Bible Text: St John 18-19 | Preacher: Rev. Andrew Richard
At Christmas we celebrated that the Son of God has become a man, and in Scripture we see evidences of both His divine nature and His human nature. On one occasion Jesus fell asleep in the boat, showing His humanity. On another occasion Jesus walked on water to the boat, showing His divinity. We’ve seen Jesus located in a particular place, we’ve seen Him eat and drink, qualities of human nature. We’ve also seen Jesus cleanse leprosy with a word, heal the sick with a touch, raise the dead, know men’s thoughts, qualities of the divine nature. Jesus is God and Man.
Why did it have to be that way? Why did Jesus have to be God and Man? It’s a question we’re used to reflecting on during the Christmas season, but the answers to that question have everything to do with Good Friday. Our Savior had to be God. “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly” (Ps. 49:9). Without God Himself as our ransom and redemption, we would have been lost. Nor could any man defeat such great enemies as sin, death, and the devil. During the season of Lent Jesus described the devil as a “strong man” who had kept us under guard and from whom we could not deliver ourselves. But Jesus, the “stronger man,” had to come and deliver us, “stronger” because that stronger Man is God.
Our Savior also had to be man. Man had transgressed the Law of God. We had been disobedient and rebellious. And this meant two things. First, it meant that we had not fulfilled what the Law required of us. We had sinned in thought, word, and deed, by what we had done and by what we had left undone. And whether we’re talking about sins of doing or not doing, committing evil or omitting good, it left us lacking according to the Law of God. Our pride, lust, covetousness, idolatry, contentions, grudges, ingratitude, anger, and self-love meant that we did not measure up, and we needed someone to fulfill the Law for us. Second, our sin meant that according to the Law we were under the wrath of God and had all the Law’s punishment hanging over our head, and that punishment is death. If someone did not take that punishment for us, we were damned.
So our Savior became a man to stand in the place of men. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Jesus had to be man to fulfill the Law for us and to suffer its punishments. Jesus came to do this, as He says, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17). Jesus also had to be man to suffer the punishments of the Law for us, as Isaiah prophesied and as we see fulfilled on Good Friday, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:4-6).
Jesus had to be God and Man, and that’s what He became, “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 not only does Jesus show us His human and divine natures in the earlier part of His ministry, but even in His very Passion Jesus wants us to know that He is still the God-Man. Jesus shows His divine nature in foreknowing Judas’ betrayal and foretelling Peter’s denial. Jesus shows His divine nature when He says, “I am” in the garden and the men draw back and fall to the ground. Jesus shows His divine nature when He heals the ear of Malchus after Peter cuts it off. In these displays of His divine nature it’s like Jesus is saying, “Fear not. I, your God, am fighting for you, and you have only to be still. No one is forcing Me to do anything against My will, but I freely go to suffering and death, because I alone can save you. So be steadfast and confident. Your Lord has entered the ranks, and I shall memorialize a new exodus, a new battle between David and Goliath, and as I, your God, have always prevailed over your enemies, so I will triumph over sin, death, and the devil now completely and totally.”
Jesus also shows His human nature. He suffers pain, He’s strengthened by an angel, He prays, He stands trial, He says, “I thirst,” He dies. In showing us His human nature in His Passion, it’s like Jesus says, “I have become your Brother. I am what you are. You do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with your weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as you are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). So listen to what Pilate says about Me, not once, not twice, but three times, ‘I find no guilt in Him’ (Jn. 18:28, 19:4, 6). I have fulfilled the Law for you. I have done it perfectly, and My righteousness is yours. And see Me suffer the curse of the Law for you, as the Law says, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’ (Gal. 3:13; Dt. 21:23). See the blows, the stripes, the crucifixion, the death. It was yours, but I’ve made it Mine. I who knew no sin have become sin for you, that you might become the righteousness of God in Me (2 Cor. 5:21).”
So there hangs the God-Man, and you are ransomed. He has cried out, “It is finished,” and it is. Scripture is fulfilled; your redemption is complete. “It is finished.” Your Lord and your Brother cried out the greatest Absolution that has ever been pronounced, the Absolution that gives power to every other Absolution. “It is finished.” Even nature has not remained idle today, but pointed you to words fit for Good Friday, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow’” (Is. 1:18). The spotless Lamb of God has become dyed in scarlet today, the precious and holy scarlet of His divine blood, and you, you are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Praise be to Jesus, true God and true Man, our Savior. Amen.