31st Day of Lent
Today’s reading brings us to Good Friday and all the events leading up to Jesus’ death, the death itself and the immediate aftermath. Really, we are at the heart and core of the holy Christian faith--the suffering and death of Jesus for the sins of the world. Here Jesus is loaded down with the sins of the world; He has become the world’s sinner; St. Paul describes it this way [2 Cor 5.21]: [God] made Him who knew no sin [that’s the holy, sinless Jesus] to be sin for us; already the OT prophet Isaiah describes it like this [53-6]: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LOrd has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. All our sins are on Jesus, the holy, sinless Son of God. It doesn’t seem right, just, “fair” that our sins should be attributed to Him. But it was precisely for this moment that He came. Shortly before this first Good Friday, we hear Jesus speaking [Jn 12.27]: Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. This is the love of God for us. This is the holy heart of Jesus burning with love for us sinners and which would lead to His willing suffering and death for us.
Our Good Friday reading brings us to the deepest depth of Jesus’ humiliation--His not using His divine power, majesty and glory--namely His death and burial. It cannot be more clear that Jesus is not using any of His divine power and majesty when He is suffering on the cross--and especially when He is dead and placed in a tomb. Think of it--the holy, eternal, almighty God, who is life itself, from whom all life comes, is dead! And nothing says death more than being placed in the tomb.
We heard in tonight’s reading: Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had been dead for a long time. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he granted the body to Joseph [of Arimathea]. [Joseph and Nicodemus] took Jesus’ body and bound it with linen strips along with the spices, in accord with Jewish burial practices. There was a garden at the place where Jesus was crucified. And in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid...Joseph took the body and laid it in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. He rolled a large stone over the tomb’s entrance and left.
No doubt about it--Jesus had truly died and was buried. It was no sham death. Jesus didn’t just swoon. He didn’t merely appear dead and then revive in the cool of the tomb. He was truly dead--the Romans made sure of that: one of the soldiers pierced [Jesus’] side with a spear. Immediately blood and water came out. That Jesus truly did die is vital for the heart and core of Christianity--without death there can be no resurrection and with no resurrection we are still in our sins and heaven is shut to us. So, when we confess in the creed that Jesus died and was buried we are all the more certainly confessing the truth of the resurrection.
St. Luke records in our text: Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began to glorify God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” And the whole crowd who came together to that spectacle, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Today, we’ll spend a few moments standing at the foot of the cross at the moment Jesus died; and watching the response of the people there, we will see what our response should be when we ponder Jesus’ death. Pondering Jesus’ death calls us to confess our faith, like the Centurion did; it calls us to the deeper humility and repentance of the crowds; and it calls us to a firmer faith like the acquaintances and the women.
Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began to glorify God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” The centurion was in a unique position. Not only had he kept watch at the cross but most likely from the time of Jesus’ trial with Pilate on. He saw and heard everything. For sure, he was at the cross when the sun was darkened and there was darkness from noon to 3PM. He heard Jesus forgiving those who screamed for His blood and crucified Him; He heard Jesus promise the repentant thief paradise; He heard Jesus’ prayers to the Father: My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? He felt the earthquake. What was his conclusion to all that he had heard and seen? --That Jesus is righteous, that is, holy, innocent: “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” And as St. Matthew records: Now when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Notice: not just the centurion but those with him. You can just imagine the scene: the centurion and the other soldiers praising God and confessing that Jesus is righteous and the Son of God--the very claim of Jesus and what the Jews put Him to death for. Before this the centurion had no stake in any of this; he was as detached from it all as anyone could be: he was simply a soldier in a foreign land doing his job. Certainly he was not a believer--at most he may have heard about Jesus but that was it; most likely he had his own pagan gods but now he says: “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” and “Truly this was the Son of God!” Jesus is righteous and His divine claims are true! In fact, 4th century Church Father St. Gregory of Nyssa reports the tradition that this centurion was named Longinus and he later became a bishop in Cappadocia [a region in modern day Turkey] and ended up dying as a martyr. Assuming that is true--what a powerful and tremendous faith the Holy Spirit worked in Him.
Dear Christian, yes, the centurion, Longinus, saw and experienced all this; he was an eyewitness. But we are not in any less a position. We have the Scriptures which are inspired by the Holy Spirit; He led the holy prophets and apostles to choose and write the exact words that they did. We have the same accounts of what the centurion saw and experienced--and we even have more than he did when he confessed “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” and “Truly this was the Son of God!”!
That’s why we do well especially in the Lenten season, as we have been doing, to take Scripture and ponder/ meditate upon it. Don’t stop once Lent ends but daily spend time in the word of God and in prayer. There the Holy Spirit will be at work all the more deeply drawing you into the word and into the mystery of who Jesus is and what He has done for you. We dare never think that our faith is so strong that we don’t need to; we dare never think our faith and knowledge is so weak that we’ll never “get it.” --Let this pagan centurion who was brought to faith by the Holy Spirit and who confessed that faith--“Certainly this was a righteous Man!” and “Truly this was the Son of God!”-- be our example!
With the centurion coming to faith, we see another vital truth--Jesus and His death draws people to Him, into His Church. Again, the cross is the center of the holy Christian faith; it’s what it’s all about: the death of Jesus for our sins, reconciling us sinners to the holy God and opening heaven to us; there in the cross is the forgiveness of all our sins. Only by faith in Jesus and His work--His life, suffering, and death--are we saved. Jesus says only a short time before that first Good Friday {Jn 12.32]: And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. This He said, signifying by what death He would die. No sooner had Jesus endured His passion for us than He began to win many to the knowledge of the truth and bring many to faith in Him--beginning with the centurion. The cross of Jesus, His death is what brings us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Through that message the Holy Spirit is calling people to faith in Jesus. That’s why St. Paul proclaims[1 Cor 1.23]: We preach Christ crucified. As the centurion, Longinus, found out that is the heart of the Gospel and how disciples are made! At His death Jesus found disciples, both Gentiles--the Roman soldiers--and Jews--the crowds. There we see that Jesus and His work, His suffering and death, is for all people--Jew and Gentile.
As we tonight in spirit stand at the foot of the cross let’s next meditate upon the crowds that were there: And the whole crowd who came together to that spectacle, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. Here we see something else truly amazing. They came for entertainment, for a show--that’s what the word “spectacle” means. They wanted to see what would happen to this Jesus, after all He must have been the talk of the town among the Jews. Then, too, the executions were a really sick form of entertainment--people like blood and gore back then just like today. But here we come to something unexpected--although the people came together to be “entertained” by the spectacle of executions, they left in repentance: beat their breasts and returned. They ceased being spectators and became penitents. Now that the “show” was over, they were shaken to the core for they, too, experienced the darkness and earthquake; many heard Jesus’ words from the cross. All this was wrong; it was not what they expected.
Seeing all this, they came to recognize and sense the wrath of God over sin. They sensed their own sinfulness; they sensed that they had done wrong with their cries of “Crucify Him!” And now they felt their sin and guilt. Dear Christian, we dare not Lent pass without standing before the cross of Christ and there see the true cost of our sins and what we truly earn for our sins--God’s wrath and punishment now and eternally. Lent is the perfect time for a thorough examination of conscience, taking in hand the holy 10 Commandments and examining heart and life in light of them--what have I done that I shouldn’t, what haven’t I done that I should have, what about thoughts and desires? Standing before the cross of Christ as we are especially now in Lent, let’s not let it go to waste. Really, how can we leave Lent, our standing at the cross, the same as we have come. As we stand at the cross and meditate on it and our sin that drove Jesus to the cross, now that we have encountered Jesus, we cannot be the same; we cannot be neutral; we cannot be indifferent. Let us boldly recognize our sin and also see there on the cross our Savior from that sin. If we do that, we will leave Lent much different than how we entered it!
And so, we meditate a moment on the next group at the cross: But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. They were at a distance, probably kept that way by the soldiers and as they watched these things at a distance, we watch them at a distance of time--2000 years. We see the same thing as we look on our crucified Savior: we gaze upon His wounds He endured to for salvation--the gashes from the whipping, the punctures from the thorny crown, the nail holes; we see the blood He poured out for our forgiveness; we see His head bowed as if to kiss us; we see His arms stretched out to welcome and embrace us. At a distance, standing there in silence--what were they reflecting on? Perhaps His miracles, His words/ teachings, His helping them. Can’t we do the same in these closing days of Lent? Maybe take a crucifix in hand and reflect on Jesus and His saving work for you. Let us see ourselves in this group of Jesus’ acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, and let us follow their example--they were unable to separate themselves from Jesus, let us never leave Jesus; the very One they loved so deeply while alive, they could not forsake at His death. That’s the love of faith. The more we recognize our Lord’s love of us, all the more do we love Him and want to cling all the more firmly to Him in faith.
Looking at our crucified, dead, Savior may we confess our faith in Him, sorrow over our sins and all the more firmly believe on Him. INJ Amen.