Mark 14:26-50; Acts 4:23-31; Zechariah 13:1-9; Psalm 22
God Himself Punished Christ
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Last week we heard from the Prophet Isaiah, “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” Three times Jesus prayed to his Father that there might be some other way, but he ended each prayer with the words, “Your will be done, not mine”; then Jesus went to the cross, suffered, and died. Tonight, you heard from the Prophet Zechariah, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” The “I” is the Father; the “shepherd” is his Son, Jesus. We are the “sheep.” “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.” “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” God himself punished Christ for our sins.
Jesus had just celebrated his final Passover with his disciples. It was a somber setting, but not morose. During the long meal it was customary for a rabbi to teach concerning the meaning of the Passover and the Exodus. That is precisely what Jesus did. While Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and St. Paul in 1 Corinthians, provide us Jesus’ words over the bread and the wine, it is St. John who provides us five chapters of Jesus’ teaching from that Last Supper.
Jesus began by washing the disciple’s feet, teaching them to love selflessly and sacrificially. He came and died to make us clean, and we can only be clean if he washes us in his blood. He gave them a new commandment, which was really the only commandment, the First Commandment, to love God, which bears the fruit of love for the neighbor. By this, all the world will know that we are his disciples, when we have love for one another. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, and he warned them that the world would hate them just as it had hated him. The Holy Spirit would counsel them and comfort them, and he would guide them in the way of Jesus and protect and strengthen them as they face suffering, persecution, and temptation. Jesus ended his teaching with a high priestly prayer that he and his disciples would be one, as he and the Father are one. Then they journeyed across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed that there might be some other way, but that the Father’s will be done. “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” God himself punished Christ for our sins.
As they were journeying to Gethsemane, Jesus continued his teaching saying, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’.” He was quoting the Prophet Zechariah. Indeed, that night Judas betrayed Jesus in the Garden with a kiss, Jesus was arrested by the Temple Guard, and his disciples fled and were scattered. Throughout that long night Jesus was tried by the High Priest, Pontius Pilate, King Herod, and Pilate again who finally washed his hands of the affair and handed him over to be crucified. And yet, Zechariah’s prophecy was not Law but Gospel. The LORD promised to send his Shepherd to redeem his people. How would the LORD’s shepherd redeem his people? He would strike his shepherd; he would crush him. The LORD promised, “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.” That fountain poured forth from Jesus’ pierced side in death upon the cross; Jesus’ blood has washed away the sin the of the world to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
“It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” The Scriptures had to be fulfilled. God himself punished Christ for our sins. The Apostles confessed this saying, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed – for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
And yet, Jesus’ will was in complete agreement and submission with the will of his Father. Jesus Christ possesses two perfect wills, a divine will and a human will. While his divine will is the same as his Father’s, Jesus’ human will is both human and perfect. In his humanity, Jesus willingly and obediently submitted to his Father’s will that he suffer and die for the sins of humankind. Paul Gerhardt captures this well in our hymn “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth”: “Yes, Father, yes, most willingly I’ll bear what you command me. My will conforms to your decree, I’ll do what you have asked me.” Jesus even said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me,” and “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” God himself punished Christ for our sins. As in all things so also in his Passion our Lord Jesus gladly and willingly submitted to his Father’s will. He became obedient unto death on the cross because he wanted to pay for our sins. Thus we rightly sing of Jesus, “He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the mockery, and yet replies, ‘All this I gladly suffer’.”
God himself punished Christ for our sins. This was his plan of salvation before the foundation of the world. Thus did St. John describe Jesus in the Revelation as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Yes, this is a holy mystery that is beyond the scope of our reason and can only be apprehended in faith, but it is a source of great comfort, peace, and hope that, even with all the human hands involved, going back to Adam and Eve in the beginning, it was always God’s hand at work, doing what God’s plan had predestined to take place.
To confess that God himself was responsible for all that happened to Christ in his suffering is ultimately for our comfort. For nothing, not even his own suffering and death, was outside of Jesus’ control. He testified, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Though it was at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles alike, it was ultimately God’s hand which struck down his Son, according to his eternal divine purpose for our everlasting salvation.
We praise you, O God, for you have loved us from eternity and so planned for our salvation from the foundation of the world.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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