Living Spirit International:

Text: Isaiah 53:4

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Thousands of years ago the Old Testament's Isaiah prophesied, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." This week the Christian Church throughout the world remembers our sin and the Savior's suffering. We recall how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah's promise and through His death paid the price of our sins. By God's grace, may that sacrifice become our salvation. Jesus, grant Your blood-bought salvation to us all. Amen.

A police department in America, I will forgoe the city and state, was on the lookout for an armed robber. Around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 3rd, a white male in his late 30s or early 40s had entered a bank. Waving a black, semi-automatic pistol he demanded: "Give me the money." One teller complied and then another. The robber was observed leaving the area in a tan F-150 pickup; a pickup with its tailgate painted a different color. Later on, after the money counters had done the tallying, it was determined the robber had made his getaway with over $3,600.00. Armed with that information the intense manhunt began.

The next morning, around 9:30 a.m., a break came in the case when the police received a phone call from their colleagues. The lead investigators assigned to the bank's robbery went to the jail and met a man, I will forgoe the man's name. They arrested him. He was captured without a struggle. After all, why would he struggle, he was turning himself in. Apologetically, remorsefully he told the police his story. He told them that he was unemployed and had been desperate. He would never have done such a thing if he hadn't been desperate. Desperation is why he had robbed the bank. As for the money, he had given most of the money to his roommate so they could buy some food, pay their back rent, and make things square with the utility companies.

Yes, he had been desperate... but sometime in the night that sensation of desperation had been pushed to the side by an even greater emotion: the feeling of guilt. He said "the more I thought about it, the more I got sick and wanted to turn myself in." It was guilt which had him get up early the next day and get on a bus. He got off that bus near the Marion County Courthouse where he thought he could turn himself in. He was told he was in the wrong spot. He needed the jail, not the courthouse. Now, many folks in his situation might think that this was some sort of sign that they shouldn't turn themselves in. Not this man. He got directions to the jail and under an August Florida sun walked the five miles to the place. There he told the police his story, turned over the $225 which was left from the robbery, shared where they could find the clothes he had worn, the truck he had driven, and the pretend gun he had used in the robbery.

At the beginning of Holy Week, as the Christian church prepares to remember the passion and death of the Savior, you may be wondering why I have squandered so much time telling you the story of a Florida bank robber. I mean, after all, you're not a bank robber... you probably haven't even stolen a pencil from work, or skipped breakfast on Saturday morning because you were going to grab half-a-dozen samples from each giveaway table at Costco. No, you're an honest person and you resent me implying anything different. That's why you demand to know, "Pastor Klaus, why are you doing all this talk about bank robbin'?"

Well, if I've offended you, please accept my apologies. I certainly didn't mean to imply you were a thief, although some of us are. And some of us are adulterers, and others are murderers, and others are gossips, and others are foul mouthed, and others have an envious spirit and heart. Let me ask, which of those sins is yours? What is your preference? What is your sin of choice; or should I say "sins of choice"? Oh, don't be shy, don't be modest, don't deny it, don't try to look all blameless and guiltless. You, my friend, yes you... you are a sinner... and you have a conscience which tells you: you are a sinner. That is the similarity between us and this man. It's why I told his story. We are sinners and our consciences, along with the law of God found in Holy Scripture, tell us that we have done some things wrong... very wrong. Even worse, our consciences tell us those wrong things we have done are probably going to get us punished.

Did I say "we would 'probably' be punished"? Well, if you are a religious person, even remotely religious, or if you are a superstitious person, or if you believe there is such a thing as right or wrong in the universe, you're sure, or at least you're pretty positive, that the word "probably" is an understatement. Human beings are pretty sure the scales of justice are going to balance. Indeed, every civilization since the beginning of time has been sure there is going to be a Day of Judgment. The ancient Egyptians knew and everyone, from the Pharaoh down to the lowest slave carrying rubble away from the ruler's tomb tried to do anything, everything which would make them look good on that day. The new world's Aztec civilization knew they were sinners and in order to bribe their gods to smile upon them, they offered up sacrifices as they ripped still-beating hearts from the chests of human victims.

But today I'm not particularly worried about sinners in ancient Egypt. Today I'm thinking about you and your sin. Let me get more specific than that. Today I'm speaking about that very special, very specific sin which you, so desperately want to keep secret from anyone and everyone else. To all the world you may look like the most respectable, the most presentable, the most admirable person imaginable. To your family and closest friends you seem to be caring, and loving, and giving, and thoughtful, and helpful, and special. Even those very few people who don't like you say, "You're too good to be true"; and the town gossips, those folks who can slice up a person's reputation with surgical skill, even they are hard pressed to find anything negative to say about you.

But you know differently, don't you? You know better. You know the sin of which I speak. When it happened, you shocked yourself. You didn't know that kind of thing was in you. You don't know where it came from. All you know is it happened and you were frightened. You were afraid because you didn't know you could do or think or say anything like that. It was so not like you. You wanted to pretend it hadn't happened. At that moment, when that sin was still fresh in your mind, you made some resolutions, some promises to yourself. First, you promised that never again would you let that sin reappear.

You weren't sure how, or even if you could keep that sin bottled up, but you knew you were going to try. You promised that you would, every moment of every day, keep a watchful eye. You would avoid any and all triggers which might set it off; you would avoid doing anything which might unleash it or let it escape. It was a bonus if people thought you acted as nice as you do because you were, by nature, so very good. Let them think what they want, you didn't have to let them know you do what you do because you're afraid that one little slip could release a repetition of your sinful past.

Yes, you made promises to yourself. You promised that no one else should ever see your special, secret sin. Those people who may have been aware of what you had done... well, you stopped associating with them long ago, didn't you? You had to; there was no choice. They were reminders, living, breathing reminders of the darkness which was still sleeping inside you. You made promises. You promised to try and make amends; you promised to change; you promised to get things under control. You promised.... But all these promises were, at best, temporary bandages. They didn't erase what had been done, or said, or thought. The passing of years may have dulled and diminished the revulsion you felt with yourself, the knowledge that others have done worse, far worse than you, was a broken crutch that enabled you to hobble through your days. The fact that you have been partly successful in curbing yourself is a matter of some sort of shallow pride, but nothing. nothing was able to erase the sick, sinking feeling you had in your stomach when you remembered, when your conscience accused you of your special, secret sin.

For the first part of this Holy Week message I have asked you to look within yourself, to look at something you didn't want to see. Now I would like you to turn your gaze to another sight, a sight no easier to look upon than that darkness which is within you. I would encourage you to look back in history and up to the top of a skull-shaped hill which sits outside the city walls of ancient Jerusalem. If you do, you will see three men who are being crucified. Crucifixion was the death sentence reserved for the worst of criminals, the folk who occupied the lowest rung on society's social ladder. Crucifixion was designed, from the pain of the nails, to the last gasp of a suffocating soul, to be cruel and inhuman.

Look there. Do you see that person in the middle? His Name is Jesus. Do you know why He is being crucified? The official charge against Him was He had conspired against the emperor; the unofficial reason is He was upsetting the religious apple cart of the establishment. In truth, neither of these are the real cause Jesus of Nazareth is dying there. The real explanation He is struggling upon that cross is because of your special, secret sin... that sin of which we've been talking. Yes, most certainly He is dying to take away all the sins of all the world's people... but right now we are concerned about your special, secret sin.

Oh, yes, He knows that sin. Although He has never done anything wrong Himself, although He has kept all the laws of God perfectly well, He is not a Stranger to sin. He knows you and your sin because, right now, He is carrying that sin. He has been carrying that sin for awhile now. You should know Jesus is a powerful Man. Powerful because, in His youth He would have worked as a carpenter's Apprentice in His foster father's shop in Nazareth. But mainly He is powerful because He is also the Son of God. Last night, when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, your special, secret sin, along with all the others, was placed upon Him.

Do you want to know what happened? Of course you don't. Nobody does. Let me ask? What has that sin done to you over time? Has it torn you up; has it brought you down? Well that sin was laid on Jesus... and it drove Him to the ground. That's right. He fell with His face to the ground. He managed to get up and pray... and as He did so sweat dropped from His face. But this sweat was different; it was tinted pink by His blood, blood which forced its way to the surface of his skin. Talk to your doctor. It is a medical condition. It happens to a human being only in times of intense struggle of body, mind, and soul.

Yes, yes, Jesus saw you then... and He saw your sin and what it has done to you. He saw your sin and what it would do to you if it were left unchecked and unforgiven. He saw how that sin and all your sins would eventually condemn you to eternal damnation, a forever fire from which you could never escape. Jesus saw you, He saw your sin, and He saw what He had to do. He had to take your place... He had to carry that special, secret sin and He had to dispose of it. He was carrying that sin when He was arrested. He carried it when they changed those charges so they could be sure He would be brought here to die. He carried your special secret sin when they slapped Him; when they whipped Him; when they spit on Him; when they crowned Him with thorns. So He might carry your sin to that cross is why He didn't retaliate; it is why He didn't strike His accusers and tormentors dead, or walk through their midst, or crown Himself Emperor... Man, He didn't even defend Himself.

That is what happened before this... this crucifixion you see here. Do you see? That Man is dying for you. He is dying to take away the punishment your special secret sin, all of your sins deserved. In your place He is dying so your conscience can no longer accuse you; so your sin can no longer condemn you. Do you know the first thing He said when they nailed Him to the cross? He said, "Father, forgive them." Can you believe it? He knows your secret sin and He still loves you enough to ask for your forgiveness; to die so you might have that forgiveness. You never thought anyone could love you if they knew you, really knew you... well He does know you and He still loves you.

Man, don't doubt it. His entire life has been spent taking your place. He stayed solid when you would get wobbly. If you have fallen victim to some sort of temptation, He didn't. All those times Satan seduced you into sinning; well, He said, "No", to those sins. That wasn't for Him; that was for you. And, yes, He knew not everyone would believe... and there would be those who would try to say He never existed... and there would be those who say everything the world has believed about Him was made up. But I know better. I know differently. Even that Roman Centurion, the fellow in charge of the execution, even though he has been hardened and scarred by countless battles, he can still see, 'this Man is the Son of God." Maybe all those things, the Centurion's special, secret sins, allows him see Jesus more clearly.

I hope you're watching. Not watching as a spectator, but watching the most remarkable display of undeserved love this world has ever, will ever see. My friend, you've looked inside yourself this day. You know what is there. In spite of that, in spite of knowing you like nobody else has ever known you, Jesus is voluntarily offering up His life to rescue you. Now if you were good friends, that might be one thing. But He has seen the darkness and He continues. Don't think, not for a moment that those nails and those puny guards there are keeping Him on that cross. All Jesus would have to do is say the word, offer up a prayer, and legions of angels would be here to rescue Him. It would be over in a blink. The Roman guard would be brushed away, and those who are still laughing at Him would have their tongues stilled for eternity. But Jesus isn't going to give that Word. He is laying down His perfect life for ours. Watch now, listen carefully. He says, "It is finished."

Do you understand what that means? The penalty price for your sin, your special secret sin has been paid. You are forgiven. With Jesus as your Savior the Lord will not bring it up on your Day of Judgment. Indeed, because Jesus' life is finished, His work is complete and that sin is gone. What's that you said? How can you know it is finished, that what has been said here is really true? My friend, that is the best part of all. The best part is, having defeated sin and the devil through His life, three days after His death, Jesus showed His victory through the resurrection from the dead. That's why, next Sunday, all of Christendom will remember that occasion, will declare, "Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed."

(The text of this sermon provided by the Lutheran Hour. Redacted by Living Spirit International.)