+Jesu Juva +
Lenten Theme: “Behold the Lamb of God That Takes Away the
Sin of the World!”
John 1:29 / 2
Corinthians 5:19-21
Adapted from a sermon by Rev. Brent Kuhlman
In
Matthias Grünewald’s painting, John the Baptist points his bony finger not at
himself, but at gory, gruesome, hanging-dead-on-the-cross-Jesus! John the Baptist, the last and greatest
prophet of the Old Testament, preaches … this Jesus! Imagine that!
John makes as much of Jesus as he can!
He extols Jesus to the hilt! Jesus
is all in all! He is the way, the truth
and the life. He is the “treasure”
(Matthew 6:20) come down from heaven. He
has come to cleanse, wash, and save His people from their sins.
Therefore,
John must decrease -- become less. Jesus,
however, must increase – be greater. (John 3:30) John is nothing. Jesus is everything! With his outstretched index finger and his
prophetic mouth John proclaims the good news that Jesus is the Savior of
sinners: you, the entire world and me!
That man Jesus who hangs dead on the cross is God FOR YOU! FOR YOUR SALVATION! “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Why
then would you dare to exclude yourself from John’s promise in the sermon? Why would you ever take the hellish risk of
blowing off God’s promissory grace in Christ?
Why do you bullishly insist on believing the hellacious lie that you are
not a sinner who desperately needs a Savior?
It’s
time to be repented. To live in and from
your Baptism. You need to be truthed by
the power of God’s Word! And here it
is: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the
time my mother conceived me … Against you, you only [LORD] have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:5, 4)! That’s you!
It’s the truth about you!
If
you purposely exclude yourself from the truth of you being a sinner, then
you’ve also deliberately excluded yourself from the salvation job done by the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. After all, Jesus died only for sinners. If you don’t believe that you’re a sinner,
then you have no use for Jesus hanging on the cross. And then you’ve bought yourself a one-way
ticket straight to hell – over Jesus’ dead body! If you insist that Jesus’ dead
body on the cross is a nothing, then I’m here to tell you that you are still in
your sins and you will be damned in them.
I
have been sent to with another message from the Lord. It’s this:
“Be reconciled to God.” Put
down your guns. Let all your defenses
down. Stop the 24-7-365 justification of
the self. You are not the exception to
the rule. The fact that Jesus is crucified and that He takes away the sin of
the world means that you’re a sinner who needed saving! The fact that “God was reconciling the world to
himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them,” (2
Corinthians 5:19) means that you have sinned.
When King David cries out: “have
mercy” (Psalm 51:1) it means he’s a transgressor. It indicates that he’s polluted and toxic
with iniquity! “Blot out my transgressions!”
King David begs the LORD. “Blot
out,” King David implores, “my lusting for another man’s wife, my stealing her,
bedding her down, impregnating her, and then murdering her husband without any
fear, love or trust in you LORD.”
I
beseech you brothers and sisters: “Now
is the time of God’s favor! Now is the
day of salvation!” as I stand here like John the Baptist pointing you to
Christ and preaching Christ to you.
Christ has sent me as His ambassador to urge you and to make His appeal “ to
receive God’s grace,” favor and forgiveness in His hanging-dead-on-the-cross-Son
now!
It
is high time for you to believe John’s promise:
Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” That includes your sin and all your
sinning against God and the people in your lives!
Behold
how Jesus takes away your sin – how He forgives it –or washes and cleanses it
-- from you the sinner! It’s
incredible! It will absolutely blow your
mind. The circuit breakers in your mind
are going to be popping in astonishment of the Lord’s way of dealing with you
the sinner. I’m here to tell you that
the preaching of this Jesus will “restore to [you] the joy of your
salvation,” (Psalm 51:12).
Listen. God made Jesus who knew no sin – who never
sinned in his life – not even once, “TO
BE SIN!”
Really? “To be sin.” Jesus?
Made to be sin? How can that
be? He’s holy! Divine.
He didn’t sin! Ever! Jesus and sin don’t go together! Right?
Jesus and sin have to be divorced – kept apart – disconnected – as far
as the east is from the west!
Right? Got to protect holy and
sinless God Jesus from the lethal rot, gunk, and filth of our and all sin! Right?
St. Paul’s got to be wrong!
Surely he misspoke! Or perhaps
he’s just exaggerating. If Jesus is
really made to be sin on the cross, then He can’t be … God anymore. Right?
WRONG! Don’t fall for it! Don’t even try to undo or untangle what God
puts together! Seriously! Why would you want to do that? Then you’d be left all on your own to find
other ways besides Made-To-Be-Sin-Jesus to get rid of your sin and get to
heaven. You don’t want to do that. Seriously!
Better
stick with the bald and audacious assertion of the text that I’m here to preach. “God the Father made holy, sinless,
all-the-fullness-of-the-deity-dwelling-in-the-body-of-Jesus TO BE SIN!”
How? By taking all your sin and carrying it and
answering for it in His divine Body to which John the Baptist points and
preaches! “The Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6)!
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” (1 Peter
2:24)! With your sin, the world’s sin,
and mine Good Friday Jesus is, as one preacher from the 16th century
puts it, “sinner of sinners,” and “the highest, the greatest, and the only
sinner!”[1]
I
know it sounds like madness – sounds so wrong -- but this is what God does FOR
YOU when your salvation / forgiveness is at stake! Jesus is
“made to be sin” on the cross!
Your
sin is now Christ’s sin! He took it away
from you. And He’s answered for it. Got damned or cursed with it. In exchange, He gives you his holiness,
purity, righteousness – in other words -- FORGIVENESS. In Jesus, “made to be sin,” God “hides
his face” from your sin – He blots out or doesn’t count your sin
against you. After all, He counted it
all against Jesus because He was “made to be sin!”
All
this done on the Friday afternoon we call “good”! God’s doing and giving to save you! Carrying out a Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world work!
On
the cross Jesus is wrapped in all of your sin!
Your sin and Lamb of God Jesus belong together so that He is “made
to be sin.” Your sin is defeated
in Made-To-Be-Sin-Jesus and only in Him.
Christ became sin FOR YOU and FOR YOUR SALVATION.
Behold,
the Lamb of God / Made To Be Sin Jesus who takes away the sin of the world! At Calvary!
And
even now tonight in the Sacrament at the altar and in your mouth! With His own
Lamb-of-God-who-takes-away-the-sin-of-the-world-promise that your sin is
forgiven – “creating in you the pure heart” (Psalm 51:10) of faith – as He
feeds you, through my “ambassador” hands (2 Corinthians
5:20), the “treasure” (Matthew 6:21) of His Paschal Lamb body and blood
with the bread and wine. What joy! The joy of your salvation – forgiveness --
life! Only in Him!
