JUDICA MIDWEEK
1 April Anno + Domini 2009
"Sacred Head, Now Wounded†Sermon Series
Part 7: "The Wound of Abandonment†(Matt. 27:45-48)
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How many are the wounds we inflicted upon our Savior in His Passion, suffering, and death! We have pondered together the wounds of betrayal, apathy, denial, and mockery. We have seen ourselves, our own lives, reflected in Judas, the sleeping disciples, Peter, and the Roman soldiers. Yet of all the wounds that our Lord received, none so struck, so terrorized, and so weighed on Him as the one we ponder tonight. We did not inflict this wound. It came from His Father - the wound of abandonment.
From out of the unspeakable depth of His agony on the cross, our Lord cries the words of Psalm 22: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?†It seems unfathomable that God the Father would abandon and forsake His Son, but that is precisely what happens as Jesus hangs in agony upon the Cross. There are a lot of commentaries about the cruelty of suffering death by crucifixion, highlighting the physical agony our Lord most certainly suffered. But, none of that compares, dear friends, to the spiritual agony He suffered. This is often missed by many, but ponder this well: As all the sin of the world is laid upon the Lamb of God, as He owns it as His very own, He experiences in Himself what every one of those sins demands: "Leave Me alone, God! Go away! Leave Me be!†This is the bitterest dregs of the cup that Jesus drains down for us in its entirety. He literally tastes hell. He tastes it for us all. He experiences the loneliness so profound that its pain is unimaginable for us. How can we begin to understand what it was like for Him in that moment - the Eternal Word, who had delighted in the Father's presence before the ages came to be; the Eternal Word, who took on flesh from the Virgin without ever leaving the presence of His Father; the Word made flesh, who lived among us constantly, as all men were meant to live: conscious of His Father's never-failing love and the presence of His guiding hand. And all this is now withdrawn, and Jesus is alone. All alone, to experience hell in our place.
People joke about hell, saying, "Well, at least I will have a lot of company there.†You even hear comedians say ridiculous things like, "I'd much rather go to hell than heaven. Who wants to go to heaven and sit on a cloud playing a harp for all eternity? I'd rather go to hell with the sinners. That's where the party will be!†Wrong. Utterly wrong. They neither understand heaven nor hell. Heaven is where the party is, not hell. There will be no partying in hell. None. There will be only loneliness and eternal suffering there. Hell is the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Think of the story of Lazarus and the rich man. In that story, the rich man, who is in hell, is all alone. Lazarus has angels for company and Abraham, to whom he is so close that he lays his head in his bosom. Lazarus is in Paradise with all the saints. He has plenty of company; plenty of joy - joy we can hardly even begin to imagine. The rich man hungers and thirsts, and longs to have his hunger and thirst quenched. "Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame†(Luke 16:24), he says. But no visit relieves the terror of the rich man's solitude. There is a great chasm fixed between heaven and hell. There is no coming and going. The rich man is alone. He hungers and thirsts not just for food and water, but for companionship, for someone to talk to, for someone to love. But, he is all alone. And he will be all alone forever. He is not partying with other sinners in hell. He is suffering eternal loneliness. He is in great anguish and pain, and there is no relief - ever. Ponder that, and you will begin to understand the reality of hell. Ponder that, and you will see its true terror. Ponder that, and you will bow in love before the Savior whose love for you was so great that He chose to enter that loneliness Himself and endure it in your place, that you might be set free from it forever, that you might never be alone - never again.
Because Jesus endured the wound of abandonment that our every sin demands of God, because He drained the cup down to this, its last and bitterest dregs, you can look to your Savior and pray with the confidence of being heard:
My Savior, be Thou near me
When death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me,
Forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish,
O leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish
By virtue of Thine own! (LSB 450:6)
Do you see it now? You, who repent of your sinfulness and cling to Jesus in faith, will never have to know what Jesus went through in those darkest hours. You will never have to face life or suffering or death alone. He has made sure of it. He will be with you. He will walk with you every step of the way, and so hell itself is undone, death destroyed, sin forgiven. Your Savior, your Shepherd, He attends you through the valley of the shadow of death so that you fear no evil, for you are not alone, but He is with you. His rod and His staff they comfort you. He brings you out from that darkest of valleys into the sunshine and the bright light of the day that never ends in the kingdom of your Father.
As we conclude the season of Lent and move into Holy Week, the call to repentance continues to sound forth. Heed that call, dear friends. Repent! Turn away from your sins and return to your Lord in faith. For, here is the truth: Both heaven and hell are filled with sinners, the only difference being that heaven is filled with penitent and forgiven sinners, while hell is filled with impenitent and unforgiven sinners. The shame of this is that Jesus died for all - He experienced the eternal anguish of hell for all people of all time, paying the full price for their sins with His precious blood - so that those who find themselves in hell have only themselves to blame, for they refused to repent and cling to Jesus in faith, and cut themselves off from the blessings God so desired to bestow upon them.
So, again, heed that call, dear friends. Repent! Recognize and confess your sins. Be sorry for them and desire to do better. And, cling to the One who takes those sins away. Jesus was abandoned and forsaken by His Father in your place, so that you will never have to experience that unspeakable torture. Trust in Him, for in doing so, you have the sure and certain guarantee that you will never be abandoned or forsaken. For the One who experienced hell in your place, for your sins, promises that He is "with you always, even unto the end of the age†(Matthew 28:20). In His Holy and Precious Name. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.