25th Day of Lent
Beloved. Our text that we will spend a few moments pondering this evening begins very simply and quite ominously: So [Pilate] delivered [Jesus] to them to be crucified. This happened right after Pilate made another attempt to release Jesus but was shouted down: “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!” Here it is official—Jesus, the Savior, the very God Himself is rejected by the nation. Here we can imagine Jesus speaking and praying the words of the psalm that we will hear as Sunday’s Introit [Psalm 43.1]: Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
Jesus’ trial was done. His death was now certain. But the process was sped up—instead of the days that the Roman system normally required, [Pilate] delivered [Jesus] to them, that is, to the high priests to have their way with Jesus to be crucified, by the Romans in a matter of hours. Pilate gave a command like: ibis ad crucem! Away to the cross! So they took Jesus and led Him away. And thus began Jesus’ march down the Via Dolorosa, the path of sorrows. Not only was the beaten, whipped and bloodied Jesus forced to march to the place of His execution but He was forced to carry His own cross, His own means of execution, and He, bearing His cross went out to a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. Not only was Jesus forced to carry His cross, but remember He had been whipped. This heavy wood cross was placed on His lacerated back and how pain must have shot through His sacred body with each step taken! There was a procession marching with Jesus. All around Him was that vile crowd—with the exception of the few faithful and the mourning women—probably taunting Him. Ahead of Him were soldiers, His executioners, clearing a path to the place of execution; on His side were certainly more soldiers afflicting Him, certainly trying to get Him to speed it up; behind Him were certainly the religious leaders of the Jews, certainly already now taunting Him as they would later do when He was on the cross—they were along to see that this crucifixion did indeed happen. Already now the Psalm that is a prophecy describing Jesus’ crucifixion is being fulfilled [Psalm 22. 7-8]: All those who see Me laugh Me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying: “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver him, since He delights in Him!” To the wicked ones who see Jesus carrying His cross, Jesus is an object of derision and ridicule—after all crucifixion is the most shameful kind of torment by which a guilty person could be put to death. So when that cross was placed on Jesus’ bloodied back, He became an object of mockery and scorn. The thought was that now any remembrance of Him would be utterly blotted out from the heart of people and no more mention would be made of Him.
On top of that, not only is Jesus racked with pain, enduring all sorts of ridicule, completely disgraced in the eyes of the taunting crowd and physically at His end, but Jesus has to deal with the devil’s temptation to give it all up! Remember, the devil is trying to get Jesus off the path that leads to the salvation of the world; so if he can get Jesus to give in to the pain and taunts and tortures, then the salvation of the world would be left undone! Remember when the devil tempted Jesus earlier, he promised Jesus the world and its kingdoms if only Jesus would fall down and worship him; remember when Jesus told the disciples of His suffering and death—but also of His resurrection—that Peter rebuked Jesus and said [Mt. 16. 21-23]: Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You! And what was Jesus’ response? Get behind Me, Satan! Jesus recognized the devil’s working and temptation to get Him off the path leading to the cross and the salvation of the world. And now with the taunts and the great physical agony Jesus was enduring, the devil was certainly tempting Jesus to give it all up. But what do we see? And He, bearing His cross went out to a place called the Place of the Skull. Jesus walked that way of sorrows, the Via Dolorosa. Each step He took was Him overcoming the temptation of the devil; each step He took—in great agony—was a step closer to our salvation. Each agonizing step was a defeat of the devil and a proverbial nail in his coffin.
What we see as Jesus bears His cross to the place of crucifixion is really a picture/ image of saving doctrine. First, we get a glimpse of who Jesus really is as the cross is placed on His shoulders to carry to Calvary. Think back to the prophecy we read at Christmas [Is 9.6]: For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. Of course, the image there is that even as a Baby, because Jesus is true God, He is ruling all things; even as He receives nourishment from and is dependent upon His mother, He is ruling the universe. But here, in light of the charge the Jews brought before Pilate that Jesus claimed to be King, what a mockery of His royal dignity to have to carry His instrument of torture. But what was meant to be ridicule is a glorious preaching to us! Jesus is indeed King! The government/ the rule of the world and everything in it is indeed on His shoulder. And so much is it on His shoulder that He is personally seeing to it/ doing it that the devil’s work is undone and destroyed. He is saving and rescuing His world, His creation, lost and condemned humanity!
What does this mean when our text tells us: So they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha? Jesus willingly did this. They could only take Jesus and lead Him away because He willingly consented/ wanted to. They could only place the cross on His lacerated back because He willed it! Each step of Jesus along the path leading to Golgotha, was His willing assent. How do we know this? Jesus Himself told us [John 10.18]: No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; and Jesus wasn’t all talk—after all, remember in the Garden when they came to arrest Jesus, that at Jesus’ word, I am, all the temple guard fell to the ground. That Jesus was enduring this great agony and humiliation of carrying His cross to the place of execution pictures to us in the biggest boldest terms that He was willingly doing this, that He was willingly carrying out the work for our salvation.
And the why; why did Jesus willingly endure all this? The simple one word answer is love—love for His Father and love for us sinners. So when we see Jesus bearing His cross, let us there see His love. For this very purpose Jesus came; He, the Son of God obeyed the will of His Father and became also a true human being to suffer, endure and to be tempted as we are—in every way—in order by this to reconcile us sinners to the holy God. By His holy and sinless life, Jesus obeyed for us God’s holy Law that we break by our sin; Jesus rendered for us the righteousness God demands of us if we are to enter heaven—since we can’t do it, Jesus did it for us.
But what about our sins that we commit, that separate us from God and condemn us to hell? Now Jesus goes to the cross to pay the price for our sins, in our place. On the cross Jesus would endure all of God’s wrath and punishment for our sin and by this His holy anger over our sin would be appeased; we sinners would be reconciled to the holy God. And so now, as the prophet foretold of Jesus [Is. 53.7], He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and our text: So they took Jesus and led Him away.
And even the very placing of the cross on Jesus is a beautiful picture of saving doctrine. The cross—be it the whole thing or just the cross beam—is a great heavy weight and it is placed on Jesus to carry and He carries it. That is a clear picture of Jesus’ saving work for us—He took our sins upon Himself. Again, that’s exactly what the prophet says about Jesus [Is. 53.4-6]: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities... And why? The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That’s the same thing that the blessed apostle writes [2 Cor. 5.21]: [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Our sins were placed on Jesus—just like the heavy wood of the cross; Jesus staggered in great agony to the place of crucifixion—an image for us of Him taking on and bearing our sins.
As we see Jesus carrying His cross and are reminded by that that it is our sins He is bearing, let each of us this Lenten season examine our own heart and life and ask ourselves: how much have I weighed down Jesus’ cross? How much heavier have I myself made the cross of Jesus by my own sins? As we see Jesus stumble under the weight of the cross/ under the weight of my own sin, how each of us must then grieve over our sin and what our sin has brought on the holy God Himself! And in love of our Lord for His suffering for us and led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, may we then fight all the more against temptation and sin in our life. We see Jesus’ outward agony and suffering; how much greater must His inner spiritual suffering be as He endures vial after vial of God’s wrath for our sin. Seeing Jesus carry His cross and knowing His anguish, we cannot take our sin lightly, think of it as “no big deal.” Instead we see its true ugliness and cost and by the Holy Spirit’s power we hate our sin and try to root it from our heart and life.
At the same time seeing Jesus His cross, understanding that He is carrying on Himself the sins of the world, that is a source of great comfort to us. What do we see there? Jesus going one agonizing step at a time. But look beyond the outward step/ motion and look at the holy heart of Jesus. There you see His love for us sinners. Here we see His burning love for us and our salvation keeps urging Him to suffer beyond normal strength and ability. When the weight of the cross pushed Him down to the ground, His longing to save us and His love of us urged Him on. When He sank under its burden, when He stumbled and fell as he most certainly did, His love for us raised Him up to continue the way of agony to suffer the punishment of our sin for us. Jesus’ eager desire to carry out the Father’s will and to bring about our salvation compelled Him to suffer more; it forced Him through His pains. Here we see nothing but our Lord’s grace and mercy toward us sinners. We aren’t worthy of any of it but He loves us—in love for us the Father gave up His Son; in love for us the Son came to suffer all this to bring us forgiveness of sin and eternal life. When you see Jesus stumbling, suffering, carrying His cross, there see His love and mercy for us; let that strengthen and empower us this Lenten season and beyond to confess our sin, receive in faith this hard won salvation, and to fight against our sin.
One more point—although it is obvious and clear to see the love and mercy of the suffering Savior for us as He carries His cross, don’t forget Easter; don’t forget the outcome of Good Friday. When we do that—then we see Jesus carrying His cross is in reality His “victory lap.” Jesus conquered sin, death, devil and hell. The cross has become a symbol of victory—Jesus’ victory for us over our spiritual enemies. With that in mind, Jesus walking the path with the cross on His shoulder, is Jesus bearing the cross as a trophy over their tyranny. Through the streets, in the midst of His enemies—though they didn’t recognize it at the time—Jesus was parading the symbol of His victory. Jesus carrying the cross: a picture of beautiful, saving doctrine and also a source of greatest comfort to the sinner. INJ Amen