Come and celebrate our Lord’s birth with us!
The Family Service is for all ages, but is especially interactive for young children.
Our Candlelight Service is an evening of lessons and carols with a sermon and Holy Communion. Come early for the beautiful prelude music.
Many families come to both services as they are different and have many favorite traditional Christmas hymns.
Come enjoy the next musical performance of the Saint Cecilia Series at Redeemer Lutheran Columbus, GA. The St. Cecilia Series presents solo organ music performed by Director of Music Dr. Kristen Hansen. Music of Bach, Buxtehude, Clerambault, and Vaughan Williams will be featured.
Save the date for November 20th, 2016 at 6:00 PM. Click here for more information.
More about the St. Cecilia Series:
The St. Cecilia Series is a recital series directed by Kristen Hansen, organist-choir director at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Each month this year the series brings a new program of solo, chamber, and choral music to the city of Columbus. Past St. Cecilia recitals have included the dedicatory recital of the newly-installed Reuter pipe organ by James E. Bobb of St. Olaf College, performances of Bach cantatas, selections from Handel’s Messiah, solo recitals for horn, voice, and others, and choral concerts.
After being in disrepair for many years our flagpole is now flying the Stars and Stripes again. We are rededicating it on the week of Veteran’s Day, November 6th, in thanksgiving for the men and women who have served our nation. Please join us for this event after Sunday worship. Refreshments will be provided.
God bless our native land;
Firm may she ever stand
Through storm and night.
When the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Do Thou our country save
By Thy great might.
So shall our prayers arise
To God above the skies;
On Him we wait.
Thou who art ever nigh,
Guarding with watchful eye,
To Thee aloud we cry:
God save the state!
LSB 965
During World War Two there was a highland Scotsman named Macdonald who served as a chaplain in his POW camp. He and one other Scot served as chaplains between two camps, one filled with British soldiers and the other with Americans. Each day they were allowed some time at the gates of the two prisons to discuss matters. What their German captors didn’t know was that the Americans had snuck in a shortwave radio and were receiving news from the outside world. Something else the German’s didn’t know was how to speak Gaelic, so the two chaplains would always speak in their native language.
Once after one of their meetings the chaplain on the British side of the prison returned with news that caused the men to erupt in cheers. The Germans didn’t understand what was going on, but Macdonald had just passed on the message that the Nazis had surrendered and the war was over. They remained imprisoned for a week because the news hadn’t reached the guards yet, but the news already had liberated them.
Macdonald recalled that their attitudes completely changed. They didn’t hate the guards anymore, they pitied them. They didn’t begrudge them, but began forgiving them. This was possible because of the announcement that they were free. It was time to begin healing from the war. You see, in that single announcement of liberation their entire framework had changed even though they still were captive for a time.
It’s stunning how good news can change our entire framework for living in the present. We can suffer many things when we know that there is a greater future ahead of us. Our lesson from Matthew 18 is about how the mercy of God gives us a wholly different framework for dealing with suffering in the present. Specifically, God’s mercy empowers in us a completely new perspective on conflict and reconciliation.
Peter’s initial framing of this issue was quite generous even from the world’s standards. He suggests to Jesus that forgiving someone seven times is likely enough. We’ve all seen where someone has forgiven another person multiple times and their family and friends begin to wonder when enough is enough. This can happen even after two or three times, much less seven. So, from the average person’s perspective Peter’s suggestion sounds quite substantial and realistic.
What Peter thinks is lavish forgiveness and what Jesus says is really substantial couldn’t be any different though. Our Lord says not to forgiven seven times, but seventy times seven. His hyperbole and the parable that follows will open Peter and all Christians to an entirely new framework and perspective on three things. Firstly, Jesus’ words show us the severity of our sins. Secondly, they show us the extravagant and generous lengths of God’s forgiveness. And finally, He teaches us how God’s mercy ought to empower us to forgive too.
There is a beautiful mystery being described in Jesus “seventy times seven.” Seven the number representing the creation is multiplied by ten the number of perfect completion and is multiplied again by seven. In this gracious number all generations of humanity born in sin are represented and being forgiven. No one is left out of the full gift of God in His divine mercy and forgiveness through the Son Jesus.
Also, this number reflects that any time you come to God in repentance God is willing to forgive you. Our sins are severe. There is not a day that goes by where we do not sin. The Psalmist prayed, “If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” There wouldn’t be enough balance sheets in the world if God tallied every sinful thought, every wayward glance at another person’s spouse, every discontented and begrudging sigh, and every mind’s rumination on envy, revenge, and lust. The servant of Jesus’ parable had squandered his king’s possessions and accounted a debt he could never repay in one-thousand years. He is a picture of each of us should God mark iniquities and demand we give an account for each one of them. Thanks be to God that the Psalmist reminds us, “But with You there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared.” The servant begs for mercy and even while doing so says the most outrageous thing by offering to repay it all. He could never in twenty lifetimes repay this debt, but the king proves to be the most gracious and generous man in the world. He wipes the books clean. He does not mark the iniquities, but erases them. They no longer exist.
Jesus wants us and Peter to know that is what He had come to do. To clean up the books by forgiving the debt entirely. Where a debit stands for every one of your sins so Christ credits His righteousness on your account. On the cross the ledger was cleaned. All your sin was covered by Jesus. His forgiveness means you are released from any retribution that your sins deserve. In Christ your King, God has revealed the extravagant and generous lengths of His mercy. You are free!
This ought to change you. That is the third and final part of this lesson. The servant had received exceptional love and generosity from his king. So as he goes on his way he sees his fellow servant who owed him not 1,000 years of debt, but 100 days. The tension builds. What will he do now that he has become the recipient of such awesome grace? Had his perspective changed from the greedy and obstinate man he had been? Sadly, no. Rather, he deals more harshly with his peer than his superior king had with him. He not only threatens with justice, but acts violently and chokes the man. Overcome with rage he forgets the great debt of his own thievery that had just been forgiven and demands justice from his fellowman instead of forgiveness from himself. His framework for dealing with conflict and resolution, sin and forgiveness, had not changed. He chose to view himself as the victim at a loss and his fellow servant as his enemy.
Jesus wants us to contemplate this parable because it gives us a new, more enlightened, framework to view the world. The slave could have viewed himself as someone who had just been rescued and released from unfathomable, crushing debt, that, by legal right, would have destroyed him and his family. He could have inherited a new framework of grace and generosity that was bestowed on him by his gracious and merciful king. He could view himself as someone who was saved by grace and treated other people accordingly.
This is the framework that you can only adopt through faith in Jesus Christ. The prisoners of war I told you about had their perspective completely changed upon hearing the news that the war was over. They still had to deal with the guards and still were behind the fences, but they knew they were liberated and chose to live in that reality even in a prison. So, they were able to have pity on their enemy and even begin to forgive them. Jesus who paid the wages of our sin announces to us that we are forgiven. He has redeemed us from our imprisonment to sin, death, and the power of the devil. You have been liberated by the King of Heaven. In this sin-sickened and fallen world we will still see signs of our imprisonment, but those things do not determine how we shall live. We are recipients of the greatest news. The war is won. Jesus is the victor. We are free.
As servants of King Jesus, we stand in the flow of forgiveness that begins with God in Christ and then, second, by the power of the gospel, that same forgiveness flows out from us to others who need mercy. The sequence of Jesus parable is crucial. The king’s mercy came first and the servant’s mercy ought to follow. Forgiveness is a Holy Spirit lead and enabled decision in each believer. Christians decide they will forgive others. Sometimes our emotions will resist it. Sometimes our feelings will have to be drug along kicking and screaming. It does not mean you have to be a doormat, but it means ultimately you know that forgiving others is the best choice. Sometimes it takes a long time for our emotions to catch up with our spirits and intellects that know that forgiveness is the correct answer.
So Jesus gives you His mercy in abundance now so you will learn forgiveness well. How many sins did you bring with you today? Seven? Seventy-seven? Seventy times seven? Who could really count? We are unable to mark all our iniquities, but here is the good news, neither does God. He is rich in mercy to you through Jesus Christ. God’s mercy overflows in your body now as He gives you Christ’s body and blood, so that His forgiveness will then flow out of your mouth and into your neighbor’s ears.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Trinity 20
Matthew 22:1-14
Charles Spurgeon once said if you throw a banquet you should be sure to invite the beggars. He explained that the prim and proper guests will hardly raise an eyebrow when each course of the meal is brought into the hall. But, the beggars will cheer when they see every delicacy. “Look at the size of the turkey!” one will say, while the rest join him and praise their host, “Hooray for the turkey!” The beggars have true joy because they know they are unworthy guests of a generous host. The high society somebodies lose out on the joy because they think they deserve to be there.
Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet is getting at the generosity of God. He is revealing this paradoxical tension at the center of who will be a part of God’s kingdom and who will not. A good man knows he is an unworthy guest and he desires mercy. Bad men don’t know their unworthiness and don’t desire mercy. Those who are least aware of their need for mercy are the very ones who need it most and lose out on the true joy of heaven. Those who are aware of their need are the very ones who receive the mercy of God and are overjoyed by His generosity. They cheer and praise their host, “Hooray!” The point is we all need mercy.
God’s mercy comes as an invitation, a covering, and as a feast. The invitation goes out by His messengers. First by the prophets, then the Apostles, and now the entire Church. The servants invite everyone. There is no distinction and this is good news for us. The bad and the good are invited to receive God’s generosity. The covering is God’s garment of salvation which is the pure righteousness and forgiveness of the Son Jesus. He takes our stained lives of sin and replaces them with His pure life through forgiveness. The feast is the joy of heaven where all who heard the invitation and had their sins covered by Jesus now celebrate together at the table of their generous host. You are now at the foretaste of that feast as you dine on God’s Word and come to His table to receive the bread and the cup of our generous host the Lord Jesus.
Yet, this not the easiest parable to digest. It is not politically correct because Jesus gives a hard warning and lesson. Many are called, but few are chosen. Not everyone goes to heaven. And there is a hell. The Lord atoned for the sins of the entire world. Everyone is invited to share in that good news. No one needs to pay for his own sins or go unclothed and miss the feast, but some do anyways. They refuse the invitation or refuse the wedding garment and they miss the joy of heaven.
In the parable the king first calls the insiders. The landowners and people of account. But they didn’t come. They would have known they were invited to the feast. It takes months to prepare this kind of thing. They planned on going, but when it came time they balked. Why? They thought they what they had now was better than the invitation. So one goes to his business and another to his farm. Still others had an inner hostility to the king and mistreated the servants. Jesus is getting at the heart of how mankind treats God in our sinful rebellion. So, they treated the prophets and John the Baptist the same way. Apathy to God is not just apathy. It is born of a hostility that thinks nobody, I mean nobody, can tell us how to run our lives. As sinners we want to be the king, not the guests.
No one comes to a feast unless they are invited. When a neighbor invites you to dinner tonight you cannot wait a month. The warning here is not to postpone. You can only come when the meal is ready and God is saying the feast is spread. Those who say they’ll come to God later are playing a dangerous game. Come now when you are experiencing His mercy in His invitation. If you wait too long you may not come at all like the people in Jesus’ parable.
When the who’s who wouldn’t come the king sent his servants to the highways and byways of the city. Anyone who passed by was invited to come immediately to the feast. They didn’t need to prepare anything. They didn’t need to worry about performing any special service for the king. They weren’t even asked to put on their wedding clothes for those also were prepared for them as we shall see. The invitation was everything.
This is the way it is in God’s kingdom. You don’t need to worry about your performance. Mercy comes by the invitation and not by your performance. The people who thought themselves worthy, like the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus was talking to, thought they deserved an invitation. Even then they refused. Yet, the generosity of God is shown in this, He invites all. The rich, the poor, and every ethnicity. Before it looked like you had to be a real somebody to come to God’s banquet, but now you can be anyone, even a beggar, and you are freely invited.
Imagine the scene Jesus paints for us. Hundreds of people drop what they were doing and go to the king’s court for his banquet. At the door his happy servants are clothing the guests with resplendent and beautiful robes like none they had ever owned or even seen before. Yet, one man decides he’ll pass on the king’s generous gift and come in his soiled day clothes.
Many people do not like this part of the story because it seems like God changes His standards. At first He invites anyone, but then He refuses this fellow for not wearing the correct clothing. Many will think doesn’t God accept us just a we are? This lesson teaches otherwise. We have seen how those who think they deserve to be invited are wrong in their pride. The fundamentalist type Pharisees thought they could earn heaven and then refuse a merciful invitation. Yet, this man without a garment is a picture of the other side of the coin. He presumes that the gift of the king is not costly and He can enjoy it on his own terms.
Jesus will take anyone into His kingdom, but you can’t come in just as you are. Anyone could come to the banquet, but the king clothed him at the door. So God at greater expense, will outfit you so you can enter the wedding feast. The gift of the king is costly. He spared no expense. So, God did not spare the life of His beloved Son from you. He generously and richly poured out His life for yours so He could cover your sins with the most beautiful and splendid gift He had to offer. When you see that gift why would we ever presume to pass it by and say God must accept our terms?
Yet, this is exactly what this man was doing. He is warning against the false Christians. They insist on their own garments and their own ways. They do not leave their sins behind and trust Christ to cover them. It is terrifying thing when I hear people say “My Jesus wouldn’t send anyone to hell.” They presume God will ignore all the evil in the world when that is the very reason Jesus died on the cross. Likewise, people say “My Jesus wouldn’t care about fornication if the two people love each other and everything is consensual.” They presume Jesus wasn’t serious when He said that a man will leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife loving her as Christ loves the church. We must be careful we do not end up with a Jesus that is just like us. That we confuse our sinful hearts for our shepherd’s voice and refuse to believe His word.
May God protect us from this! May He keep us steadfast in His Word. This lesson shows us it possible to come to church and still be self-righteous, self-satisfied, and unrepentant. People can fool the world, even themselves, but they cannot fool God. The only way to come into the kingdom is to repent, to stop insisting on having our own way, and be clothed with Christ’s righteousness.
And clothing us is exactly what our Lord does. The Lord says come and be clothed my mercy. Come as a beggar and celebrate my generosity. Hooray! The Lord is generous. We do not have to pretend we are something we are not. We are all beggars feasting at the Lord’s banquet cheering and whooping at every course of the Lord’s mercy! He makes us lovely to behold. A wedding party of the finest dressed and happiest guests the world has ever seen. He calls us and surprise us with more one twist. He says, “Friends, come but not as a guest. Rather, be my bride whom I have won at the greatest cost without regret, but rather with joy and gladness.” In Jesus’ name, amen!
Please join us for a performance of Handel’s Messiah on October 28th at 7:30pm at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. This is an event of the St. Cecilia Series which will be performed by the Columbus State University Baroque Consortium lead by Redeemer’s Director of Music, Dr. Kristen Hansen.
More about the St. Cecilia Series:
The St. Cecelia Series is a recital series directed by Kristen Hansen, organist-choir director at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Each month this year the series brings a new program of solo, chamber, and choral music to the city of Columbus. Past St. Cecelia recitals have included the dedicatory recital of the newly-installed Reuter pipe organ by James E. Bobb of St. Olaf College, performances of Bach cantatas, solo recitals for horn, voice, and others, and a choral concert by the Schola.
The Schola Redemptoris is a select group of professional, trained musicians who sing frequent services for the St. Cecelia series, often in the style of the Anglican musical service of Evensong. The Schola varies in numbers from five to around fifteen depending on the musical needs. Founding members of the Schola include Mark Dermer and James Turner.
The choir of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer is a mixed choir made up of amateur singers from the congregation and music students from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. The choir rehearses weekly and sings in Divine Service usually twice each in a variety of choral styles following the liturgical calendar.
How do you want to be remembered? What do you want to have to look back on? How does God’s Word inform your life’s “bucket list”? Our next adult Bible study will look at five Biblical positive–failures that God teaches us. We start next week June 19th at 9:00 AM with the first failure, “I hope I’ve failed to follow my heart.” Does that get your attention? You may be surprised by our discussion and you will be blessed by it!
The theme for this Bible Study is taken from a devotion written by Chad Bird which you can read here. We will read a portion of Chad’s devotion each week. We hope to see you there!
Note: Some readers who are not in the Columbus area have asked that Pastor Estes post this study to our website. He will post all six parts of this Bible study as a single document as soon as it is completed (in about 6 to 7 weeks). So please come back and look for it. You can also follow us on Facebook and there will be an update there as soon as the document is published. Thank you for your interest and your patience.
Easter I (One-Year Historic)
John 20:19-23
The gospels give us very few direct looks into the inner life of the disciples. We do not hear their unspoken thoughts except the couple of times Christ speaks of them or the evangelists share them. They give us plenty of hints though. Details are shared that help us know what happened inside these men and women who first met our Lord.
For instance Peter’s despair and guilt for his sins is palpable when he first met Jesus and cried, “Away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8) The great draught of fish woke him up to the holiness of the man who stood before him. We can relate to the women’s fear and desperation as they were bewildered by the empty tomb of their Lord (Mark 16:8). Mary Magadalene at first thought someone had taken Jesus’ body (John 20:1ff.). We can relate to her weeping. Just think of how scary and upsetting it would be if you came to a loved one’s grave to find the body exhumed by who knows who.
The gospel lesson for the 2nd week of Easter summarizes the disciple’s inner-life with a single word, “fear”. John recounts that they locked themselves away “for fear of the Jews.” Peter and John had seen the empty tomb for themselves. Mary had likely told them she had seen the Lord. Still, they were afraid. They were afraid they’d meet the same demise as Jesus. They were afraid because of the confusing and impossible news of the empty tomb and the resurrected Lord. So, they shut the doors tight and locked themselves away. John should know how things went since he was there. He says these “heroes of the faith” were panicked yellow cowards full of unbelief, insecurity, and fear of what the future held.
The locked doors are a literal reality, but they also point out something. These men had locked themselves into a spiritual prison as well. They were being controlled by fear; fear of judgment, fear of enemies, and fear of death. If they had feared God things would be very different.
It’s into this pitiful scene that Jesus enters. The reader is bound to wonder how Jesus will behave. What will he say? Will he tell them to stop their sniveling and be men! Will he condemn them for their unbelief and cowardice? Imagine what they must have expected. Peter had denied the Lord three times, the rest, save John, had absented themselves from his crucifixion. They were guilty sinners.
Our Lord though sees them as they are: bruised reeds and smoldering wicks tossed about by sin, death, and the devil (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20). Rather than reproving them Jesus restores them. Rather than receiving judgment they are absolved. “Peace be with you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus does not turn their fear to bravery and their unbelief to faith by lecturing them. He does not harangue them with the Law to get them to behave. Rather, he heals their wounds with words of forgiveness and mercy. He applies the forgiveness and mercy that he had won by dying for sin and rising again in victory. In short, Jesus loved them.
This moment left such an indelible mark on John the beloved disciple that he chose to write it down. In theological reflection later he would write, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18) Jesus’ perfect love casts out fear. Fear comes from the threat of punishment, but Jesus’ love has everything to do with forgiveness that our fears will be cast out. There Jesus stood with the disciples showing the nail and spear wounds that bought them their peace and all he has to speak of is forgiveness. He institutes the sacrament of Holy Absolution and gives the apostles (the first pastors) the responsibility of proclaiming this forgiveness to the all the world that is trapped and locked behind doors of sin, suffering, fear, and death.
The ESV and other translations make a difficult call with our Lord’s words here. The more literal translation is, “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you bind forgiveness, it is bound.” Grammatically this binding could mean a kind of withholding forgiveness from someone, but the plainer meaning of “to bind” is to attach something. In this case many theologians conclude the better translation is that the disciples are called to “bind” forgiveness to people, to wrap them in it, and restore them to peace with God. This is just what Jesus was doing with the disciples at that moment—binding them with his forgiveness!
That is what Christ is constantly doing for you. He is wrapping you with forgiveness. Every time you hear his Word, every time you eat his body, and drink his blood, every time your pastor absolves you, Jesus is binding his forgiveness to you. He’s giving you the peace that he won for you upon the cross and in his resurrection again and again.
Do you fear? I do, not always, but sometimes I do. If I think deeply on the future, my concerns for my children, my niece, and family, and so many other things, I can become worried. What casts out this fear? Only the perfect love of the savior who forgives our sins and by his resurrection promises us that nothing in our past, nothing in our present, or future can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). At times we are smoldering wicks and bruised reeds like the disciples were. Yet, when time came the Holy Spirit lead them to bravely confess Christ in the face of opposition and even death. The thing which made them bold was the very same thing that came to them when they were afraid—perfect love, Jesus the Savior himself. Wrapped with forgiveness Jesus’ love will make us brave too.
“Cast your burdens upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will not suffer the righteous to fall.” (Psalm 55:22; cf. 1 Peter 5:7)
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
SDG-Rev. Eric M. Estes
How did we get the Bible? Sixty-six books, 1,100 chapters, 30,000 verses, 700,000 words, 39 authors over more than a millennium—it’s no wonder the Holy Bible is the world’s most fascinating book. See how it was all put together in How We Got the Bible, featuring Dr. Paul L. Maier, a Bible Study produced by Lutheran Hour. This presentation begins Sunday April 17th, 2016 at 9:00 AM in the Ian Walter Conference Room.
How We Got The Bible (Promo Video) from Lutheran Hour Ministries on Vimeo.
Click Here to Access the Interactive Study Guide for “How We Got The Bible”
Click Here for the “Digging Deeper” Book for “How We Got the Bible”
And being found in human form, he humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8
One of the earliest pioneers of film D.W. Griffith chose to make a movie about the ugliness of the world. He titled the film Intolerance. Released in 1916 it is a four-part three-hour silent epic that horrifyingly displays the miserable condition of the world. His film includes the political drama of a king’s court, the tensions of romantic jealousy, the utter confusion of war, and the complete desperation of imprisonment. The majority of the film is unsettling though cinematically stunning.
For the audience members who wait for the climatic finish Griffith takes you from complete horror to absolute elation. Amid the chaos, hatred, and desperation suddenly the sky fills with an optical superimposition of the cross. What the director is conveying is the return of Christ. Cut by cut Griffith revisits the ugly scenes the viewer had seen before, but in the light of Jesus Christ the events are entirely transformed.
A prison teeming with convicts dressed in stripes is covered in the light of Christ depicted by the radiant cross filling the horizon above the prison. Suddenly the walls begin to disappear until the prisoners stand in the midst of a celestial field clothed in white. The absolving light of Christ gives them total release. They are free. Another scene shows men on a battlefield skewering one another with bayonets only to see the cross of the second coming of Christ and they drop their weapons and begin to embrace. That scene closes with two cherubic little children holding hands among the soldiers embracing and kissing one another’s cheeks. The scene recalls in many viewers’ memory the words of Psalm 85, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss.”
Griffith’s images are so breathtaking because of their contrast of absolutes. What Griffith depicts is an either-or proposition. There is either war or peace, imprisonment or release, condemnation or absolution, hatred or love. And the only thing that stands in the center of them, the only thing that can transform the world, is the wondrous light of the cross of Jesus.
Our Scripture lessons this morning are contrasts in absolutes as well. As we enter Holy Week we have scene after scene that depicts once again the miserable condition of the world. Our week begins with a jubilant crowd hopefully greeting a man crying hosanna, which means God save! Our week will end with the crowd scattering, abandoning this man, to be replaced with teeming and fiery crowd yelling crucify him.
Scene after scene of Holy Week shows us the utter misery and despicable nature of mankind. Look at our gospel lesson alone. The crowd is there shouting accusations. Barrabas, a notorious prisoner and criminal, without a doubt guilty of his crimes, will be released by the crowds. This was a miscarriage of justice for which the world only had itself to blame. The scene shows a governor who wants more than anything to prevent a riot at the expense of the truth. His wife desperately urged him to wash his hands of this mess for she had been suffering because of the man the crowds hate. The chief priests, scribes, and elders, the religious leaders, “spiritual” men, rabble rouse, demand Barabbas’ release, and another’s death.
Then there’s the soldiers who spit, strike and mock. They force unsuspecting Simon of Cyrene to carry the weight of an instrument of execution and death. They play games for a dying man’s garments. Two robbers hang as well and they join in with the crowds taunting the man between them. Those who passed by along the road joined in hurling insults, breathing out hatred, and vengeance.
The scenes of Holy Week and Good Friday are microcosm of the world Griffith depicted in his film and we live in each day—jealousy, abuse of power, self-righteousness, hatred, despair, suffering, mob-mentality—sin! Everyone is at war within themselves, with one another, and in their suffering they find a target and unleash their pain.
Where is the sweet climatic relief of the likes of a D.W. Griffith epic? This morning it is only hinted at, but still you can’t miss the absolute contrast. An officer of Rome who had not stopped the brutal soldiers from beating this prisoner, mocking, and gambling now watches Jesus from below the cross. When he saw this innocent man breath his last the ground shook beneath him and he voiced his first thought, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
The absolute contrast to all the world’s confusion, hatred, bloodlust, and pride stood there silently and bore it all. God in the flesh stood in the very center of all our wreckage and let us do our worst to him. Like a lamb uncomplaining, like a sheep to the slaughter, he did not retaliate. Any word he spoke was for peace. “Father, forgive them.” “My God why have you forsaken me?” “Unto you I commit my spirit.”
The crowds, Barrabas, the governor, Pilate’s wife, the rulers, the soldiers, the thieves, the passers by, and the Centurion: we’re to see ourselves in them all. All the little wars within in us, all the larger wars in our homes or workplaces and in the world, all the disquiet of mind, body, and spirit that we see during Holy Week is ours too. In the midst of all that we confess “Truly, this was the Son of God.” We are sinners and saints. We know the miserable condition of the world. We also know the light of the cross that has bore the burden of this world and overcome it. In Jesus’ forgiveness we stand with Him at the center. We stand with the only One who can transform this world and take it from one absolute to another: from war to peace, condemnation to absolution, imprisonment to freedom, slavery to release, hatred to love.
Christ crucified and risen is what inspired a saint like D.W. Griffith to create a masterpiece of that day when all the sadness of this world will be swept away. Griffith’s film was saturated with the mind of Christ; the mind of self-sacrificial love that would achieve our peace.
We will be taken from one absolute to another. We will be once for all be taken from the prison house of sin and death and placed in the celestial pasture of God’s paradise. We live according to this promise and vision today. It is this promised future that all the events of Holy Week accomplish. It is this promised future that lead Paul to encourage the church to always have this mind of Christ’ among us as we love one another and wait for that glorious day of resurrection.
So, dear sinner-saints, redeemed of our Lord Jesus Christ, begin Holy Week and the days and months to come remembering to “5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Amen.
SDG-Rev. Eric M. Estes
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer 