Sermon

Click here to print this sermon.

March 20, 2008
Maundy Thursday
Luke 23:26-31
Pastor Robert Raasch

From Pilate to Golgotha

1. A Simon
2. A Sermon

(Luke 23:26-31)  As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. {27} A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. {28} Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. {29} For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' {30} Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' {31} For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

During the final week of his life, Jesus walked down a number of different roads, most of which remain unnamed.  There is one road, however, the one from Pilate’s palace to the hill called Golgotha—this road does have a name.  It’s called the Via Dolorosa, which means, Way of Sorrows.  Even today there are people who will retrace Jesus’ steps on this road, stopping at fourteen different stations which commemorate various event s that allegedly occurred as Jesus walked this path.  For example, there is the place where the stones are dented by Jesus falling down under the weight of the cross.  There’s the place where Mary the mother of Jesus shared a few words with her son, or the place where a woman by the name of Veronica supposedly wiped the blood from Jesus’ face.  Obviously, there is no Biblical proof for much of what tradition and the tour guides say happened on the Via Dolorosa.  There are, however, two things that Scripture does say happened on this final leg of Jesus Cross Road.  One event involved a man named Simon.  The other involved a sermon that Jesus preached to the women of Jerusalem.  I. A Simon and II. A Sermon.  Both are worthy of our study on this Maundy Thursday as we walk with Jesus on the Cross Road

From Pilate to Golgotha

Actually, Jesus’ walk began about 8:30 on a Friday morning.  Jesus has already been shuffled from one ruler to another.  He’d been beaten by various groups of soldiers.  He’d been passed by in favor of the region's worst criminal, Barabbas.  And now, guilty of the crime of being the King of the Jews, Jesus begins the walk to his death with a pair of crossed wooden beams on his back—and a crowd of people looking on.

As this whole procession is winding its way out from the city of Jerusalem, it is met by travelers coming into the city to celebrate the Passover.  One of them was a man named Simon.  Luke tells us that he was from the country of Cyrene.  Cyrene is located in modern day Libya, west of Egypt in northern Africa, about 800 miles from Jerusalem.  Now whether this man had traveled to Jerusalem specifically for this Passover festival or whether he already settled in Jerusalem some time ago, the fact is, he had traveled a long ways to worship the Lord.

Can you imagine?  We think it’s a real sacrifice to drive 15 miles out of our way to go to church while on vacation.  This man traveled for weeks by foot or maybe if he was lucky, by animal, just to get there.  But, as he was entering the city, what happened?  A Roman soldier grabs him and forces him to carry the cross for some criminal who’s too tired to carry it for himself.  Now, if you were in Simon’s shoes, how would you be feeling about now?  A little put off, right?  “How come I have to lug this thing around?  Man, it’s heavy!” 

But not only is it heavy, it’s also an instrument of death—which would made a Jew like Simon ceremonially unclean.  He would not be able to participate in the Passover celebration.  Can you imagine traveling 800 miles and then being locked out because you had been forced to carry someone’s cross?  That would be like you or me walking all the way to New Orleans to watch the Super Bowl and then finding out that you couldn’t get in because someone had sold you fake tickets!  You’d be thinking, “What?  You’ve got to be kidding me!  This just isn’t right!”

Now, why do I bring that up?  Because sometimes Simon is portrayed as this model cross bearer, as if he said, “Please, Jesus, let me help you with that.  Is there anything else I can do for you, Jesus?”  Rather than the ultimate example of willing service on Simon’s part, this was more likely a case of really bad timing.  Simon simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he was pressed into duty—probably at the point of a sword!

And yet, could it be that this instance of bad timing or bad luck could still be used by God to serve a good purpose?  I find it interesting that all three gospel writers make a point of identifying this man Simon by name.  In fact, Mark calls him, “Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus.”  It’s as if they all know this man.  Could it be that this Simon had become a Christian?  Could it be that he was a member of that early Christian church in Jerusalem?  In fact, could it be that the bad luck he had run into at the hands of the Roman guard, in fact, put him into contact with the very Savior whom Simon ultimately put his trust in?  That’s very possible—especially when you consider the words that Simon heard Jesus speak on the Via Dolorosa.  That brings us to the second event that occurred on the road from Pilate to Golgotha, namely:

II. A Sermon

Now, before we take up exactly what Jesus said, let’s not fail to marvel at the fact that he said anything at all.  I mean, imagine how you would feel after being beaten and bloodied by the soldiers’ fists and the scourge across your back.  You’re too weak to carry your own cross and yet, in the midst of your pain and anguish, you’re taking the time to address the needs of the women on the side of the road!?!  I’m sorry, but when I was headed to the hospital with a fractured knee, I don’t think I said to the nurses, “So, how was your day?”  No, it was all about my pain, my agony.  But not with Jesus.  Even in his final hours, he’s reaching out in love to those around him.

So, what does Jesus say to them?  He says, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children.”  In other words, don’t be so concerned about what I’m going through now.  Be concerned about what you’re going to go through in the future.”  And then Jesus refers to those future events with the words, “The time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’” In other words, a time is coming when you are going to wish that you never had children—because of what your children are going to have to go through!

So, what horrible event is Jesus referring to here?  Well, actually, he’s referring to something that took place less than 40 years after he spoke these words.  In 70 A.D. the Roman army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem.  For 143 days no food went in or out of the city.  Inside the walls, people resorted to cannibalism to survive.  When the Roman soldiers finally broke through the walls, hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered in their homes and on the city streets. 

In fact, Jesus saw his own crucifixion as simply a precursor for what was to come for the city of Jerusalem.  That’s what he means when he says, “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”  In other words, Jesus says, “If I, the perfect Son of God was put to death, even though I did nothing wrong, what about you, who are guilty of an endless array of sins?  If the green tree got thrown into the fire, what do you think is going to happen to dead trees like you?  Do you think things are going to go better for you?  No way!”

So, what is Jesus’ point?  Why is he saying these things to these women?  Is he simply trying to scare them?  Make them worried about their future and the future of their children?  No, rather, Jesus wants them to take a step back and see the big picture.  Right now their hearts are filled with pity for Jesus.  They feel sorry for him.  They are wailing and mourning and beating their breasts because this good man is suffering so.

But Jesus says to them, “Don’t weep for me.  Weep for you.  It wasn’t my sins that put me here.  It was your sins.  Your sins are being punished by the stripes on my back.  Your sins required the nails in my hands.  And if you don’t realize that, if you don’t acknowledge that I have come to be your Savior, if you join the rest of your countrymen in rejecting me as the Promised Messiah, then what is about to happen to the city of Jerusalem will be just a taste of something worse in the fires of hell.

The question is, do you think Jesus was talking only to those women, or could it be that his words are also directed to you and me? During this season of Lent, we’ve watched as Jesus was deserted by his friends, mocked by his enemies, beaten and scourged by the Roman soldiers and left to die on a cross.  And through it all, it’s easy to find ourselves feeling pity toward Jesus, “Oh, Jesus, I wish that you wouldn’t have had to go through that.”  Yet, with his words to these women, Jesus is saying to you and me, “Wait a minute.  Don’t weep for me.  Weep for you. Remember, it wasn’t my sins that put me here; it was your sins!”  Think about that a minute.

Just for a minute, think about a sin that you committed, for which you were never caught—and never punished.  Maybe you cheated on your homework, or stole a couple of answers off of someone else’s paper, never got caught, nobody knew the difference.  Maybe you took a little side job, were paid in cash, but you never reported it to the IRS, never paid taxes on it.  Maybe you went to a strip joint and your wife never found out about it.  When I was about 14 years old, I took my cousin’s motorcycle for a ride and crashed it, broke a piece off of it.  When he asked me if I was the one who had broken it, I lied to him.  In fact, I let him think that his little brother had done it.  I never got caught.  I was never punished.

No, I wasn’t punished for that lie.  But just because I wasn’t punished, doesn’t mean that someone else wasn’t.  Think about it.  Every sin that you thought you got away with, ended up hurting Jesus.  Every crime that you thought had no victim, every lustful fantasy that you thought wasn’t hurting anyone, was in fact, crucifying Jesus.  Brothers and sisters, don’t fall for the lie that some sins aren’t a big deal.  If it’s a sin against God, it’s a big deal.  Just ask Jesus, who was punished for each and every one of them.

My friends, that’s the first thing that Jesus wants you to see when you look at him hanging there on the cross.  Jesus died for your sins.  That was the horrific price that he paid for each of your sins.  A price that leaves us with nothing to say but, “God, I’m so sorry.  I’m sorry for what my sins put you through.”  And yet, that’s only half the story, isn’t it?  When you look at that cross, Jesus wants you to see more than the fact that he died for your sins.  He also wants you to see that he died for your sins.

In other words, he died for each and every sin you’ve ever committed.  Do you realize what that means?  It means that all those things you never got caught doing, all the things you should have been punished for—they’re all erased.  It’s like Jesus has taken his robe of righteousness, dipped it in his holy blood and wiped off every spot and stain on your record.  Now you’re clean; you’re pure; you’re forgiven.  Or to put it another way, just as much as it hurts to know that Jesus died for all my sins, so also it is comforting to know that Jesus died for all of my sins.

In fact, isn’t that what keeps us coming back to the cross each week?  It’s not like we like to see Jesus beaten up.  It’s not like we feel the need to have God beat us up.  Our conscience is already beating us up; the devil is beating us up; the world is beating us up.  No, we’re here to let God tell us something that only he has the right to say.  And that is, “your sins…are…forgiven.”  No questions asked.  No strings attached.  It is finished.  The bill is paid.  You’re free.”