Maximillian Kolbe was
a polish Franciscan monk, who was ordained a catholic priest in 1918. When
Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Maximillian, because of his father’s German
heritage, was invites to sign a paper that would offer him the same rights as a
German citizen if he acknowledged his German heritage, which in affect meant
giving approval to the Nazi regime.
Maximillian refused to sign, rather he and his monks continued to run their
monastery as a shelter for Polish refugees and in particular Polish Jews. In
1941 he was arrested for that and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. On the
last day of July 1941, an escape was reported and in reprisal the guards
selected ten men to be put into a bunker and starved to death. As the ninth man
was being pulled out of line he cried out in despair “my poor wife and my
Children”. The diminutive spectacled figure of Maximillian Kolbe stepped
forward and said to the guards that he was a catholic priest and was old had no
family and asked if he could die in the man’s place. The guards agreed and
Maximillian was placed in the bunker with nine other men. Normally in this
situation the condemned would act like animals or cannibals and tear each other
apart, but this time, led by Maximillian, while they had strength, they spent
their time in prayer or reciting psalms. After two weeks Maximillian and three
others were still alive, but the bunker was needed so on august 14th
they were killed with an injection of carbolic acid.
On 10th October 1982 , a crowd of 150,000 gathered as the catholic church pronounced Maximillian Kolbe
a saint. In the crowd that day was the man Maximillian had saved Francis
Gajowniczek with his family. The pope describing Maximillian’s death saying
“this was a victory won over all the systems of contempt and hate in man- a
victory like that won by our Lord Jesus Christ.’ When Francis Gajowniczek died
at 94 his obituary read that he had spent the rest of his life after 1941 telling people
what Maximillian Kolbe had done for him, dying in his place.”
We are gathered
together today to remember another death. We are gathered together today to remember
Jesus death on the cross: The event that along with the ressurection forms the
centre of our faith. It seems strange
that an instrument of torture, the cross, which was so barbaric a means of
execution, that the romans themselves outlawed it AD 337 should be the centre
of religious worship, but it is because as Christians we believe that this
death was for us. Like with the example we started with that because of Jesus
death on the cross those who put their trust in Jesus have life: abundant
eternal life.
Now usually on Good Friday I don’t preach but rather lead a
reflection but today I want to change that and invite us again to look at why
Jesus died? And what that means for us. To do that I am very dependent on Alpha
presenter Nicky Gumbel’s book Questions
of lIfe.
Gumble says’ The cross is a beautiful diamond, with many
facets. From whichever angle you look at it you can see different colours and
lights. The cross in a sense is a mystery; it’s something too profound for
understanding. However from whichever angle you look at the cross you will
never fathom its full depth and beauty.” Now theologians have tried to do that
by tying it all down in what are called theories of the atonement but Gumble
says rightly that “In the New testament
these angles are simply explored.”
The first is that to understand the cross we must look at it
from the perspective of the love of God. John 3:16 says ‘That God so loved the
world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in his would not perish
but have everlasting life.”
In the shorter Westminster catechism it says that the chief
end of man, the meaning of life was that we were made to know God and enjoy him
always. But there is a problem, while we were made in God’s mage and made to
know him intimately the bible says that we have sinned. Christianity sees
humans as capable of great good and also acknowledges the reality that we are
fallen, broken and do things that are wrong. Now it’s not always PC to talk
about being sinners and most people would want to say that they lead an Ok life
they never killed or robbed anyone. Maybe
they might not consider themselves amongst the great saints but they are
definitely not down with the really bad people. But in Romans 3:23 Paul sets
the bar very high he says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God”. The bar is not those we deem the height of human integrity but rather the
sky God himself. English novelist
Somerset Maugham once wrote “ if I write down every thought I have ever thought
and every deed I have ever done, people would call me a monster of depravity.”
Sin has marred that image of God in us, tarnished the great
good we were called to do and be. In scripture it talks of it like pollution
making us unclean. It holds power over us, it is like an addiction that can
mess up our lives. Again in romans it says that sin has a penalty, it has affected
all human beings’ The wages of sin is death. Not physical death, but rather a
spiritual death, we become dead to God. That is the other thing that sin does,
it separates us from God.
God’s response to that is love, to make a way for us to be
reconciled with him. To be forgiven. He did it by sending his son to die that
we might have life. Christians from an early time have seen the passage we
started our service with this morning from Isaiah 53 speaking of Jesus. Though
innocent He took our wrongdoing on himself. He died for our sins. People often
ask how God can let evil and suffering carry on in the world and the answer is
that in Jesus he came into its midst and took it and its consequences on
himself.
One of the ways of looking at the cross is that in Jesus
willingness to give up his life for us, he has won a victory over death and
sin. In our reading from Luke’s gospel the crucifixion is not seen so much as a
tragic death but rather a coronation. It is the one time in the gospel Jesus is
acknowledged as the king of the Jews, ironically it is the criminal charge
above his head. In the face of violence and injustice he offers forgiveness, to
those who crucify him and to a repentant sinner next to him on the cross. They
read like the pardoning of enemies when I new conqueror or king is
appointed. The centurion who would have
been used to the swearing and vitriol of condemned criminals concluded that
surely this was an innocent man. By doing that Jesus gives us an example of how
to overcome sin with selfless love but also shows that in his death he has broken
the power of sin and death not with the ways of man and empire but the ways of
love and selfless sacrifice.
In the New Testament, they use four very common
illustrations from the everyday life of first century Jews to explore the cross
as well.
The first is the temple. The Jewish sacrificial system was
set up to show people how serious sin was and the cost of being forgiven. A repentant sinner would take an animal. The
animal was to be as near perfect as possible.
The sinner would lay their hands on the animal and confess their sins.
Thus the sins were seen to pass into the animal and it was then killed. It’s
where we get our English term scapegoat from. The book of Hebrews in the New
Testament says that it is impossible for the blood of bulls or goat to take
away sins, rather it was a picture or a shadow of what was to come. That only
the blood of Christ, our substitute could take away our sin. John the Baptist
saw this when he said “look the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world.” : An innocent pure sacrifice able to wash away the pollution of sin.
The New Testament also uses the image of the market place: In
particular the idea of debt. In the ancient near east if you were in debt you
could be sold into slavery and the only way to get out of it was for a rich
relative to come and to pay that debt and then you would be free. That is where we get the word redemption
from… WE were caught in the power of sin, but Jesus has paid the ransom price
to set us free.
The third comes from the law courts. There is a consequence
for things we do wrong. A punishment if
we are found guilty. In Romans Paul, who is a lawyer,r uses the legal term
justified to explain what Christ has
done for us. It
is a legal term which means that we are right before the law because the fine or sentence has been paid for us. A good illustration is two people who had grown up together and been best of friends. But as they had got older they had gone their different ways. One became a judge and the other for certain reasons ended up in his court room charged with a crime. The judge loved his friend but was a just judge and couldn’t just acquit him; that would not be right. So he declares his friend guilty and fines him what the law says he must. But then he steps down takes off his robes and pays the man’s fine, so he can go free, he no longer has a charge to answer. Scripture says Jesus is both our judge and saviour and we are not having our punishment paid for by a separate innocent third party but by God himself. The poet Heinrich Hiene once said ‘God will forgive me because that’s his Job’ and we can take forgiveness for granted, and people often see it as cheap grace, but the cross shows us the costly price God was willing to pay for our forgiveness.
is a legal term which means that we are right before the law because the fine or sentence has been paid for us. A good illustration is two people who had grown up together and been best of friends. But as they had got older they had gone their different ways. One became a judge and the other for certain reasons ended up in his court room charged with a crime. The judge loved his friend but was a just judge and couldn’t just acquit him; that would not be right. So he declares his friend guilty and fines him what the law says he must. But then he steps down takes off his robes and pays the man’s fine, so he can go free, he no longer has a charge to answer. Scripture says Jesus is both our judge and saviour and we are not having our punishment paid for by a separate innocent third party but by God himself. The poet Heinrich Hiene once said ‘God will forgive me because that’s his Job’ and we can take forgiveness for granted, and people often see it as cheap grace, but the cross shows us the costly price God was willing to pay for our forgiveness.
Lastly the picture of home… That God invites us back into
relationship with him. In Luke’s gospel as Jesus dies the curtain in the temple
is ripped in two from the top to the bottom. The curtain was placed in the
temple to separate the holy of holies the place where the Jews believed that God
presenced himself from humanity. It was too holy for people to enter and was
only entered once a year by the high priest and then only after he had made
many sacrifices. But the curtain being broken symbolised that Jesus death on
the cross has dealt with the partition of sin, that separateness of from God…because
of Jesus we are able to come back to know God as our heavenly father. In an online discussion group someone wrote
that they couldn’t accept the goodness of God because when they looked at The
cross they saw God as a father who was into child sacrifice. But Paul says ‘God
was in Christ’ we forget the oneness of God’ often in our Trinitarian thinking
and at the cross I wonder if we don’t see the father in the parable of the
prodigal son, who when he sees his son far off throws off any ide of dignity and
runs to greet him and be reconciled, runs even to the point of death on the
cross.
Last week we invited you to identify with the repentant
sinner in Luke’s gospel by pinning your name or a drawing round your hand on the
cross as a way of saying “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and
Identifying with his death for us. This morning I hope you encounter and know
what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We are going to finish our service
with the hymn ‘and can it be” which is Charles Wesley’s reflection on the Cross.
It’s a very personal reflection because he sees what Jesus has done not just as
an academic abstract or a doctrine or religious dogma… But something he has
experienced that has transformed his life. He encountered that love of God,
that cleansing of sin, that debt paid, that being justified and reconciled with
God. As certainly and as concretely as Francis Gajowniczek knew he had life
because Maximillian Kolbe died in his place. We too can know life because Jesus
died for us. We too can know freedom and forgiveness because Jesus died for us.
Sin and death are defeated because Jesus died for us. We can live life in
relationship with God, abundant full eternal life, because Jesus died for
us.
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