March 24, 2024
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 11:1-11; Mark 14:1-15:47
Given and Shed for You
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death
- even death on a cross.”
The events of this final week in Jesus’ life are jarring, to say the least. When we hear it all together within the span of the first few minutes of our morning’s worship, we sense the incredible shift from the palms of Sunday to the passion of Friday.
The praise and fervor of Palm Sunday collapsed like a deflated balloon. When Jesus sat down upon that colt on Sunday, he knew exactly what his future held for him. He knew the destiny of his life’s end. But he had submitted himself to ultimate obedience.
Jesus’ determination was the one constant: He was fully committed to his purpose. His prized goal was to be the Balm of Gilead, to bring healing to a sin-sick world. Jesus’ greatest desire was to reunite a broken humanity with the everlasting light and love of our divine creator.
And he would accomplish this by pouring out every last bit of himself. He would give everything he had.
But this was not without experiencing agony. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he felt the full weight of what was looming before him. In his prayers he begged that, if it could be avoided, to let it pass. But even so, he submitted. “Not my will, but yours,” he prayed. His answer came very quickly with his arrest.
His agony continued through his trials and it peaked in his crucifixion. There was the physical agony of the cross, but even worse, he experienced the feeling of abandonment from on high. He felt utterly alone, as if God had turned God’s back on him.
It was a complete and thorough emptying. Jesus poured out all of himself in the act of his passion. He gave all of his love, he shed all of his reconciling grace, all of his life – for our sake. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
From there he continued downwards still. He descended even to the depths of Hell. It completed the full stretch of his descent:
• Into our human form and human reality
• Into our mental anguish
• Into our physical suffering and death, and
• Into a complete abandonment from God
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the heaven-sent means of grace, the balm for our deepest suffering. Through his own agony he entered into our agony. And in so doing, he touched us with the complete healing only he could bring. His complete self, given and shed for our sake. Grace upon grace, the unending divine love only he could bestow.
