In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Whom do you seek? As the mob breaks into the quiet garden, this is the question Jesus asks of them. Whom do you seek? It was a formality, a bit of being prim and polite on Jesus' account – you always show respect to the cops, even if they are corrupt. You be quiet and comply, especially so your friends can escape. And this mob, this band of soldiers sent on the most dubious of missions, knows that they are supposed to arrest one Jesus of Nazareth, and they say so. They were thinking this might be a fight, a rough one – the soldiers are all ready to rumble and tussle and physically apprehend this troublemaker as he dashes off to flee.
But no, something astonishing happens. Jesus looks at them, at these big tough soldiers, and Jesus simply says, “Ego eimi – I AM.” These poor sods were expecting to show some big city justice to some country bumpkin preacher, and instead they find God Almighty, the great I AM in human flesh. They recoil, they fall to the ground. Nothing would be more shameful for a soldier – that fearsome mob becomes fearful and craven and perhaps a little wise, because hitting the dirt is the right thing to do when a sinner comes into the presence of God.
But Jesus just asks again. Whom do you seek? Don't you have a job to do boys? I have a job to do too, this day, and as distasteful as both our tasks are, we should stand up and be about it. Let's get this show on the road. I told you that I AM, so time for you to obey – arrest Me; let My disciples go. These poor soldiers are so shocked that they don't even respond when Peter launches his clumsy attack. And very quietly Jesus restores peace – let's all get the swords into their sheathes, they aren't needed now. There will be a spear, but that will be later.
Whom do you seek? That is the question Jesus asked of the guards, but even though they knew they sought Jesus of Nazareth, they didn't know, they didn't really understand who this Jesus actually was, and getting to see Him, they were dumbfounded. But Jesus' question is also asked of you this night. Whom do you seek? When you come here to His House, be it tonight, be it whenever, Whom do you seek? What sort of Jesus are you hoping to find? There are all sorts of types of Jesus people might hope to encounter – probably not a One we can simply arrest sort of Jesus – but there are all so many expectations we can create, we can bring. Maybe it's a Jesus who would tell us that we're good and our enemies are bad, or a validating Jesus, or maybe even an angry Jesus who will shake His fist at us but we can placate Him somehow. We're sinful human beings, and our perception of Jesus gets shifted and twisted all the time. But tonight, hearing His passion, we hear, we see Jesus. The real Jesus. The Jesus who seems so full of contradictions. The Jesus at His most powerful, the make big strong men drop to the ground like scared little kids I AM God Almighty Jesus – who yet doesn't use any of that power that He could show so casually to smite His enemies, or to run away, or to save Himself. It's the real Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, the Savior Jesus, the Good Shepherd Jesus. That's who we see.
The Real Jesus goes quietly to His doom, like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. The Real Jesus suffers abuse and injustice – because He came to rescue and redeem us sinners who suffer abuse and injustice. He came to save us sinners who casually abuse and are unjust, unfair to our own neighbors. Where the sin, where the trouble is, there the One who will fix it must be.
The Real Jesus stands before the angry council, and He doesn't try to butter them up. He doesn't placate them – He doesn't them offer something extra, something special. No, just what I've preached in the synagogues and the temple is what I preach, and there's no angle, no game, no grift. And there's no extra secret levels or degrees, where you oh so important people get something more. The Real Jesus is honest and open, not secret. The Real Jesus comes for all His creation, and He doesn't give you extra goodies, no VIP spiritual swag bag for anyone.
The Real Jesus takes it when slapped in the face. He doesn't look for a reason to be offended – He knows the depths, the depravity of sin – indeed, He is planning on taking it up and crucifying it. He doesn't need to feign shock – the Real Jesus knows that this outrage and insult is as nothing – it's not even the tip of the sinful iceberg. Let the insult be – let's focus on the truth. Didn't you hear what I preached? What I say is right. Hear, believe, repent, and live.
The Real Jesus stands before Pilate after He is shuffled over to him. Pilate is a savvy politician who knows how the game is played, and Pilate knows a railroad job when he sees one. And Pilate offers Jesus a way out, multiple ways out. But the Real Jesus doesn't take them, doesn't seek to take the path of least resistence when it comes to His neighbor's good, to Pilate's good. If Pilate himself is ever going to be rescued out of this political mire, if any leader is going to be able to get through this mess and be forgiven, Jesus has to go to the Cross. So Jesus doesn't try to talk His away out of it with Pilate. The Real Jesus, the Word of God made flesh Jesus doesn't use His Words to satisfy Himself. But Pilate still tries to get Jesus out of it – Pilate knows how a mob works – maybe it can be placated. What if I beat Jesus – will that make Him sympathetic to you? What if I offer to let someone go free? Jesus knows these ploys will not work. Jesus did not come to receive sympathy, but rather out of His sympathy for you, the Real Jesus comes to share in your suffering and pain. Sympathy is literally “same passion” - “same suffering” after all. And here we see the Real Jesus walk right into the suffering and pain we get as a result of our sin, of being sinners in a sinful world. And He does this so that we might go free, that we would be released from the powers of sin and death and the Devil. The Real Jesus walks on into those hellish powers so that we may go free.
The Real Jesus bears His own cross to Golgotha. Not really His, but yours, mine. Our punishment, our doom. Jesus takes that up instead. The Real Jesus is lifted up upon the cross – cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree, yet at the same time behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There it is, this is what He came to do, to dive on in to all sin and suffering, to be a magnet drawing all sin and all its consequence unto Himself, to drain to the dregs that bitter cup. This is the Real Jesus, the Christ the Crucified Jesus. The Real Jesus, who even in the midst of His bitter suffering still calls out to John to see that His mother is taken care of. Of course He does, because Jesus is on that Cross precisely so that Mary and John and you and me would be cared for eternally. The Real Jesus there upon the cross fulfills Scripture – the story that He has told through the prophets of old, the promise He made to Adam and Eve that He would crush the Serpent for them, bruised heel be damned, that would be accomplished. Give Jesus the sour wine, it's the least of the bitterness He faces this day, but all the i's must be dotted and the t's crossed, every jot and tittle filled in.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.
Whom do you seek? The Jesus that you will find here, the Jesus who will come and give Himself to you here is this Jesus, the Real Jesus, the Christ the Crucified Jesus. The It is Finished Jesus, who puts an end to sin by taking it up, the Jesus who puts an end to death by dying. The Jesus who gives up His Spirit, who pours out His Holy Spirit upon you by the preaching of His Word, of His Cross – so that you receive forgiveness and life, so that the Lord and Giver of life would make you live again. The Jesus who comes to you by water and blood – yes, now, finally the spear – now the water and blood from His riven side. Yes, now, Jesus for you in the waters of Holy Baptism – yes, even over and against all the hosts of hell you know that you, you O baptized child, you are covered by Christ. His death was for you. Yes, now, Jesus for you in the Supper, take and drink, the blood of Christ that was indeed, really, truly, actually shed for you – shed for the remission, the forgiveness, the removal, the defeat, the cleansing of all of your sin. It is finished – perfect, complete, fulfilled – all of it, all of it for you, nothing left for you to do. It is finished, even before any of us were born – the Real Jesus doesn't need you to bargain or plead or cut a deal with Him – the Real Jesus is the One who show His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Whom do you seek? Well, in someways, that doesn't overly matter. Your mistaken desires and misplaced expectations, the falseness and folly that we all carry with us into our dealings with God, into this building – Jesus doesn't stop being the Real Jesus, the Crucified, died and was buried Jesus for any of that. Sin is sin – and Jesus doesn't dance around it, He crucifies it. Here in this place Jesus seeks you, seeks to rescue and redeem you. He seeks to give you life. And so the Real Jesus dies. The Real Jesus is laid in His tomb – no stranger to a cemetery is He. And come the third day, my friends, because Jesus seeks you, wishes to see you, not just for a day, not just for a solemn hour on Friday night, but because Jesus seeks to see you freed from sin for all eternity and won unto everlasting life – the Real Jesus shall rise come the third day. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
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