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spassion05
Who
is Jesus? scorpions you and I mp3
Text:
St. Matthew Passion / 26:24, 63-64; 27:11, 54
Date: The Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday 
3/20/05
On
this day we enter into the contemplation and proclamation of the
very heart and center of the Christian faith: the Passion of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For all the action and emotion, the
violence and intrigue, in the face of the human injustice of it
all, there is but one issue, one question that explains why Christ
was crucified, and is the same question that each person confronted
with this story must answer for their salvation. The question is,
Who is Jesus?
How
many times had his enemies taken up stones in their hands as they
heard what to them seemed nothing short of blasphemy? “For he said,
‘I am the Son of God'” [Matthew 27:43b (ESV)]. Now they mocked him
also for his other claim, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save
himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the
cross, and we will believe in him” [Matthew 27:42 (ESV)]. Who is
Jesus? He is either a delusional fraud and blasphemer or he is who
he claimed to be, the Son of God, the King of the Jews.
It
is simply the objective fact that he is the Son of God, the second
Person of the Holy Trinity and the promised Christ and King of the
Jews. Yet this objective fact becomes a saving fact only when it
is heard and believed and confessed in the way of faith. It was
the wise men from the east who came seeking the newborn King of
the Jews. Now He stands before bemused and skeptical earthly royalty.
Even the devil and his demons knew that Jesus is the Son of God,
yet now he silently stands before the spiritually blind high priest.
It is a stunning irony that the answer to his enemies' question
Jesus makes to come from their own mouths, even though they do not
believe.
At
the Last Supper, after Jesus announced that one of his disciples
would betray him, when Judas asks, “Is it I, Rabbi?” Jesus answers
with the words, “You have said so” [Matthew 26:25 (ESV)]. When he
was before the high priest who demanded, “tell us if you are the
Christ, the Son of God,” Jesus answered, “You have said so” [Matthew
26:63-64 (ESV)]. And before Pilate, when he asked, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “You have said so” [Matthew 27:11
(ESV)]. Even though these all spoke the truth, none believed it.
The
true and saving faith is the conviction that Jesus is who he said
he is. When questioned by Jesus, it was Peter who responded with
words of faith, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God” [Matthew 16:16-17 (ESV)]. “When the centurion and those who
were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and
what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this
was the Son of God!'” [Matthew 27:54 (ESV)]. The Apostle Paul says
the Gospel of God is “concerning his Son, who was descended from
David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God
in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection
from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” [Romans 1:3-4 (ESV)]. This
is the Gospel of which he says he is not ashamed, because “it is
the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” [Romans
1:16 (ESV)].
Today
the question of faith comes to you. What do you say about Jesus?
The faithful, saving answer: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true
God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born
of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and
condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death,
and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with
his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death,
that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve
him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just
as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity”
[Small Catechism, Second Article]. That's why we are here. That's
what this Holy Week is all about. We are here, as St. Paul said
it, “in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having
a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends
on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that
by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead…because
Christ Jesus has made me his own” [Philippians 3:8-12 (ESV)].
So
come, let us go to dark Gethsemane and learn from Jesus Christ to
pray. Let us follow to the judgment hall and learn from him to bear
the cross. Let us Calvary's mournful mountain climb and learn from
Jesus Christ to die. Finally, let us:
Early
hasten to the tomb
Where
they laid his breathless clay;
All
is solitude and gloom.
Who
has taken him away?
Christ
is ris'n! He meets our eyes.
Savior,
teach us so to rise.
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