25th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. In tonight’s reading we see Pilate, at the insistence of the Jews, condemning Jesus to death even though he 3 times declared Jesus innocent. Right after our reading we have the account soldiers leading Jesus away, carrying His own cross, to be crucified. Then, Jesus, who was so physically weakened after being up all night, enduring one trial after another, enduring various beatings and mockings, after losing tremendous amounts of blood through it all, was given some “relief” as the soldiers pressed Simon of Cyrene into service to carry Jesus’ cross.
But, there is that very interesting line that St. Luke uses to begin our text: A large crowd of people was following Him. Let us see ourselves as part of it this Lenten season. We are following Jesus during His sufferings and trials; we are following Him to the Calvary and there we will see Him crucified and die; and we then follow Jesus as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus place Jesus into Joseph’s tomb. That’s the Lenten journey, that’s our Lenten journey. But that’s only part of it and we miss the point of Lent if we are like the crowd and are merely following Him. Because if we are merely following Him, then it means that we are just observers, just by-standers. Let us see again and anew this Lenten season that Jesus’ Lenten journey to Jerusalem, to the cross and tomb, not at a distance, not uninvolved, but with us as part of the picture, with the full understanding that what is happening to Jesus, what Jesus is doing is all for us and our salvation. Let us see that we have a stake at the events of Lent. Let us, this Lenten season connect Jesus’ suffering and death with ourselves and as we do we will weep tears of repentance.
Part of that crowd that was following Jesus included the curious, stragglers picked up along the way, those who thought Jesus was innocent as well as those that thought Jesus was guilty and wanted to see Him killed. In other words, just the mere act of following Jesus means nothing. But this crowd also included women who were mourning and wailing for Him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me. Notice of all these people in the crowd, Jesus turns and addresses them. Certainly these women were full of sincere compassion toward Jesus. They were mourning and wailing for Him; that’s the typical death wail. They thought Jesus was as good as dead; they regarded Him as already dead.
But with their mourning and wailing—what type of tears were they shedding? Tears of pity. Why? They were merely part of that crowd following Him. They didn’t put themselves in the picture, that is, they didn’t recognize why Jesus was suffering and dying; they didn’t see that it was for them.
That’s the same problem we face in Lent if we don’t see ourselves in the picture of Lent. Pondering Lent, pondering all of Jesus’ sufferings and His gruesome death on the cross, will bring us to sorrow, pity over Jesus and even tears over at all He suffered. That’s the sorrow/ weeping of the women. But that’s not the weeping that Jesus wants. Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me. Instead, the weeping Jesus wants from us, the whole purpose of why we ponder Jesus’ holy Passion in Lent is so that we may learn rightly to mourn/ weep over our sins. Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves.
This Lent, as we again follow Jesus from the upper room to the judgment hall and finally to the cross and tomb, may we see ourselves in the picture; that is, may we see that it was precisely our sins—may each of us say “it was my sin”—that caused Jesus’ suffering and death. The right and proper weeping, the correct tears that Lent should bring out of us is not tears of pity for Christ, but tears of sorrow over our sin. Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves. Lent is especially the time for us to step up, take ownership of, acknowledge our sin; that it was our sin that caused Jesus’ suffering and death. Like Luther rightly points out for us as we ponder the events of our Lord’s holy passion: we must regard ourselves as the ones who tormented, whipped, crowned with thorns, and crucified Jesus; we must regard Judas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, the crowd of Jews, Pilate as our servants and as our slaves and slaves of our sin doing our bidding concerning Christ. That’s what each of our sins does—it condemns Christ.
That’s why as we see Jesus judged and marching out, stumbling over the burden of His cross, we weep as we see what our sin has done and what a serious matter our sin, each and every one of our sins is. Especially during Lent, but also every day, let us hold up the holy 10 Commandments as a light shining into our heart and onto our deeds. There we will see sin after sin and there we will be placed with this crowd following Him, but also putting ourselves in the picture seeing that Jesus is going to the cross, loaded down with the burden of my sin; that our sin is indeed a serious matter, causing the suffering and death of God Himself.
The simple fact of the matter is that sin must be punished. A holy and righteous God cannot allow sin to stand/ remain unpunished. That’s why Jesus tells the women in the crowd: Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. If they are not recognizing what Jesus is doing—namely, suffering and dying for their sins and the sins of all people—then indeed they should weep and wail for a people subject to the punishment for their sin, not recognizing/ receiving in faith the suffering of Christ for us. Lent is the time for us to consider with a penitent heart that our sin is serious—it caused Jesus’ suffering and death; the very death of God Himself.
Then, at the end of our text, Jesus drives home the point with a proverb: For if they do these things to the green wood, what will happen to the dry? The point of comparison here is this: Jesus is the green wood; the dry wood is the sinner. If Jesus, the just and holy Son of God, has to suffer so terribly under the weight of God’s judgment, what will happen to the sinner, the dry word that easily burns, a picture of those fit for the fire of God’s judgment? Again, sin is a serious matter and sin must and will be punished. God’s wrath is real. God’s wrath is indeed to be feared. The sinner standing with his/her sin before the wrath of God is like a dried out piece of wood—that’s how the person will stand in the fire of God’s judgment.
To stand in the fire of God’s judgment—that’s precisely what Jesus was on the way to do for us/ in our place, for our sin. That’s why we weep and lament our sin. We see what our sins rightly earn us; we see that by them we earn nothing but God’s wrath and punishment. But we are this Lent again following Jesus to the cross. We see that He is on the way to bearing our sin and our punishment. And we weep, recognizing that our sins caused Him to endure the wrath of God over my sin. How we then cry out to our Lord to forgive us our sin. We learn again and anew the wrath of God over sin. And we hate our sin even more—it drove the holy pure God Himself, the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity to suffer the wrath of the Father; it drove the Father to give up His Son so that we sinners may be reconciled to Him and forgiven. Here our tears of sorrow over our sin begin to flow. Here we see and feel the heavy and horrible business of our sin. And led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we acknowledge our sin, pray for forgiveness and fight against sin. May our tears this Lent be tears of sorrow over sin, where we weep and cry to God for forgiveness and resist our sinful nature and impulses and not give it free reign. This is our Lenten repentance.
2. But it goes beyond that as we follow Jesus this Lenten season to the cross. Let us not just see and weep over our sin, the seriousness of our sin and the wrath of God we earn and deserve for our sin; let us not just see that our sin caused Jesus’ suffering. In other words, let us not just weep tears of sorrow over sin but let us take it a step further and also weep tears of joy over the mercy of the Lord to us! That’s what makes for true Lenten repentance: both sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus and His saving work.
A large crowd of people was following Him. May we see ourselves in this scene this Lent—following Jesus not out of curiosity but because we know in Spirit-worked faith precisely who Jesus is: true God and true man and our Savior from sin. We, this Lent and every day, follow Jesus to the cross and tomb because we delight and marvel in God’s work for our salvation. We see ourselves in this picture—that Jesus is going into suffering and death for my sin. Here we weep tears of joy because as we feel and recognize our sin, we know ourselves to be the dry wood that is fodder for God’s wrath; we know that because of sin we are dry and nothing good can come from us; we know that we cannot endure the Lord’s judgment. But Jesus is our Savior from sin and eternal damnation. What an amazing mercy He shows us as He comes to be our Savior, to suffer God’s wrath and punishment for our sin! What an amazing mercy of the Father who did not spare His only Son but gave Him up into death for us!
Let none of us think that our sins are too great to be forgiven, that God doesn’t have enough mercy to cover us and our sin. Listen to Jesus’ words in our text: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Yes, be sure of this: the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed,’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ These are not words of vengeance on the people of Jerusalem, the very ones who demanded “Crucify Him!” and said “His blood be on us and on our children” [Mt. 27.23, 25]. Instead, these are words of concern, Jesus calling sinners to recognize their sin, to weep tears of sorrow them and to turn to Him. He calls to us today to come to Him to receive mercy.
What joy fills our heart as we confess our sins and hear Jesus speaking through His instrument: I forgive you all your sins. What joy fills our heart as we run to the altar to receive there/ to eat Jesus’ very body that took on our sins and was cursed for our sins and to drink that very blood that was shed and offered to the Father to appease His wrath over sin and reconcile us sinners to Him. What joy fills our heart as we remember our baptism and daily and anew receive the forgiveness and grace the Lord gave us there as in baptism as we were united with Jesus’ death and resurrection and brought into His holy family. Precisely in and through this faith in Christ we shed tears of joy because of the great mercy He shows us. What makes Lent such a blessed season is that as we recognize our sin, we then in Spirit-worked faith run to Christ crucified and the mercy that He offers and gives us in His Word and Sacrament and receiving that mercy in faith we then weep tears of joy.
A large crowd of people was following Him, including women who were mourning and wailing for Him. Let us this Lenten season and beyond be part of that crowd following Jesus because we know who He is. Let us see Jesus by God’s plan and of His own free will going to die for our sins. Let us see Jesus as the holy sinless one of God taking our sins upon Himself, being made the world’s sinner, and by His death reconciling us sinners to the holy God. This Lent and beyond let us weep over our sins and what our sins have earned us—God’s wrath and damnation—but let us also weep tears of joy for our Lord’s mercy. Sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus and His mercy. That’s true Lenten repentance. INJ Amen