Sermon
for 5th midweek Lent, March 17, 2021
The God of love and peace will be with you all. Amen.
Matthew
27:27-31 27Then the governor’s
soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole cohort of
soldiers around him. 28They
stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
29They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his
head. They put a staff in his right
hand, knelt in front of him, and mocked him by saying, “Hail, King of the
Jews!” 30They spit on him,
took the staff, and hit him repeatedly on his head. 31After they had mocked him, they
took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (EHV)
Hands
of Brutality.
Dear friends of the
brutalized King,
When I was young, my dad had a number of pithy sayings he
liked to use, and one that came up quite regularly with three rough and tumble
boys was, “After the laughing comes the crying.” This was usually said either when he noticed
our sport getting more than a little out of control, or more likely, after the
damage was already done. Sometimes, it
was a bit of a reprieve for us, because instead of some additional punishment,
he allowed the hurts we had caused ourselves to suffice.
Now, one
wouldn’t quickly assume that the events of our text started with good natured
boys getting out of control. No, in
fact, every event of Jesus’ passion was very much part of a controlled and coordinated
plan. Tonight, we look at the actions of
the soldiers and their Hands of Brutality.
A cohort
of soldiers was about 600 trained, fighting men. Even if we would concede the unlikely
possibility that only a fraction of those men were on duty that morning, it
would still be a brutally powerful force.
Roman soldiers were trained to overwhelm their enemies and to make
examples of any bad characters so that rebellion would be too terrifying for
anyone else to consider. Yet, let’s not
forget the enormous other brutal actions Jesus had already endured that night
and early morning. The Jewish leaders
had brutally mocked, beat, and spit on Jesus before they turned Him over to
Pilate. Pilate had already demonstrated
his brutality by having his soldiers unmercifully scourge Jesus with their
skin-slicing, multi-lash whips to show the Jews what he thought of their charge
of Jesus claiming to be a king. Herod’s
troops had inflicted their mocking brutality as well. Each party showing what Rome could do to
anyone foolish enough to challenge its authority.
By the
time of our sermon text, Jesus had to be a forlorn, bloody mess. Some have argued that Pilate was showing pity
on Jesus because he knew Jesus was innocent, and its true that Pilate
recognized Jesus had committed no sin, especially no sin worthy of death, but
in truth, Pilate didn’t really care about Jesus, or kindness, or justice. Pilate mostly wanted not to be bothered, so
when that didn’t work, the Roman governor allowed the unmerited brutality to
proceed, as he again turned Jesus over to his soldiers, this time to let them
have their sport.
Imagine
those soldiers, who were trained to be brutal and cruel to any opposition,
being told to go ahead and treat Jesus as a conquered enemy king. This mild, meek Man who had caused no trouble
for anyone in authority and put up no fight at all in the hours of torment that
had already taken place, who hadn’t cried out in anger even once as the vicious
lashes repeatedly cut His skin to shreds.
It had been a long time since those brutes had this much fun.
Once
more, that mob of soldiers stripped Jesus’ clothes off His back, and in place
of those humble wraps, they hung over our Savior a scarlet robe, no doubt some
discarded remnant of a ruler’s finery.
Yes, dress the Son of God in the tattered, worn out rags of royalty. But what is a king without a crown? So, they gathered up some thorn
branches. You’ve no doubt seen pictures
of the long, sharp thorns so common in that area. They twisted and wrapped those
barbed-wire-like branches into a makeshift mocking crown. They put an ordinary reed into Jesus’
hand. What kind of a king wouldn’t wield
a scepter, right? Still, these things
were just the preliminaries.
Now that
they had Jesus attired for the role of conquered king, they had their fun. I can almost imagine how mean my brothers and
I might have been to each other if we had ever dreamed up such a cruel
game. Oh, the fun we could have had (if
we had been that sadistically cruel). Here,
wave after wave of muscular soldiers came at Jesus, some spitting on His
battered face, some using their staffs to pound those cruel thorns into His
scalp and brow. Oh, they bowed the knee
before Jesus, while laughing and joking at His condition. Did they play a for half hour, an hour? How long before cruel men get bored of
taunting One who doesn’t respond to their jests and cruelty?
It would
be easy for us to condemn the Jews, Pilate, and certainly those soldier for
their cruel treatment and mockery of our beloved Savior. Yet, we shouldn’t be so hasty to point our
fingers at others. Remember what Jesus
will say to those who stand before Him on Judgment Day: “Assuredly, I say to
you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did
it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40 NKJ) The
good we do out of faith in Jesus will be remembered. However, the evil we have done to others is
just as wicked and cruel as what those soldiers did to Jesus. In fact, using Jesus’ own words, every action
we wrongly took against a brother, a friend, or even an enemy, we did it to
Jesus.
How many
times as children did our actions get out of hand and a sibling was left sobbing? How many times have we caused our wives to
cry? How often have we mocked someone
for being different, or for a mistake they made, or just because we could? If I am the one trial, I have no defense for
the thousands upon thousands of times I am guilty of brutality against
Jesus. In one way or another, we all Hands
of Brutality.
I think
most of us, if we had been in Jesus’ place, would have eventually tried to put
up some kind of fight. No one likes to
be mocked. We will only put up with
abuse for so long before snapping and trying to get back at those who hurt
us. In most people, an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth is assumed to mean we can seek revenge upon our
abusers. At the very least, we aren’t
willing to be helpful and kind to those who abuse our trust, or our bodies.
On the
other hand, there was Jesus—abused, mocked, spit upon by hundreds of
soldiers. He was slandered, wrongly
accused, and hand after hand was raised in brutality: first, voting to convict
that innocent Jesus, and then raining abuse on His body in the most shameful fashion. Yet, the Lamb of God never once cried out
against any of them, or any of us either.
Jesus was
there silently suffering that awful abuse because of the sins of the world,
yours and mine included. Because of His
love for us, because of His dedication to carrying out His Father’s will to pay
the price for all of us sinners who have so terribly mistreated someone along
the way, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John
3:16) Jesus never once considered retaliating against any of His abusers. Jesus never even once complained about their
unjust treatment of an innocent man. All
of this is because “We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the
Lord has charged all our guilt to him.” (Isaiah 53:6)
My dad’s
saying might come into play here—“After the laughing comes the crying.” It was all fun and games for the sadistic
soldiers that day—for a while. The
mocking and cruelty continued all the way to the cross and even after Jesus
hung there nailed to the tree, suffering the worst part of what we all
deserved. For many of those mockers, the
crying came only when they eventually had to stand before Jesus at His throne,
but for a few, the crying started right there when Jesus died. “When the centurion and those who were
guarding Jesus with him saw the earthquake and the things that had happened,
they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’” (Matthew
27:54) In that moment, they understood
that there would be hell to pay for their actions against God’s Son, Jesus, or
would there be?
Many
throughout history have assumed that Jesus is just storing up His righteous
anger for the brutality of the human race, so that He can treat us cruelly on
Judgment Day. How ironic that people
still mock the Savior who loved them enough to die for them and for us all. Because assuming Jesus will punish all of us
on Judgment Day is denying God’s love for us and denying His promises as
well. Isaiah wrote, “He himself
carried the sin of many, and he intercedes for the rebels.” (Isaiah 53:12) St. Peter later wrote under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, “Christ also suffered once for sins in our place, the
righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18) And Paul under the same power tells us, “For
just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also
through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.” (Romans
5:19)
God does indeed
seek retribution and just punishment for all sins, but He gave His Son to take
the penalty in our place. Therefore, all
our sins have been removed and our debt of guilt is paid. Jesus gave His all to reconcile us with His
Father, now our Father as well. Through
the gift of faith in Christ Jesus, we are granted a new and certain hope, not
of righteous anger for our brutality and shame, but rather, the sure and
certain confidence of being welcomed into heaven by the Savior who gave His life
so that He could count us innocent, because “There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. For
in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin
and death. Indeed, what the law was
unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin.” (Romans 8:1-3)
Dear
friends, be rejoicing for what Jesus has done for you. No matter how cruel you may have been, or
what thoughts of revenge you might have entertained, Jesus has set you free of
all guilt. Indeed, because of Jesus’ suffering
and sacrifice in our place, the Lord Himself has declared, “I will be
merciful in regard to their unrighteousness, and I will not remember their sins
any longer.” (Hebrews 8:12) By the
gift of faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit has made you children of God and kings
and priests in the kingdom of heaven.
That is our home, because Jesus endured Hands of Brutality for
you and me. Amen.
The peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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