The King Condemned
Lenten Season: Third Wednesday in Lent, Wednesday, 26 March 2014.
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
The lion is often pictured as the king of the jungle. The rooster is often pictured as the king of the barnyard and the dolphin might be seen as the king of the sea. Perhaps the last animal we would think of as kingly would be the lowly goat, in fact, a goat would be seen by many people as the exact opposite of a king. Yet, ironically, on one day in the Jewish calendar, the lowly goat was king.
That day was a special day, an extraordinary day, the holiest of days, the day of days, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It was on that special day of the year that the high priest would go through the curtain in the temple into the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies, to make a sacrifice for the nation of Israel, the people God. That sacrifice was to take away or to atone for all their sins from the previous year, thus putting them right with God
But before that happened, two male goats, the same age, would take center stage. Two goats stood before the high priest and the guilty sons of Israel. Lots would be drawn, and one would be the Lord’s goat. And it was to be slaughtered as a sin offering for the people. It’s blood would be taken into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat or the atonement cover on the top of the ark of the covenant. The other goat would be the scapegoat, he would escape death at least for a time, but not before the high priest pressed his bloody hands down on his head, confessed all the sins of the Israelites. And then had him led away to the wilderness, to a desolate place where he would be abandoned. As I mentioned in last Sunday’s sermon, it later became the practice of the Israelites to make sure that the scapegoat didn’t return by tying a scarlet cord around its neck and tying the other to a rock which was then thrown over a cliff. I guess one time the scapegoat returned to Jerusalem the horror of the people, so after that they made sure that that wouldn’t happen again.
At any rate, what the goats did was provide a picture of how God would deal with or make atonement for our sin. Through the scapegoat, He would remove His peoples’ sins from them never to be seen or remembered, like a goat trotting out into the desert never to return like it says in Psalm 103: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”
But it’s one thing to see a picture or symbol of something and it’s quite another to see the reality of it. And the reality is told to us in Hebrews 10:4: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” What this tells us is that in spite of all the spilt blood of the goats on Yom Kippur, no sin was taken away. In fact you could slaughter every goat in the world, every day of the year and it wouldn’t remove one sin from anybody. All our goat-like sins would still remain on us and cry out for punishment and separation from God forever. No, all those goats did was point to a greater reality yet to come. The reality we see being played out in our Gospel lesson for today. Where instead of two goats, two men take center stage.
One man was a real goat. His name was “Barabbas,” which means, “son of the Father.” But he wasn’t a son any father would be proud of. He was put in prison for rebellion, murder, and theft. The other “goat” was also a “Son of the Father.” But the other “goat” was no goat at all. He was a perfect Son, who brought nothing but delight and joy to His Father. He was the one John the Baptist pointed to told his disciples, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” So there stood Jesus before Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas the high Priest, who had earlier picked him to die as St. John insightfully points out in the 11th chapter of his Gospel in this little incident following the resurrection of Lazarus:
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So there they stood two candidates for sacrifice, Barabbas and Jesus, a sinful man and the sinless son of God. But for the blood that atones and takes away sin, only one “goat” must take center stage. One “goat” must do both things—die for sins, and then remove them from God’s sight forever.
“Behold, Jesus, the goat of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” It all came down to Him. He would be that one “goat” whose the blood would save us from God’s judgment. He was that one “Goat” that the two goats of the Day of Atonement pointed to all along. The one Goat that the Lord selected to be slaughtered for sins He did not commit, and then carry them out of God’s sight forever.
He would be forsaken by His Father, so that sinners might be baptized and received as God’s precious lambs without spot or blemish.
Unlike us, He was not difficult or stubborn when it came to God’s commandments. He took on our flesh that He might fulfill God’s law for us and willingly do what we would not and could not do. Note how silent He is before Pilate in that cruel scene of injustice. Not one word of protest. Not one cry for help as the prophet Isaiah had prophesied 700 years before:
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
We can take great comfort in what He was communicating by His amazing silence—because he was thinking of us, he was focused and determined to rescue you and me and everyone else. Pilate mocked Him. The chief priests and elders accused Him, but He gave no answer. Pilate’s wife alone it seems knew and spoke the truth. She called Him a “righteous man” and indeed he was, the only truly righteous man who has ever lived, but Jesus didn’t use a wife’s natural persuasiveness to convince Pilate of the truth of her words nor to release Him.
And when the crowd shouted “Let Him be crucified!” and “His blood be on us and on our children!” He didn’t take time to tell them that that’s exactly what He came to do. He just did it.
It was no longer time for teaching. The hour had come for Him to go forth bearing the sins of the world on Calvary’s cross, to destroy them, death and the power of the devil over us forever.
And then announce his victory three days later with his resurrection from the dead.
His shed blood did what the blood of goats and bull could never do. It washes away all sin for all time. His blood saves us and everyone who would believe in him. When we were baptized we were baptized in his atoning death and his blood. Likewise it is his saving blood we receive with the wine in Holy Communion. His is the blood that bespeaks us righteous.
Jesus is the faithful Son of the heavenly Father, whose faithfulness has been credited to us by faith in Him and in His Gospel. He is no lowly goat; He is God’s royal Son, from God’s royal tribe, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, is one of his titles. Yet to release us from the bondage of sins and death, He became like a lowly goat, so that we might be exalted, and reign with Him forever.
As I said at the beginning of this message, a lion might show his kingly glory by roaring. The rooster might show his glory by and crowing. The dolphin might show his glory by swimming and leaping from wave to wave. But the King of kings sent from heaven to us shows His glory by dying on a cross and rising again to forever be our Crucified King. May God in His grace, mercy and love grant that we always believe it. Amen.