1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Good Friday is taken from Matthew 27:55, it’s entitled, “From a Distance,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I’m too close to the situation to provide you with unbiased counsel. You need someone who’s more distant from the circumstances.” A sign at a pharmacy counter reads, “Out of respect for the privacy of our patients, please keep back some distance while patient counseling is in progress.” Driver training manuals advise, “Always maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you.”
3. In many ways, distance equals safety. Safety concerns may explain the remark Matthew makes about the crucifixion scene outside Jerusalem: “There were also many women there, looking on from a distance” (Mt 27:55). The mob with its clubs and swords had already gotten too close for comfort to the disciples on Thursday evening at Gethsemane. The Gospel writers note that all of them fled, but they also note that Peter did follow the mob to the chief priest’s house—at a distance (Mt 26:58). A concern for personal safety kept the Twelve at a distance. They certainly didn’t wish to be caught and suffer the same fate as their master, even though they’d all sworn loyalty to the end!
4. Issues of comfort also keep people at a distance. We don’t feel comfortable when aggressive people invade our personal space in conversation, forcing us to retreat a step at a time until our backs are against the wall. When a teenager broke a valued possession belonging to the father of one of his friends, several years passed before he entered his friend’s house again. Even in church, some find sitting in the front rows too close for comfort. Maybe a verse from Psalm 88 holds another reason why the women watched Jesus die from a distance: “You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them” (Ps 88:8). Who but the most twisted would actually relish approaching the scene of a bloody crucifixion, especially of a friend, and find its details pleasant and fascinating? Who would feel comfortable watching their teacher, stripped naked, die cruelly before their eyes?
5. These two issues—comfort and safety—come together on Good Friday to explain the matter of distance. Once, after Jesus instructed the disciples where they could find a catch of fish and they did, Peter replied, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Lk 5:8). Isn’t it that which always puts distance between us and others—the matter of sin? How quickly would you rush to the hospital bed of a friend whom your drunk driving nearly killed? How speedily would you return to the home of the family of the toddler who was injured because you hadn’t kept a careful watch as a babysitter? What makes us keep our distance is our own discomfort with the part we’ve played in the tragedy.
6. And that’s what causes people to keep their distance from the cross too. Jesus “was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Is 53:5). The crucifixion gives the lie to our notions of “petty crime.” It warns us how serious all of our transgressions are. Here’s the man who gave his life to pay the steep consequences for all the times you and I have thought, Oh, this little lie isn’t that serious! It’s not like murder or anything as repulsive as that! Yet even lies are symptoms of the sinner’s need to hide from the truth. The drunk husband sneaked up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes, and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night, weren’t you?” “No, honey.” “Well, if you weren’t, then why did you put all the Band-Aids on the bathroom mirror?” It’s this ongoing denial of our sins out of fear that separates us from God. Jesus died for all people. Jesus died for all sins. But some continue to watch from a distance because they know who should be nailed to that tree instead.
7. Jesus understands this reluctance to draw close to his Father. He understands the ironic emptiness this reluctance creates too. For even though we often maintain a distance for our own safety and comfort, we hate having to experience that dreadful gulf that separates from what our hearts desire most—fellowship with God. The kind of fellowship with God Adam and Eve experienced, walking with God in the garden in the cool of the evening. We wish something could be done to lessen the distance, but we find ourselves unable to bridge the gulf.
8. Now anyone who believes that keeping our distance from God is a mutually-agreed upon strategy is sadly mistaken. The spiritual gulf that stood between us and God disturbed him. He took no pleasure in driving Adam and Eve from the garden. He wasn’t thrilled about having to stop taking leisurely walks in the garden alongside them. He wasn’t pleased when the Israelites said to Moses, “You go up on the mountain and listen to God for us; we’ll stay down here because we fear for our lives.” It gave him no joy to strike dead those who touched the ark of the covenant. How he would have rather appeared to Israel without a pillar of fire or cloud.
9. But only he had the power to do something other than keep his distance from us and we from him. For that reason, Jesus experienced that damning distance when his Father distanced himself from him on the cross. “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). At that moment, Jesus Christ suffered hell—separation from God—so that we might not suffer the same fate as the rich man standing in hell, looking up from the great chasm that separated him from Lazarus in heaven. With the exhale of that last breath, Jesus closed the distance in an unexpected way. So Jesus hung on the cross to shorten the distance between us and his Father. He breathes his last with the satisfaction of knowing that our having to keep our distance from God is finished.
10. Now the invitation often spoken at the beginning of our worship takes on new meaning: “Let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father” (LSB, p. 184). We can draw near and confess because Jesus has removed all reasons for keeping our distance from God and he from us. In the parable known to most as the parable of the prodigal son, the waiting father runs out to embrace the wayward son because he’s forgiven him. We have peace with God now, and the gulf between us has been bridged. So as the author of Hebrews says, we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16). Yes, Because Jesus’ Death on the Cross Paid for Our Sins, We Can with Confidence Draw Near to the Throne of Grace.
11. Yes, he is as near to us now as the sip of wine and bit of bread we receive in Holy Communion. And so, for reasons of comfort and safety, the women watched all that took place on Friday from a distance. For our spiritual comfort and safety, our heavenly Father distanced himself from his beloved Son when Jesus died for you. Because of that great sacrifice, as the hymn says, “Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee” (LSB 420:1). Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment