Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
Palm Sunday
(2010)
There is but One Cross
John 12:27-37 (ESV)
"Now is
my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But
for this purpose I have come to this hour.
[28] Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven:
"I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." [29] The crowd that stood there and heard it
said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to
him." [30] Jesus answered,
"This voice has come for your sake, not mine. [31] Now is the judgment of this world; now
will the ruler of this world be cast out.
[32] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself." [33] He said this to show
by what kind of death he was going to die.
[34] So the crowd answered him, "We have heard from the Law that
the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted
up? Who is this Son of Man?" [35]
So Jesus said to them, "The light is among you for a little while longer.
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in
the darkness does not know where he is going.
[36] While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become
sons of light."
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and
hid himself from them. [37] Though he
had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,
With an ever increasing
frequency we are encountering people who not only do not know Jesus, but many
who steadfastly deny Him as the true Messiah. This, then, begs the question, how
is a Christian to respond to such people. Laying human reason aside and letting
the Holy Spirit led you, the believer can recall that there are five affirmations
from Holy Scripture that speak of our Lord Jesus and His Messiahship. These
are:
Therefore, this morning, I want to speak to you
regarding the last of these affirmations.
Three separate times― at
the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of our Lord’s public
ministry― a voice from heaven witnesses to our Lord’s Messiahship. At His
Baptism the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended in the form of a
dove upon on Lord, and a voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17 ESV). On the occasion of His
transfiguration, when the true divinity of our Lord was revealed as His face shined
like the sun and His clothes became white as light as He was speaking to Moses
and Elijah, a voice from heaven spoke from the cloud; “This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5 ESV). Then, again,
on Tuesday of our Lord’s Passion Week, towards the very end of His blessed ministry,
in answer to His prayer, “Father, glorify your name” a voice
came from heaven and said: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it
again” (v. 28)
We would do well to note
that on each of these occasions the suffering and impending death of our Lord
Jesus was prominently in the foreground. At the waters of the
Seeing that Holy Scripture
reveals each of these affirmations in connection with our Lord’s suffering and
death, points us to the truth that the Cross is the beginning, the middle, and
the end of our Lord’s mission. Therefore, the Cross is the heart and substance
of the Gospel of grace.
Jesus had recently raised
Lazarus from the dead. This tremendous miracle naturally attracted wide
attention. The astonished Pharisees were quite exercised over the outcome,
saying; “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after
him” (John 12:19 ESV). The people, in their enthusiasm, were ready to
make Him king. On Palm Sunday a great chorus of people met Him with branches
singing: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the
King of
Amid great fanfare and excitement
some Greeks came to worship at the feast and while they were there, they
approached Philip saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21
ESV). Now we do not know whether they were successful in their quest
because the Holy Spirit doesn’t tell us. However,
The vision of Jesus was that
of the throne of God, but it would only come by way of the Cross. He would be
glorified, but only through His suffering and death. Therefore, He said, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24 ESV).
The highest exemplification
of this law can be found in the sacrifice of the world’s only Redeemer, our
Lord, Jesus Christ. His life of labor and weariness was closed by a death of
shame and anguish. He gave His body to
the Cross. Men laid the Virgin-born in a virgin tomb. There were men that day
who said: “This is the end of the works of Jesus.” However, there is but One Cross of Christ and it
is singular in its productive power of life, for our Lord Jesus, like a kernel
of wheat, rose from that tomb to new life. Concerning the seed, our Lord Jesus
said, “if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24 ESV). The death
and resurrection of our Lord Jesus has produced fruit without measure; fruit
that will live forever through faith in Him.
In His human nature, our
Lord Jesus naturally shrank from death. Out of His humanity He shared our
natural horror of death because man is more or less accustomed to dying;
carrying in his bosom the germ of death because of sin. But Jesus is absolutely
the sinless One. With all the force of His sinless nature He shrank from that
which is the antitheses of life. No wonder He exclaimed, “Now is my soul troubled. And
what shall I say?” (v. 27). Shall I possibly say, “Father, save me from this hour?”
No; He would not say that. Why not? Because, “for this purpose I have come to
this hour” (v. 27). He is conscious of the fact that according to God’s
good counsel and will He is to die the death of the sinner. Only through His
death and resurrection could there be productive results; only through the
Cross would it be possible to gather the heathen into His inheritance. So our
Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name” (v. 28). Then it was that the voice
came from heaven saying: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it
again” (v. 28). God had already glorified the name of Jesus through the
words and works of His Son, and He will certainly further glorify it through
the death of His Son, as He will escort Jesus through death to glory, giving
Him the heathen for His possession.
It is through the Gospel of
the Cross that God is glorified. Every time you and I speak well of Jesus we
glorify God. A sermon may be poorly constructed or delivered, but if it is a
Gospel sermon, God through His Holy Spirit gets Himself a glory which the most
pompous pageantry cannot yield Him. No Gospel sound falls to the ground and is
lost. It will accomplish that for which God has sent it. Where did Martin
Luther get his power? From his grasp of the heart of the Gospel; namely, the
forgiveness of sin through the atoning blood of Jesus for every believer.
Luther’s grip on the Gospel truth was so firm that the devil himself could not
wrench it from him. With the Gospel in his hands, Luther could say: “Heaps upon
heaps, the foes of God are overturned.” Blessed Martin Luther was mighty
because he declared the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and with this he
shook the world and brought about the Reformation. Never lose faith in the
Gospel’s power. Know that power is gone out of a church which has gotten away
from the Cross, and know also that power shall come back as the church returns
to the truth as it is in Jesus. God’s name will be glorified again.
Those who were with Jesus
did not understand the voice. Some thought that it thundered. Others said, “An
angel has spoken to him” (v. 29). However, our Lord Jesus told the
crowd, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine” (v.30) and He
continued, “Now is the judgment of this world” (v. 31). The hour is at
hand when the judgment deserved by the guilty world will be visited on the
innocent Redeemer. “Now will the ruler of this world be cast out” (v. 31). The
sin of the world will be atoned for; removing the devil’s right and power over
the people to keep them in bondage to sin. Our Lord Jesus was firmly resolved
to accomplish the end of His mission, though this meant His death upon the
Cross, for there is but One Cross
that can draw men to God; the Cross of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus tells us, “And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (v. 32).
There is but One Cross that has such
magnetic power over men.
When the world looks at the
Cross through unregenerated eyes, they are likely to say, “Ha! I will have none
of that.” However, when we look at the Cross through eyes which have been
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we joyfully say, “Christ Crucified, I come.”
Moreover, filled with awe and love for our Lord Jesus, we rejoice at the words
of the prophet Isaiah; “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 crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are
healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5 ESV).
Even as there was magnetism
in the Cross for our blessed Lord Jesus, so, too, there is magnetism in the
Cross for us. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself.” Through the divine operation of God’s Holy Spirit, He calls us
to Himself, drawing us to the Cross, which He has blessed with healing gifts
for distressed souls, to find in Him our life, our rest, our eternal existence.
The Cross of Christ is magnetic because it presents the grace of God in Christ,
the only begotten Son of God, and the Savior of mankind.
Take the Cross out of the
Gospel and its magnetism disappears. The Cross is the cornerstone, the
keystone, the capstone, and the touchstone of the Christian’s faith. The Cross
is the answer to the moral crisis of the world and of the universe and of
eternity. Remove the Cross, and what is left; a dazzling example what is impossible
to follow; a system of morality which is too high to attain. The Sermon on the
Mount and the Golden Rule! But these are primarily Law, while the Cross is pure
grace. The Cross is God’s love in concrete terms. The Cross is God’s way of
reconciling His justice with His love. The Cross is God’s way of tearing down
the partition which separates Him in His holiness from man in his solitude of
sin. Our Lord Jesus declares, “And I,” the Son of God, capable of
making an open show of sin, death, and the devil; “And I,” the Son of Man,
capable of suffering and dying as the Substitute for all men; “And
I,” if I be lifted up to the Cross and from the Cross to the throne of
God, “will
draw all men to myself.”
The magnetism of the Cross
is this, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us” (Romans 5:8 (ESV). We love Him because He loved us first.
We are drawn to Him because He first drew us to Himself. Moreover, He drew us
to Himself by the Holy Spirit through the Word of Reconciliation.
To be without Jesus is of
all states the most miserable. If He were gone, there would be no light, no
love, no hope, and no life. If He were snatched away, there would be no light
of God’s grace, no assurance of God’s love, no hope of heaven, and no life
everlasting. We would have no Savior from sin, no comfort in sorrow, no rod and
staff in the valley of the shadow of death, no light shining from afar, no hope
beyond the darkness, and no mansion in our Father’s house.
But we are not without
Jesus. Jesus is with us as a Light in Word and Sacrament. Thus, our souls are
enlightened by hearing His Word and receiving His body and blood shed for us
for the forgiveness of sin. Although every moment brings us closer to the
inevitable hour of our death, we fear not for we have the Light of life
dwelling within us. Moreover, we pray that our Lord will sustain and protect us
throughout our lives because Satan is all too eager to extinguish the Light in
our soul. Using his cunning and diabolical powers, he delights in trying to
lead us on a path of indifference and apathy, using all means at his disposal
to extinguish the Light in our land by an atheistic ideology. However, we
remain strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, protected by His holy
armor, His Word and His perpetual gift of His body and blood in and under the
bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Our Lord Jesus instructs us
to, “Walk
while you have the light” (v. 35). Thus, we walk in the shadow of the
Cross remembering the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus for the forgiveness
of our sin. We walk by faith believing His promise of life eternal for all who
believe, knowing that there is but One
Cross, His Cross, the Cross that brings life out of death. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.