the cheek” for us.
The governor’s soldiers struck Jesus on the head with a reed, reminiscent of the rod or staff or scepter that might discipline or correct a slave or son. As God the Father afflicted Jesus for us, for our benefit, so God the Father also afflicts us, for our benefit. Like our Lord, we are called to not resist the one who is evil, but, if anyone slaps us on the right cheek, to turn to him the other also (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29). Of course, we are more likely to want to retaliate—so our sinful natures continue to cling to us and too often win‑out over and against our redeemed natures that want to keep God’s commandments. So, with repentance and faith, we live every day in the forgiveness of sins—in the peace and joy that it brings, no matter what God permits us to face.
At the beginning of St. Matthew’s Gospel account, Gentiles sincerely worship the Child Jesus as “the King of the Jews” and give Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-2, 10-11). In the middle of St. Matthew’s Gospel account, as Gentiles pretend to worship the Man Jesus as “the King of the Jews” and give Him a robe, a crown, and a reed (Matthew 27:28-29). At the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel account, the eleven sincerely worship the Resurrected King of the Jews, to Whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given (Matthew 28:16-18). Let us not miss the contrast, but, rather, let us be among those who now and so forever sincerely worship Him—Him Who was “Smitten on the cheek” for us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +