March 10, 2004 Matthew 27:41-44
In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
Paul once told the Corinthians that no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. (2 Co 1:20) First of all, our God is a God who loves promising us things. He loves to encourage our faith and hope in life by promising us eternal life and salvation. But every promise comes at a cost. In the children’s story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the mayor of the city promised the piper 1,000 pieces of gold to deliver the city from a plague of rats. But then when the Piper had delivered his side of the bargain, the mayor didn’t want to give him a thousand pieces of gold, but only fifty. God is different. Not only does He love to promise us things, but He loves it even more when He can make good on his promises. As Paul told the Corinthians, His promises are all made complete in Christ. So when we come to Him through faith in Christ - He loves saying “yes.” Not only CAN He, but He even wants to do things for us, and He can’t wait to do even more than we ask for. This is evident when you think of the story of Ahaz and Isaiah. Isaiah promised a victory and then he said, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
(Is 7:11) He wanted to do anything Ahaz asked for to show him that He would make good on His promise.
We can understand this in earthly terms, when we look at the relationship between a child and a parent. Sometimes I get home from work and I am already drained. But when I get home, it seems my children have just drunk three liters of Pepsi and are jumping off the walls. They say, “dad, can we play catch? Let’s play monster!” It’s not that I don’t love them, it’s just that I don’t have the energy. Sometimes we just have to say no, and we don’t like it. This is true of adults working with adults also. Maybe a friend needs a favor - you want to help - but you just don’t have the time. You hate to say it, but you have to admit, “I can’t.”
God never has to say that. He never runs out of energy. He never is given too much to do. But in the text for today, that’s what the Sanhedrin were telling God. They said to Jesus, “he saved others, but he CAN’T save Himself.” What did they mean by this? How would Jesus react? Today we’ll find out that the Sanhedrin was inadvertently -
Speaking the Humble Truth
I. The first truth - he saved others.
He saved others. That’s the truth. That’s what the Sanhedrin admitted. They couldn’t deny it. They’d seen Lazarus walking and talking. Everyone knew he was dead. Jesus saved him - there was no doubt about it. They had also seen the blind given sight, demons come screeching out of people, and many other miracles. There was no denying it. So the Sanhedrin said to Jesus - “ “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
Do you see what their system of faith was based on? They said they would believe in Jesus if He displayed the kind of power that they were looking for. Their system of religion was based on power and politics. The Sanhedrin used an army to enforce their faith. They were heavily involved with Herod and Pilate in the way they ruled the Jews. So they wanted the same out of their Messiah. This is partially based on the Scriptures as well. The Old Testament Scriptures talked about the power of the coming Messiah.
I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. (Jeremiah 23:5)
Many of the Old Testament Scriptures talked about a King who would come and establish peace in the land - ruling over Israel and giving it protection. So their concept of the Messiah was limited to that of the powerful King. In keeping with this promise of power, they told Jesus that if He performed this one miracle then they would believe.
If you look at the history of the Old Testament, however, you will see that power did not work to convert the Israelites. One of the most tell tale signs of this is found in the story of Moses and Korah found in Numbers 16. Korah had led a huge rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and brought 250 leaders of the community against him. As a result of this rebellion, Moses said to the people in a huge gathering -
If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.” As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. . . . And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
You would think that EVERYONE would have followed Moses after this and not rebelled against the LORD. But do you know what happened? The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the LORD’s people,” they said. . . . the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting (Nu 16:42). Isn’t that amazing? Even after this miraculous show of POWER, the Israelites still weren’t converted, 14,700 more of them were put to death in a plague! What does this show? Power doesn’t work to convert! The fact of the matter is people see the power of God every day - when they witness a sunrise, see a rainstorm, or see a baby be born. But they don’t come to faith.
The Sanhedrin said if Jesus had saved Himself they would have believed in Him. Were they speaking the truth? Of course not. Even after Lazarus was raised from the dead - in an amazing show of power - the Sanhedrin didn’t believe in Christ. Instead John 12:10 says - the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
Let’s imagine the impossible however - let’s imagine that the Sanhedrin would have believed in Jesus had he pulled his hands off of the nails and climbed down from that cross. Even if it were true - what kind of a Messiah would He have ended up being? About a year ago one of the TV networks came out with a TV show called “Fifteen Seconds of Fame” or something like that. For five or fifteen seconds or whatever it was, each person did something that nobody else was able to do. They’d swallow knives or juggle bowling balls or bend their bodies in all kinds of shapes. It was intriguing for about fifteen seconds, and then you moved on to the next show. That’s the kind of Messiah Jesus would have ended up being - had He gotten down from that cross. He would have been nothing more than a great humanitarian or a tremendous circus attraction. The people would have said, “wow! He got down from the cross!” Then the robbers would have said, “hey, get me down too!” Jesus popularity would have soared and soared - if they needed something. He would have become famous. There would be TV shows about him. But in the long run, what kind of faith would we have in Him? Got a headache? Go to Christ! Got a broken leg? Go see Christ? Need some more food, go to Christ? Want some entertainment - go watch Christ? Your faith might have extended your life and made your life a little more comfortable. But when it came to eternity - got sin - where would you go to? What good would such a miracle worker do you - if He couldn’t heal your soul? Jesus didn’t come to be that kind of a Messiah. He didn’t want that kind of “faith” in him - because such a faith can’t save. So as the Sanhedrin saw Jesus up on the cross - they assumed that He COULDN’T save Himself.
It’s this same reasoning that leads the Jehovah’s Witnesses to conclude that Jesus just can’t be God. God’s Word clearly says that God is spirit. So if Jesus is God, how can he have flesh? That’s their reasoning. So they reject Christ because He doesn’t match the picture that God draws of Himself. How could God suffer? How could the Almighty hang on a cross? God would never allow Himself to get up there in the first place. It’s that same reasoning that leads many to deny God apart from theology. Sheer reason says, “if God is all powerful, then why doesn’t He stop sin in this world? If Jesus loves me, then why doesn’t He give me better health? Why doesn’t He cure my disease? Why did He let my child die? These are all crosses that we have to bear in life. So sometimes people say, “Jesus really CAN’T save me. He doesn’t have the power. What we basically are saying is, “Jesus, I’ll believe in you if you climb down from the cross. I’ll believe in you if you remove the cross from the equation.” We’d rather believe in a cross-less Christ - in a powerful Christ - not a humble one. It’s no different than the Sanhedrin saying, “he saved others, but he can’t save himself.”
II. The second truth - He can’t save Himself.
The truth is Jesus could have saved Himself. Scriptures very clearly say that “nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Jesus said, “I lay down my life for my sheep.” His life wasn’t being taken from Him, it was being given by Him. It wasn’t a matter of power. It was a matter of choice. Do you see the difference? A philosophy teacher asked his class at K-State, “if God is all-powerful, could He make a TV dinner too hot for Him to eat?” The class “ooh”ed and “ah”ed at the depth of the question. In reality, it was a foolish question, because of the PREMISE of it. God is all-powerful - more powerful than anything else in the heavens and the earth. But the premise of the question pits God against God.
In a similar way, the premise of the challenge that the Sanhedrin laid out against Christ pitted God against God - but in a different way. They challenged Jesus saying, “we admit that you saved others. But if you really want to prove that you are God - prove it by your power - by coming down from the cross.” What they were in fact doing was pitting God against God. To them - saving others was only a display of POWER. What they didn’t see was that His saving others was more importantly a display of His MERCY and LOVE. He healed people because He cared for them and loved them. The Sanhedrin were pitting Jesus’ POWER against His MERCY. Why? Because Jesus knew that the only way He could save the world was to DIE for the world. Isaiah 53 clearly declared, 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. (Is 53:5) The most merciless thing Christ could have done would be to get down from the cross. They were in fact asking God NOT to be God when they tried to pit His power against His mercy.
When you do that - God clearly says which will win in His description of Himself to Moses. What’s the FIRST and FOREMOST thing God described Himself as to Moses in Exodus 34:6? The LORD, the LORD, the COMPASSIONATE and GRACIOUS God, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness. When it comes to power vs. passion - the passionate love of God will win every time. As Paul told the Romans, where sin increased, grace increased all the more. (Romans 5:20)
Yet in the way I look at it - the power actually won also. Out of all the powerful things God did - creating the world, walking on water, calming the storm - to me this seemingly powerless thing was one of the most powerful things God did. In staying on the cross, God became a sinner. God became weak. God became dead. God allowed sinful humans to accuse Him and taunt Him even though He had the power to come down. That is called will-power. Jesus exercised an unbelievable amount of it, when He mercifully STAYED on that cross. God also exercised an incredible amount of justice on the cross. For on the cross God amazingly held NOTHING back from His justice. Even though His Son didn’t deserve it, God put His Son through hell - gave him the FULL punishment for the sins of the WORLD when Jesus said, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What a powerful love could follow through with the condemnation of hell on His own Son! Sin put Him there and love kept Him there. Unknowingly - the Sanhedrin was speaking the truth in a way. “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself.” That was true - but not because He didn’t have the power to. It was because of His love. He had no other choice than but to stay there.
So what kind of a God do you want? Do you want a God who does everything you demand of Him? Do you want a God who will heal whatever diseases you have, solve all the problems you create? Is that the kind of God you want? Do you want a God who will just destroy the Muslims and keep evil from getting near you at every point in your life so that you never have any problems? Do you want a God who is primarily powerful and just and lords Himself over you at every instant with a lightning bolt? Someone who has to prove Himself to every doubter with a powerful display every time He is taunted?
Or do you want a God who is compassionate, patient, kind, and forgiving? Do you want a God who is willing to come down to this earth and sacrifice Himself to make you holy? The humble truth is we have a God who saved others, but couldn’t save himself. It wasn’t because he wasn’t powerful enough. It was because he loved us too much. The only way he could save us was by NOT saving himself. It shows Jesus in His HUMILITY. It shows the compassion and mercy of the true God. Even though the Sanhedrin didn’t know it, that’s the humble truth. Is that a reason to reject him, or to believe in him? Is that a reason to despise him, or to love him? You know the answer to that question - and so do I. Amen.
