The Divine Crash

On Good Friday instead of doing something emergent/post-modern or experiential we went with a normal service with a normal sermon… Not sure if something different would have been better but at least the sermon recorded.  You can listen to it after the jump or on iTunes.   I did deviate from these notes a few times so you should listen to the differences.

Scripture: Luke 23:33-47

Prayer: God, forgive us. Show us that forgiveness isn’t fair. Show us that you love us more than we deserve.

 

Sometimes, I wonder. I sit down and I wonder about the fairness of life, usually during class when I should be paying attention.

Sometimes, I wonder why cancer exists.

Sometimes, I wonder why babies get sick.

Sometimes, I wonder why 1 in 5 people don’t have enough water to drink.

Sometimes, I wonder why Malaria kills someone every 45 seconds.

Sometimes, I wonder why reality TV exists.

 

Then, when I am done wondering I decide that life simply isn’t fair.

 

Life isn’t fair, and that is why good things happen to bad people.

Life isn’t fair, and that is why bad things happen to good people.

Life isn’t fair, and that is why none of us in this room have won the power-ball yet.

 

enter our scripture.

 

Jesus, was a radical political revolutionary who left unchecked would destroy the very fabric of a government run by oppression and violence.  In that system it was fair he was crucified, they needed to end the rebellion before it started.

 

The criminals on the cross were found guilty by law and deserved to die on the cross.

 

Something to know about the cross…in the Roman culture it was the worst thing to have happen and if a person was crucified they were never spoken of again and you never mentioned the cross.  It was a four letter word that could not be said EVER.  It was censored because that person was so bad.

 

So, on some level they all deserved to die.  It was fair for them to die.

 

But then, the one criminal asks Jesus to be remembered.  These people were supposed to be wiped off the planet and forgotten by all….including God.

 

Jesus replies that this man will be remembered by God in paradise.

 

What? This is not fair!

He should not get to be remembered.  He should be forgotten.  How many people have died and been forgotten…and yet this guy gets remembered.  Not cool!

 

Once again, life has become unfair.

 

I don’t get my Masarati, people go hungry, and now this guy gets forgiven.  That is not fair.

 

but….if all of life isn’t fair…why would anything else be different? What if forgiveness isn’t fair either.

 

Good Friday is one more example of this unfair life.

 

On the cross in the middle is Jesus.  Jesus never broke a law.  Jesus only fulfilled all the laws.  Yet, his radical love infuriated the people.  Jesus declared that all people are valuable and that God loves everyone.  This drove the people into a rage that resulted in his unlawful killing.  This is once again not fair.

 

but it was necessary…

 

It was necessary because you were dead, you had requirements against you, a debt you could not pay.

 

And the only way you could be made alive was with the death of someone else greater than you, God.

 

On the cross, to pay your debt, life becomes unfair and God dies.

 

This is not fair and if you think about it makes no sense.

 

God is God, God is immortal and yet God dies? If God died, who is running the universe?

 

The answer is God is running the universe and yet God is still dead for 3 days.

 

Jesus is always God.  Jesus is born as God in the flesh, Emmanuel.  Jesus says to the Pharisees “Before Abraham was, I AM.” I Am is the name of God in Exodus.  Jesus is always fully flesh and fully God. If Jesus were to ever stop being God then he would just be a man and not able to save us, through the cross.  If Jesus ever stopped being human then he wouldn’t have a clue what it felt like to be us. So then, these can never EVER be separated.

 

Are you with me?

 

Now, this belief has a fancy over educated term called the “hypostatic union.”

 

However, this falls apart at the cross. Somewhere, at some point this falls apart. Jesus who is God is dead, but God can’t die and yet God is dead?

 

If God is dead on the cross, then control is also lost.  When you are dead you have no control over anything, right?

 

So at the cross God gives up control and gives up even life itself so that you can be forgiven.  Very unfair.

 

In order for us to be forgiven, everything we know falls apart at the cross.

 

In order for the world to be forgiven everything had to fall apart.

 

Ever heard the phrase “at the foot of the cross the ground is level?”  That no matter what everyone is equal and forgiven at the cross.

 

At the foot of the cross, the ground is level even for God.  God gives up everything to bring you to God.

 

God, risks everything and gives up everything for you.  Even though you may not come.  At the cross God gives up control of you so that you can freely respond, and sometimes that means you might not respond.

 

unfair that God would give up everything for you and then you would walk away? That is not fair and yet it happens all the time.  We see this all the time, how often do we give up everything for our kids/spouse/jobs/retirement and then there is no response.  We have risked it all and we loose.

 

Doesn’t make sense does it?

 

That is the idea of forgiveness… It isn’t fair. It costs everything and it risks everything.  God bets the farm on the cross and we bet the farm on the cross.

 

and it works! Colossians 2:14 says all debt we had has been wiped away because of the cross.

 

Forgiveness isn’t fair, forgiveness is risky and dangerous.  You might get hurt again, you might be rejected.  But at the cross God risks it all to show unfair forgiveness to everyone…including you and including this guy…

 

Show video.

 

 

The cross is only the start, God gives up everything for you….God asks that you see that it is unfair and follow Jesus..do what Jesus did…be unfair in your forgiveness and grace.

 

It can start now. Not in a prayer or in a ritual but in a recognition that God is so unfair that he loves even you and then a decision to be just as unfair as God and love those who don’t deserve it.

Sermon Audio

 

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Sermon by RevBT