The Betrayal: A Place of Eternal Love

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the days before cars and airplanes, people moved around this country by train. We had railroad tracks that crisscrossed the country, and those same tracks were used both by eastbound and by westbound. So, along those tracks, there were several switching stations. What would happen at a switching station is that if a train was coming by the eastbound and there was one heading westbound, instead of having the two of them crash into each other, someone would have to go out there and manually switch the tracks so the one train would take another line and continue on his destination.

There was one such switching station that was next to a rather high bridge and, at a certain time each day, the tracks had to be switched so that the eastbound train would go off on another line and the westbound train could then continue on. There was a small house next to the switching station where a man lived with his family. And every day, the man maintained the track in his area but also, and most importantly, he knew that at the designated hour he had to go out to the switching part and he had to take the giant lever and switch it over and wait until it clicked into place. He did that every day faithfully.

Everything worked fine until one summer day. One summer afternoon, as he went out to go ahead and engage the switching station so the eastbound train would go off on another line, as he tried to push the lever down and lock it into place, he noticed that it wouldn't lock in place. It just kept flinging back with the track going back into its first position. He tried several times, and he jiggled around with it. Finally, he heard the train coming in the distance and decided there was nothing to do at the moment besides simply hold down on the lever, wait for the train to get onto the other track, and then maybe he could look later and try to fix whatever was wrong.

So he stood there holding the lever down so the train would go on to the other line and then he looked up to see if he could see it coming, which he did off in the distance. But then he saw something else. He saw his little boy running down the middle of the train tracks, waving his arms excitedly and calling for his daddy because he wanted to come out to see him. Well, in an instant, he let go of the mechanism and started running for his son to get him off the tracks; but he got about 3 feet and he heard it Kerchunk back into place. And time stood still for him. He didn't have enough time to reach his son and get him off the track; but if he didn't come back and switch the track, hundreds of people would die when the two trains met in the middle of the bridge. The passengers along the eastbound train didn't notice the man crying as he held the lever down and switched from one track to the next. They didn't know the sacrifice he made so they could live.

It's hard to imagine being put into a position like that, having to make that choice. Do you run and save your son and hundreds of people die? Do you stand by and watch your son die while hundreds of people you don't know are saved? Hard to imagine trying to even make that decision, or it's even harder to imagine holding on to that lever and watching it all transpire in front of you. And yet that's exactly what happened during the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. For His Father in heaven stood by watching as the creation He had made beat, whipped, degraded His son, and finally nailed Him to a cross and laughed as He died.

The difference is the story I told you a few moments ago was fiction. It never happened. But the passion of Jesus is fact, and it did happen. It wasn't just the imagination of some Hollywood writer who wanted to come up with a good storyline, something that would make a blockbuster in the movie theaters. The Passion of the Christ is not just another story. The Passion of the Christ is reality. It's fact. It's what God went through and that's what God the Father watched. The Passion of Jesus Christ is the greatest demonstration of God's love, of His true love, for every human being.

If you saw the movie, The Passion of the Christ, or certainly you've read the passion in the gospels, if you really try to take in all that's happening there, it's really hard to understand, is it not? It defies explanation. Why was all this going on? Why didn't the Father intervene? Why did the Son go through all of that? It's really unexplainable. Because throughout the whole thing, it's unexpected what transpires. All normalcy is thrown out the window and what should have happened doesn't happen. Throughout the whole Passion account, what we would expect to transpire, just doesn't happen.

If you had the privilege of seeing the movie, maybe you picked up on something I did and that is somehow the actor who portrayed Jesus, Jim Caviezel, somehow he communicated through his eyes that at any moment and at any time, he could have stopped the proceedings, that with just a word he could have called down a legion of angels to stop the arrest from happening out in the Garden of Gethsemane, that with just a word to his Father, all of a sudden the soldiers wouldn't have been able to whip him any longer, that with just a motion of his hand, he could have stopped all of the activity and put the religious leaders in their place, that somehow he conveyed with his eyes that, at any moment, he could have stopped what was going on and made things right. In fact, even though I know the story so well and I know how it turns out, in watching that film I half expected it to happen. In watching a film that came out of Hollywood, I expected something different. Just when it seems like He couldn't be whipped anymore and it couldn't be any more graphic or bloody in that scene, I halfway expected, at some point in time, Jesus would rise up. Miraculously, all of His wounds would be healed. He'd move His hand in this direction, and the Roman soldiers would go flying off across the courtyard in dramatic force, banging against the wall, and falling limp and helplessly to the ground, that Jesus would stand up and the religious leaders who falsely accused Him would be cowering and running for the doorway but a larger-than-life Jesus would approach them. But the unexpected happened. Jesus doesn't rise up. He's not the hero we expect that comes out of Hollywood films. He doesn't make a motion with His hands. The angels, although they are posed for action, are powerless because Jesus doesn't call upon them. The Father looks on with tears in His eyes, but He doesn't give the command. And Jesus never says a word. He endures everything that mankind wanted to lie upon Him.

What makes it even more amazing and even more unexplainable is that Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him, and the Father in heaven knew exactly what was going to happen to His Son. Because 700 years before it took place, in great detail, God revealed to the prophet Isaiah what was going to happen to Jesus. He said, "He'll be like a lamb let out to the slaughter, but He won't say a word. He'll be stricken. He'll be beaten. He'll be afflicted for us. But He won't open His mouth. That means when the Father asked Jesus to become one of us, He knew what would happen to Him. That means when Jesus stepped to the front of the line and said, "I'll go, Father," He knew what was going to happen to Him. He knew the pain He would have to endure. He knew the humiliation. He knew the beating. He knew the crucifixion. He knew all of that. And yet He came, and He remained silent.

How can you explain that? How can we understand that? Why didn't the Father say a word and stop it? Why didn't the angels attack and protect Him? Why didn't Jesus rise up and stop all the things that were happening to Him? The only explanation we have is the explanation that God Himself gives us. The gospel writer, John, records it. "God so loved the world that He gave up His one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not be condemned but have eternal life." Why did Jesus remain silent? Why were the angels motionless? Why didn't the Father give the word? Because He loves you. There's no other explanation. Because God loves you, and God loves every human being. It's an unexplainable love. It is a love that you and I have never experienced before. It's a love that you and I never will experience outside of receiving that love from God. Because it's a love that doesn't make sense. It's a love that defies explanation. It defies definition. It is the great love that God has for you. Because when God looked down upon our lives, He saw that our lives were nothing but a train wreck waiting to happen. He knew because of the wrongs we do on a daily basis, because of our sinful behavior that we were heading for nothing but disaster and there was only one destination that was all going to be for us. God knew that for the sins we commit there had to be punishment and payment. And instead of laying that punishment upon you, he laid it upon His Son. Instead of your life being of ruin, He stood back and watched His Son die so you wouldn't have to. That's true love. That's divine love.

That's the love that God has for you. And that's the love God asked you this morning to experience. Not to just know about that love but to experience the love that God has for you, to understand that God's love for you is an unconditional love. God puts no condition upon you. God doesn't say, "Well, as soon as you do a few things, then I'll love you." God doesn't even say, "Well, I'll love but as long as you love me back." God's love is unconditional. That means God will love you no matter what. Even if you don't love God, He's going to love you. If you turn your back on God, He's still going to love you. You can curse and swear at God, denounce Him in every other way, and that will not stop God loving you. Nothing you say, nothing you do can stop God's love for you. There is no power in heaven, there is no power on earth that can stop God from loving you. His love is unconditional. It is not based upon anything you do or will do. He simply loves you. And God's love is undeserved. It isn't as if we did something that somehow we deserve some sort of mercy from God or that we somehow earned God's love, but His love is completely undeserved. It is simply given.

If you had the privilege of seeing the movie, think back with me for a moment. Which character in the movie would you consider undeserving of Jesus' love? Now take off the pious hat. I'm saying in reality, as you're watching the movie, which one of the characters in that movie would you consider so disgusting to you, so heinous in their crimes, that they were not deserving of God's love? Possibly the Roman soldiers who beat Him? They seemed to have a sadistic joy in what they were doing even though He was three quarters of the way dead, they just kept whipping Him more and more again, thrashing His body until it was just a bloody mess. I don't know about you, but I had my moment in that film where I wanted to say, "I want to see things turned around here." You know what I would have enjoyed? I'll be honest with you. What I would have enjoyed is all of a sudden cut to another scene, somewhere down the line, and here are those same soldiers lined up, shackled down, and somebody just beating the snot out of them. Let their flesh be ripped off like they did to Jesus. That's what I wanted to see.

Maybe it was the religious leaders, their self-righteousness, their false accusations to Jesus, almost gleeful as He hung upon the cross, they didn't deserve God's love. Maybe Pilate because he had no courage. He knew He wasn't guilty, but yet he condemned Him anyway. Which one? Which one didn't deserve Jesus' love? And yet Jesus loved every one of them. Nothing could stop Him from loving them. In fact, Jesus prayed for each one of them. He said, "Father, forgive them. Forgive them for beating Me within an inch of My life. Forgive them for nailing Me to a cross. Forgive them for their self righteousness and false accusations. Forgive them for their lack of courage." He says, "Father, forgive them." And He said, "Father, forgive Ron Burcham." And He said, "Father, forgive each and every one of you." Because I didn't deserve it, and you didn't deserve it. But God loves you that much. It's a divine love, a true love, a pure love that God has for you, an undeserved love He offers to you.

It's that love I invite you to experience today. Whether you've been coming to this sanctuary for years or whether this is the first time you've come into God's house, for the first time in a long time, experience God's love like never before. Don't just understand what Jesus did. Don't just be moved by a scene in a movie, but experience God's love for you. Open up your heart and really experience what He's done. Know that it's unconditional and undeserved. Know that no matter what you've done in the past, and all of us have done things that we regret, all of us have done things we are ashamed of and that we hope and pray no one would ever find out we did that, know that God still loves you, that it's unconditional and it's undeserved, that the whole reason the Father didn't speak, the whole reason Jesus didn't make a motion, is so He could forgive you, so He could remove the guilt and take away the shame.

What Jesus wants with you is not just a Sunday morning relationship. He wants a relationship that goes deeper than that, that goes into the heart of who you are. Jesus wants to be a part of your every day living, every breath you take. That's the relationship He wants. Not just part time, full time.

Open up your hearts. Experience the love He has for you. You know the movie, The Passion of the Christ, is not just a movie that will die off in popularity and be forgotten. Because it's not a movie. It's reality. It's what Jesus has done for you. It is the greatest demonstration of God's love for each and every human being. So don't just see the Passion or read the Passion. Experience the Passion and experience God's love. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church