Second Presbyterian Church

"The Passion of Christ
Preaching From the Gospel of Luke"
October 30, 2005

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2005 » Sermons for October 2005 » Sermons from the Series on Luke

#67 in the Series on Luke
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Luke 22: 63 - 23:56

The arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, along with his resurrection, is the heart of our Gospel. It is the Good News. It is good news for you. It is good news for me. It is good news for all humanity. It is good news for all creation!

The story is a little long for a single sitting of churchgoers who are more used to presentations being five minutes, or less. 65 verses are much longer than our usual scripture lessons of 10 to 20 verses. If you concentrated and listened to all 65 verses, you probably fought to stay focused.

But I hope you were able to. I make no attempt to reproduce the sense of these words read today. They are painful to contemplate. Our Lord was arrested without just cause. Two corrupt rulers basically found him innocent: Pilate and Herod. Yet, in order to please the crowd they allowed Jesus to be crucified anyway.

Jesus was cruelly punished and executed. Some of you have seen the movie, THE PASSION OF CHRIST by Mel Gibson. Evidently it was a pretty accurate rendition of the physical and mental torture that Jesus suffered during His Passion. Yet, on the other hand, it was no worse than any other crucifixion. All crucifixions of criminals were immensely cruel and unspeakably torturous! One could actually argue that Jesus' crucifixion was somewhat merciful compared to others. He was only on the cross for 6 hours or so; some suffered on the cross for a couple of days. If there was a need to end the execution early, the soldiers would break the legs of the one on the cross and he would collapse, suffocate, and die. Jesus died before that was necessary.

The physical suffering that Jesus endured is nothing to discount. It was tremendous. Yet the suffering that Jesus endured was much more than what He felt in his physical body. We also believe that Jesus experienced the rejection of God the Father and had on his being the weight of sin from all humanity. We also believe that Jesus knew what it meant to be abandoned by God and experience Hell. We don't even have an inkling of an idea how that feels, except in its most mild form. The kind of abandonment that Jesus felt might have felt a little like the way we feel when we feel betrayed and rejected by people we love. There is no more horrible pain than to experience a friend turn his back and walk away. Yet, that pain pales in comparison to the feeling of rejection and abandonment Jesus experienced on the cross.

Another point I need to make. Jesus really died. In the Apostles' Creed we say, "And he descended into hell." This is an emphatic way of saying that Jesus really died. His death was no illusion. His death was not some form of coma from which he revived. Jesus died. His body became a complete corpse.

Our faith has no meaning for us unless we are open to the fact that Jesus really died. Our ability to endure rejection and suffering is based upon the fact that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our suffering Savior. Being one who has experienced ultimate rejection, Jesus is able to stay by our side and guide us, minister to us, even intercede for us. There is nothing, as Paul would say, that can now separate us from the Love of Jesus Christ, our Savior. He will never abandon us - never. That is indeed Good News.

The crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that redeems us from our sin. The redemption is sufficient in that there is no more that Christ has to do to save us. We accept this by faith, even while the evidence is still not complete. And we believe that the complete redemption of our lives, even all creation shall one day take place. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.