Holy Cross Day

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Holy Tuesday

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And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. “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” (John 12:23-27).
The glory that Jesus speaks of begins with his death upon the cross. He is the grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies. In his hour of glory he is stripped naked, beaten, mocked, ridiculed, spat upon, and hung upon a cross to die. Worst of all, he is forsaken by his own Father. To our human eyes, this is the furthest thing from glory. Our culture has no interest in a glory that looks like suffering, in fact, we despise it.
Our technology and science have made it possible for us to avoid suffering and death like never before. People don’t have to see suffering, pain, injury, dying, and death on a daily basis like previous generations have. When the suffering of old age begins, we send our elders to nursing homes, out of sight and out of mind. We pay people to whisk our dead away to funeral homes, where they are painted up to look as though they are still alive. We often don’t speak of death; instead we say, “She passed away. He’s in a better place.” We strive to insulate ourselves from reminders of our mortality. We watch movies of young, beautiful people to help us forget that each day brings us one step closer to the grave. But for our efforts, in spite of all our medical and scientific advances, the mortality rate of humanity is still 100%. In the end, yoga won’t help you any more than a miracle drug or new skincare product. Every man and woman born in Adam will die.
This is a big problem, and anyone who’s being honest will admit it. Suffering is unavoidable. Death is inescapable. We need a Savior. The problem that we sinners had with Jesus was not that we didn’t want a Savior. We did want a Savior – but on our terms – and Jesus was doing it wrong. We wanted him to eliminate suffering and abolish death. Instead, he promised that we would suffer in this life. Worse yet, 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.” When sinful man hears these words, he says to Christ, “Thanks, but no thanks. If your salvation includes suffering and death, I’m better off on my own. I’ll bet on my own horse, after all, I’m a pretty good person. I’m well respected in my community, I give to missions, and I volunteer at the local food bank.”
It’s so easy for us to trust in our good lives and works, thinking that these will protect us from suffering and rescue us from death. Who would dare speak against sending money to the mission society or donating blood to the Red Cross? Surely, these things are pleasing in the eyes of the world. They bring great glory. For this reason, many Christians have forsaken the words of Jesus, which are often harsh, and embraced a social gospel instead. But Luther warns, “Although the works of man always seem attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins” (Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis III). It’s not an accident that the world loves good works yet despises the work of Christ. Being a good and kind person is a great thing to do – and your friends and family will appreciate it – but if you trust in these good works to save you from death, they become mortal sins. Luther continues, “Although the works of God are always unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits” (Thesis IV). There is no salvation from suffering and death apart from the suffering and death of Christ. And the sinful nature always recoils in horror from Christ’s cross. The gospel of Jesus is the savor of death to them that are perishing (2 Cor 2:14).
This is why Jesus didn’t ask you to make a decision for him. He didn’t wait for you to choose suffering and death. When Jesus said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone” he spoke of himself. He is the grain that came down from heaven to earth, was crucified, died, and was buried. You couldn’t, you wouldn’t choose him, but he chose you. He poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors (Is 53:12). He chose to live and suffer among us, as one of us. [His enemies] devised evil schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living” (Jer 11:19b), but he embraced the death that we sought to avoid. He sowed his life into the earth and poured out his blood upon our cursed ground.
Because Jesus fell into the ground and died, he does not remain alone as the only righteous man. Instead, he bears much fruit, and he bears fruit in the most unlikely places. He is the vine, and through baptism, you were grafted in as one of his branches. You have his promise, “Wherever [he] is, there will his servant be also.” The perfect life you could not live, the suffering and death you hoped to avoid, he lived and died for you. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Ro 6:3-4).
Therefore, as Christians, we don’t need to spend our lives running from suffering or trying to distance ourselves from the reality of death. We see suffering differently than the world. Strange as this may sound, in Christ, suffering becomes a blessing rather than a curse. His death on the cross has become our life, his weakness is our strength, his shame is our glory. When we suffer, we no longer see this as a sign of God’s displeasure. Instead, when we suffer for the sake of Christ, we rejoice that we have been found worthy to bear his name. And when we suffer because we live in a broken and sinful world, we trust that God will use this suffering to draw us closer to himself. We cling to his promise, that just as we are united with Christ in death, so we shall share in his resurrection from the dead. For what is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power (1 Cor 15:42-43).
And when your days of suffering on earth are over, when your last hour comes, you may say, “Death, do your worst. I am ready, and I do not fear you. You could not hold my Savior and you shall not hold me. Your sting has been lost. Your power has been broken. I serve Christ, and I must follow him, and where he is, there I now go. Death, you are to me but the gateway to glory, the entrance to eternal life. And his cross, which the world despises, is my salvation and highest good.” Amen.
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