Jonah Albrecht

Lent Midweek 6

John 19:30

On the Road to Easter…Jesus Delivered Us From Death

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, (Gal. 1:3-4)

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.”  And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

InJ, Who bowed His sacred head in death, DFR:

When his wife died suddenly in her early thirties, the Reverend Donald Barnhouse was left with the unhappy task of driving his young children to her funeral.  The car was unusually quiet, that day; no backseat bickering, no sibling disputes, just a somber and unsettling silence.  As they approached an intersection, Barnhouse pointed the children to a big truck up ahead.  The sun was at such an angle that it cast a shadow on the nearby field.  Pointing to the shadow, the father said, “Look over there, children.  If you had to be run over, would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow?”

The youngest child responded first, “The shadow, dad.  It couldn’t hurt anybody.”

“That’s right,” said Barnhouse.  “And remember, Jesus let the truck of death strike him, so that it could never destroy us.  Mother lives with Jesus, now — only the shadow of death passed over her.”

Tonight, we recall how Jesus allowed the truck of death to strike Him so that we can be freed from its dreaded power.  Because of what happens on Calvary, death is just a shadow that cannot harm those who cling to Christ.  Tonight, as we near the end of our journey on the Road to Easter, we are confronted by the words of John, describing Jesus’ death.   They are significant for every person in this building tonight.  Tonight, with the altar bare and the black cloth draped upon the cross, we see that The Death of Jesus Delivers us From Death’s Power…

1. Some deaths are especially sad, aren’t they?  When a mother finds her baby dead in the crib or when a police officer stands at the door to explain how your family member died instantly in a car accident, death seems especially tragic.

But no death is as sad as the one before us tonight.  John writes, “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”  It was a sad death.  And I’m not thinking so much of the physical and mental suffering He endured, but the very fact that it had to happen.   The sacred head had to bow in death.  This was the head that the elderly man, Simeon, looked at when Mary and Joseph brought Him to the Temple when he was 40 days old.  Simeon said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation.”  This was the head that had everybody marveling when as a twelve-year-old boy in the Temple He could enter into a give-and-take with the great teachers of the law, and everyone was amazed at His understanding.  This was the head that held His eyes of compassion, always alert for and touched by suffering.  This was the head that held His audiences captive, because He taught as one having authority.  And now, the sacred head of Jesus had to bow in death.

Sometimes people ask, “Does the Bible say that Jesus smiled or laughed?”  The answer is no.  There are  a few times where He might have, like when the little children came to Him or when the disciples witnessed His power over death at Nain, but Spirit does not tell us that He did.  What we do know was that when Jesus looked around and saw what was going on in the world, He understood, better than anyone else, the terrible consequences of sin: the suffering, the pain, the deceit, the hypocrisy, the hatred.   He looked at the people and they were as sheep having no shepherd.  He came to the church and found they had turned it into a den of thieves.  He looked at those closest to Him and Jesus saw the ravaging, deadly effects of sin.   He really didn’t have much to smile about.

The sacred head that bows in death, never really belonged here.  Everything the Bible tells us to be, Jesus was.  The Bible says that we are to love God above everything else and love our neighbors as ourselves, but no one does.  Even His disciples failed.  One betrayed Him, another denied Him, and now, only one shows up at the site of His crucifixion.  Where were His friends?  Where were those who professed loyalty to Him?  A few verses after our text you find Joseph of Arimathea asking Pilate for the body of Jesus…but listen carefully to what Scripture says of him, “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.”  That says it all, doesn’t it?  Even some who loved Him and followed Him did it secretly.  They didn’t want to get into trouble.  So, they kept a safe distance.  It was a sad death.

Would things be any different if that death had taken place now, instead of 2,000 years ago?  Would you have done things differently than the first disciples did?  You don’t have to look far to find the answer.  Our love is just as lukewarm as theirs was.  Our loyalty is just as pitiful and our sins are just as damnable.  From beginning to end, our lives are filled with evil…lies, hatreds, jealousies, suspicions and a remarkable lack of love for God and our neighbor.   The sacred head that didn’t fit into the world then, certainly wouldn’t fit into our world of greed and self-centeredness today.

It was a sad death, but a death in which we find our comfort and hope.  In the letter to the Hebrews it says: Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.   The Death of Jesus delivers us from death’s power.  That’s why He was on the cross and that is why He died.  And tonight, that is the blessing that He wants you to have.

Our text contains what might be the single most important word in the Bible.  In Greek: τετέλεσται (Tetelestai)…”It is finished.” Literally, something has been completed, or made to be full.  What did this mean?  Was it that Jesus’ terrible suffering was finally over?  Not exactly. While His suffering was over, this isn’t what He was referring to.  He meant that the work His Father had given Him to do, was done.  He had come to give His innocent life a ransom payment for sinners.  It was what His entire life was about. At age 12 He said, “Don’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business?” — at age 30 John pointed to Him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”  And now, at the end, the sacred Lamb bowed His head in death.

The Day of Atonement was when the sins of the people would be transferred onto the “perfect” lamb which would then be sacrificed. The ancient Jews would push down on its head and there they would witness its throat being slit, its blood pouring forth.  In a very real sense, you and I were pushing Jesus’ head down with our hands and God transferred our sins to Him. Sin had to be covered with blood, the blood of the Son of God.  And so, the sacred head bowed for you and me. The transfer was complete, the offering made, and so before He died, He cried out, IT IS FINISHED! He could just as well of said:  They’re paid for.  It is over and done.  Your evil has been taken from you.  You are free.

That’s the phrase to repeat to yourself whenever you’re troubled over your sins.  If you don’t really care and are impenitent then the phrase to use is: Repent or be damned.  But if you feel sorrow over sin, then say, “It is finished!”  It isn’t our many resolutions to do better, it isn’t the promise to make up for it somehow — it’s the fact that God’s Son bowed His head in death as your Substitute and mine.  The sin problem is over.  The guilt problem is past.  Jesus died.  It is finished.  By your baptism, you are joined to Him, Paul says that we were “buried with Him through Baptism unto death.”  The evil has been taken from us.  The sting of death has been removed.  Death has no power over us.

That changes the way we live.  What matters is not that we can get as comfortable as possible in this life, or, that we have squirreled away a large enough nest egg for the future; what matters is that we go through life as strangers and pilgrims, and die with our faith intact.  That’s what we’re praying for every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer and the words “Deliver us from evil.”  That God would graciously protect us from all evil of body and soul — and bring us a Christian death.

Tonight is a good time to evaluate your life.  Are you following Jesus closely or are you toying with the evils of this present world?  Are you praying, Deliver us from evil — but living as though you’ll be on this earth forever?  Have the ungodly ways of this society crept into your home and your life?  Then, look up at His cross and let those words, “It is finished” sink into your heart. Jesus died to deliver you from evil.

The Bible says, “Set your minds on things above and not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Death never seems to arrive at the right time for most people…there’s always something they wanted to do yet; always some task that they never got a chance to finish here on earth. Though it is sad for those yet in their time of grace, death is never at the wrong time for a Christian.  At any age, death for a Christian is God’s best and ultimate deliverance…because it’s not the truck of death that hits us — only the shadow that opens the door to heaven.  Amen.