Sermon 14th September 2014

From now until Advent, adults will ask, and discover answers to, questions on the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Our Honorary Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, continues our study - exploring answers to the question, 

WHY DID JESUS DIE?

What do Rhianna, David Beckham, and the Pope have in common? One answer is they all wear a cross. Many people go around with a cross on their earring, necklace or even a tattoo, some of us here this morning are wearing one. We’re so used to seeing it we barely notice it – but we might notice it and be shocked if we saw someone wearing a gallows or an electric chair around their neck, and the cross was just as much a form of execution. Indeed it was one of the cruellest and most painful forms of execution and even the Romans abolished it eventually in AD337 because it was considered too inhumane.

Yet the cross has always been regarded as the symbol of the Christian faith. Christians say it’s precious and central to their faith. Many chapters of the gospels are about the death of Jesus, and much of the rest of the New Testament is about the meaning of the cross, explaining why Jesus died. Most leaders who have had widespread influence on their country or the world are remembered for the impact of their lives, but Jesus is remembered for his death even more than his life.

Why? Why this focus on the death of Jesus?

Because the death of Jesus was God’s solution – a mega drastic solution – the most terrible & far reaching problem. What’s the problem? Well, we may say, “I have no need for Christianity, no need for God. I’m quite happy, my life is full, I try to be nice to other people and lead a good life. That’s enough.” Well, according to the Bible, every human being is created in the image of God, in some way like God & able to relate to him, and so there’s something good and of infinite value about every person. We know this is true; & we recognise it with our modern understanding of human dignity and human rights.

But there’s a flip side to the coin. We’re not entirely good are we, we’re a mix of good and bad, we’re flawed. Certainly speaking for myself, there are things I do that I know are wrong –there are things I wish I’d never said or done, I let people down, I make mistakes and failures, choose the easy or selfish option, over and over again. The Bible calls it sin – an unpopular word but one that describes this living for self.

We all do it. But we like to make excuses –  every day we do so, and we like to think we’re good at it. Here are some real excuses given on insurance claims for car accidents:

·      Leaving home for work, I drove out of my drive and straight into a bus; the bus was five minutes early.

·      The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.

·      I don't know who was to blame for the accident; I wasn't looking.

·      I had one eye on a parked car, another on approaching lorries, and another on the woman behind.

·      I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought.

·      No one was to blame for the accident but it would never have happened if the other driver had been alert.

·       

Great excuses! (or not)

With our shortcomings or sin, we attempt to excuse ourselves with “It’s only human!” Or “I was provoked!” Or perhaps most of all, “I’m not that bad; I’m not a drug pusher or armed robber or child abuser.” There’s always someone worse than me. But relative to God’s standards, and relative to the perfect life of love and goodness that Jesus led, we ALL fall a long way short. A person standing at the bottom of the world’s deepest mine, and one on top of the world’s tallest mountain, are both equally far off when trying to touch the stars!

We’ve just heard in our Bible reading, “Everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.” That’s the problem. We have all sinned or done wrong. Well, you might think, “If everyone is in the same boat, is it really a big problem? Does it really matter?”

Yes it does matter because sin has consequences, and they are dire!

First consequence is the pollution of sin. Jesus said the root of our problem is what we’re like on the inside, not the outside. He said, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” These things pollute our lives. Like me, you may think, “I don’t do most of those things.” But even one of them can mess up or pollute us. You can’t have a fairly clean driving licence; either it is clean or it’s not. One offence and your licence stops it being clean. And it’s the same with us: one offence makes our lives unclean too.

Which brings us to the second consequence, namely the power of sin. The things we do wrong often have an addictive power over us. It’s easy to see that in some sorts of wrong-doing, like with alcohol, shoplifting or taking drugs. But lying, a bad temper or greed can equally get a grip on our lives, that we can’t break free from, however hard we try. Maybe there’s something in our lives we’ve tried to stop but we just can’t crack it. It’s too powerful.

The third consequence of sin is its penalty. There’s something in human nature that cries out for justice. We see what happened to vulnerable children and young people in Rotherham and we want justice brought to book. We hear about torture and beheadings in the Middle East, and again we cry out for such horrors to be stopped and justice done.

Closer to home, today is Racial Justice Sunday, the day on which we remember and pray for those who suffer injustice because of their racial background, and for the end to such injustice. We consider how we can be part of the solution, and our role in promoting racial justice ourselves, near and far.

Caring about injustice is obviously a good thing! We’re right in wanting wrong-doing to be punished and people who do such things not to get away with it. But it’s not just other people’s sins that deserve punishment, it’s ours too. One day we’ll all have to face the judgement of God. And St Paul says “the wages of sin is death.”

So there’s the pollution of sin, the power of sin, the penalty of sin. Very neatly there’s another P: the partition of sin. Maybe the word separation is better! The things we do that are wrong, create a separation or a barrier between us and God. Sometimes because we’re living life our own way with no thought of God, sometimes more deliberately keeping him out. You know how when things aren’t right between you and a friend, if one of you has let the other down or hurt them, you can’t look each other in the eye? It’s a bit like that between us and God but so much worse. Our sin or wrong doing creates a distance or barrier between us.

So we all need to face the problem of sin in our lives. The greater our understanding of our problem and of our need, the better we’ll appreciate the solution of Jesus’ death on the cross. Yes the amazing wonderful Good News of Christianity is that God loves us so much he did not leave us in the ghastly mess we make of our lives. In the person of his Son, Jesus, God came to earth to die instead of us; that is he died in our place. The apostle Peter said about Jesus, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross”.

Jesus died for our sins, died in our place, he endured crucifixion for us. It was an agonising death, preceded by harsh flogging with leather thongs that had sharp metal bits in them that ripped off the flesh and tore deep inside the body. Then six inch nails driven into Jesus’ wrists and ankles, and then hanging from them until death by asphyxiation. Jesus suffered terrible physical pain on the cross, but even worse than that, and worse than the emotional pain of being rejected by the world and even his friends, there was the spiritual agony of being cut off from his Father God as he carried our sins.In this way Jesus died for our sins, for yours and mine, individually and personally, as well as globally and for all time.

This understanding of the cross as the place where the consequences of our wrong-doing were dealt with, this solution to the desperate problem of sin, can be seen and understood from different perspectives. There are at least 4 different pictures the New Testament uses to describe what Jesus did on the cross and its results, each of them taken from everyday life in those days.

The first picture comes from the temple, where sacrifices took place. In the Old Testament,

very careful laws were laid down as to how sins should be dealt with. A person would take an animal, one as near to perfection as possible. The person would lay their hands on the animal and confess their sins, and the sins were understood to have passed from the person

to the animal which was then killed. The New Testament writer to the Hebrews points out that it is “impossible for the blood of bulls & goats to take away sins”. Animal sacrifice was only a shadow or preparation for the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus. Only the death of Jesus our substitute, can take away our sin. He alone was the perfect sacrifice because he alone lived a perfect life.

The second picture comes from the market place. Debt isn’t a modern day problem; it was a problem in the ancient world as well. If someone had very serious debts, they might be forced to sell themselves into slavery in order to pay off their debts. Suppose someone was standing in the market place, offering themselves as a slave. A wealthy customer might have pity on them and ask, how much do you owe? To which the reply might be 10,000. Suppose the customer offers to pay the 10,000 and then, rather than taking him home as their slave, lets him go free?! In doing so, he would be redeeming the slave, paying for his freedom, buying his freedom. The New Testament says Jesus redeemed us by his death, setting us free from the slavery or power of sin. This is real freedom! It’s not that we never sin again, and breaking free can be a continual struggle, but because of Jesus’ death, sin’s power or hold over us is broken, and we can recognise it and fight it.

The third picture comes from the law court. The apostle Paul says through Christ’s death “we have been justified”. Justification is a legal term – if you went to court and were found innocent, you were justified. There is a story of 2 boys who were great friends when they were growing up, but drifted apart when they grew up and got jobs in different towns. Life went on and eventually they lost touch. One went on to become a judge, the other went down and down and ended up a criminal, in court before that judge. What a dilemma for him – he couldn’t let the man off, justice had to be done. But he really didn’t want to punish him because he loved him. So he told his friend he would fine him the correct penalty for the offence; that is justice. But then he came down from his position as judge and wrote a cheque for the fine himself; that is love.

That’s a picture of what God has done for us. In his justice he knows we are guilty, but in his love he came down in the person of Jesus and paid the penalty for us. Of course, the illustration breaks down, because God’s love is far greater than just a friend, the offence is far greater than deserving just a fine, and the cost is far higher than writing a cheque—it cost Jesus his very life on the cross. But the picture is that the penalty has been paid, and therefore it’s possible for us to be completely forgiven.

The last picture of what Jesus’ death on the cross means, comes from the home. We’ve already said that one of the consequences of sin is a broken relationship with God, a separation from him. The result of the cross is the possibility of a restored relationship with God. The separation of sin has been destroyed. The experience of the so called prodigal son can happen to us. We can come back to God the Father and experience his love and acceptance for ourselves. This relationship isn’t just for now, it’s for all eternity. One day we’ll be with Father God in a heaven and earth made new, and there we will be free, free from the penalty of sin, the power, pollution and partition of sin. That’s what God has made possible through the cross.

All this because of Jesus death on the cross?! Ultimately it is a mystery, it’s something too profound for complete understanding. But the New Testament writers consistently describe it as an act of the greatest, deepest, sacrificial love, God’s love for humanity as a whole and for each one of us. Jesus himself said, “Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends.”

You may have heard the story of Francis Gajowniczek, a prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp in July 1941. One day the sirens announced the escape of a prisoner, and as a reprisal ten prisoners would die, a long slow starvation, buried alive in a purpose built concrete bunker. All day, tortured by heat-stroke, hunger and fear, the men waited as the SS Commandant walked between the lines of men, to select, quite randomly, ten of them.As the commandant pointed to one man, Francis Gajowniczek, he cried out in despair what would happen to his poor wife and children? At that moment another man stepped forward and said: “I am a Catholic priest and I want to die for that man. He has a wife and children, I have no one.” said Father Maximillian Kolbe. That night, nine men and the priest went to the starvation bunker. Normally they would tear each other apart like cannibals, but not this time. While they had strength, they prayed and sang psalms. After two weeks, three of the men and Father Maximillian were still alive. The bunker was required for others, so on 14^th August the remaining four were killed by lethal injection. Francis Gajowniczek  survived the war, and spent the rest of his life going round telling people what Father Maximillian had done for him, dying in his place. There’s even tribute to him in Westminster Abbey. Jesus’ death was even more amazing, because it was not just for one man, but for every single person in the world.

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Let’s believe it! Let’s accept God’s love and forgiveness shown at the cross of Jesus. You know your life – the good the bad and the ugly, the delights, the disappointments, the failings and the mess. In response to God’s love seen at the cross, let us come to Him humbly asking for his love and forgiveness to restore our relationship, and then live in the light of it. And now let’s pray...