Isaiah 53:1-6
Listen here.
Crucifixes make us uncomfortable—and well they should. We squirm before them, and it has nothing to do with any anti-Catholic bias. It is simply painful to gaze upon our Lord’s extreme suffering. And we know the reason for His suffering. We shudder before it. We sing:
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain. (LSB 450:3)
In the darkness of that Good Friday, the totality of human sin—from the first sin of our first parents to the last sin of the last human being alive—all of it was gathered up, pressed together, and then off-loaded onto this one Man. He bore the whole weight of it. He owned it all as His very own. Thus He also bore its penalty—both temporal death and eternal death.
Look upon the cross of Christ. See His wounds, the nails pinning His hands and feet to the beams. See the blood running down His face from the thorns. Behold the quivering mass of His mutilated back as He is forced to rub it against the tree, pulling up on the nails through His wrists and pushing up against the nails through His feet to gasp for just a small breath of air. Look, seek, realize: this wounded Man, dying in utter agony, is not suffering for a single wrong that He has done. As we have seen, His whole life was only love. He was the only human being who ever completely loved the Father with His all and His neighbor as Himself. Yet it is because Jesus is love that He now takes His place upon the tree. Love will not leave the sinner in his sin. Love takes that sin upon Himself. Love is wounded to grant us healing. He is offering atonement for all the wrongs that we have done.
Yes, it is hard to look a crucifix in the face. It’s hard because it is so hard to accept the truth we sing:
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve Thy place. (LSB 450:3)
Still, it is most salutary to look—most salutary to fall on our knees before His bleeding image and ponder it. It is good even to beg Him to imprint this image on our hearts and minds, so that we may carry it with us wherever we go, so that it will also be before our eyes in the moment of our death.
You see, when the moment of your death comes to you, Satan will press hard. In that moment most of all, he will seize his last chance to snatch you away from God forever, and he has a powerful weapon to use. The cunning serpent minimizes sin when he tries to lure you into it with temptations, but then he maximizes your sins in your memory in the hours of despair. When death is coming for you, he will happily set up the DVD player in your mind and replay for you the many sins you have forgotten all about. He will taunt you, then, that you are no Christian. He will declare you unfit for the kingdom of God. He will tell you that you are his and that you actually wanted to be his with every sin you committed along the way. And all the while all those sins will be playing in vivid, high-definition detail and color before your eyes as you are struggling in death.
That is why it is vital to train yourself throughout your life to look upon the crucifix, to behold your Savior’s wounds, and to hold them close to your heart, counting them as your most precious treasure. In the hour of your death, they will be your only weapon against the despair of the enemy. When the accuser brings all those sins before your eyes, you will be able to look at all of them, and you will be able to acknowledge their ugly, hideous nature as an irrefutable testimony to your countless failures. But over against all those sins you will set another image—the image Isaiah puts before us today; the image of the Crucified One. It is this image that will shatter the devil’s attempts to draw you into despair before your death. And so we sing:
Remind me of Thy passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB 450:7)
The image you want before your eyes as they are closing in death is the image of the Son of God in His last agonies, the image of the Son of God fully owning and answering for your every sin, the image of the Son of God pouring out His blood to blot out the accusations of the Law that Satan hurls against you. You see, as awful as your sins are, each one has been accounted for, each one has been covered over in innocent blood, the blood of your Lamb, your Jesus. “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). In that hour, you will be able to say with boldness: “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not” (AE 48:12).
In this way you will most certainly be prepared for death—when the image of the Crucified One hangs before your eyes and you know that His life is now your righteousness; His death is your forgiveness; His wounds are your healing; His sufferings are your crown and glory. Dear people of God, you have been loved by God. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, has certainly proved to be your dearest Friend. He makes you His forever. Gaze upon Him on His cross boldly, confidently, continually, and you will see.
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world. Amen.
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