Names of Wondrous Love--Christ Crucified John 19:16-18 030612MLent
Names mean a lot. Sometimes names--especially nicknames--describe a person. Think of Tiny Tim, Jack the Ripper, King Richard the Lionhearted of England, Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane, and even biblical people like John the Baptist and Doubting Thomas, also known as Didymos which means "twin." As we're seeing in our services this Lenten season, the same is true of the names Scripture gives to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our series is entitled, Names of Wondrous Love, and this evening the name we look at gets at the center of what our Lenten celebration is all about. We look at one of those:
Names of Wondrous Love--Christ Crucified
1. By whom?
2. For whom?
1. Paul told the Corinthians,I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Co 2:2). One of our churches has adopted Paul's words to the Corinthians as their motto: We preach Christ crucified (1 Co 1:23). That's why we can consider the beauty of that name of wondrous love, "Christ Crucified," and ask, crucified By whom?
We say in the creed that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." Pilate definitely played a role in Jesus crucifixion. Jesus had been brought before this Roman Governor after the Jews wanted him dead because they considered him guilty of blasphemy--claiming to be God. Of course, the Romans had no such crime in their books, so they switched their charge to "treason" because Jesus claimed to be Christ, a king. When Jesus told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world, Pilate said he found no basis for a charge against Jesus, so he would have him beaten and released. But the Jews used political clout. They said ruler who allows competition to Caesar, the Roman emperor, can't be a friend of Caesar. Rather than jeopardize his standing with Caesar (and his political future), Pilate ceremonially washed his hands of the Jesus problem, yet turned him over to be crucified: 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So who's the "them"? It was the Jews who played their political trump card. Jesus had already told Pilate that "the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin" (Jn 19:11). John sets the tone for this at the beginning of his gospel when he says of the Christ, He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him (Jn 1:10-11). The Jews by-and-large did not believe Jesus was the Christ, the promised Savior. In spite of the Scripture prophecies fulfilled, and in spite of miracle after miracle, they rejected him, as Peter would say in his Pentecost sermon,"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross (Ac 2:22-24).
The people of Israel were responsible even though they did not personally drive the nails through his hands and feet. The Roman soldiers did that: So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him.... Yes, the soldiers divided up his clothes, posted the notice, and drove the nails. The Bible foretold, "They will look on the one they have pierced" (Jn 19:37). Crucifixion was one of the most brutal methods of capital punishment devised by human beings. It wasn't humane by any means. It was slow and agonizing. No Roman citizen would have been subjected to it. If you were crucified you either died of loss of blood, dehydration, or asphyxiation and heart failure, or a combination of all of them. They might have offered a little sedative. But Jesus refused it in order that he might face the full brunt of his suffering.
But it wasn't just the soldiers and the Jews and Pontius Pilate that brought about Jesus' crucifixion. They got the wrap for it, but wasn't it really the entire sinful human race that made his death necessary? John writes in his epistle, He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). That's why the worst torment wasn't from the physical wounds caused by the nails and the thorns. The worst torment was the spiritual torment he endured, being forsaken by God while bearing responsibility for all the world's sin. Is that why Isaiah wrote in prophecy that his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness (Is 52:14)? Is that part of what God was hiding by shrouding him in darkness? All the world from Adam and Eve to the latest baby just born were responsible for what was happening on the cross: Christ was crucified.
Yes, you and I are guilty too. "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Oh yes, you were. And so was I. As the hymn writer wrote, "Ah! I also and my sins wrought your deep affliction; this indeed the cause has been of your crucifixion."Is he exaggerating the seriousness of our sin and what it did to Jesus? Not when you consider what the writer to the Hebrews says about those who once knew Christ, and tasted the goodness of his Word and then reject him. He says to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace (He 6:6). Every time you and I make a choice to sin, every time we decide to do what we want rather than what we know God wants, are we not in essence, then, crucifying Christ? Because we give him a bad name by our sinful words and actions, we're subjecting him to public disgrace, aren't we? We didn't shout "Crucify," and we didn't physically wash our hands of him, nor did we actually take the hammer and drive the nails. But we may as well have.
2. And that's why he allowed himself to be Christ Crucified. But For Whom was he crucified? I suppose as we look at our lesson, we might better ask "WITH whom was he crucified? It was with criminals he was crucified as a criminal: 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others — one on each side and Jesus in the middle.Those criminals on either side of him were like people on either side of Jesus today: some ridicule and reject; others believe in him and find in him their forgiveness and paradise.
The truth is, Jesus was crucified for everyone in the world. Jesus once said, "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die (Jn 12:31-33).See, his was a substitutionary death. He took the place of all. So Paul says, We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Co 5:14). That means it was as if you and I were nailed to that cross and punished for our sins. That's what he was chosen or anointed to do.
It reminds me of when I served as pastor in Illinois, and they were doing all of the asbestos abatement in the schools. Our congregation had to create a special position by electing a person we designated to be the person responsible for gathering information, submitting reports, and seeing that the asbestos was removed, and then filing more reports. This person had an official title as mandated by the government. Know what it was? The DP or DESIGNATED PERSON. That was the one speaking for and carrying the burden of asbestos removal for our congregation and school. Well, Jesus is God's DP, the DESIGNATED PERSON he chose to carry the burden of sin removal for the entire human race. That means we our sins were there and he bore them for us. He paid for them for us. He took them away from us!
Now let's take it a step farther. Since sins were taken away when Jesus took our place on the cross, and we are now free to live for God. Paul makes a big point of that in speaking about the power of our baptism. He says to the Romans, For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Ro 6:6-7). In a similar way he told the Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Ga 2:20).
What an amazing thing to say with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Christ crucified means your old sinful self is gone, and you have a new life to live in Christ and he in you every day! Christ was crucified 2000 years ago, but Christ crucified means a whole new life for you every day as he lives in you and you in him!
So names certainly do mean a lot, whether they're from history like Richard the Lionhearted or from the Bible like John the Baptist. And how much more when they're names of our Savior--names of wondrous love! Like Christ crucified--by you and me, and for you and me! And...you and I crucified with Christ! Amen.
John 19:16-18
Names of Wondrous Love--Christ Crucified
1. By whom?2. For whom?
I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Co 2:2). We preach Christ crucified (1 Co 1:23).
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
"the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin" (Jn 19:11).
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him....
"They will look on the one they have pierced" (Jn 19:37).
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2).
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness (Is 52:14)?
"Ah! I also and my sins wrought your deep affliction; this indeed the cause has been of your crucifixion."
to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace (He 6:6).
17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others — one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
"Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] to myself."
We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Co 5:14).
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Ro 6:6-7).
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Ga 2:20).