“Jesus 101: Nothing But Trash”
Is. 53:1-12
Every Thursday evening Barb and I pull trash duty – we put all our trash and garbage in the big brown container and place it by the street. Friday, trash haulers come by and carry it all away to a place designed to dispose of nothing but trash. Isn’t that great? Wouldn’t it be horrible to have to keep all the trash and garbage bags, and haul them around for ourselves?
Speaking of trash – just WHAT’S IN YOUR TRASH BAG? What are you lugging around with you? Isaiah (4a) talked about trash – he labelled it infirmities and sorrows. Are you hauling around some INFIRMITIES? Where are you weak and struggling in body, mind, or spirit? Perhaps you or a loved one is ill, fighting disease or bodily decay, and just can’t seem to get on top of it. Or maybe the doctor has said those dreadful words, “It’s terminal”, or “There’s nothing more I can do.” Maybe the problems keep mounting and the solutions are hidden from your view. It might be that your handicap has you down and discouragement has set in. It could be that doubts have slipped into your mind and you’re wrestling with issues of faith. Possibly your sexual desires are stronger than ever and you’re afraid you might give in – or perhaps you already have. Maybe it’s anger that keeps building up inside, or has already burst forth and caused lots of damage. It might even be that a burning desire for revenge now possesses you. Or is it a deepening sense of shame for something you’ve done? Whoever you are, you have come this morning with some infirmity – probably more than one. It’s nothing but trash you carry around with you. It’s important to identify and acknowledge it.
Maybe your trash bag includes some SORROWS? Many of us carry around regrets over someone we’ve hurt, mistakes we’ve made, damage we’ve done, or opportunities we’ve missed. Or it could be those hastily spoken words that caused pain for others. Maybe you’re sorrowful over broken relationships – some of your own or perhaps of a loved one. It might be you’re disappointed in yourself for what you’ve become, or failed to become – or for how you’ve behaved, or failed to behave. Some of you are in the throes of loneliness and long for companionship or friendship – just some constant, supportive, loving presence in your life. Or you‘ve lost your job and that loss overwhelms you. You may be sorrowing over the loss of a loved one, someone so precious to you. You miss them more than ever. Your grief, the pain of loss and pangs of emptiness, never go away, or even lessen; you’ve begun to suspect that maybe time doesn’t always heal. Whoever you are, you have come this morning with some sorrow. It’s nothing but trash you carry around with you. It’s important to identify and acknowledge it.
Isaiah (5a) also some of our trash is transgressions and iniquities. TRANSGRESSIONS are actions we have taken that broke God’s law. One of the ancient prayers of the Church seeks forgiveness for not doing what we ought to do and doing what we ought not to do. It’s reminiscent of Paul, who wrote (Rom. 7:14-20 MSG): “I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself--after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.” It’s nothing but trash – and it’s important to identify and acknowledge it.
And then there are our INIQUITIES. An iniquity is a failure to do our duty. Have you loved God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength? Have you loved your neighbor as yourself? Isaiah said an emphatic, “NO!” (6): “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; …” Being a non-sheep culture, it’s hard to feel the brunt of Isaiah’s words. He calls us sheep. I remind you that this is not a compliment. Sheep are basically stupid, dumb, and very stubborn. They smell and are susceptible to illness, disease, and parasites. They are timid and helpless, and have a mob mentality – they go and do as the flock goes and does. And sheep are prone to wander and get lost. Isaiah claims we are like them! The problem is that we refuse to admit it. We refuse to believe the report that we need a shepherd, that we need a Savior. Like the ostrich burying its head in the sand, we hide our faces from God assuming that then He can’t see us, and that, if we don’t see Him, we won’t feel so guilty. But our iniquities are nothing but trash – and it’s time to identify and acknowledge it.
The question this morning is not – like the TV ad – “What’s in your wallet?” It’s “What’s in your trash bag? What are you carrying around everywhere you go? What do you plan to do with it all?” Wouldn’t you like to be free of the burden and the weight? After all, it’s nothing but trash.
Wouldn’t it be horrible to have to keep all the trash and garbage bags, and haul them around for ourselves? Well I have good news for you! THERE IS A TRASH COLLECTION DAY! And there is someone to haul away our trash! Isaiah 53 is truly a divine miracle. It was written in the past tense so the Israelites would look back, but also so we would look back! They would look back 700 years to trace the meaning of the sacrifices and of the Lamb of God. We now look back to the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. JESUS IS OUR TRASH MAN. Listen again to Isaiah (NLT): “He was despised, and we did not care. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death… He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.” People did not understand Jesus’ true identity. At best, He was a nice man – deluded perhaps – but a man to whom life and people were cruel.
“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all… But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins--that he was suffering their punishment?” Jesus died for our sin, paid the price for us, and suffered what we would have suffered if we would go to hell forever. He carried all our infirmities, sorrows, transgressions, and iniquities. GOD HEAPED OUR TRASH ON HIM. Imagine the weight – all of mine, all of yours, the whole worlds’! As Paul later wrote, it’s not just that He carried it all – He actually became it. (2 Cor. 5:21 TLB) “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!” Our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, and our iniquities were the nails, thorns, and spears.
Saul and Pilar Cruz, a married couple who founded Armonia Ministries in Mexico City, launched their ministry by planting a church on the edge of a vast garbage dump. Starting the church had its challenges. In particular, the people had a difficult time trusting Saul's leadership. Although Saul was a gifted strategist and thinker, he often appeared aloof. By his own admission, at this point Saul was unwilling to plunge into the pain and poverty of his people. But all of that changed one Sunday morning when someone burst into their worship service with a frantic need: the local sewage system had started leaking and then flooding the street. As the sewage continued to gush, the street was on the verge of collapse. The crisis also threatened to sweep away dozens of nearby homes. To make matters worse, the city wouldn't respond for at least three days. Saul and a local engineer organized the onlookers and church members to stop traffic and make sandbags. By three o'clock the next morning, after working frantically for nearly fifteen hours, they had finally stopped the flow of sewage. It was cold and drizzling, and Saul was shivering. Exhausted, covered with mud and sewage, Saul and his church members emerged from the pit and walked back to the church. Some of the women had heated water so the volunteers could wash off the filth. As they gathered together, Saul started to cry. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I need to pray. I need to thank God, because he just saved us. He saved you. He saved me. Can we pray?" Then Saul put out his hands as they all held hands and knelt to pray. By the time they had finished praying, Saul had earned their trust, becoming their leader and their friend. Later on, Saul would comment, "People need to see you're for real—that you really care for them, that you're even ready to put your life on the edge for them." (i) Our God isn't aloof. Jesus put his life on the edge for us, descending into and taking on Himself the mud and sewage of our live and our world.
So TODAY IS TRASH COLLECTION DAY; because on a Sunday years ago, Jesus went through Jerusalem like a royal pied piper – and scores of adults and children followed. While they were laying down palm branches, Jesus was gathering up trash. He carried it all the way to an upper room, where He gathered more trash from his beloved disciples. He carried it to a judgment hall, where He took on more trash. He carried it to a whipping post, where He picked up more trash. He carried it to a hill called Calvary, where He gathered up all the trash that was left. Then He carried it all to a tomb and was laid to rest with the trash. In dying, JESUS DUMPED OUR TRASH IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL. A woman who was dying of cancer said, “I wish I could gather up into my own pain all that the world must suffer from cancer, and pay the whole sum as I go!” Jesus gathered up into Himself all our trash, carried it away, and paid the whole sum when He died!
Inexplicable. Unbelievable. But Jesus was laid to rest with our trash. So TODAY IS PARTY TIME! God let Jesus carry our trash – be our trash – “…that we might have peace.” That’s God’s purpose. “But it was the LORD's good plan to crush him and fill him with grief.”
“He who made His grave with the wicked could forgive the wicked. The one whose body was bruised and beaten could bring healing to all mankind. In bearing the grief of separation from God that day, he could bring comfort to those who sorrow. This One who carried the guilt of the whole world could bring forgiveness and reconciliation to all who would receive it. His captors shouted at him in derision, ‘He saved others, himself he cannot save!’ Himself He would not save. If He had, all the rest of us would have perished. Yes, He was willing to be made captive, willing to be condemned, willing to be crucified in order that you and I could be set free, pardoned, and given eternal life.” (ii) So when I die the Heavenly Father will say, “Curry, come on in! The price has been paid for your admission. Your trash is gone. Welcome home!” And He’ll say it for you!
We can party because JESUS HAS HIS REWARD! “Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD's plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death.” As the victor, the spoils of the battle belong to Jesus! WE ARE HIS REWARD! Jesus longs to gather His family around His throne of grace. Together with Him we will look out over the world and see His cross still towering over the wrecks of time! When we arrive home, Jesus rejoices. That’s what it’s all about to Him!
Even as the heroes of old hung their trophies in the temples of their gods, so JESUS WILL PLACE US IN THE THRONE ROOM OF HEAVEN as monuments of His grace and power! You, me, each of us – monuments of His grace! That deserves a party! Perhaps the Heidelberg Catechism puts it all in perspective when it asks, “How are you right with God?” (60). Here’s the answer: “Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.”
Tired of carrying and hauling around your trash? Are you burdened this morning by the weight of garbage - the heaviness of your infirmities, sorrows, transgressions, and iniquities? I invite, I urge you, I implore you: turn to Jesus. For “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
(i) Leadership Journal, "Dumping Ground: An Interview with Saul Cruz" (October, 2007), from www.preacingtoday,com
(ii) W. Phillip Keller, A Layman Looks at the Lamb of God, Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, © 1982 W. Phillip Keller, p. 82
