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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.

Earlier this week, as he crossed the street near the college he was attending, a former high-school classmate of my nephew’s was struck and killed by a hit‑and‑run driver under‑the‑influence. When my nephew and I spoke hours later about the death of his friend, our conversation touched on the question of God’s purpose for human suffering. I readily admitted then (and likewise admit now) that, to our fallen human hearts and minds, the answers to the question of God’s purpose for human suffering are somewhat obscure, implicit, and less‑than‑satisfying. But, far more clear, explicit, and satisfying is the answer to the question of God’s purpose for the suffering of His Son, Jesus, the Messiah (or Christ): He “Suffered to bear our sins”.

After Ash Wednesday, the general theme for our midweek Lenten sermons has been “Passion Prophecies fulfilled for you!” And tonight we continue that sermon series, reflecting on prophecy and fulfillment regarding the Messiah Who “Suffered to bear our sins”. I at least intended tonight’s focus to fit very well with today’s being Maundy Thursday, for, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, that Messiah, Jesus, in His suffering pours out His blood and gives it to us to drink for the forgiveness of our sins. (And, as “usual” for this series, you have on the front cover of your service folder French artist J-J Tissot’s illustration of this prophecy’s fulfillment.)

Some seven‑hundred years before Jesus was born, in the fourth and longest of the so‑called “Servant Songs”, God prophesied through Isaiah that God’s Servant would suffer: specifically, that the Suffering Servant would suffer and serve bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, having placed upon Him the chastisement that brings us peace, with His wounds healing us, and having laid upon Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6). During His earthly ministry, when Zebedee’s wife Salóme asked Jesus to say that her sons were to sit at His right and left hands in His Kingdom, Jesus declared that He came to serve—to serve by giving His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:18-28). (That “many” is a Hebrew figure of speech that really means “all”, and the “ransom” is a redemption from sin.) And, on the night when He was betrayed, Jesus, as we heard, specifically said the cup of His blood is poured out for the same “many”, for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:27-28). He “Suffered to bear our sins”. In the Opening Hymn we sang to Him of His redemption:

Lamb of God, foretold for ages,
Now at last the hour had come / When but One could pay sin’s wages:
You assumed their dreadful sum. (Lutheran Service Book 445:1.5-8)

The Lamb of God, foretold of ages, truly was the only One Who could pay the dreadful sum of sin’s wages, but the wages of whose sins? Anyone passing by could have had a false notion about sin, thinking that, like those hanging on the crosses to Jesus’s left and His right, Jesus hung on the cross for His own sins. People today can have that or other false notions about sin. For example, people might wrongly think that Jesus only needed to die for others, that they themselves have no sin. People might wrongly think that unborn children, newborn children, or children not yet of a certain age either have no sin, do not know what sin is, or are otherwise not accountable for their sin. People might wrongly think that those who die or suffer in specific ways—such as my nephew’s friend’s dying in that accident—do so for some specific sin. We might wrongly think that we suffer only because of someone else’s sin, such as because of Adam and Eve’s sin. We might wrongly think that Jesus did not die for us as individuals. Or, we might wrongly think that our individual sin is too great for Him to take away.

To be sure, the Bible rejects all such false notions about sin. The Bible stops every mouth and holds the whole world accountable to God (Romans 3:19). The Bible makes clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We all are by nature sinful, and so we all sin. In general, we all are not to think that some sinners are worse than others, but we all are to repent, lest we all perish and suffer eternally as we deserve (Luke 13:1-5). As we did in tonight’s penitential psalm, we cry, out of the depths, to the Lord, for with Him there is forgiveness, that He may be feared—that He may be feared, loved, and trusted above all things and all people.

The fourth and longest of the so‑called “Servant Songs” God gave through Isaiah is said to be the Old Testament passage quoted most in the New Testament. For example, in one place St. Matthew by Divine inspiration tells us that Jesus’s casting out demons and healing all who were sick was to fulfill the prophecy that the Suffering Servant would take our illnesses and bear our diseases (Matthew 8:16-17; Isaiah 53:4). Indeed, the God-man Jesus Christ takes on Himself, has laid on Him, bears, carries, is pierced, and is crushed for all of our griefs, sorrows, transgressions, and iniquities. Just as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:24-35). There is no person that He did not die for, and there is no sin that He does not take away, by grace through faith in Him. He “Suffered to bear our sins”, and He rose again for us. With His wounds, we are healed. He is our scapegoat, as it were. He atones for us. The Hymn of the Day put the matter this way in words addressed to Jesus:

Thy holy body into death was given, / Life to win for us in heaven.
No greater love than this to Thee could bind us;
May this feast thereof remind us! (Lutheran Service Book 617:2.1-4)

Truly “this feast”, the feast that fulfilled the Old Testament Passover, the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of the Altar, does remind us of His greatest love for us, as shown in giving His body to death and winning us life. But, the Sacrament of the Altar is more than a reminder! The Sacrament of the Altar is also more than a “solemn guarantee”, as our first Distribution Hymn will call it and also make clear (Lutheran Service Book 634). The Sacrament of the Altar was instituted and “mandated” on that first Maundy Thursday because it gives us the very benefits He won for us by His having “Suffered to bear our sins”. With His body in, with, and under the bread, and with His blood in with, and under the wine, HE forgives us of us who repent and believe in Him. Here at this altar He forgives whatever our sin might be. The first Distribution Hymn will put the matter this way (Lutheran Service Book 634:7):

… blest is each believing guest / Who in these promises finds rest;
For Jesus shall in love remain / With all who here His grace obtain.

The God-man Jesus Christ Himself, with the same body and blood that hung on the cross and rose from the grave, is mysteriously present here with and for us as we eat and drink, just as in tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Exodus 24:3-11) the Old Covenant or Testament was confirmed with blood, and the leaders of the people saw and beheld God as they ate and drank. Yet, tonight’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 9:11-22) makes clear that the New Covenant or Testament is greater.

One way that Epistle Reading says the New Covenant or Testament is greater is that it enables us to serve the living God. We believers who are baptized, absolved, and fed on the Sacrament of the Altar serve the living God according to our vocations. We serve the living God according to our vocations as we find Him “hidden” in the other people He places into our lives. We serve Him in them, and, as He “Suffered to bear our sins”, so we rejoice and patiently endure the suffering that He permits us to face in this lifetime. Yes, as the Bible answers the question of God’s purpose for the suffering of His Son, Jesus, the Messiah (or Christ), telling us that He “Suffered to bear our sins”, so also the Bible answers the question of God’s purpose for human suffering. Our fallen human hearts and minds may find those answers somewhat obscure, implicit, and less‑than‑satisfying, but our redeemed spiritual hearts and minds know and accept them. We know and accept, for example, that suffering produces endurance, that endurance produces character, that character produces hope, and that hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5). We hope not necessarily for an end of suffering or a healing here in time, but we hope certainly for the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting that ends all suffering and is the greatest healing. We know and accept that we suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with Him (Romans 8:17).All things work together for the good of conforming us to Christ. Through His Word and Sacraments, God’s Spirit helps us in our weakness (Romans 8:26). His power is made perfect in our weakness, for, when we are weak, then we are strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Our second Distribution Hymn will put the matter this way (Lutheran Service Book 575:3):

His oath, His covenant and blood / Support me in the raging flood;
When ev’ry earthly prop gives way, / He then is all my hope and stay.

Jesus “Suffered to bear our sins”. Like Him, we will suffer now, but, thanks be to Him that, as we are strengthened and nourished by His body and blood, no suffering can separate us from His love (Romans 8:39), and, though we suffer now, we will not suffer eternally.

Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +