Lenten Series: Suffering Servant Series

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008

When you think of a hero, what comes to mind? What characteristics do you see? What kind of personality do you envision when you think of someone who is a hero, someone who comes in to save the day? I suppose we’re influenced by the books we read and maybe more than what we want to admit, by the movies we watch. Certainly, this last year, Hollywood has spit out some heros for us. They’ve resurrected three from past movie fame. Maybe you recall. There was first “Casino Royale.” We brought back 007 James Bond, charming, dashingly handsome, keen-witted. Oh, he can fight his way out of a trouble but he’d rather use his keen intellect to save the day.

Of course, it was followed up after that by “Live Free or Die Hard.” Yep, Bruce Willis came back and he was Detective John McClane. Keen-witted? No I wouldn’t describe his character that way. He’s more the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. And what he has going for him is he just doesn’t quit. He’s like the Energizer Bunny. He can get beat up 20 times in the movie and just about the time you think he can’t get up, he musters some strength and he rises from the ashen and, in a flurry of action, he saves the day.

And to bring the trilogy to completeness, of course, in January “Rambo.” That’s right. Rambo 35, I think. Not positive. Sylvester Stallone is back. That’s right. Sly is back on the scene, pumped up with steroids and ripped and ready to go. Now he’s the quiet kind of hero. He just sort of goes through and doesn’t say a whole lot, internalizes everything until finally he sees one too many injustices and then out pops the bow and arrow and 50-caliber and, all of a sudden, in a blaze of glory, he saves the day. That’s heros, people who come in and save the day.

Contrast that to the man who is described in Isaiah 53. Isaiah really was painting the picture of a hero, someone who is going to come in and save the day. The people needed hope. They needed encouragement. The land of Judah was going downhill. The king was being unfaithful to God. The people were coming underneath the judgment of God. They needed some hope. They needed a ray of light at the end of the tunnel so he paints the picture of a real life hero to come in the future. Amazingly, some 700 years before He’s born, he tells us in great detail about Jesus.

But as you look at prophets’ descriptions and as you look at Jesus’ life, He doesn’t quite fit the mold of a hero, does He? First of all, He doesn’t look like a hero. The prophet says about Him, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” In other words, He just sort of blends in. You really wouldn’t notice Him anywhere. You mean, no dashing good looks? No ripped muscles about this guy? Just kind of your average joe that you’d pass by? Even for the people in Isaiah’s time, that had to be a little bit hard to stomach, as they look back at their past heros, those great leaders of years gone by. Saul, the first king of Israel, he was described as an uncommon man who stood an entire head length above every other Israelite. Or David, the great king David, when Goliath saw him, he described him as being ruddy and handsome. Yeah, that’s a hero. That’s a leader. That’s someone who we can put our trust into.

But contrast that. Do you remember when Jesus returned back to his hometown and nobody really noticed? He’s teaching in the synagogue and after He’s been teaching for quite awhile, finally some guy in the back says, “You know, isn’t that Joe and Mary’s boy? I’m sure of it. The carpenter, I’m pretty sure that’s his kid come back home.” He was just nondescript. This is the man we put our trust in? This is the guy who’s going to be the hero? He’s going to save the day? He just doesn’t look the part.

He doesn’t act the part either. Heros spring into action. They’re always doing something. Again, we go back to the prophet. The prophet describes Him. He was oppressed and afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as the sheep before the shears is silent, so He didn’t open His mouth. Silent? No, no, no, no. That’s not what heros are. Heros are quick-witted. They always have an answer. They always have an ingenious plan about how they’re going to turn things around. What do you mean silence? In fact, this is so confusing that if you recall back to the book of Acts, Philip is traveling along and he comes upon an Ethiopian who is reading this very passage of scripture. And Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” And the Ethiopian says, “How can I? It doesn’t make sense. What do you mean that He’s silent? This is the Messiah you’re looking for? This is the Savior and yet, as He’s being beaten and afflicted, He’s silent? You’re going to have to explain that one to me because it doesn’t fit into the mold of what a hero or a Messiah would be.”

Even remember Jesus’ life. When He’s put on trial, Matthew tells us as they’re interrogating Him, it says, “When He was accused by the chief priests and the elders, He gave no answer. Then Pilate asked Him, ‘Don’t you hear the testimony they’re bringing against you?’ But Jesus made no reply, not to a single charge, to the great amazement of the Governor.” Amazement of the Governor? Amazement to us. They’re making all these false accusations against Jesus, bringing up all these trumped up charges and He says nothing? This is supposed to instill confidence in me? This is supposed to say that this is the long-awaited Messiah? This is the hero? This is the guy who’s going to come in and save the day? It just doesn’t seem to fit.

But the prophet even tells us more about Him. He says, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked.” Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. A grave with the wicked? Heros don’t die, right? They get beaten down but they come back. They always beat the odds. They always muster up energy at the end to make a flurry of activity. What do you mean that He was assigned a place with the wicked in the grave? That doesn’t compute with what we think of as someone who we admire, someone who we look to as the hero. And yet we know from all of the gospels, they nailed Jesus to a cross and it says that He gave out a loud sigh and gave up His spirit and died. Heros don’t die but He died.

Is it any wonder that the prophet begins this section of his book by saying, “Who has believed the message?” Maybe it would be more accurate to say, “Who would believe the message?” Who would believe that this is the promised one who God is sending? St. Paul put it a different way when he wrote to the Church at Corinth. He says, “For we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentile.” It doesn’t make sense. You preach about a crucified and a dead Savior. That isn’t the kind of hero the world is looking for. That isn’t the kind of figure that we look up to and we take encouragement and strength from. And yet, that’s exactly what Jesus was. You see Jesus redefines what it is to be a hero. He redefines what it is to save the day.

Let’s look a little bit deeper into how the prophet describes Him. “Surely, He took up our infirmities. He carried our sorrows yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds, we are healed.” Did you watch the pronouns that were used there? It says, “He took up our infirmities. He was pierced for our transgressions and for our inequities.” He’s not the hero who comes in and saves the day for Himself and for everyone else. This is a selfless act of God coming into our world. It’s not His problem. It’s not His infirmities. It’s not His inequities. It’s not His transgressions. It’s not His problems. But it’s ours. And He comes into our world to take on our problems.

It’s a deep problem that we have, my friends. When scripture says that it’s our transgressions, transgressions really means rebellion against God. It means we know what God wants and expects of us and, in full knowledge of that, we do something different anyway. In other words, we know that what we’re about to do is wrong but we do it anyway. We rebel against God. We know God doesn’t want us to lie but we don’t care. We lie anyway because we want to land that deal. We know we’re not supposed to gossip but we gossip anyway because it’s really going to hurt that person over there or hurt me. We know we’re not supposed to steal and cheat but we want to do well on that exam and, besides that, we’d like a little extra cash back from the IRS. We know we shouldn’t be looking at that web page but we keep going further and further down the rabbit hole. We know it’s wrong but we do it anyway. That’s transgressions.

Our inequities. God lays down a path for us and we decide not to follow it. We decide that we know better than God, that in our arrogance, we can get along without God and we can make our own decisions and we can make our own choices and, in the end, all we do is end up being lost and confused and then utter despair. It’s our problem. It’s our transgressions. It’s our inequities. But the prophet says that He takes them on. He takes on what belongs to us in a selfless act. St. Paul put it more clearly when he wrote to the Church at Corinth. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.” Listen again. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin.” The sinless Son of God came and lived among us and He could stand perfectly holy and righteous in front of His Father but instead He became sin. He became our sin.

The prophet goes on to tell us that even beyond that, “For He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, He was stricken.” God says for the transgressions, for the inequities, for the transgressions of my people, He was stricken. You see, my friends, you cannot continue to rebel against God without coming underneath the wrath and the judgment of God. God’s wrath and judgment is real. And His judgment against sin is final. There’s no room for error here. God says that He hates sin, He despises sin, He will not be in the presence of sin and that those who are sinful will be eternally condemned, that there will be an eternal death, an eternal separation from God. That’s the judgment of God. It is clear. But the prophet says, “Jesus comes in and He takes the judgment in our place.” So our death, He dies. Our punishment, He pays the price. It’s Jesus who is separated from the Father. It’s Jesus who literally goes through hell so we don’t have to. What the prophet is describing and what Jesus did was come into our world and take our place, all the way to the cross and all the way to His death. Yeah, I’d call that a hero. I’d say that He saved the day. In fact, He saved the world.

He may not have the dashing good looks of a 007 but yet we proudly sing that He is Beautiful Savior. No, He didn’t muster up some strength the last moment as He hung upon the cross and ripped his arms and legs free and jump down in triumph. Instead, He did something which was even more difficult than that, more courageous than that, that took more strength than that, He stayed upon that cross and He breathed His last breath for us. Yep, I’d call Him a hero. But I’d rather call Him my Savior. I hope you do as well. Amen.

Copyright 2008 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church