Sermon for 3rd midweek Lent, March 16, 2022
Peace to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
John 18:12 Then the company of soldiers, their commander, and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus and bound him. (EHV)
They bound Him.
Dear followers of Christ,
They bound Him. Knowing who Jesus is, you have to wonder how that could happen. Superman was weak in the presence of Kryptonite. Samson was felled by Delilah’s nagging and deception. However, what could make the Son of God so weak that mere men could bind Him?
Is that why Jesus’ disciples were so quickly scattered? Because they saw Him bound and led away without a fight? They had seen Jesus perform countless miracles that only God could do: change water into wine, heal the sick, cast out demons, and even raise people from the dead. They had seen Jesus’ multiply bread and fish and calm the forces of nature. They had to wonder how it was possible that Jesus could be bound by mere ropes? Plus, there was the fear that if Jesus couldn’t stand up to that group, what would happen to them if the High Priests turned against Jesus’ disciples?
The truth is those soldiers, servants, and temple guards had no power or control over Jesus. Everything that happened that night in the garden and in the upcoming hours remained completely under Jesus’ control, just as all things remain so still today. (Psalm 8:6) For a long time, Jesus’ enemies had sought and schemed to kill Him. Mark reports, “The chief priests and the experts in the law were looking for some deceptive way to arrest Jesus and kill him. [But, they had firmly declared,] ‘Certainly not during the Festival’ they said, ‘or there will be a riot among the people.’” (Mark 14:1-2) Remember though, Jesus was in control, so when Judas offered to betray Jesus, their plans changed to fit God’s schedule.
Of course, Jesus knew long beforehand exactly what was going to happen that night. Other times when crowds of His enemies tried to kill Him, Jesus had simply walked through the midst of them, and they couldn’t touch Him. Jesus’ divine power was demonstrated again when that mob entered the Garden of Gethsemane: Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who are you looking for?” “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus told them.…When Jesus told them, “I am he,” they backed away and fell to the ground. (John 18:4-6) If Jesus had wanted to avoid arrest, He could have easily done so. So, what made Jesus allow Himself to be arrested that night? The answer is love. Love for His Father who planned our rescue, and love for all of us. Love took Jesus down.
They bound Him. Still, there really was no good reason for those soldiers to tie Jesus’ hands. You tie a prisoner’s hands to keep him from escaping or causing injury to others, but what harm had Jesus ever done to anyone? Those hands had healed blind eyes; not to mention a bleeding ear that Peter had just cut off. Those hands had turned a young boy’s lunch into a feast for thousands. Those hands had touched to heal the hurting and given life to a little girl and a widow’s son. That mob was in no danger from Jesus’ hands.
Furthermore, there was no danger of Jesus trying to escape. Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out to arrest me with swords and clubs as if I were a robber? Day after day I was sitting in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” (Matthew 26:55-56)
Now, it would be easy for us to judge the disciples for fleeing and those soldiers and servants for mistreating the Son of God, and certainly many of us would condemn the teachers of Israel who refused to believe in the Messiah they were supposed to be proclaiming to the people. But dare we claim any greater righteousness? Is the result not the same as binding Jesus’ hands when we neglect to ask Him for help? Is it not rejection of the Savior to seek the pleasures of this world when we could be worshipping Him? Do we not forcefully reject Jesus when we willfully sin? Is it not a mockery of Jesus’ sacrifice if we don’t think learning His Word is of utmost importance?
Oh, we have plenty of our own guilt, and plenty of fear too, I would bet. How many of us haven’t felt a twinge of fear about the future with wars raging in Ukraine, Myanmar, and other places? How many of us haven’t feared our own mortality with all the dire predictions and circumstances of the last year or two? How many of us have stood at a loved one’s grave and worried about how soon that would be us? For all those reasons and more, we should be glad that They bound Him.
The mob bound Jesus that night, because that was in God’s plan to bring about our redemption. You and I were firmly bound by sin and death from the moment of conception in our mother’s womb. King David lamented, “Certainly, I was guilty when I was born. I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) You and I were so tied by the devil’s control that we could do nothing to please God nor to save ourselves from His just wrath. However, because it was His Father’s will, and because Jesus desired to be the Lamb that would take away the sins of the world, Jesus was willing to endure the humiliation of having mere mortals bind His hands and lead Him to a cruel, unjust trial, and savage execution.
Jesus allowed Himself to be bound with ropes in order to bind us to Himself so that He could deliver us from the bonds of death. Yes, I said it; we were tied up helpless in death. Every day in this life on earth, we are pulled one step closer to the grave. Sometimes, we even seem to be hurrying toward that by actions we take that endanger our lives. Other times, we fight with all our might to forestall that fate that comes to every person. We know that, because of sin, no one gets out of this world alive.
Of course, we wouldn’t be here tonight worshipping our Savior if there was not a victory. St. Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless, and your faith is pointless too.” (1 Corinthians 15:14) However, that is the point; that is the reason we are here. When Jesus bound Himself to the death we deserved, He didn’t stay dead. We remember Jesus’ suffering and death these six Wednesday nights of Lent because we dare never forget the love Jesus demonstrated for us as He allowed Himself to be bound, beaten, tortured, crucified, to die, and be buried, so that we might ultimately live. Martin Luther wrote in his great hymn, “Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands, for our offenses given; but now at God’s right hand He stands and brings us life from heaven.
The writer to the Hebrews shares with us what this all means: “Therefore, since the children share flesh and blood, he also shared the same flesh and blood, so that through death he could destroy the one who had the power of death (that is, the Devil) and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15) We were freed because Jesus didn’t stay dead.
One piece of bondage, however, remained firmly in place. Our sins, and the sins of the world were tied to Jesus in death. The just and right payment of death was made for all of them. Even the sins of those who imagined Jesus was their enemy, and of the soldiers who mistreated Him, were paid for with His death on the cross. All our guilt was buried with Jesus never to be seen again in God’s courtroom. Thus, the cruel deceiver who held us in bondage has been permanently defeated. Satan no longer has control over Jesus or His friends, nor can the devil ever again accuse us before God.
That night in the garden, the members of the Sanhedrin thought they had caught Jesus. The next night, they assumed they had accomplished the defeat of their enemy. By nightfall that Friday, Satan was celebrating the death of God’s Son, but death couldn’t hold Jesus. On the third day, Jesus rose from the grave alive, and now He lives! That is why we are here—remembering His bound hands—because Jesus lives! Therefore, we have His assurance and firm promise that we will live also. (John 14:19)
Now, we must at the same time beware. “Your adversary, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) The great deceiver still wants to lead us away from Jesus and back into his lair of everlasting death. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the writer to the Hebrews again encourages us, “Let us get rid of every burden and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patient endurance the race that is laid out for us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. Carefully consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)
They bound Him. Yet, truth be told, Jesus bound Himself to you, so that by His love and sacrifice, you would be set free from the bondage of sin, free to serve the Lord in holiness and peace, and free to live for Him forever. Jesus bound Himself into your death so that the grave cannot hold you. Yes, we all will most likely spend some time there, but in the end, we will be raised just as the glorified Jesus rose from the grave triumphant over evil and the power of death, so that we might also live in glory. Amen.
How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, everyone who is walking in his ways. Amen.