The day God died

Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion

March 16, 2008

Matthew 27:11-66

"Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit."

By the time the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, we already knew this was a great big mess. Flashing back to Palm Sunday, how could the conquering hero become the despised outlaw, in only five days? How could it be that Jesus, who had only done good, be accused of being so bad that He deserved the death penalty?

There is, in fact, an answer to these questions. The answer is that Holy Week brought the climax to the story that began with Adam and Eve.

The Lord Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion was exactly this: sinful humanity against holy God. With God standing before them in the flesh of the man, Jesus, instead of it bringing out the best behavior in people, just the opposite happened. As Jesus said, when He was arrested, "This is their time, the hour of the power of darkness."

Darkness opposing light. Evil against holiness. Man versus God.

The grudge match was on.

Return to the peaceful bliss of Christmas. The angel had told Mary that the fruit of her womb would be the Son of God, and the product of God’s union with a woman would fulfill what the Lord had the prophet write: "He shall be called Immanuel—God with us."

In a miracle as mysterious as the Trinity—how can God be three persons, yet one God?—just as uniquely, God, the Creator, now lived in the flesh of one of His creatures. Jesus is the Son of Mary, but He is the Son of God. As the Son of God, He has no beginning and no ending, but as the Son of Mary, Jesus had a beginning.

And, that means that it became possible for Him to have an ending.

• Who, exactly, was it, that they arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane?
• Who was it, against whom they threw all those hate-filled accusations, working to get Him convicted?
• Who was it, who got dumped in favor of Barabbas, a notorious murderer and rebel?
• Who was it that they so despised that they were willing to curse their own children with the blood that would be on their hands?
• Who was it that they gleefully bullied and beat, spit on and struck, and humiliated with their fake worship?
• Who was it that they nailed to the tree, where they continued to lob verbal assaults?
• Who was it, against whom God the Father turned His back, so that the suffering servant would suffer in solitary enslavement for the sins of the world?
• Who is it that you are here to worship?

• When Jesus gave up His spirit and died, why had the midday turned dark?
• Why did the curtain of the temple tear from top to bottom?
• Why did the earth shake?
• Why did rocks split?
• Why did the tombs open of many holy people, raising them from the sleep of death?

Everything went wrong that Friday afternoon at Golgotha—Place of the Skull—because it was the ultimate grudge match to the death: Man versus God.

And, man won.

We killed God.

In the beloved Lenten hymn, "Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed," we sing,

                                Well might the sun in darkness hide

                                And shut his glories in

                                When God, the mighty maker, died

                                For His own creatures’ sin.

Because God is love, here is what God did for you. In the person of His Son, He took on human flesh. When God became a human being, because He now had the breath of life in His lungs, and a heart that needed to beat, He made it possible for His lungs and heart to stop pumping air and blood.

To us, this is unthinkable. God can’t die. He is eternal. He is holy and completely apart from sinful humanity.

But, in Jesus, the eternal took on the earthly so that the unthinkable became reality. Holy God made Himself one with sinful humanity. And, when Jesus presented Himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, God the Father made God the Son, who knew no sins on His own, to be sin for us, so that, in Jesus, we might possess God’s holiness.

How deeply does God love you, whom He created? He loves you so deeply that He could do no less than die for you.

It took six hours for the weight of the sins of the world to kill Immanuel, God with us. Though His Father had turned away from Jesus’ wretched sinfulness, Jesus commended His spirit to His Father.

You know the Scripture: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Jesus’ death was the epitome of all that is precious. That is why next Friday is called Good. That is why His Father rewarded Him with His resurrection on the third day.

You are here to worship Him whom the grave could not hold, because God the Father was completely pleased with God the Son’s sacrifice for your sins. Jesus lives, the victory’s won.

Jesus has called you with His Holy Spirit. He has baptized you into His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection. He feeds you upon the same body and blood, in the bread and wine, which lived and died in the same flesh and blood in which you live and die.

His death is your death. Therefore, His life is your life.

Even though you will die in your body, you will give up your spirit to your Father in heaven and, for the sake of Jesus’ sacrifice, you will go to Him, and He will raise you up in the resurrection on the Last Day.

When Jesus died, God died. When Jesus died, God died for you. Now, you live for Him, forever. Amen.