A, Mid Week Lent 5- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Cross Living"

Matthew 27:50 (ESV)  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Mark 15:37 (ESV)  And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

Luke 23:46 (ESV)  Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

John 19:30 (ESV) When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

By the cross of Jesus, Lord teach us how to live.

As Lutherans we believe in a theology of the cross, rather than a theology of glory. 

One who believes in a theology of glory looks for blessings in this life and the next, through the works they do for God.  That God would make them prosperous, give them health and long life, give them success in the way they live, and welcome them into heaven for being a good person.

The problem with a theology of glory is it’s unbiblical and out of touch with reality.  Rather than being from God, it originates out of the expectations of the self that one can be acceptable to God through what one does.  The outcome of this is pride and arrogance towards God and with those with whom one lives. 

This is not the reality of Jesus Christ.  It is not the way he lived.  It is not the way he died.  If a theology of glory can be justified, then Jesus Christ did not need to be sent. He did not need to put aside his divinity and submit to being born, living with pain and suffering — the suffering of circumcision, the hurt of humility and hunger’s desire unsatisfied, and the pain of the passion!

This is the theology of the cross.  Jesus lived knowing he would die on the cross.  He had no free will but rather submitted to the will of our Father.  He died because in our freedom we willingly turn our backs on God, to pursue the pleasure of the will.

The expectation that comes from a theology of glory is a human idol and one that is short lived.  The reality of living with a sinful nature in a sinful world, will always be shown for what it is, by one’s own pain and suffering, in the endeavour of seeking pleasure.  Sooner or later, this human expectation for  pleasure will hurt others as a result of one’s haughtiness.   

Human haughtiness, pride, finds its ultimate opposition before God.  This is so, because in our pride we usurp the place of God and seek to take his place.  When we become second to none, we have no fear in God, no trust in God, and as a law unto oneself, one’s desire becomes the number one law.

Jesus was sent by God the Father to put this human mess right.  How did he do it?  And how is it practically beneficial for living today?

Jesus actively became passive, so he could passively become active.  What is this?

Everything Jesus did, from his birth to his resurrection, was not done by him, but done to him and through him.  Being God the Son he could have done everything of himself but rather in humility he lay his divinity aside and was born as a weak human.  The Holy Spirit was given through the word of archangel Gabriel to create his humanity, and the Holy Spirit guided him in his humanity to the cross.  Jesus received John’s baptism in submission in the Jordan to fulfil all righteousness.  There, the Holy Spirit was seen coming down on him, as a dove, to work the righteousness of God within him.

This was Jesus actively becoming passive, from his incarnation to his resurrection and ascension, he did not birth himself, he did not baptise himself, he did not crucify himself, and although he had power as God the Son to raise himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit caused him to be raised and seen, till his ascension to the right hand of God the Father in glory.

In this passivity, Jesus seemed to be weak!  But this is the paradox where sin, death, and the devil are beaten.  In the Son of God becoming actively passive, his passivity was powerfully active in the Son of Man.  Jesus passively served to powerfully save you and fulfil all righteousness for you.

This is the theology of the cross, this is the way of the cross!

When disruption, decay, and death confront those with a theology of glory, the gory reality of life reveals trust in oneself as dead living.  This is also a paradox.  But it’s a very dangerous paradox, as one is tempted to hate God for removing their idols of glory and walk away from God in despair or defiance.

Like Lazarus dead in the grave, those with a theology of glory or with a theology of the cross have no power to raise themselves.

The last sign Jesus did before Holy Week was to raise Lazarus from the dead.  When Lazarus was still dead he told his sister Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  (John 11:25–26 ESV)

The only thing Lazarus, and his sisters, had in life, that was worthy, was trust in Jesus.  Those who live with a theology of the cross, live with faith in Jesus’ faithfulness to his Father.

Just as Jesus lived and died under the will of the Father, led and driven by the Holy Spirit, we too live under the reality of the cross.  Just as Jesus lived being led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit leads us to live in submission to Jesus Christ and the Father, as we, like Jesus, live under the cross, the reality of death.

After Jesus had raised Lazarus, on the night before he was crucified, died, and was buried, he told his disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6 ESV)

Now after Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit actively brings us to the passivity of Jesus Christ in his Word, so we believe, and like Jesus, passively become active in God’s will for us.

After his resurrection, Jesus has been glorified with all power to the right hand of the Father.  Now Jesus actively works the Holy Spirit within, to make you, an active sinner passive, forgiven, and receptive.  God does this so you can passively become an active saint by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is your life under the cross.

God gave Jesus the authority to die, and therefore now gives us the authority to live in Jesus Christ’s righteousness.  Jesus Christ has taken on himself our sin, so we have the power to die to self, laying down our lives, and receive life in his righteousness. 

One’s power to do this is activated by the working of the Holy Spirit within, in hearing and believing: Jesus Christ, commit and yield his spirit, breathe his last breath, lay down his life, and finish what the Father commanded him to do in his life, for me and you.

Jesus did this act once in history!  But the Holy Spirit continues to enlighten and enact it within, throughout time, till Christ returns, in the preaching of the Holy Word, through Law and Gospel, and administration of the Holy Sacraments. 

In the Word and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit kills one’s old self.  That is, he works to lay down the perverse human spirit within the hearer, in the death of Jesus, when Jesus laid his life down by the will of God.

The Holy Spirit also works to raise the sinner, by making them one as the resurrected temple under the authority of the victorious resurrected Jesus Christ.   The Spirit works to tabernacle Jesus Christ within the receiver who has been made dead and raised in Jesus Christ by the same Holy Word and Sacraments.

God sends the Holy Spirit, to you who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sin, to empower this death and life within you.

Saint Peter tells us, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”  (1 Peter 4:19 ESV)

Those who live under the theology of the cross, know they suffer as a result of sin, do good by glorifying God by hanging that sin on the cross, and wait in hope for the “promise of a new heaven and earth in which righteousness dwells.  (2 Peter 2:13)

We who live under the cross, live by the Holy Spirit who leads us in the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ, trusting the Holy Spirit is finishing within us our death and resurrection into Jesus Christ’s new creation. 

So, when we breathe our last, having already yielded up our human spirit to the Holy Spirit, we sleep peacefully in death,  knowing we will be raised eternally in Jesus Christ, Amen.