Sympathy.

 

Sermon 6^th midweek Lent, January 20, 2024

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Luke 23:26-34  ²⁶As they led him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country.  They placed the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.  ²⁷A large crowd of people was following him, including women who were mourning and wailing for him.  ²⁸Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  ²⁹Be sure of this: The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed.’  ³⁰Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’  ³¹For if they do these things to the green wood, what will happen to the dry?”  ³²Two other men, who were criminals, were led away with Jesus to be executed.  ³³When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.  ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  They cast lots to divide his garments among them. (EHV)

Sympathy.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            So much of modern man has fallen into the trap of believing that people have been getting better throughout the history of mankind.  Yet, we still see brother hating brother, women being abused and murdered, violent crime rampant in many of our cities, killing unborn babies applauded as something good, unjust wars waged over a desire for land and power, slander and vilification is normal in politics, and many assume that our country is nearing a civil war.  If that is what society improving itself looks like, it’s hard to imagine what would be worse.

As we gaze around the world, though, there are many places where Christians are facing horrible persecution, and many live lives far more perilous than our own.  In many of those places, Christianity was at one time a major part of the society.  So, what happened?  And is that what we are likely to face in the coming decades to centuries?  And if so, should we expect sympathy?  Or should we feel sympathetic to those who cause such abuse and violence now?

As we have read through the passion of our Lord these last five weeks, the thought of feeling sympathy for Jesus and what He went through may have grown in your mind.  Truly, what Jesus suffered for you and me is horrific.  It is something none of us ever want to experience, and honestly, we wouldn’t want it for anyone else, not even our worst enemies—at least I pray we all feel that way.

At the same time, is sympathy what we are to feel toward our Lord Jesus?  He indeed suffered unjustly at the hands of sinful men, but how should we feel about that?  As His enemies led Jesus out of Jerusalem to the site of His execution at The Skull, “A large crowd of people was following him, including women who were mourning and wailing for him.”  Would we say that those crowds had sympathy for Jesus?  From the records of the Gospel writers, it appears that most of the crowd were merely coming along to make sport of Jesus’ situation.  Many were likely part of the rabble that the high priests, scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees had stirred up to demand that Jesus be crucified.

On the other hand, many of the women were likely either professional mourners hired to make it look like the Jews didn’t want Jesus killed, or they may have been women who were horrified to see His condition or who mourned for any Jewish man the Roman rulers deemed worthy of death.  It is unlikely that the women who had followed Jesus were part of this mob, though many of them did accompany Him at the cross, still showing their support and love for the Savior.  Those women likely felt honest sympathy for Jesus.

In reality, however, the one who felt sympathy was mostly Jesus.  Jesus felt sympathy for the women who mourned for His condemnation, because He knew they would suffer greatly because they didn’t understand why He was sentenced to die, nor did they accept Him as the Savior promised by God for as long as this world has been troubled by sin.  Jesus felt sympathy for the citizens of Jerusalem because they rejected the promised Messiah who had come to take away their sins, and because of their rejection, the city would quite soon fall under the most grievous siege and attack, and the people would suffer horribly until their end.

But truth be told, Jesus was in that predicament because He felt sympathy for the world—for you and me.  Because of His love for us, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Because He felt compassion for people lost in sin and hopelessness, Jesus willingly stepped into our shoes, so to speak, when He came into this world to suffer that abuse and trial and mockery, and to be nailed to the cross. 

As a Man the night before this awful event occurred, Jesus had prayed to His Father “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)  Living in our frail human flesh, Jesus understood the great agony He would undergo for sinners who didn’t really care about Him.  As the Son of God, He understood the immense suffering He would face when the Father forsake Him as He paid the full price for all the world’s guilt.  If there was another way to save sinners, Jesus was willing to accept it if that was His Father’s plan.  Yet, Jesus perfectly trusted His Father, and perfectly obeyed His demand of death for sin.  Jesus knew better than we ever will the perfect justice God His Father displays.  Jesus also, of course, knew perfectly His Father’s love.  It is God’s love that sent Jesus to the cross, and Jesus’ love for you and me that kept Him nailed there until death.

So, what are we to do with our Sympathy?  Should we pour it out in grief and despair for what Jesus endured?  Should we look to that cross ashamed of its horrible example of the cruelty of mankind and vow to do better ourselves?  Well, in this question, too, Jesus shows that He has the perfect Sympathy.  “When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.  Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’”  Jesus demonstrated His Sympathy for those caught up in killing Him.  He showed Sympathy for those who had condemned Him, and for those who were mocking Him as He hung on that cross.  Furthermore, Jesus showed Sympathy for us that day as He hung there for you and me, and while He was taking our punishment, He was praying to His Father in heaven to count all of us as innocent.

Jesus endured all that pain, that mockery, abuse, and rejection.  He watched them divide all His earthly possessions, right down to His underwear, among the soldiers who nailed Him to that cross, and Jesus suffered all that shame with nothing but love and Sympathy for all of us sinners.

So, what are we to do with our Sympathy?  Jesus gave us the answer after He rose from the dead.  It was after He had accomplished everything needed for our salvation and the salvation of the world that He said, “Therefore go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

As the world turns against Christians more and more, we are not to fight back, nor are we to hide from the world, nor to mock it as foolish, for we all were once fools without knowledge of God and His love.  We also shouldn’t just express empathy for those who are dying in their unbelief and sin.  Rather, we are to tell people about the Man who lived perfect Sympathy for all people by giving up His life to pay for their sins.  Whether still in a free society where we can easily speak of Jesus’ love, or if persecuted for believing in Jesus, our goal remains the same, to tell of Jesus and His love—love that led Him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

God showed us grace, which is love we don’t deserve, by sending His Son Jesus to live and die on our behalf, so that God could declare us forgiven and innocent for Jesus’ sake.  God showed us mercy in not punishing us as we deserved, but rather, in sharing the Good News of what Jesus has done for us, and by working faith in our hearts to believe it, so that we can have absolute confidence in Jesus’ promise, “Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)

By putting Himself in our place, both in life and death, Jesus demonstrated true Sympathy for us that day and throughout His earthly time.  Now, may we by God’s grace and mercy continue to share His Sympathy for the world as we continue to tell the world about Jesus, about His life, His death, His resurrection from the grave, and His ascension into heaven where He lives and reigns on behalf of those who will believe until He returns to judge the world, because there will come a day when Jesus returns to judge, and those who don’t believe in Him will be crying for a place to hide.  God grant that our sympathy for others help many escape that wrath.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.