Lenten Service 5                                      St. John, Galveston 4/2/25
 
Ironies of the Passion – “Not Worth Believing”
Matthew 27:31, 39-43
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
“And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified…And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself!  If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.’  
 
    Ironically, those words of the chief priests, the scribes and the elders are probably true.  Had Jesus come down from the cross when they demanded it, they would likely have believed in Him. But, what would there have been to believe in?
 
    It is, of course, not only chief priests, scribes and elders who challenge Jesus to ‘come down’ from the cross and to prove Himself. We all are quite adept at laying such challenges before Jesus. There is, you see, what is called a ‘theology of glory’ that infects the heart of every man. The theology of glory looks for God only in signs, in works, and in events that are ‘fitting’ of the majesty and glory of God. A perfect Biblical example of such a mindset is witnessed in Naaman, the Syrian, who was struck with leprosy, and who was ultimately cured by a miracle of God.   
 
    Elisha, the prophet of God, sent a messenger to Naaman, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” Naaman received the message, but he was furious. He said of Elisha, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy…Are not the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? By Naaman’s estimation, things weren’t happening the way he thought they should. As he saw things, the signs and works, of the prophet just weren’t fitting of the power and majesty of God.
 
    Finally, one of Naaman’s servants came to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘wash, and be clean?’” (II Kings 5:8ff)
 
    You see, the theology of glory looks for God only in signs, in works, and in wonders. Some of the people at the foot of the cross challenged Jesus to come down and prove Himself to them. “If you are the Son of God…do this, or do that, and, do it in this way!! The challenge translates to our current as well. I see the cross of Calvary in the distance, but Jesus, show me today that You still love and care for me!! Lord, I am suffering now, how can it be that I am in Your will, and that this is right by You? Lord, if You love me, take this thorn from my flesh!! Show me that You are who You say You are, and that the whole creation bows at Your command!! “If You are the Son of God…” 
 
    In our dissatisfaction in living in a sinful, fallen world, we challenge Jesus to make all things right – right now!! In essence, we challenge Him to come down from the cross, to burst the fetters of sickness, of suffering and death, to lift the cross from our shoulders that we might believe all the more in Him.    

    The irony of this whole thing is that Jesus has done all of those things for time and eternity and He is, even now, only worth believing in because of what He wouldn’t do at the demand of those who mocked Him. Here is the question…what would we believe today had Jesus come down from the cross then? Well, I suspect we would still believe in Him as the Son of God. After all, coming down from the cross would have been a sure sign of His divinity.  Remember, he was nailed to the cross, both in His hands and in His feet were pierced with those awful spikes. As the crowds were shouting at Him and wagging their heads, He was beginning to weaken on the cross, His life was slipping away, He was fading fast. If He came down in that moment, surely He would show Himself to be the Son of God, and we could not deny Him that claim, for it would take a miracle to do such a thing.    
 
    While we would likely still believe in Him as the Son of God, we wouldn’t believe in Him as our Savior. The Savior of the world, you see, is the “the Lamb of God” who gives His life as a ransom for many. God said, “the wages of sin is death,” and Jesus stepped forward to take that penalty, that punishment that God’s justice demanded. In God’s eternal justice, blood was required to appease His wrath, to take away the stench of unrighteousness and impurity. You aren’t forgiven your sins, my friends, simply because God decided to forgive you. Rather, you are forgiven because Jesus became those sins for you. Indeed, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, that you might be the very righteousness of God in Him.”  
 
    Had Jesus come down from the cross, you would likely still believe in Him as the Son of God, but not as your Savior. Again, the irony is, only by His refusal to come down from the cross is Jesus worth believing. Actually, it is in the giving of His life, that Jesus replaces the false ‘theology of glory’ with the true ‘theology of the cross.’ God does work, you see, precisely in those signs and works that seem to be beneath His majesty and His glory. The world is reconciled to God, not by Jesus coming down from the cross, but by Him staying there, bleeding, suffering, and dying.
 
“See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
In Jesus’ name.  Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +