25th Day Of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. Last week we heard a prophecy of the judgment and curse that the Messiah would speak against His enemies, not only on those who rejected and despised Him and brought Him to the cross but also on all those who down through the ages would be His enemy, oppose Him, harden their hearts all the more and reject our Lord as He comes to them in grace and offers them the greatest of gifts, the very gifts He earned by His life, suffering and death, namely, the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, eternal life. Certainly that, too, was part of His anguish on the cross: as the all-knowing God, He knew that His work, the gifts and blessings He brought about, literally by His own blood, would be rejected and despised. Again, our Lenten prayer is that Christ’s work and blessing would not be “wasted” on us. Hear Lent’s call to again examine our hearts and lives.
In the verses of Psalm 69 serving as our text this evening we hear Jesus’ speech changing. He again looks at His great suffering and prays a prayer for rescue but this prayer for rescue is different from what He had prayed earlier; for here He looks beyond His suffering to His glory, that, yes, He is suffering now but His Father will bring Him through and give Him the victory. In other words, in our text we hear of the Messiah’s ultimate victory: it is certain for Him and that is a true comfort and blessing for us.
1. The Messiah is certain of victory. Remember that our psalm is a prophecy that Jesus spoke through His penmen, King David, about 1000 years before the event. Our psalm then, not only told the OT saints of the coming Messiah and that He would have to suffer and die, but it also gave them the great comfort that He would be victorious and exalted. They were to expect a Suffering but Victorious Messiah. And when Jesus came, He was certain of the victory.
But just because He was certain of the victory, did not mean that Jesus’ work and suffering were not real and excruciating. Our text: But I am poor and in pain; Your salvation, O God, will set Me up on high. Our text brings us back to Jesus’ suffering and even in the midst of that suffering, Jesus is certain of His rescue, deliverance and exaltation. In contrast with His enemies who seemingly have won the day by having Jesus crucified, and surrounded His cross and taunted Him; in contrast to the devil and his host who seemingly victorious as it were shouted and jeered; Jesus is suffering and in pain. Jesus begins our text: But, that is, in contrast to My enemies who are mighty and seemingly victorious, I am poor and in pain.
Here Jesus is still miserable and in pain because of the burden of sin that He had taken on Himself, that is every single sin of every single person ever to live. Jesus was still the world’s sinner. He was still enduring the Father’s wrath and punishment for those sins. God’s cup of wrath was still being poured out on Jesus. There was no relief of His anxiety and judgment. He, the holy and sinless God-man, was still being forsaken. In the very midst of that unimaginable suffering, rejected by both God and man, the one object of God’s wrath over sin, Jesus then looks past it to His certain victory, to the glorious end of His suffering and the glorious deliverance out of His suffering and says: although I am poor and in pain; yet Yoursalvation, O God, will set Me up on high. In the midst of His suffering Jesus is certain of His victory and triumph.
B. Even when it seemed that His Father was His enemy, Jesus was certain of His Father’s protection and rescue and prayed in that perfect faith and knowledge: Your salvation, O God, will set Me up on high. Jesus on the cross could look forward to His Father’s rescue from His misery and to His ultimate exaltation because Jesus is the sinless God-man. Even though He suffered greatly as the world’s sinner, Jesus could say on the cross shortly before His death: It is finished, that is, all of God’s wrath and punishment over sin had come to an end; Jesus had suffered every bit of it; the work of reconciling the sinful world to the holy God was complete; no sin remained for which Christ did not pay. Jesus could not remain in misery, suffering the Father’s wrath because the cup of God’s wrath was already completely emptied out. With the “job complete” Jesus, right before His death, could say: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.
Yes, Jesus, suffered death, the wages of sin—not His own but the sins of the whole world He took on. Because Jesus was in and of Himself sinless and because He had paid the price for the sin of the world, the Father had to raise Jesus from the dead; death had no claim, hold on Him. By His resurrection from the dead, Jesus showed He had destroyed death.
Not only did God the Father raise Jesus from the dead but He also exalted Him, raising Him, the God-Man, to His Right Hand. In another Psalm [110], David records the conversation between God the Father and the Son: The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies Your footstool.” St. Paul [Ph. 2.8] puts it this way: Christ Jesus…humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Even in the midst of the greatest suffering, I am poor and in pain, Jesus saw His deliverance coming, Your salvation, O God, will set Me up on high. Following His humiliation comes His glorification, His exaltation. The Father accepts His sacrifice and turns to our Savior in grace and sets Him free, awakens Him from the dead and crowns Him with glory and honor. Jesus, the Savior is victorious!
C. Certain of victory and triumph, even while in the midst of the most unimaginable suffering, and certain that God’s rescue would exalt Him, Jesus looks ahead and wants to sing a song of praise and thanksgiving: Let Me praise the name of God with a song, And I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. Now in His exaltation; now having entered into His glory, this hymn of praise and thanksgiving sounds from our Savior’s mouth. What is this hymn of praise that the Messiah wants to sing here? We all know it and live under its glorious sound; all Christians have their joy and desire in it! It is the new song of the Gospel, the Good News of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Really, what else is the Gospel but a praise of God’s name? It reveals to the sinner the good, gracious will of God and calls to us: Fear not! You know your God only as a Judge but look at Him in Christ, Your Savior. In Him your gracious, merciful God and Savior stands before you; He forgives you your sin for Christ’s sake and saves you. Look to Him and rely on Him; build upon His grace to you in Christ and you will be saved. This is the Gospel, a joyous hymn for all the world’s sinners. The Savior struck up this hymn already on the cross in the midst of His suffering as He looked ahead to the completion of His work and His exaltation. Now after His resurrection and ascension, His exaltation, Christ still sings this song as He has His saving word, the Gospel, go out into all the world, filling heaven and earth. Through each of His dear Christians, as they tell the Good News about Jesus to others, this song of the Gospel praising the name and grace of the Lord continues to sound. Christ has entrusted this Gospel, the Word and the Sacraments, to His Church and by our tongues, as we share that word, as we hear that word preached and taught by others, Christ is still singing this song of praise and it is still resounding throughout the world today and will continue to do so until the Last Day. Wherever this hymn of praise that Christ began to sing already on the cross in the midst of His suffering sounds, it brings fruit—people come to faith—and reveals its blessed power and working.
2. Not only does the certainty of the Messiah’s victory comfort Him while on the cross in deepest agony, but it is also a great comfort to us. It also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull, Which has horns and hooves. Here is a glorious blessing for us: This hymn of praise and thanksgiving that Jesus began to sound already on the cross and continues in full force at the Right Hand—the Gospel, the Good News of God’s grace to us in Christ—pleases God better than an ox or bull, Which has horns and hooves. Why? Because by this thanksgiving that Jesus sounds and has go out into all the world, the Gospel, actually gives the blessings and benefits the Jesus won for us on the cross. By Word and Sacrament Jesus actually gives us the forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace with God, joy, the Holy Spirit, etc. And so that we may receive these heavenly treasures and gifts that Jesus won for us, the Gospel Word and Sacrament actually create faith in our hearts in the first place—that’s because the Holy Spirit is at work in them. So now when Christ’s hymn of praise, the Gospel of the grace of God, goes out it makes Christians. Christians are those who in Spirit worked faith trust in Christ Jesus as their Savior from sin, who in confession give Christ their sin and by faith receive His perfect holiness and forgiveness, who in baptism are clothed with Him and His perfect righteousness. To actually have the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of Christ is far better than any ox or bull sacrifice, which cannot truly give forgiveness but can from a distance only point to Christ’s perfect sacrifice; Christ’s perfect-once-for-all sacrifice did away with such sacrifices and gives us perfect reconciliation.
Christ’s victory—His rescue and exaltation—that He looks forward to while on the cross is a certainty to Him and turns His laments into hymns of praise; and it is a comfort and blessing to us because it points to the sufficiency of His work. Nothing can be or need be added to it. Our salvation, then, is, in Christ, certain and sure. What a glorious comfort to us when we are bothered and troubled by our sin, when the devil wants us to question our forgiveness and salvation and so throw us into despair, when by guilt we hang on to our sin!
Just as Jesus looks ahead to His certain victory and this leads Him to praise the Lord, so too do we, the truly repentant and sorrowful sinners, rejoice with Jesus in His victory because through faith in Him His victory is also our victory.
The humble saw this and will be glad; And you who seek God, your hearts shall live. For the LORD hears the poor, And does not despise His prisoners. We, dear Christian are the humble and poor ones; we feel our need for salvation. We see Jesus, our Savior, with the eyes of faith; we see that God the Father raised Him from the dead, that He ascended into heaven, and is exalted at His Right Hand. In the certainty of faith we know that our sins are forgiven and heaven is opened to us. That gives Jesus great joy. He will not forsake us as we seek Him in His Word. And in fact, And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
When Christ’s thanksgiving hymn comes to us, i.e., when His saving word is preached to us, the Holy Spirit is mightily at work not only filling our soul with joy and bringing us the only lasting, satisfying happiness but He also creates in us new spiritual life. He makes us rich and free of all sins, from death and from the power of the devil. Now through faith in Christ we are God’s dear children. He graciously and attentively listens to us. There is our comfort when we are in our times of sorrow and agony.
As we look forward to the time of our rescue and our deliverance, when we have a longing for heavenly freedom, we are certain of it in Christ: He is our holiness, He reconciled us sinners to the holy God, He is risen and exalted and opened heaven to all believers and is working mightily to bring us to faith and to keep us in the faith. His victory on the cross was certain for Him and because of it we are assured of ultimate victory in Him. Here is our comfort as we hear Jesus proclaim His song of victory and triumph in our text. INJ Amen.