For the whole world!

The reality of suffering and evil that exist all around me are too real to me today. This globe knows millions who live among the devastation of war. Thousands die when strong men order missiles and bombs to fall. National leaders care little for the people of the street who live with the results of their decisions. Greed drives nations and causes ordinary people to suffer in poverty.

Closer to home, bullying bosses make life miserable for their employees,
families divide when petty people choose to fight and hate.
Oh yes, my sins are real to me, too.

So, on this first day of Holy Week I can identify, in a small way, with the tears of Jesus after His raucous welcome into Jerusalem on what we call “Palm Sunday.” Luke says that “as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace.”  (Luke 19) He saw the awful sorrow that would come on that city’s people in years ahead, something that they might have avoided if they had accepted Him as their Messiah.

On this week’s journey to the Cross and onward to Resurrection Sunday, I want to feel something of the weight of sin so that I will better worship the One whose sacrifice changes everything for those who believe Him and accept His grace. Peter tells us that “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2) Those are such wonderful words, even more meaningful against the backdrop of human depravity.

Think about that, my friend. Jesus knew the depths of evil that terrible day. He carried the sin of slave traders, war mongers, child-abusers, and murderers. He carried sins less dramatic to us – jealousy, pride, greed, lust, and apathy about spiritual matters – that most of us experience. No wonder His anguish caused Him to groan and cry out.

Crucifixion was a horrible and cruel way to execute a person, but Jesus’ cries went beyond the suffering of His body. He, the Perfect One, felt the guilt of the whole world in an unimaginable moment when He took it all on His shoulders and gave His life to make a way for us to be right with God, our Creator-Father.

John’s words cannot be read casually as we think of that. He says, “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  (1 John 2)

Let me offer three thoughts about our response to the Cross of Jesus.

First, let’s worship with true wonder.
“That God should love a sinner such as I, how wonderful is love like this.
Such love, such wondrous love!”  says the old hymn. If we rush too quickly past the ugliness of the Cross in our hurry to know the joy of Easter, we will not worship as we ought. Our salvation becomes all the more rich when we ponder the depths from which Christ Jesus has lifted us.

Second, let’s choose to live in His grace and with grace towards others.
We need not live in guilt or shame when we remember the Cross, because what He did there is finished, the work of atonement for sins complete. The inspired writer of Hebrews contrasts the yearly sacrifice of the first Covenant with the final sacrifice of the New. We learn this – “But he (Christ) has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,  so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  (Hebrews 9)

My sin, your sin, the sin of the world was paid for, in full, at the Cross, by the sacrifice of the Final Lamb, whose shed blood was sufficient for the redemption of the world for all time!

So, third, let’s become messengers of Life and Hope!
Christians should NOT be known for their condemnation of others. We should be the most hopeful people in the world! Our message is not about death, it is a word of life. Paul says “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. 

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  WE live in peace with God, and we lead others to know that peace, too. In this work, evil is defeated. The broken are made whole. Those who suffer are comforted. Oh, what a Savior.

So, this Holy Week, may we live soberly, pray to know the cost of our salvation, even while we anticipate the great promise of the Resurrection that brings us to life eternal in the home of our Father. Amen.
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