It should be source of comfort that Christ suffered
Published 9:06 am Friday, April 4, 2014
By Pastor Randy Fossum
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Austin
We have arrived at the point in our Passion History readings during this season of Lent where we read that the men who were holding the Savior blindfolded him and struck him. And if that wasn’t bad enough they insulted him further by taunting him to “Prophecy” as to who hit him. Now if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, you’re thinking, “Well, how stupid is that?” Did they really think that they could fool Jesus who is “Very God of Very God” as we confess in the Nicene Creed, who commanded the wind and waves to obey him, raised the dead back to life, knew the thoughts of those before they even spoke them, and who it was said of by Peter, “You knowest all things”?
Now before we begin shaking our heads in smug disbelief at the stupidity of those who thought they could fool Jesus, we need to consider a thing or two. We are prone to do the same; it’s just the blindfolds we use are of a different sort. The blindfolds that we use come in the form of thinking and acting in a way that we believe that by our good works we can blind God to our sins.
It is tragic that we would try to bribe God when it comes to our sins. We place salvation on the bargain table; it comes that cheaply in our estimation. We do so whenever we imagine that church attendance, the monies that we place in the collection plate, deeds of kindness or charity, volunteer help, and all the stuff that makes up so many of the obits and funeral eulogies nowadays will somehow make God overlook all the bad things we’ve done. Those things that are not done out of thankfulness to God who sent his one and only son to die for us are the blindfolds made of the filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) that we try to tie around God’s eyes to blind him. He sees through the rags and into our hearts. Scary thought? Indeed….but let’s not leave it at that.
It should also be a source of unending comfort that the savior cannot be blinded to our sins. He was not fooled into thinking that there was anything loveable about us when he willingly gave his life for us on the cross, Romans 5:6. He knew the truth about us as we say in our liturgy that, “We poor sinners confess unto Thee that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against Thee by thought, word, and deed.” And yet he suffered anyway.
Let this great truth fill your heart during this Lenten season and beyond.