Jesus Reigns from the Wood of the Cross!

Last Sunday of End Time, Christ the King, 11/23/14
Matthew 27:27-31


Jesus Reigns from the Wood of the Cross!
I. His divine fount of grace
II. His saving act of love


I’m somewhat of an English language purist. When I hear people misusing words and phrases, it’s almost like listening to fingernails on a slate chalkboard. But please don’t think I’m without fault. Far from it. I’ve made my share of mistakes and I appreciate it when someone kindly corrects me.

The other day I was informed that the word “ironic” is often misused. People will see or hear something comical or unusual or unexpected and state how ironic it is. It’s ironic only if what occurs is the exact opposite of what you expected. For instance, seeing a cat chasing a dog is ironic. Watching an Eskimo win the national surfboard competition is ironic.

Today is the final Sunday in the church year, the Sunday on which we celebrate Jesus as our eternal king. There are numerous sections of Scripture which declare Jesus to be the King of kings and Lord of Lords. The Bible repeatedly declares Jesus to be ruling over all things for the good of his church. We could focus this morning on any one of those comforting, powerful sections of the Bible.

Instead, we see him bloodied, bruised, tortured, mocked, pitiful. So utterly pitiful that if we had been in that room where this brutality was taking place, we would have turned our heads away. We would have left the room immediately. So this isn’t what we expect on Christ the King Sunday. It’s the exact opposite. It’s the height of irony.

But what saving irony it is! For, without a suffering and dying Savior, we have no king. Without a suffering and dying Savior, we’re still the property of Satan and his hellish kingdom. It’s not in spite of the fact that he was crucified, it’s exactly because he was crucified that he is our King, that he rules over us with his love. Jesus reigns from the wood of the cross! May that saving truth deepen your comfort and heighten your confidence in Jesus as your King!

Part I.

If you recall how our nation’s constitution was created, you know that the framers of it did not share a high regard for monarchies. They bristled at the insistence that kings were inherently better than their subjects. They were tired of rulers who possessed unlimited power and authority to do as they please without any checks or balance. World history has clearly and repeatedly documented how kings do as they please.

But not Jesus. Kings deal quickly, decisively, and often brutally with treason. But not Jesus. He comes to his own people, but his own do not receive him. He only speaks and acts out of the purest love the world has ever known, but they want nothing to do with him. He gives them one divine sign after another that he is who he says he is—the promised Messiah, but they despise him. He wants to fill them with eternal riches; they only want a stomach full of bread from him. Most kings would do as they please and crush such ingrates, but not Jesus.

And it gets worse. We see it in the words before us this morning. The One who called heaven and earth into being out of nothing, the One who created light, the One who fashioned the cosmos, the One who formed man out of the dust of the ground gets stripped and brutally beaten by his creatures. He stands there silent as they spit on him. He allows them to pierce his bleeding head with a crown of thorns. What other king would allow even a hint of such un-royal treatment? But Jesus does.

You see, the cross of Christ by design is not about divine power or retribution; it’s about grace. Jesus was not there in Pilate’s courtroom to receive justice. Justice for himself was the last thing on his mind. He’s in that room for the injustice of it all. This is the world’s only absolutely innocent One. This is the world’s only perfectly holy One. This is the One by whom all perfection is measured. But he’s not there to treat his enemies, his torturers, his executioners as they deserve. Nor is he there to treat us as we deserve. He’s there because he’s the God of grace.

He’s there because his mission from his conception and birth has been to take our punishment upon himself. Isaiah saw it so clearly seven centuries before it happened, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:5). He knew all too well why he was standing there silently enduring the most heinous injustice in all of the world’s sinful history. The Father demanded that hell was the punishment for the sins of the world. Jesus was there to take it for us.

And in exchange he gives us his holiness. With the justice of God satisfied by his sufferings and death, the Father declared the world’s sins forgiven, every one of them. They’ve been washed away. By faith in Jesus that forgiveness is ours. And now we stand before God in the holiness of Christ. You talked about ironic! Imagine that—all those sins that haunt you, that burden your conscience, that drive a wedge between you and peace with God have been replaced with the righteousness of Christ. And there’s nothing we did or can do to earn it; it’s all by grace because Jesus was nailed to a cross.

And by his grace he has now called us into his kingdom. In his kingdom he pours out the blessings of his grace on us richly and daily. Each day we live in the forgiveness of sins. Each day he assures us of our place in his heavenly kingdom where sin will not mar our bliss. In a world in which we often feel like we don’t belong, we can be certain that we belong to him forever by his grace. Solely by his grace. He does not treat us as our sins deserve; instead, he pours out his grace on us.

Jesus reigns from the wood of the cross, his divine fount of grace.

Many are the days in which we wish the Lord Jesus would return as King of kings and reveal his almighty power in putting a quick end to all evil in our world. Surely we see enough of it every day. It seems as if our world wants nothing to do with Jesus or his word. But Jesus doesn’t blast them with his judgment. He waits. He lingers. He is patient. He’s full of grace, just as he was on this day of his crucifixion. He waits because he wants us to experience more of his grace in this life as we take to heart his comforting words of forgiveness. He waits because he wants us, in response to his grace, to share his grace with every last sinner in this world. It’s a difficult truth for us to understand, but Jesus died even for those who hate him. But that also assures me that he died for me, for you. And that’s what makes him our King. Jesus reigns from the wood of the cross, his divine fount of grace.

Part II.

When you search for an earthly example of deep and pure love, you recall a mother’s love for her child, don’t you? It’s sad but true that mothers are likely to continue loving their children who even terribly abuse them.

That situation would compare closely with what happened here to Jesus if it weren’t for this one great truth—these were sinful creatures abusing the love of their divine creator. And because that’s true, who would blame Jesus if at some point in this heinous treatment Jesus had cried, “Enough!”? Who would have blamed Jesus if he had wrestled the whip from the hand of the solider and applied it with almighty force to all of them? Who would blame Jesus if had caused the earth to open and swallow all of them?

In fact, would we have blamed Jesus if, at some point during Good Friday, Jesus had cried out to his Father, “Enough!”? Just why should he endure the punishment for the sins of the world? Why not come down from that cross?

In a word: love. First, love for his heavenly Father. In this world even when two people love each other deeply, they aren’t always on the same page. They may not share the same opinion about what direction they should go. But not when it comes to the Father and the Son. In their perfect love for one another they had one plan, one purpose, one goal, one heart and one mind.

But it’s also his love for us, all of us. God so loved the world, the whole world full of sinners, that he gave his one and only Son. Divine love for sinners didn’t simply lead Jesus to the cross; it drove him. It allowed him to endure not just the inhuman treatment at the hands of his enemies, but the injustice of the cross itself. And as he’s pinned to that cross, suspended between heaven and earth, his words reveal that heart of love for his mother, the criminal on the cross who repented, his enemies, the whole world full of sinners. His love for all was declared to the world when he did not cry out, “Enough!” but “It is finished!” That’s what makes him our King.

Jesus reigns from the wood of the cross, his saving act of love.

Jesus knew that, in order to love you eternally and to experience your love in return, he had to endure the cross. He could not be your King without first being your sacrifice. In fact, he’s known that forever. And yet we doubt his love. We tend to measure his love for us on our outward circumstance at any given moment. We make a mess of things and then we wonder why our loving Savior doesn’t help us out. The truth is he already did. He endured the cross for you to help you forever. He has shared his word of love with you and has made you his own. He wants to share his love with you forever. So cling by faith to his cross. Hold on to him reigning from the cross as your King. That’s his saving love for you. May his love comfort you in this life and motivate you to do great things for him. Amen.