Quinquagesima + 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 + Luke 18:31-43

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you were to poll the general population with the question: “What did Jesus teach about the most during His ministry,” you’d probably hear answers like “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” or maybe “Love one another.” And while those are all teachings of Jesus, they aren’t what Jesus taught about the most often. Jesus taught most often about His suffering, death, and resurrection. On five separate occasions recorded in the Gospels Jesus speaks to His disciples about His coming suffering, death, and resurrection. The first is eight days before His Transfiguration, after Peter confesses Him to be the Christ, the Son of God. The second is immediately after He is transfigured. The third is shortly after that, later in the same chapter of Matthew’s gospel. The fourth is today’s Gospel lesson and the fifth is two days before His crucifixion. Why did Jesus speak so frequently about this? Because it is His most important teaching. Christ’s apostle to the gentiles says the same thing to the Corinthians. “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the center of the Christian faith. It is the gospel.

Christ teaches so frequently about His sufferings, death, and resurrection so that His disciples might not be offended when the day of His suffering finally arrives. He teaches His disciples that everything that happens to Him happens to Him on purpose. He says, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.” The prophets foretold that the Messiah would suffer and die. They even prophesied each aspect of His innocent, bitter sufferings and death; His betrayal, His disciple’s fleeing in the garden, the dividing of His garments, His thirst, and prayers. Scoffers, both ancient and contemporary, hear that Jesus suffered and was crucified and imagine that it all happened unexpectedly. But to say this is to deny His divinity. To say that it all happened by accident is to say that the prophets hadn’t written a thing about the suffering Messiah. To imagine that all this happened by chance and pure spite of the Jews is to take away the most important aspect of Jesus’ sufferings and death: His willingness. But if Christ suffered unwillingly, if this wasn’t the reason God the Son became incarnate and put on the form of a servant, then His death couldn’t have accomplished anything.  In order for His death to accomplish something it must be done willingly. That’s precisely what we see throughout the Gospels. St. Luke writes, “When the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

The purpose of His sufferings and death, the reason for all of it, was to atone for our sin. Mankind as a whole is sinful. “There is not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). No one fulfills God’s will for them, His holy Law. Because of that, all humanity deserves both temporal and eternal punishment. That means punishment in this life and in the life of the world to come. No one can atone for his owns sins. No one can merit salvation through their works. Works can’t earn us anything because we owe them to God in the first place. Nor can our works merit us anything because they are stained by sin. “All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” says the prophet (Isaiah 64:6). Ezekiel tells us plainly, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).We cannot pay the debt of sin. There is no work good enough and no lifestyle holy enough by which can satisfy God’s wrath against sin and make satisfaction for who we are and the sins we commit.

This is why God the Son assumes human flesh. He comes to atone for the sins of the world and the only way to atone for the sins of the world is to die for the sins of the world. “So Christ becomes sin for us. All who are under the Law are under a curse because we don’t do what the Law requires. So Christ becomes the curse for us. He shoulders our sins, and not only ours, but the sins of the entire world. He suffers for every sin of every person to ever live. He assumes every sinful thought, word, and deed and suffers to make satisfaction for them. This too, was foretold by the prophet. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). St. Peter writes that Christ “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” in 1 Peter 2:24 and that “Christ also suffered once for sins” in 1 Peter 3:18. Christ bears our sins in His body and suffers God’s full wrath to pay for our sins, making full satisfaction for every sin of thought, word, and deed.

Again, there are the scoffers and there will be until the Last Day when Christ returns in glory. The unbeliever boasts that Christ’s death accomplished none of this because He either wasn’t divine or never really existed in the first place. We expect such from the world. Even sadder are those Christians who deny that Christ suffered to pay for our sins. There are some who teach that Christ’s death wasn’t a satisfaction for sins but a demonstration. Some teach His death a demonstration of God’s wrath against sin, which is only shows us the severity of our sin. Others, bearing the name Lutheran outwardly, teach that Christ’s death is only a demonstration of God’s love, as if the death of Jesus says, “This is how much God loves you, enough to let you kill His Son,” while not accomplishing anything. They don’t like the idea of God the Father offering up His Son into death to satisfy God’s wrath against sin. They say that God can, and is willing, to forgive sins by fiat, without the sacrifice of Christ. In both of these schemes, Christ dies to demonstrate the severity of God’s wrath or the intensity of God’s love, but it is a demonstration only, accomplishing nothing.

It’s true, the sufferings and death of Christ demonstrate both the severity of God’s wrath against sin and the depth of the love God has for sinners. But we need more than just a demonstration. We need a demonstration that accomplishes something for us. We need satisfaction made for our sins by which we have sorely offended God and deserve wrath and punishment. And this is precisely what Christ accomplishes on the cross for us. St. John teaches us in 1 John 2:2, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” He pays the price for all your sins, so that there is no sin left uncovered by the blood Christ. There is nothing so egregious and filthy that it lies outside of Christ’s atoning work. He has suffered for all our sins, so that all who believe in Him might have the forgiveness He earns. He has died for each of your sins so that, for His sake, God the Father forgives all your sins through faith in Christ Jesus.

This is the Gospel, the central message of Christ during His earthly ministry and it was the central teaching of His apostles. Since it is the central teaching of Christ and His apostles, it is to be the center of your faith as well. There are many churches who want the gospel to be anything other than this. There are countless people who want Christianity to be about their own works and virtues rather than Christ’s work on their behalf. May this not be so among us. May you, by the grace of God, always hold fast to this blessed teaching, that the Son of Man willfully suffered and died in your place for your sins, so that by faith in Him, you are fully forgiven, justified, and cleansed.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.