Apr
6
Don’t Pity Jesus
Filed Under Easter | Leave a Comment
Today, of course, is Good Friday. It is the day that Christians traditionally reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in preparation for Easter Sunday. It is very common for churches to hold Good Friday services in which they present lessons in accord with the crucifixion narratives of the gospels.
There is no question that most observances of Good Friday are designed to create an emotional response to the suffering of our Lord. The question I have is, what is the appropriate emotion?
Emotion itself is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good thing. If you have no affection for Christ you have no right to call yourself a Christian, no matter what you say you believe. Even the demons believe right theology to a degree, they just hate it. So, if we can say that emotion is not bad and is in fact necessary, then what kind of emotions should be cultivated as we consider the cross.
First off, let me address the only “positive” emotion a non-Christian may have when they consider the Cross. That emotion is pity. I say that this emotion is positive because it carries with it a certain amount of reverence for the thing pitied. Pity, as my Shorter OED tells me, is “tenderness and concern aroused by the suffering or misfortune of another; compassion, sympathy.” Applied to the Cross, we get something along the lines of,
Poor Jesus. He was such a great guy. A powerful teacher. He loved folks. He wasn’t very strong. He didn’t have an army. He didn’t have political aspiration. He wasn’t leading an insurrection. He was just a great guy who got murdered. Poor Jesus.
That is pitying Jesus. It is also one of the silliest emotions one could have when considering the Cross. Yet it is very common within and without the church.
Why is this silly? Well for two reasons, for who Jesus is and for what Jesus did.
To pity Jesus on the Cross is to not understand who Jesus was. Here we interject the well known line of reasoning from C.S. Lewis. Jesus did not intend to leave open the option of thinking of him as a good teacher or a great guy. He made outrageous claims about his own divinity. He presented the concept of a Kingdom that was poised on world conquest. He set a high standard for any who would follow him: death and suffering. Given these truths and many more like them we are left only to think of Jesus in one of three ways.
- He is a liar of the caliber of a demon from hell.
- He is a lunatic of the caliber of a man who calls himself a poached egg.
- He is who he said he was, the very Son of God.
If you choose option one or two, then pity is the last thing you should think when you consider the Cross.
If you conclude Jesus to be a liar, then his death should be met with the rich satisfaction of judgment righteously administered. To quote my home state’s motto, Sic Semper Tyrannis. Thus always to tyrants. Jesus got what he deserved for deceiving the multitudes.
If you conclude Jesus to be a lunatic, then his death should be met with the sorrow of tragedy. “If only he had a good psychiatrist. If he had only been alive today. There are medicines that could have helped him. A leather couch was the place for him not a Cross.”
If however you conclude Jesus to be both truthful and in his right mind, then you have only to accept him on his terms, the Incarnate God come to offer himself as a ransom to redeem lost sinners.
That brings us to the second reason that pity is a silly response to the Cross: what Jesus did on the Cross. On the Cross, Jesus Christ took upon himself the sins of all his people and received in his body the judgment for those sins. On the Cross, God the Father judged sin to the full extent of the law: namely death. On the Cross, death lots its sting. On the Cross, Satan was conquered and bound. On the Cross, eternal life was gloriously secured for those whom God set his love on before the foundation of the world. The Cross was the culminating event of history. The Cross was the magnificent display of the heinousness of sin as well as the abounding power and limitless love of God.
So given this view of the Cross, what are some good emotions to feel on Good Friday?
- Sorrow over your sin. The Cross is a mirror for your sin. The Cross is the only place to estimate sin rightly. What does God think of your transgressions? How bad is the smallest of your lies? What should have been required of you for the most inconsequential of sins? See the Cross. See their the holy judgment of God on display. See there what it cost to redeem you from your sins. See there the immense gulf between a holy God and sinful man. See there God’s hatred and holy war on all things opposed to his rule. See there your sin and weep.
- Wonder over the power of God in defeating sin. If we have rightly seen our sin then how shall we not cry out in dismay, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who is able to dwell on God’s holy mountain? Who is able to open the seals of the scroll? Who is powerful enough to conquer sin, death, and hell?” See the Cross. See there the raging power of God on display. See there, Jesus Christ waging the most dearly fought battle ever entered upon. See there holy exertions and strivings against the horrors of hell and the sewage of sin. See there the amazing power of God. Power enough to redeem a people for his own possession.
- Amazement over God’s love displayed for you in the Cross. Many will preach this weekend on the last words of Jesus on the Cross, and rightly so. There are however the unspoken words of the Cross, “This is for you, dear Christian.” If we are Christians, we cannot contemplate an impersonal Cross. It is not an event that happened on a Israeli countryside some 2,000 years ago. It is an event ineffably etched into the very heart of our being. The sufferings of the Cross! The mental anguish! The physical anguish! The spiritual anguish! Jesus procured nothing for himself there but everything for his dearly loved sheep. There my sins were judged and satisfied for. Joe Holland was crucified there with Jesus Christ. It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me. We must stand amazed and the inestimable gift given to us, wrapped in the darkness of Good Friday.
- If you are not a Christian, you should feel abject terror at what awaits you for your sins. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ as the only savior for lost sinners then the Cross should anger and terrify you. What you see in the Cross will be required of you when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead. Only you are no infinite person who can bear an infinite penalty, instead you will suffer infinitely for your aggravated provoking of an Almighty God.
Good Friday may bring many emotions into your heart, but please, don’t pity Jesus.
Apr
4
All ye that pass by
Filed Under Easter, Justification, Music, Poetry | Leave a Comment
Chip Stam, Director of the Institute for Christian Worship at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has a weekly “Worship Quote of the Week” you can receive as a free email (click here for more info). This week’s is a Charles Wesley poem about the atoning death of Christ. The opening line is based on Lamentations 1:12:
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me,
which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
ALL YE THAT PASS BY
All ye that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh:
To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?
Your ransom and peace, Your surety He is:
Come, see if there ever was sorrow like His.
For what you have done His blood must atone:
The Father hath punished for you His dear Son.
The Lord, in the day of His anger, did lay
Your sins on the Lamb, and He bore them away.
He answered for all: O come at His call,
And low at His cross with astonishment fall!
But lift up your eyes at Jesus’ cries:
Impassive, He suffers; immortal, He dies.
He dies to atone for sins not His own;
Your debt He hath paid, and your work He hath done.
Ye all may receive the peace He did leave,
Who made intercession, “My Father, forgive!”
For you and for me He prayed on the tree:
The prayer is accepted, the sinner is free.
That sinner am I, who on Jesus rely,
And come for the pardon God cannot deny.
My pardon I claim; for a sinner I am,
A sinner believing in Jesus’ Name.
He purchased the grace which now I embrace:
O Father, Thou know’st He hath died in my place.
His death is my plea; my Advocate see,
And hear the blood speak that hath answered for me.
My ransom He was when He bled on the cross;
And losing His life He hath carried my cause.
—Charles Wesley, 1707-1788, from METHODIST HYMNS, 1779.
Mar
30
Easter Poem by George Herbert
Filed Under Easter, Poetry | Leave a Comment
Here is an Easter poem by George Herbert.
Easter
Rise, heart, thy lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may’st rise:
That, as his death calcinèd thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art,
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretchèd sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort, both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long;
Or, since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied
Oh let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
George Herbert