John 19:17-30For seven years I was the pastor of St. Paul’s UMC in Lewisburg, and in the sanctuary of that church is a very large and beautiful stained glass window of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. One Sunday I was talking about that story and how Jesus asked God to find another way for forgiveness and salvation to be offered to humankind. Jesus prayed, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but your will be done. I talked about how hard it was for Jesus in those moments to surrender himself to the will of God, in fact, it was so difficult that in Luke’s gospel it says in anguish his sweat become like great drops of blood falling to the ground. It was a difficult decision Jesus had to make that night because to say yes to God meant saying yes to a real cross and facing the physical horrors of the crucifixion.
After worship that Sunday a woman came up to me as she was leaving and you have to understand, she had been a faithful member of that church for years, her children were raised in that church and she had served in leadership of that church but she came up to me and said, wow, I never knew that story about Jesus in the garden. I’ve always seen that stained glass window and thought it was beautiful, but I never knew the story of what Jesus struggled with in the garden of Gethsemane.
I was a little surprised when she told me this because it seems like that is such a familiar story and it also surprised me because for years she had looked at that stained glass window but had never really thought about what it meant. I was sharing all of this with a friend recently and said how surprised I was that she didn’t know this story when she said, I’m not surprised, Andy. Lots of people may not know that story because they come to worship on Palm Sunday and hear about the triumphal entry and Jesus riding on a donkey, and then they come back on Easter Sunday and hear about the resurrection of Jesus, but they don’t really understand all the events that took place in between. I had to admit that she was right.
Now, because we are all here today, we have heard in scripture and in song the events that took place in those hours leading up to the death of Jesus. We know about his betrayal, arrest and abandonment. We know how Peter denied that he even knew Jesus and how the crowds turned against him and called for Barabbas to be released and Jesus to be crucified. We know about the suffering Jesus endured as he was not only whipped and beaten, but how he was mocked and humiliated with a crown of thorns. We heard again how Jesus made his way to Golgatha and how he was crucified between two thieves, and maybe we heard again the pounding of the nails and the taunts of the crowds and the anguish of Jesus as he says, it is finished. We heard it all again, but how did we hear it? Did we hear it as a bystander just interested in hearing the story one more time, or did we hear it as the one for whom Jesus died? It makes a difference.
For years I simply heard this story as an interested bystander. I knew about Jesus and I knew what he did. I knew that after he washed his disciples feet he offered them bread and wine in the upper room. I knew Jesus had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will but yours be done, and I knew Jesus was betrayed by Judas with a kiss. I knew Jesus died on a cross, I knew it all, but it was years before I understood that he did it all for me. It wasn’t until I was in college and read a little book called Basic Christianity by John Stott that I began to understand that everything Jesus did – he did for me. He paid the penalty for my sin, he died my death, so that I could be forgiven and experience not just eternal life with God in heaven when I die, he did it all so I could experience a free and full life right here and now. What Jesus did, he did for me, and he did it all because God loves me.
But I have to tell you that the reality of what Jesus was willing to do for me didn’t hit home until I started to think about the events of Jesus death and hear in a new what Jesus said on the cross. It’s not recorded in John’s account of the crucifixion but if we look at Matthew and Mark it says that in a loud voice Jesus cried out, Eloi, Eloi, llama sabachhtani, which means,
my God, my God why have you forsaken me. This line is the first verse of Psalm 22, which is a Psalm that talks about the suffering that Christ would have to endure, but the psalm also talks about the glory that God’s chosen one would experience in the end. The end of Psalm 22 includes lines like, For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Posterity will service him, future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it. Of all the verses in Psalm 22 that Jesus could have chosen to quote at that moment in time, why did Jesus chose that one? Why didn’t Jesus choose to talk about the victory that was to come?
Here’s what John Stott has to say, Jesus quoted this verse of scripture, because he believed he was himself fulfilling it. He was bearing our sins, and God, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on wrong turned away his face. Our sins came between the Father and the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ who was eternally with the Father, who enjoyed unbroken communion with him throughout his life on earth, was thus momentarily abandoned. Our sins sent Christ to hell. And let me say that hell is not the eternal fires that we read about in Revelation, hell is as John Stott says, the torment of a soul estranged from God. Hell is being separated from God and that is what Jesus experienced in that moment on the cross. Jesus paid the price for our sin, he endured separation from God for our sake, which is why he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
I remember so clearly the moment when I realized that it was my sin that made the father turn his face away. It was my sin that broke a relationship between the Father and the Son, my sin that broke a bond of love and communion that had always been there. My sin caused Jesus more pain and anguish than any nails could have caused. Have you ever noticed that Jesus doesn’t cry out when he is being beaten or as the nails are being pounded into his hands and feet, he cries out when our sin separates him from God? That is what we have done, but God loves us enough to endure that pain so that we can be reconciled to him. Jesus loves us enough to pay the price for our sin so that we can enter into a relationship with God the Father that brings forgiveness and love and joy and peace for an eternity.
It’s important to reflect on the words of Jesus from the cross and really think about what they mean for us both personally and as a community. Jesus cries of anguish are because he loves us enough to take on our sin and endure a separation from God so that we could be reconciled to God. That is what Jesus did for us, but from the cross Jesus also spoke to us a community, did you hear it? Look back at John 19:26-27.
Here is Jesus looking down from a place of incredible pain and suffering and in these moments he is not thinking about himself, he is thinking about others. He is thinking about those he loves. When Jesus looks down from the cross he sees the 2 people who perhaps he loves more than anyone else, his mother and the beloved disciple, and in them he sees the 2 people who will take his death the hardest and the 2 people who will need the most love and support in the days to come. Taking all of this in, Jesus reaches out in the midst of his own unimaginable suffering and calls these 2 to reach out to each other and to care for each other in the days to come. What Jesus is doing here is what Jesus did his entire life on earth, he was creating community. He was bringing people together.
From the moment of his birth to the moment of his death, the work of Jesus was to create a healthy relationships and a strong community. Think back to what happened on the night of his birth, lowly shepherds found Mary & Joseph & they worshipped together. A little congregation was formed. One of the first things Jesus did when he entered into public ministry was to create a new community; he chose his team of disciples who became his family. Everywhere he went Jesus brought people together, he restored relationships by offering forgiveness. He healed lepers so they could return to their families and their communities of faith. Those on the outside of society like prostitutes, tax collectors & children were welcomed by Jesus into a new community of grace and love. The work of Jesus was the work of building a new community and that work continued until the very end. His very last act was to calls his mother and his most beloved disciple to care for one another in a deeper and more profound way in the days to come.
This work of bringing people together was so important, that it didn’t end on the cross. John and the mother of Jesus was not the last community Jesus formed and strengthened. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, it didn’t just bring them power, the Holy Spirit created the church. It was the Holy Spirit that convicted people of sin, led them to repentance and brought them into a new community of faith. On the day of Pentecost it was the spirit of Jesus that brought 3,000 people into the life of the church.
In Acts 2 we see that the early church really was a new family that was formed and shaped by the spirit & power of God. In Acts 2 it says, All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. When Jesus looked down from the cross and called John to take care of his mother, this is what he had in mind. John was to take care of Mary physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually, and I think this is still what God has in mind for us today, not just for us in our own individual local churches, but for the Christian Church of Bellefonte. We need to spend time together in worship and service and give witness to the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ and power of God’s Holy Spirit. Can we hear that call of Jesus from the cross? Will we follow that call of Jesus from the cross?
Today we remember and give thanks for all that Jesus has done for us on the cross. Through Jesus Christ we have been restored into a right relationship with God, but we are also being called to live in right relationships with one another. God is calling us to be part of a new family of faith, and today we give witness to the work of Jesus on the cross by coming together as God’s family to remember and reflect and worship. We gather from different denominational, theological, social, political and economic backgrounds to be God’s people, and together at the foot of the cross we hear once again just how deep the father’s love is for us, and we ask God’s holy spirit to help us truly love one another.
