Lent 1 - Contrasts of the Cross (Justice and Mercy)

Text: Luke 22:39-46
Series: Lent - Contrasts of the Cross
Theme: Justice/Mercy
Place: Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, Myrtle Beach, SC
Date: February 21, 2010

Jesus had finished eating the Passover meal with his disciples. He had whispered to Judas, “Go and do your dishonorable deed.” He had instituted the Lord’s Supper. As the meal concluded Jesus and his disciples sang a psalm of praise, Psalm 136, and walked through the dark streets of Jerusalem, out the city gates, across the Kidron stream, and into a quiet olive grove known as Gethsemane. He left eight at the gate to the garden and took Peter, James, and John into the garden. By now it was close to midnight, if not after.

It had been a long day, and everyone was tired. What a week they had just gone through! Each day, except Wednesday of Holy Week, the disciples and Jesus had walked the two miles from Bethany to the temple complex in Jerusalem. There Jesus’ enemies had badgered him with tricky questions, trying to discredit him in the eyes of people and politicians. The disciples had also stayed up nearly all Tuesday night listening to Jesus’ final instructions. Now it was late Thursday and the disciples were exhausted from sorrow (22:45).

But here they were at the olive grove. Jesus and the disciples had come here before. Each night when he left Jerusalem with his disciples to walk to Bethany, they stopped at the Mount of Olives for a time of quiet instruction and meditation. On this night, though, Jesus came for prayer. Accompanied by Peter, James, and John he instructed the disciples to watch and pray that [they would] not fall into temptation (22:40). Then he walked away from them – a stone’s throw away – and prayed by himself. The quiet and the darkness were too much for the disciples. Their heads dropped down, and they fell fast asleep. But Jesus? On bended knee, in the midst of great anguish, he prays to his heavenly Father! But why the anguish?

I have a three question quiz for you! What is the highest court in the United States judicial system? The Supreme Court, right! How many justices (judges) serve on the United States Supreme Court? Nine! Do you know what phrase is etched in stone above the West entrance of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.? “Equal Justice Under Law.” These words serve as a constant reminder of the way that those nine appointed justices are to rule in every case they handle. They are to judge according to the law equally.

That’s exactly how God, the one who demands justice to be served, judges. He judges equally and according to the law. The Law he wrote. The Law he inscribed on people’s consciences. The Law he has clearly communicated to us in his Word. But there’s something else. God also sticks strictly to its script. He knows the Law inside and out, backwards and forwards. He judges according to it. And in God’s court, the highest court there is, there is no probation and there are no plea bargains. In his court there is simply equal justice for all. Justice must be and is served.

God’s justice is served in a startling and somber way? Through Jeremiah the prophet God said, Everyone will die for his own sin (31:30). In Ezekiel God says, The soul who sins is the one who will die (18:20). God’s justice is served with death! A morbid verdict that reminds us that our God is indeed the God of justice. And he is going to make sure that justice is carried out. He does so in the most unlikely of ways.

Jesus is on bended knee, in the midst of great anguish, praying to his heavenly Father. Why the anguish? The torture of the cross loomed before him. You see, I can never fully understand the incredible anguish that Jesus felt in the olive grove. I can never fully comprehend how deeply distressed and overwhelmed with sorrow my Savior was because the burden of sin Jesus carried was colossal. For God made his Son responsible for my rap sheet. God held his Son accountable for my awful actions. God was about to punish his Son for my pitiful performance in keeping his holy law. God was about crush his Son for my criticizing comments. God was about to make his Son experience hell for my foul mouth, my sinful speech, laziness in life instead of a watchful and attentive life.

God’s justice would soon be carried out. But it was going to be on an innocent man. A man who never did anything wrong. A man whose speech was never filled with lies or deceit. A man whose life was always lived according to the letter of the law. Yet he was going to receive a sentence reserved for sinners? That’s justice? That’s fair?

Is it any wonder his anguish was so profound that he dripped with sweat – great drops of sweat like blood? We all sweat when we’re nervous, but this was beyond anything we’ve ever experienced. Is it any wonder his prayer was so intense that perhaps he struggled to speak the words – slowly they come out – Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.” Not once, not twice, but three times Jesus spoke the same prayer. Each time the agony deepens. The burden bears down more! The reality intensifies.

Although his disciples were fast asleep, fatigued from the day, his heavenly Father did not sleep. His heavenly Father answered. In the darkness an angel came to strengthen Jesus. He was not to die in the garden. Justice would be carried out on the cross. An angel strengthened Jesus to face it so that we could receive mercy.

Remember what God said through Jeremiah, Everyone will die for his own sin (31:30). Remember what God said through Ezekiel, The soul who sins is the one who will die (18:20). God’s justice is served with death! A morbid verdict that reminds us that our God is indeed the God of justice. And he is going to make sure that justice is carried out. But it isn’t you and I who get slapped with the sentence. It’s Jesus!

My friends, that is the stark contrast of the cross. In Jesus, our justice before God is served. But then in Jesus, God’s mercy is also given. For God doesn’t give to you what you deserve. Instead he gives it to Jesus. He gives Jesus the cup of suffering to drink. Jesus paid the debt with his blood and death. He shouldered the anger we deserved. He paid the penalty we ought. It’s as simple as that.

The obedience that Jesus offered to God he offered in place of your disobedience, too. The punishment he carried for sins he carried for your sins. No matter what you’ve done wrong, God does not hold it against you. Not since the first Good Friday. Not since the first Easter Sunday. There is no punishment for sin in your future, no divine getting even, no possibility that somehow he might take it all back.

That’s mercy, my friends! You and I can do lots of things; we’re smart and talented and we live in a free country that is the land of opportunity. But getting right with God is something we can’t do. We need Jesus for that. And so today Jesus comes to us with a heart of love that extends his mercy to us.

And that mercy enables us to do exactly what Jesus told the heavy-eyed disciples to do. To keep watch! To pray that we will not fall into temptation. To cling to Christ when doubt knocks on the door. To run to my rescuer when worry threatens to run me insane. To lean on my Lord when lust lures me to look. When we are weary-eye to run to him is always wide-eyed so that we don’t roll over on our tummies and fall back to sleep while those temptations to connive, to hate, to complain dance in our heads until the alarm clock rings.

Or when temptations arrive in the middle of the day when the friend says, “Let’s do that” or the co-worker says, “Don’t do that.” We know what to do. We know what Jesus wants us to do. Instead of eyes glazed over, a brain dulled, and sleepwalking through some sin we know we shouldn’t be committing, we hear the Savior’s voice Watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation.

You do that because you stand in the olive grove this morning and see your Savior who is willing to take the cup…willing to be served our justice. You do that because you stand in the olive grove this morning ready – the time was at hand – the hour was near. Justice would be served and mercy given at the cross. Take comfort in what happened, but then walk away from the cross, awestruck by God’s mercy, we need to remember the words that Paul wrote to the Romans. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God…Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I had mentioned earlier that the phrase Equal Justice Under Law is engraved above the west entrance of the United States Supreme Court building. Do you know what is engraved above the east entrance? It is this phrase: Justice the Guardian of Liberty. Oh, how true that is for us in Christ Jesus! Jesus, the one who paid the price of justice, can rightly be called “Our Justice.” And how awesome it is that “Our Justice,” Jesus, is the THE Guardian of our liberty. He guards our liberty by giving us liberty from sin and its painful punishment, death. Justice is indeed served in Jesus. And justice served is mercy given. God hold that before your eyes this Lent and for all eternity.