Trinity 19 What Jesus does for us 18 October 2009

What does Jesus do for us?

What does it mean for us as he says in today’s gospel that he came to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10.45)?

There are three main Christian doctrines – the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atonement. This morning the readings centre on this last doctrine, Atonement, how God and humanity are made one by what Jesus does for us.

How do we understand this making God one with us that Our Lord achieves?

More importantly how do we not only understand the doctrine but see it taking effect so that we know God not just only as our maker but as our saviour?

These are questions that spill out of all three scriptures this morning.

The Isaiah 53 passage was chosen to illuminate the text I read from Mark 10.45 at the end of today’s gospel. There Jesus makes a prediction of his coming Passion which pours cold water on the arrogance of James and John who thought their Lord was going to take worldly power and wanted part of his worldly glory. No, Our Lord says, my kingdom will be built from suffering service. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

In saying this Jesus was identifying himself with the Suffering Servant figure described in an Old Testament passage that was up to that point rather obscure. Everyone thought, and the Jews to this day think, that God’s Messiah, his chosen servant who would bring in the end of the world, would come in power and majesty. Already though the blueprint for God’s saving purpose was written out in this obscure passage, the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah which Jesus knew by heart and was to act out from the heart.

As the Lord thought ahead to what was ahead for him as Messiah this was the passage he picked up and the church has picked up ever since as the best description of what Jesus does for us.

Let’s look at the passage. It’s the second half of verse 11that Our Lord picks up in the Gospel reading. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and shall bear their iniquities. Look back to the beginning of the passage and you’ll recognise the prediction of Our Lord’s Passion written by Isaiah eight centuries before Christ. Let’s read verses 5 and 6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah foresaw the lonely figure on Calvary who would bear the immense burden of sin separating human beings from their maker and how that sin bearing would cost the suffering servant his life like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. The passage hints at the tomb of Jesus given by the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, verse 9, they made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich. It concludes with a prophecy of the resurrection, verse 12. Let’s read it. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus himself gave no explanation of how his death and rising again made atonement other than to point to this scripture. Only after his resurrection did his followers reflect more fully upon what Jesus did and does for us as Saviour.

So we can move on to the second reading by the anonymous author of the letter to the Hebrews. Here in this letter is the best source of teaching in scripture on the doctrine of the Atonement. This teaching centres on the priesthood of Christ by which Jesus takes what he did on Calvary and pleads it for all time in heaven. It’s this his pleading that we join to at the Eucharist.

Today’s small section of Hebrews is from chapter 5. Let’s read verse 1: Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin.

Priests have a ministry of representing mortals to the immortal God and the immortal God to mortals. The passage goes on to outline how Christ was appointed high priest by God but with full sympathy for humanity. He is the Son of God become Son of Man. In this passage we see graphic evidence of Christ’s humanity. It’s a powerful account actually of the passion of Our Lord that begins with his tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. It provides one of the most moving evidences in the bible of how deeply Jesus engaged with our pain and sorrow.

Let’s read this account in verse 7: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

What does Jesus do for us?

He shows us God sharing our loud cries and tears in reverent submission. Jesus shows us a God who expects nothing from us he’s not prepared to go through. But he shows us much more. He shows us God’s love and holiness, our need of them both and how we can attain to both.

Our Lord brings us atonement. He makes a way for the God of love and holiness to be one with us in our dignity and frailty.

This morning’s gospel reading should be read in context. In this Year B of the Lectionary we’re coming to the end of Mark’s Gospel, the second Gospel in the New Testament. On Advent Sunday we begin a new Church year by starting St Luke. This morning’s reading from Mark 10 is almost the last before the passion narrative in St Mark. Do read the whole gospel yourself. It takes an hour and a half for the average reader. This morning’s reading is on the hinge between Christ’s teaching and his atoning work. It has Jesus saying in one powerful verse what he is doing on earth at all. He is come as God’s Son to give his life a ransom for many.

In giving himself he does so in costly love. He does so on account of the requirements of God’s holiness. He does so because only by the Cross and its pleading for ever in the heavenly sanctuary can women and men be won to glory.

When we look at the Cross we see four things.

We see the love of God fully displayed.

We see the holiness of God in his hatred of sin. The Cross shows what sin feels like to God.

We see our dignity because this act of atonement is given to rescue us for eternal glory.

We see our frailty. Where else do we see the terrible consequences of our sin?

It was no accident or mistake that brought Our Lord to the Cross. It was as Isaiah and the author of Hebrews explain the countering of our going astray. If human disobedience was no great thing why would God who made us and wants his life and glory for us have to confront it as he did? Human disobedience, yours and mine, confronted by perfect goodness crucifies him. The ‘I’ll do it my way’ attitude makes the Atonement as costly as it is.

The doctrine of the Atonement is an awesome mystery. We will never fully understand the doctrine but that won’t stop us seeing it take effect in our lives so that we know God not just as our maker but as our saviour.

How does it effect our lives?

The Cross is once and for all but Jesus lives as eternal high priest to plead its benefits. Inasmuch as we repent of our sins and trust Jesus all that he has done for us comes into operation in our lives bringing forgiveness, healing, deliverance and freedom in the Spirit.

As verse 9 of the Hebrews Chapter 4 passage states Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. What is salvation other than an eternal relationship with God sealed on his side by love and ours by the obedience of faith.

Yes all that Jesus does for us comes to us as we obey. That means as we seek to direct our time, talents, treasure, gifts, energies towards what God wants. Faith isn’t a feeling it’s obedience, costly surrender. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done is the prayer of Christian faith and it means an obedient overcoming of self will that’s day by day, hour by hour.

It has its beginning in baptism, which is our great ‘yes’ to God and ‘no’ to self. It has its end in the vision of God face to face with the selfless adoration of all the saints.

The good news of Christianity is very simple.

God made us for friendship. Sin became a barrier to that friendship. God sent Jesus to lift away that barrier making us friends of God.

Things get between us and God so that we’re not at one. Sin, fear, sickness, bondage, anxiety, death and the devil get in the way. Jesus brings atonement – at one ment literally – because what he did in his coming, his suffering, death and resurrection has established the means to overcome these evils - if we use them. That means that the words we read today in Isaiah he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases come true when we trust his healing power. When we read he bore the sins of many that can become true in our experience when we seek his forgiveness and become one of the many who’re made one with God through Jesus.

Atonement isn’t just a doctrine it’s a way of life. It’s living one to one, heart to heart with God.

This is what Jesus does for us. It’s here this morning because what happened once for all on the Cross can become operative in our lives as we surrender our lives to the Jesus who says again to us This is my body given for you, my blood shed for you. Here those words in your heart’s depth this morning. As we sang: Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God the Just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me…the Lord most High has bowed down low and poured on me his glorious love.