Luke 23:26-32

Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN.

The text for our consideration today comes from the twenty-third chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. We read verses 26:32

This is the text.

In Christ Jesus dear Christian friends"

How many people do you know that can recite verses of Scripture all day long and yet they don’t believe a word they are saying. They have a mere intellectual knowledge of the gospel but they do not believe it to be true. They may believe that the Bible is just another piece of literature. They may even assent to the fact that the Bible teaches good moral behavior. But, when they are confronted with the message of the cross, they simply refuse to believe it. To these people, only a fool would believe a story such as that. To that we must agree. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

On the other hand there are those who when they hear about Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, they get very emotional. You can see the tears begin to well up in their eyes. Many of the churches in our world today appeal to such emotion. We see this on television when we watch television evangelists like Billy Graham or Pat Robertson. We hear them as they preach the most emotionally charged sermon they know how to preach. Then at the end they invite all those who have been emotionally touched to come down and "accept Christ as their Savior." While they play hymns that appeal to people’s emotions, such as Just As I Am", you can hear them begging and urging people to come forward and make a decision for Christ. But if we were to meet most of those people who came forward we would find out that months and years later after the emotion has subsided they really were no better off than they were before.

Mere knowledge or mere emotion is not enough. If the preaching of Christ suffering is going to be of any benefit, then it must be done according to Scripture. Luther said, "The cause and end of the sufferings of Christ is: Suffered for us. Then you use the history of the sufferings of Christ in a blessed manner if you write at each little part of it: it happened for my sake, so that I would be redeemed from sin and eternal death." As we walk with Jesus as he is led out of the city for execution let us remember these words of Martin Luther.

They led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Crucifixion is the most horrible way to die that one can imagine. As we walk with Jesus, let us look at all he is suffering. His suffering really began as he prayed the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke tells us that "his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." It is interesting that this description is found only in the Luke’s gospel. Luke was a doctor and related this to us because it is a part of the suffering Jesus endured for us. Luke describes a rare medical condition called Hematridosis or bloody sweat. Under great emotional stress tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break mixing blood with sweat. This condition is capable of causing great weakness and even send the person into shock.

When he was led before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, he was spit upon, and struck repeatedly across the face. The next morning being battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from being up all night he was led to Pilate. After Pilate discovered he was from Galilee, he was taken across the city to Herod and then sent back to Pilate. To calm the angry mob, Pilate ordered that Jesus be scourged and crucified. A Roman soldier scourged Jesus. The soldier would take a whip called a flagrum. The flagrum was made of several leather thongs with two metal beads tied to the end of each thong. As the person was struck with the flagrum the metal beads would shred the skin to the point where there was massive bleeding. When Jesus was close to death, he was untied and allowed to slump to the ground. The soldiers mocked him putting a robe on him and placing a stick in his hand. They then wove a crown out of a bundle of flexible branches with thorns on them and pressed it onto his head. Again this would cause profuse bleeding.

Then they took the stick out of his hand and beat him across the head driving the thorns deeper and deeper into the scalp. After the soldiers finished having their fun mocking Jesus they tore the robe off him. It would have been almost as if he were being beaten all over again.

After all of this, we come to the point where Jesus is finally being led away to be executed. The crossbar of the cross is tied upon what is left of his shoulders. This crossbar weighed somewhere between 110 and 125 pounds. As the procession through the streets of Jerusalem went along the weak, beaten, Jesus would stumble and fall under the weight of the cross. Finally, just outside the city gates the centurion, anxious to get on with the execution, grabs Simon of Cyrene and forces him to carry the crossbar for Jesus. Adding additional humiliation to this scene was the fact that along with Jesus two other men, both criminals were being executed. Imagine being the Son of God and being treated as a common criminal.

Besides all the physical pain and suffering and the humiliation Jesus endured on the way to the cross, there was also the spiritual suffering. Jesus took the sins of the whole world upon his shoulders. Unlike the physical suffering you just heard, this burden is impossible to imagine, let alone describe. He suffered all of this for us. His love for us was so great that he willingly endured it all so that we can live with him forever in heaven.

As the procession moved on toward Calvary, Luke tells us many people followed. Included in this group of people were many women of Jerusalem. As they walked behind Jesus they mourned and wailed for him. Once again Jesus stopped the procession. He turned to the women and preached his final sermon. Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children.

Who were these daughters of Jerusalem. They were not the women who believed and supported him throughout his ministry, women like his mother, Mary and Martha, or Mary Magdalene. No these were women who lived in Jerusalem. To all who would listen Jesus says. Don’t weep for me. I don’t need your pity. Weep for yourselves. Cry tears of sorrow over your sins. Cry tears of repentance. Don’t mourn for me. Believe in me.

But to those who would not believe he gave this stern warning. For the time will come when you will say, "Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the mountains "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" This dire prophecy has two fulfillments. For those present in Jerusalem it would come just a few decades later in 70 A.D. when Rome would destroy Jerusalem.

But this prophecy also has another fulfillment. As judgement day approaches, these things will also happen. Think about it. Since 1973 women have been murdering their children before they even had a chance to be born. It is estimated that abortion has caused the death of 35,000 babies over this time period. How many mothers went into those clinics thinking, "Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed." Think about the alarming rate of suicides, especially among teenagers. Think about the debate now over the so-called right to die. Again, as we live in these last days we see this prophecy being fulfilled more and more.

For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

Jesus is the green tree and the dry wood represents all unbelievers. Jesus warns all those who refuse to believe. If I being perfectly righteous must suffer this way. How much more will you suffer on judgement day for your refusal to believe in me.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ. This Lenten season, let us look at ourselves. Let us examine ourselves with the mirror of God’s Law. Let that Law tear into our hearts and expose to us our sinfulness just as that flagrum tore into the flesh on the back of our Savior. And as Good Friday approaches let us not mourn for what Jesus suffered. Rather let us cry tears of true repentance. For as Paul told the Corinthians "Godly sorrow leads to repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." Let us always remember that Jesus carried our sins. Remember that Jesus suffered for us. Then we will be able to rejoice as we celebrate His resurrection and ours.

Now may the peace of God which transcends all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen

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