I preached this in my church on May.06.12

I want share with you something that I’ve been learning, and trying to wrap my head around, trying to ‘apply’ to different situations in my life.  There is something that I’ve believed all my life, that I will never be able to think about in the same way again.  There is something that, though it was wonderful to start with, is now, even more wonderful!  There are phrases that I’ve used, in my Christian ‘lingo’... that I’m struggling to use now, because they fail to represent the whole of what I now believe.  There are deep and profound traditions that hold so much more meaning to me now, than they have in the past.

I’ve been feeling like God wants me to share this for some time now, but, the Good Friday service really kind of clinched it for me.  It was such a good service.  We had this, sort of, drama... monologue thing, where all sorts of different characters from the Bible, who’d had personal interaction with Jesus, told their stories.  They all started with the same phrase.  Words they had heard Jesus say just before he died on the cross.  “It is finished.”  None of them knew what it meant... why he said it.  In the end, they just kind of left the question hanging...  What was finished? 

I`m going to try to explain what I`ve learned, am learning.  I`ll start by reading a few parts of the “Easter Story”  Three separate ‘events’ that occurred in the biography of Jesus Christ.  I want you to imagine three different locations as we read.

Mark 14:32-42 – Gethsemane

 

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them."Stay here and keep watch." 35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 "Abba", Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." 37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." 39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. 41 Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Matthew 27:22 – 31 – the Courthouse

 22 "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked. They all answered, "Crucify him!" 23 "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" 24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"25 All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!" 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.27 Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

John 19:1-16

John 19:28-30 – the Cross
28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

I`ve had the amazing privilege of being born into a loving Christian family.  I have known about Jesus as long as I`ve been alive.  I accepted Jesus into my ‘heart’ when I was just five years old.  I knew nothing of sin, or death, or the cross, or the blood.  I knew only that Jesus loved me, and wanted to live ‘inside’ me in some mysterious way that made me feel safe, and loved, and precious.  Since then, there have been milestones, insights, revelations, things that I learned that opened my heart more and more to his love and his grace.

 I had the privilege of being raised in a home that taught and modeled grace.  I never ‘struggled’ to ‘live under the law’ as so many have, because I lived under grace my whole life.  That said, I remember very clearly the day that I realized that I was a ‘sinner’!  And that Jesus died a horrible death for my sin.  Since that day I have lived in gratitude that Jesus took my sin, on the cross, and that his blood, his life, was an acceptable sacrifice making me holy and blameless in the sight of God.... A crazy exchange, a profound mystery!

I have had the privilege of always being in churches that valued and taught about the ‘cross of Christ’, the death of Christ, the blood of Christ, the acceptable sacrifice.  In this atmosphere, when I think back on it,  pretty much all of the teaching I’ve had has been centralized on the ‘cross’.  Everything of value occurred ‘on’ the cross.  I grew up believing that ‘one’ event, solved ‘one’ problem... if you know what I mean.  Death ‘on the cross’ paid for my sin.

 

Here’s the thing I’ve been learning....:   Here`s my question, looking back on what I’ve been taught:  If everything of value occurred on the cross,...did anything of value occur... in Gethsemane?  Whatif... They had arrested Jesus in the dining room at the last supper, and taken him straight to the courthouse?  What would change?  Ummm... yes... God the Son surrendered his will to God the Father and paved the way for the death on the cross, which saved me from my sin.  Ummm.... anything else?  

Did anything of value occur, say... in the holding cells of the courthouse?? 

The thing I’ve come to see, to believe, the thing that’s changed for me....   Is that I believe each of these ‘locations’ have a profound value, that, were we to truly understand them, would radically transform our lives!  Each of these ‘locations’  are loaded to the brim with ‘Good News’!!  I’ll try to explain:

These verses really grabbed my attention a while back:

 Psalm 103:1-5

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-- 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

All his benefits.... Wait... All?? Plural?? More than one?  Forgives ALL... Heals ALL... redeems... crowns... satisfies... renews....  ALL one sentence... no breaks... no changing of subjects,  no context issues... All one sentence... All his benefits.  I’ve come to believe that sin is not our ONLY problem.  We have more than ‘one’ problem.  And that Jesus, has ‘done’ something.. to fix them all.  I see here that sin... is a problem. Disease... sickness....unwellness... are also a problem.  Depression, anxiety, fear, sorrow, emotional pain... is a problem.  And there is an answer to it.  There is Good News for all these things.  There was a heavy, heavy cost, paid in full by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 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. 

He...took up our infirmities... carried our sorrows... was pierced for our transgressions... crushed for our iniquities... by his wounds we are healed. 

More than ‘one problem’, more than one solution... All his benefits... Most of the teaching I’ve received, (and I suspect that you’re in this with me) has only just scratched the surface of what Jesus meant when he said ‘It is finished.’  Whatif... it’s even better than we thought?  Whatif... there’s even more to this wonderful salvation than we’ve heard about?  I’m hoping that, after this, whenever we come to communion together, whenever we think about Easter, whenever we hear the phrase ‘at the cross’... we’ll think differently about it.

Here’s what I believe.  I believe that when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, something of profound value was accomplished for me. Jesus surrendered his will to the father, which has enormous benefit to me, but, I believe there’s more.  I believe that ‘surely he has borne my sorrows.’  Jesus declares that he was ‘overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’  To the point of death. He sweat drops of blood.  Did you know there was blood shed there?  Angels had to come minister to him when it was done.  Enter into the story here.  Imagine, the ‘sorrow’ of all the earth, from the beginning to the end, laid onto one man at one time.  All the mothers tears...from all eternity.  All the heart wounds.  All the betrayals.  All the ‘nobody sees me’s.’  All the harsh words spoken to us.  All the name calling and labeling we grew up with. All the wrongs done TO us.  How often do we feel that we cannot bear our own sorrows because they are too heart wrenching, too devastating, too overwhelming.  Take some time in the next little while to imagine Jesus bearing our sorrows.  Bearing the sorrows of the world.  To the point of death.  Really think about this...

When we talk about having our sins forgiven, we talk about being free of guilt and shame, and what a huge relief it is to release that guilt and shame to him.  We talk of the weight that is lifted.  We rejoice in it.  We encourage others, when they say they feel so guilty, to lay it at the cross, to be free!  We know we can do this, because we know that he paid for our sins on the cross.

Now imagine.... if we could lay our sorrows in the Garden, in the drops of blood there, at the feet of Jesus.  Imagine if we didn’t have to carry our sorrows anymore... If the things that overwhelm us could no longer be part of our identity.  If the wrongs done TO us... could be left behind...  Think about that for a while.  Would it be wonderful?   Would you have to give your head a shake a few times to remember the truth?  Would you have to try to figure out a ‘new’ identity for yourself?  We hang onto our hurts pretty hard sometimes.  Would it be hard to let them go?  If he has already borne them on our behalf... do we really have the right to ‘bear’ them ourselves?  Big questions... Big significance... Big transformation if we can grab this and run with it...  Big freedom!  What does this even look like??

I believe that sorrow is a problem.  I believe that Jesus solved it, took it, carried it, in the Garden.

Here’s a little aside:  Do you know what Jesus actually died of?  I mentioned..., and the Bible mentions ‘to the point of death’ for a reason.  What did he actually die of?  Did the Jews... the Romans kill him on the cross? 

John 10:17-18  Jesus says,  “I lay down my life – only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”

He ‘lay down’ his life.  He ‘gave up his spirit’ and breathed his last.  This is significant... because on the cross... he was ‘at the point of death’... but so was he ‘at the point of death’ in the Garden.  He gave up his spirit on the cross because then it was ‘finished’.  Everything he intended to do, was done.  He did not give up his spirit in Gethsemane, even though he was at ‘the point of death’ because there was still more to do...  Interesting??  I missed the significance of this most of my life.

                                                                                                                          

Next thing:   Next ‘location’:  Next ‘event’...:  What about the holding cell?  What about having him flogged?  Such a short little throw away line for such a horribly violent event.  You’ve heard the stories of blood and gore.  You’ve heard that many, many didn’t survive a flogging.  Besides that he was beaten, bruised, punched, slapped, spat on... you can imagine what all else.  We’ve seen the movies...

What of value, occurred there??  Have you thought about this?  If my sins were paid for on the cross... and they were... Then what was the point of being flogged?  Being beaten?  Was it simply a demonstration of Roman brutality?  Was that God’s point?  To show what a nasty bunch the Romans were?  What value is there in that for me? 

In my past, this little segment of brutality has been used, ironically,  as a whip, a club, an attempt to make me feel guilty.  Jesus went through all of this for you and you can’t even do a), b), and c) for him??  What a worthless piece of... whatever... you are... You ungrateful little... blah, blah, blah... Do you think that was the intent?  Is guilt... the fruit that God intended when he orchestrated this little segment of the story?  I hope not!?  Is this part of the story important?  Significant? 

So...?  WHY DID IT HAPPEN?  Think about it a different way.  What would change if it hadn’t happened?  Would your life be any different if this had never happened?  Would your sins still be forgiven?  Umm... Yes they would!  So....??  What do we make of this?  What does the Bible say?   “By his stripes we are healed.”  I’ll say it again... Because by his stripes we are healed.  We have so much uncertainty in our lives about healing.  We’ve had so little teaching about healing.  While we know for sure, based on scripture, that God can and has the power to heal, we are very uncertain about whether he will. 

Whatif... this very same uncertainty was applied to forgiveness of sin?   We know he can forgive, he’s done it before... We’re not sure if he will... if he wants to...   We’ve lived there, haven’t we?  Unsure? “He wants to forgive Me?  Really?  Does he know what I’ve done??  He’ll forgive good people, that try hard... but, not me...?”  How would we answer them now?  We would say, “Of course he will forgive you!  He DIED ON THE CROSS for your sin!  HE ALREADY PAID FOR IT!”  We would point to ‘the cross’!  We would say ‘the Bible says...”  and attempt to lay these questions to rest!  And we would be right!  This is the Good News!  That Jesus Christ layed down his life for us!

Whatif... we could apply this same confidence to ‘By his stripes we are healed’?  Whatif... we could point to an event that says HE WAS FLOGGED FOR YOUR HEALING??  HE ALREADY PAID FOR IT!  We know where it happened, we know when it happened, we know why it happened. We could point to the whipping post...  We could say “The Bible says....!!”  Whatif... it’s really true that “He forgave ALL our sins, healed ALL our diseases, redeemed our lives from the pit, and crowned us with love and compassion so that our youth is renewed like the eagles??”

Here’s what I believe.  I believe that this was a significant event that holds enormous value to each and every one of us.  I believe that ‘by his stripes we are healed’.  I believe that we need to take the phrase ‘if it be thy will’ out of our vocabulary in regard to physical healing.  Isaiah says “it was God’s WILL to crush him.”  I believe we can stand with the same assurance on the ‘event’ of his stripes, as we can on the event of his cross, as on the event of his sorrow. 

Here’s what I don’t know:  I don’t know how to ‘flesh it out’... I don’t know how to walk in it.  But I know that I know that I know that I can’t argue against it.  It happened.  It’s done.  Do we have questions, doubts??  Of course!  We’ve had questions at every step of this journey we’ve been on... have we not?  We’ve doubted the truth of God’s word at every turn if we’re being honest.  We wonder if he loves us, even though the Bible clearly says that he does.  We wrestle with it.  We believe it, don’t believe it, believe it, don’t believe it...  We wonder if he sees us... We wonder if he’s really forgiven us... We wonder if we’ve strayed too far.....  We wonder if he even exists sometimes...  But “faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the word of God.” (Rom.10:17) So let’s take our questions to the Word of God.  Let’s learn about it.  Let’s ‘Ask’, ‘Seek,’ & ‘Knock.’ “For everyone who asks, receives, and anyone who seeks, finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”(Matt.7:8)   And if we ‘lack wisdom, let us ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.’  (James 1:5)

What would change in our lives if we BELIEVED that our healing has  ALREADY BEEN PURCHASED FOR US by an event in history, by the brutality of a cat’o’nine-tails, by the WILL of God.  How many people in our lives would benefit if they knew this to be true?  We talk about the nails... Can we talk about the whip?

I believe that sickness and disease is a problem.  I believe that Jesus solved it, paid for it, at the court house.  Please give it some thought.  Pray it through. 

Moving on...   I’m sure that after being flogged, and beaten, and whatever all else... he must have been ‘to the point of death’ there as well.  Although it doesn’t say so in the Bible, he must have been.  But he didn’t ‘give up his spirit’ there either... because there was still one more thing to do.  He had to be nailed to the cross for our sin.  He had to be lifted up.  He had to pour out his life.  He had to be pierced for our transgressions.  He had to fulfill scripture.  There had to be a sacrifice, because, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb.9:22)  Then, when everything was accomplished, he said “It is finished” and he gave up his spirit.  What was finished?? 

He had borne our sorrows, in the Garden... he had healed our bodies with his stripes, in the holding cell at the courthouse... he had taken our sin and our shame on the cross.  He had done it all.  He had forgiven ALL our sins, healed ALL our diseases, redeemed our lives from the pit, and crowned us with love and compassion....  ALL HIS BENEFITS... FORGET NOT!!  Bless the Lord O My Soul.

So,  now, whenever I come to communion... whenever I think about ‘the cross’... I think about these three locations... these three ‘events’... these three benefits.  I can’t think about it as a single event anymore.  Even the very act of communion... involves more than one element... the bread AND the wine, the BODY broken & the BLOOD shed.  More than one thing....

1Corinthians 11:23-30

 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 

1Peter 2:24

 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness: by his wounds you have been healed.”