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Grace to you, and peace from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Nicene Creed was forged in the fires of heresy, in demonic attempts to separate God from man and man from God in the person of Jesus. The Reformation was a battle fought centuries later on the same ground: first when Luther opposed the Roman church, who in practice denied that the death and resurrection of Jesus applied salvation to penitent sinners, and then Luther and his colleagues had to fight battles against those within Protestantism who denied that Jesus was present in His flesh and blood in the bread and wine of the Holy Supper. Every attack on the true Christian faith is an attempt by the enemies of Christ to discredit His one Person in two Natures and thus discredit His saving work. So if we are to understand this Psalm correctly in this season of Lent, we must confess that Jesus Christ is both God and Man in one Person. We must confess that this God-Man suffered and died to pay the blood debt of all mankind. And we must place all our comfort and find all our hope in His work for us and our salvation.
This particular portion of our Psalm describes our Lord’s intense suffering: physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering all at once. His enemies are described as strong, vicious bulls, ready to crush the Victim they encircled, making escape impossible. They are described as roaring, ravenous lions, seeking to devour their Victim. Imagine what fear must come upon someone facing those circumstances. As a Man, our Lord felt all the danger and horror of the situation. All of the enemies of Christ in all their demonic malevolence face off against our Jesus, with Satan, that roaring lion, seeking to devour both Him and us. To defeat and devour the Son of God would be an unparalleled victory.
The sufferings our Lord endured were awful in the extreme. We will never comprehend how awful they were. He was “poured out like water.” His sufferings brought Him weakness and a sense of utter helplessness that would completely overwhelm anyone. The excruciating pain that accompanied His crucifixion made Him feel as though His bones were “out of joint.” Imagine as best as you can what it would have been like to hang on the cross, and all your weight was supported only by the nails in your hands and feet. It is no wonder His heart became like melted wax within His breast. His strength was completely dried up. You might recall how He cried out from the cross, “I thirst,” as He lacked the moisture to keep His tongue from sticking to His jaw. He was ready to be laid into “the dust of death.”
But even then, note the confession from His lips: “You lay Me in the dust of death.” Even in this grave situation, our Lord confesses that it is the Father who controls all that comes upon His Son. We just heard these words from Isaiah 53: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” His enemies surround Him, ready to pounce. Even those who should have pitied Him only gaze heartlessly upon Him. They gloat over Him, their eyes feasting with delight on what they have done to Him. Indignity upon indignity is heaped upon our Lord’s outstretched arms and shoulders. Even His clothes were divided among His enemies. The Man was overwhelmed. But all of this is told to us to bring comfort to us, because it was the Father who heaped all of this upon His own Son instead of upon us.
If it were a mere man being described here, then, as St. Paul said, “We are of all people most to be pitied.” If Jesus is only a man who suffers, then—at best—He alone can benefit from His suffering; there is no blessing therein for us. If it is only a man who suffers, then it is best that we turn our eyes away from Him and gather what little comfort we can from the fact this His suffering is not ours…at least, not yet. But what truly sets apart the sufferings of Jesus is that it is not only a man who suffers; it is a Man who is also God. And since that is the case, suffering is transformed.
It is like a scale and weights. On one side are all the sins of the world; on the other side is all the sufferings of men. The burden of human sin is so heavy that the sufferings of mankind have no effect. But when the sufferings of the God-Man are placed in the balance, the burden of sin is lifted away! When we are surrounded by the enemies of our soul, when there is no escape to be seen, we need not fear. When Satan seeks to devour us, we know that, to get to us, he must first deal with Jesus. When our sufferings are so extreme that we wonder whether or not we can beat them, we know with certainty that they are momentary, that they cannot be compared with the glory which awaits us with the One who suffered in our place. When we look upon Him whom our sins have pierced, we are seeing the One who said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” And seeing Him, we know that He has drawn us in faith.
When we confess the Nicene
Creed, it can no longer be a dry, lifeless reciting of the faith it sometimes
seems to be. It will be a remembrance and a thanksgiving for the life-giving
and life-sustaining work of our Lord Jesus, which we find in these words: “who
for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the
Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us
under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose
again according to the Scriptures…”
God grant that this thanksgiving would
always be the mark of our confession of faith. In the name of the Father and of
the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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