2026 Midweek Lenten Sermon E

Rev. Rolf Preus| March 25, 2026| Luke 23:44-47

Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.  Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last.  So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” (Luke 23:44-47)

That’s not fair!  That’s the first argument a child learns.  While it’s usually totally self-serving, it still resembles a reasonable argument.  If he got to do it, I should be able to do it.  Why should I get in trouble when he didn’t?  She got more than I did!  That’s not fair.  Little kids love justice.

So do adults.  The appeal to justice is often a good thing, but when it comes to our Christian faith it just might be the worst thing.  One of the most common arguments against the gospel on the part of decent, moral, and reasonable adults is that it’s not fair.  A righteous man should not have to suffer as Jesus suffered.  Muslims find this totally unacceptable.  They admire Jesus as a righteous man.  They insist that Jesus did not die on the cross.  Judas was substituted for him.  Jesus could not have died on the cross because he was holy and God would not have let such a holy man die such a terrible death.  After all, God is just.  He is fair.

The crucifixion of Jesus offends man’s sense of justice because it was obviously unfair.  Not only was he not guilty of the crime for which he was crucified, he was not guilty of anything at all.  The Roman centurion spoke for everyone with eyes to see, “Certainly, this was a righteous man!”  That a righteous man should be tried by a kangaroo court, convicted by false testimony, and sentenced to die a cruel death by a cowardly politician is deeply offensive to justice.  He should be praised; not condemned.  He should be honored; not disgraced.  It isn’t fair. 

That’s the offense of the cross.  We who trust in Jesus as our Savior from sin know that by his death he satisfied justice.  He gave to justice what justice demanded, not of him, but of us.  It was as the substitute for sinners that Jesus suffered and died.  It was to meet the demands of justice for us so that in him we would find a gracious God who does not hold our sins against us.  But that’s offensive, too.  It’s an offense to the religious sensibilities of moralists everywhere that a righteous man should die.  And when you tell them that he died for them, taking their punishment, they are offended by that as well.  Surely, they don’t need such suffering.  The cross is a rock of offense.  St. Peter writes,

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” (1 Peter 2:7-8)

The builders who rejected Christ were the Jewish religious leaders of the day.  Christ’s crucifixion blew away any claim of superiority that the Jews may have felt toward the Gentiles.  After all, if everyone needs Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, and we receive this forgiveness through faith alone, nobody can obtain a higher spiritual status than any believer in Christ.  That’s because the gospel, not the law determines your standing before God.  As Jesus was hanging on the cross, he was fulfilling the Law of Moses.  The law accused him but could not find any fault in him.  Jesus silenced the Law of Moses.

The Law of Moses contained three kinds of commands: civil, ceremonial, and moral.  The civil law was given only to Israel.  The ceremonial law was given only to Israel.  The moral law, which is summed up in the Ten Commandments, was also given to Israel, but what it required of Israel it requires of the whole world.  When the curtain in the temple was torn in two, the Law of Moses was done away with.  The moral law is still God’s standard for human conduct because what is morally right and morally wrong cannot change.  But the civil and ceremonial law are no longer the law.  The nation of Israel is no more.  By dying, Jesus removed the barrier between Jew and Gentile.  The Law of Moses was fulfilled.  When God tore the veil in the temple, he did away with the ceremonial law he gave to Moses for Israel.  Our baby boys don’t need to be circumcised.  We can eat any food we want.  We can eat ham on Easter.  We can feature statues and crucifixes in our churches.  We don’t have to observe any of the festivals God commanded for Israel.  God did away with the civil law he gave to Moses for Israel.  We can work on Saturday if we want to.   The cross did away with all these obligations.

If you’re trying to work your way to heaven, the cross offends.  The torn temple curtain offends.  You don’t want to be put on the same level as every run of the mill sinner.  You think you’re better than that.  So, the cross offends.  When the Jewish leaders saw Christians claiming to be God’s chosen people while ignoring the civil and ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic Law that they had so religiously observed, they were scandalized.  Well, the cross is indeed a scandal. 

But not just to the Jews.  Not only does the cross abolish the ceremonial and political law of the Old Testament, but it also proclaims to the whole world that we are not saved by observing the law or any part of it.  Period.  Jesus fulfilled the law.  That’s the gospel.  The gospel fulfills the law.  All the rituals of the Old Testament pointed forward to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.  Once Jesus died, the Old Testament ended.  The victory had been won.

We will celebrate Easter in just a week and a half.  We will sing of Christ’s victory over sin and death on Easter Sunday.  What better proof that Jesus has defeated death is there than his resurrection from the dead?  But the victory was won when he died.  The resurrection is the proof that the crucifixion of Jesus was the redemption of the world.  God tearing the curtain in two signified this victory.

It was hard fought.  For three hours – from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon – there was darkness over the earth.  In that darkness God confronted justice.  It was his justice.  He could not deny justice without denying himself.  God can’t lay down the law and threaten disobedience with death and then turn around and say, “never mind,” when the law is broken.  Justice is from God and justice requires sin to be paid for.  God required that sin be paid for.

The offense of the cross is that God punishes the righteous for the sins of the unrighteous.  The one righteous man is punished by God for the sins of the world.  Unfair!  But no.  No, it is fair.  And here’s why.  Because Jesus chose freely to suffer the punishment.  Don’t forget, as we ponder the passion of our Lord, that he is our Lord.  He is our God.  It is Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who is suffering.  And why?  Because he chose to drink the cup of God’s wrath all the way down to the bitter dregs.  No one forced him.  He did it freely.  Jesus said, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:17-18)  Jesus gave himself up to the death of the cross of his own free will.  That was love.  And love is what fulfilled the demands of justice.  He loved his Father and he loved us to the very end.  He said with confidence as he was dying, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”  It was a beautiful death.  He was sinless.  He committed no sin.  He offered that sinless life to his Father.  He entrusted himself to his Father.  He entrusted his spirit to the Father.  His body would be buried in the tomb.   

He teaches us how to die.  St. Paul writes in Galatians 2:19-20,

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Living the life of faith prepares you to die.  We are living as those who have already died.  We died when we were baptized.  We were united with Christ’s death.  Every day we return to our baptism and we die and rise again.  We have sinned against God’s moral law.  We’ve done what we know is wrong.  Examining our lives by the Ten Commandments we are guilty.  Justice requires that the guilty be punished.  Our conscience bears witness that this is true.  What do we do when our conscience accuses us?  When we’ve done what God forbids, we know it, we’re sorry we did it, and we don’t want to do it again?  We claim our baptism into Christ’s death.  We grasp it by faith.  We look at his suffering, how he did and suffered what justice demanded of us.  The curtain is torn.  We have full access to God through Christ.

Jesus, in Thy cross are centered

All the marvels of Thy grace;

Thou, my Savior, once hast entered

Through Thy blood the holy place;

Thy sacrifice holy there wrought my redemption,

From Satan’s dominion I now have exemption;

The way is now free to the Father’s high throne,

Where I may approach Him in Thy name alone.

And I can die as Jesus died, committing my spirit to my heavenly Father.  Amen