{"id":11503,"date":"2021-02-07T19:48:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=11503"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:20:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T11:20:15","slug":"matthew-2738-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/matthew-2738-44\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 27:38-44"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

2006 Lenten Sermon Series<\/strong>
\nCelebrating the 100th Anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s <\/strong>
\nGOOD FRIDAY (April 14, 2006) <\/strong>
\nA Sermon on Matthew 27:38-44 by Joshua V. Schneider<\/strong>
\n(after reflecting on Bonhoeffer\u2019s, \u201cOutline for a Book,\u201d in Letters and Papers from Prison) <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their headsand saying, \u201cYou who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.\u201dSo also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, \u201cHe saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, \u2018I am the Son of God.\u2019\u201d And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. (Matthew 27:38-44, ESV) <\/em><\/p>\n

THE MAN FOR OTHERS<\/p>\n

A discordant song fills the air. A chant, really, a litany of mockery and accusation\u2014scorn. Shouts and cries of hatred ring out in a painful cacophony, as the dying Christ hangs naked on a cross. Humiliated, fighting for every breath. No sympathy. Words that sting like venom poured into gaping wounds. The venom of the Evil One: Satan.<\/p>\n

These mockers are giddy with rage as they see their victim groan. \u201cYou who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!\u201d (Matthew 27:40a). Never mind that they were watching that temple being destroyed as they spoke\u2014not knowing that the temple he spoke of was his body. \u201cSurely you must want to save yourself? Don\u2019t you care to save your own skin?\u201d<\/p>\n

A second taunt rings with familiarity, but to none but Jesus\u2019 ears. \u201cIf you are the Son of God, come down from the cross\u201d (27:40b). Jesus had heard those venomous words before: \u201cIf you are the Son of God.\u201d Satan spoke them while tempting Jesus in the wilderness. \u201cHave a care for yourself!\u201d he would say. \u201cDon\u2019t starve for lack of bread when you\u2019re the Son of God. Perform a miracle! Turn these stones into bread!\u201d Satan\u2019s old challenge came back, this time from the mouths of those standing before Jesus\u2019 cross. Trying to turn Jesus away from his task.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re having too much fun. Christ lies silent\u2014bones and joints stretched out of place\u2014every breath a painful effort. The litany continues: \u201cHe saved others, he cannot save himself\u201d (27:42a). Can they really mock his power? Have they no fear? They had seen his miracles, what he had done for others. But now they jeer at his apparent powerlessness. \u201cWhy won\u2019t he do for himself what he did for others? He must be too weak.\u201d He is weak indeed\u2014weakened by whips and scourges and nails. But powerless\u2014he is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the King of Israel,\u201d they cry, \u201clet him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him\u201d (27:42b). What arrogance. A blatant pretense. Their promise that they will believe if Christ comes down from the cross is a sham. They were always one step away from believing him: \u201cJust give us this sign!\u201d An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. But even if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe.<\/p>\n

The litany ends with this taunt, \u201cHe trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, \u2018I am the Son of God\u2019\u201d (27:43). See how reckless unbelief is? There is no fear of God. How could they dare take the risk to crucify Jesus if he might really be who he says he is? But they did not mean it. They really didn\u2019t want to see if God would deliver him. But despite all these taunts, his silence is remarkable. Never does he lash back with sharp words. He was able to silence his detractors with a single reproach before\u2014but now he does not answer their cries. \u201cHe was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and a like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth\u201d (Isaiah 53:7).<\/p>\n

When will it end??? Our blood boils to think of it all. We are filled with indignation. Until we realize that our sins and evil thoughts rose against him in accusation, too. Not a pleasant thought. We don\u2019t want to admit it either. Sure, it\u2019s true we might not have been the ones to hang him, had we been there. Not everyone was turned against him. But every sinful thought or word or accusation against God was known to him, across all time\u2014and he bore it all in the flesh. He heard it all.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve heard it before\u2014perhaps your own heart has said it: \u201cMy sin is too great for God to forgive\u2026How can God forgive me?\u201d This is to doubt God\u2019s power to save. It is to make our sin greater than Jesus\u2019 cross. Or we may cry to God, \u201cI can\u2019t help it that I sin! You<\/em> made me this way!\u201d People blame God for their fallenness, accusing him for their sin. Or what about those scoffers today who would say, \u201cIf only God would work some miracle in my life\u2014then I\u2019d believe\u201d? Or whatever other pretense people give for not believing\u2014Christ sees the sham; it is not hidden from him today anymore than it was then.<\/p>\n

But even more so, our accusations fell on Jesus when he was declared guilty of every sin. He was made sin for us. As he died on the cross, the accusations for every sin fell upon him. He was the murderer, the adulterer, the thief. Our greatest and smallest sins were all laid upon him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor whose 100 th year we commemorate this year, knew this truth well. He said,<\/p>\n

The truthfulness Jesus demands of his disciples is self-denial that does not conceal sin\u2026Precisely because truthfulness is concerned first and last with uncovering human beings in the entirety of their being, in their iniquity before God, it provokes the opposition of sinners, and is thus persecuted and crucified. The only basis of the disciples\u2019 truthfulness is that Jesus, while we follow him, reveals our sinfulness to us on the cross. The cross as God\u2019s truth over us is the only thing that makes us truthful. Whoever knows the cross no longer shies away from any other truth. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross<\/em>, 24)<\/p>\n

Bonhoeffer recognized that the cross is the full exposure of our sin, in Christ\u2019s flesh. It\u2019s too easy to conceal our sin by hiding under indignation at the mockers who stood at the cross. The truth that our sin weighed on him every bit as heavily as did the sin of the mockers provokes our opposition and anger. But the cross uncovers our entire sinful being, and for us who believe in what Christ did on the cross, we do not shy away from the truth. We gain nothing by hiding our sin, for it is paid in full by his bloody death on the cross. Our indignation toward others\u2019 sins can become like a shield to deflect accusation. But if we understand the cross, we don\u2019t need to hide from the Law\u2019s accusation\u2014because that accusation does not bring God\u2019s wrath on us, but, rather, in the cross, God\u2019s wrath is fully met in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

You see, here is the great irony of what the mockers said. Every jeer and taunt they made had one thing in common. They were concerned with what he could do for himself or whether he himself could be saved. They tempted Jesus to come off the cross, to save himself. \u201cHe saved others, but he can\u2019t save himself.\u201d The great irony is that if he saved himself, he would not have saved others!!!<\/em> This would have brought the cross to failure. Unbelief cannot comprehend the cross. The darkness cannot comprehend the light that has come into the world. They could not see that it was by his very death\u2014the destruction of this bodily Temple\u2014that he was saving others. The sinful self is so curved in on itself, that it cannot comprehend this radical altruism.<\/p>\n

Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this point with such clarity when he noted the fact that \u201cJesus is there only for others\u201d (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, \u201cOutline for a Book\u201d Letters and Papers from Prison. <\/em>381). In his entire life, from incarnation to cross, to his resurrection, Jesus is \u201cthere for others.\u201d It is here at the cross that the Gospel strikes us full force, with the news that this radical payment is for you!<\/em> There was no self-serving in Christ, no desire to come off the cross or lessen the pain to save his own skin; not a breath was wasted but it was for you. All this suffering, the silence in the face of so much scorn\u2014the weight of your own sin\u2014all this was to bring you to him, to this moment of dying agony when he was forsaken by God, for you.<\/p>\n

The mockers thought that if Jesus was who he said, he would come down from the cross and save himself. But the Son of God doesn\u2019t come down from the Cross! The King of Israel doesn\u2019t come down from the Cross!<\/em> It takes a true Man to die like this\u2014and he doesn\u2019t do it for himself. He was truly \u201c\u2018the man for others\u2019 and therefore the Crucified\u201d (Bonhoeffer, \u201cOutline for a Book\u201d, 382). They were mistaken about his character. His death showed the depth of Divine Love. After his death, even the pagans knew his character: \u201cTruly this was the Son of God!\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it was that,<\/p>\n

Jesus Showed Himself Truly to Be \u201cThe Man for Others\u201d
\nWhen He Saved Mankind Rather than Himself at the Cross.<\/p>\n

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, and without the forgiveness of sins, we all would be lost. But Jesus gave his life to save mankind when he died on the cross. He truly was \u201cthe man for others,\u201d having loved his own who were in the world; he loved them to the end. And it is in this Man for others that we put our trust, for Jesus\u2019 cross shows us his death was for us. Amen.<\/p>\n

Joshua V. Schneider <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2006 Lenten Sermon Series Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s GOOD FRIDAY (April 14, 2006) A Sermon on Matthew 27:38-44 by Joshua V. Schneider (after reflecting on Bonhoeffer\u2019s, \u201cOutline for a Book,\u201d in Letters and Papers from Prison) Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[727,157,120,1235,108,1155,110,1234,109,940,1126],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-11503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archiv","category-beitragende","category-bes_gelegenheiten","category-celebrating-the-100th-anniversary-of-dietrich-bonhoeffers-good-friday","category-current","category-dietrich-bonhoeffer","category-engl","category-joshua-v-schneider","category-predigten","category-sermon-on-a-special-occasion","category-theologische-persoenlichkeiten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16767,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11503\/revisions\/16767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11503"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=11503"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=11503"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=11503"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=11503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}