Pious Lutheran

Illustration from The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ Written by the Four Evangelists, 1853 Jesus Drinks the Cup of God’s Wrath God’s wrath is a cup that must be drunk Jesus drinks the cup and is satisfied We receive the overflowing cup of blessing From the cross Jesus uttered, “ I thirst. ” Moments later a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch was offered to our Lord and He drank, finally declaring “ It is finished, ” “ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. ” Isn’t it strange that our Lord would mention His thirst, especially when He had previously been offered wine mixed with gall and He refused it. Is our Lord simply picky about His beverage of choice, or is there more going on here than meets the eye?  Regarding these different drinks offered to Jesus, both of these drinks were readily available among Roman soldiers, but for different purposes. The wine mixed with gall or myrrh was a type of strong drink, often offered to those being crucified as a type of mercy, in...

Ecce Homo,  Caravaggio, 1605 Behold your King! His kingdom is not of this world His glory is His crucifixion He rules by bearing witness to the truth Out stepped Jesus, wearing a crown of twisted thorns and a purple robe, while soldiers spit on Him, hit Him, and mockingly paid homage to Him: “ Hail, King of the Jews! ” Pilate brought Him before the people, declaring: “ Behold your King! ” Stripping Him naked He was nailed to the cross, and above His head a sign was posted: “ Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. ” Soon the veils will be removed from the crosses here, and we too will gaze upon the cross. The words of Pilate ring out into our ears: “ Behold your King! ” Christ is King! This notion brought great anger to the crowd of Jews. “ If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes Himself a king opposes Caesar. ” They went so far as to confess: “ We have no king but Caesar. ” For them the only kingdom they wanted was an earthly kingdom. They wanted ...

Ecce Homo, Antonio Ciseri, 1871 Behold the Man Who suffered and died to forgive us Who comforts us amidst all sorrows The Lord spoke through the prophet Zechariah: “ Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch: for He shall branch out from His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord. ” In a sort of fulfillment of that prophecy, Jesus having been mocked and beaten, we heard it read: “ Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” ” Today the Christian church does exactly that: we behold Jesus in the midst of His suffering and death. It’s unpleasant to listen to the account of Jesus’ crucifixion. “ His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance…He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed Him not. ”  The crowds l...

After Adam and Eve had sinned and God laid upon them and their descendents the curse of death, “ the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. ” After they sinned they had suddenly realized their nakedness and were ashamed of who they were, they attempted to cover themselves with figleaves, but to no avail. Sin gives us many reasons to be ashamed, many reasons to hide and cover-up our wickedness. This shame as the result of sin is such a base instinct now that we cannot help but cover-up our shameful bodies. For Adam and Eve to be clothed God had to kill lambs, not just shear them, but shed their blood and take their skins. Likewise, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ was sheared and killed like a lamb, so that we would be clothed with His righteousness. Jesus was “ like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, ” when Pilate asked Him questions, “ Jesus gave him no answer. ” At Jesus’ crucifixion He was sheared, qui...

  “ Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. ” The story which began in a garden here comes to its completion in a garden. In the first garden, the first Adam was overcome by Satan into death, and in the second garden Satan has been overcome by the second Adam, Christ, by death. In a garden all were created and died, and in a garden one died so that all would be recreated. The Garden of Eden was to be like a botanical nursery. Not a nursery just for plants, but a nursery for man. In this nursery man would be nourished and watered, fed by the hand of God from the very tree of life. Once man had lived, grown, and matured in this nursery, God would transplant man to the garden of heaven. Like Enoch and Elijah, man wouldn’t have died but simply been taken from the nursery of Eden to the garden of heaven.  But an Evil entered into that garden. Satan, the deceiver and murderer of the world, that ancient dragon, disguised himself as an angel of light, like a simple...

One of the last words Christ spoke from the cross before yielding up His spirit in death was: “ Τετέλεσται ”tetelestai. In the Greek it’s just one word, in the English it could be translated as “it has been finished.” It comes from the word telos, meaning goal or end, the consummation. Jesus isn’t just saying that He’s about to die and His life is finished; He’s saying that the goal for which He came has been accomplished! It’s not just His life which is ended, but the purpose for which He came is fulfilled and completed, now and forever, in His death.  Which is Christ’s goal? What is the telos that He came to complete? The Father sent the Son so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many. He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own poss...

“ But one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. ” What a gory detail that the apostle John included in His account of the crucifixion. As we read through what happened to Jesus during the last day of His earthly life, this is one of those details that makes us a bit queezy and uncomfortable. Perhaps this language makes us so uncomfortable because it makes us think of childbirth. When a child is born, very often there’s a flow of water and blood which comes from the mother who is giving birth to this new life which she has nourished inside of her womb. But this makes us uncomfortable because childbirth is about new life, whereas the crucifixion is about the death of Jesus. Yet the two are in fact very similar because the crucifixion is also about new life. However it is true that the crucifixion is about death, namely the death of Jesus. This gory detail is provided as evidence that Jesus’ crucifixion did truly take place, as ...

“ Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him… the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head… and struck Him with their hands… they took Jesus, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull… there they crucified Him… He said “It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. ” As you sit here this Good Friday, meditating on those words of the crucifixion from St. John’s Gospel, what thoughts are fluttering through your mind?  Perhaps the bitter agony and the tormented anguish which Jesus endured sits heavily upon your mind. Maybe you’re contemplating the pain of having nails hammered through His flesh or His skin being shredded to bits when He was flogged. Possibly you’re imagining the difficulty with which He lifted His wounded body to take each wearied breath. But throughout all of those thoughts should be that Jesus, who is both your Lord and Christ, you crucified on account of your sins; Jesus, who is both y...