Lent 2008 – The Gospel According to Jesus' Enemies

"Let His blood be on us and on our children"

Text: Matthew 27:24-25

A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of all men bearing;

And laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing.

Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, to slaughter led without complaint,

That spotless life to offer;

Bears shame, and stripes, and wounds and death, anguish and mockery, and saith,

"Willing all this I suffer." (TLH 142)

The theme for our meditations this Lenten season is "The Gospel According to Jesus' Enemies." This evening we further explore that theme by examining that chilling cry of the Jewish people on Good Friday "Let His blood be on us, and on our children." The text that will form the basis for our meditation this evening is found in the 27^th Chapter of Matthew's Gospel:

Matthew 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." ²⁵ And all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children."

These are the verbally inspired words of our God. Confident that our God will bless us through the study of these words, so we pray, “Sanctify us through your truth, O Lord. Your word is truth.” Amen.

Fellow Christians:

Lawmakers can pass law after law, yet it is really only when decisions affect themselves or, more to the point this evening, their children that one can truly and clearly identify commitment and conviction. For example, I used to take all of the talk about the looming insolvency of the Social Security Program as so much fear-mongering and politicking. My justification was that not only would Congress not mess with their own livelihood, they certainly wouldn't endanger that of their own children or parents. This little bit of naivety on my part was crushed when I discovered (not that long ago) that Federal employees have their own separate retirement plan (the Federal Thrift Savings Plan, which is in no danger whatsoever, thank you very much) and that the vast majority of lawmakers have so much money that they and their children will never have to rely on Social Security.

Same with the condition of D.C. public schools and the steadfast refusal of congress to allow students to attend alternate schools through some sort of school voucher program. How bad could those public schools be if congressmen and women send their own children? Naïve again. Congressional delegates don't send their children to D.C. public schools; their children attend private schools that only the well-to-do can afford.

The same sorts of things pop up from time to time much closer to home. When I hear that a federal meat inspector will not allow his children to eat certain meat products, even though he daily stamps those same products as safe for the general public, that tells me something. The point is that applying a set of circumstances to the general public is one thing; applying them to one's own children is another. It would indeed be a heartless monster that would willingly endanger or sacrifice his own child for his own personal gain. One might even endanger himself, but who would risk his own precious children?

With this general truth in mind, we return to those unimaginably horrible words in our text – to me among the most chilling words ever spoken: "His blood be on us and on our children."

This Lenten season we are examining those striking instances in the Passion History where Jesus' enemies made statements that carried a profound truth, but not according to the original intention of the words as they were first spoken. So also the last time I addressed you on this topic we heard the words of Caiaphas and his, "It is expedient that one man should die for the people." While his statement was originally intended as a cold and calculating suggestion of murder to secure the Sanhedrin's position of power, you and I hear those words as pure gospel. Yet as chilling as Caiaphas' words might have been in the way he originally intended them, they pale in comparison to that which we study this evening: "His blood be on us and on our children."

We might easily miss the full import and terror of these words because they are almost immediately "filtered" by our faith-filled Christian ears. That means that no matter how they were originally spoken, you and I today can't help but mix them with such comforting statements of gospel truth as: "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin" and "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19) In this sense you and I hear those words - "His blood be on us and on our children" – and we are actually willing and able to add our " Amen!" We can do so because we fully believe that Jesus Christ gave his very lifeblood to pay our sin debt. That's how you and I say and mean these words – Christ's blood be on us because by it alone we are given life.

But that's clearly not the way the Jews meant what they said.

What is it then, exactly, that we learn from these words as they were originally spoken? What do we learn about the Jews, and what, thereby, do we learn about ourselves? Remember that the old Adam within each of us is in every way as evil as anything we read about others. Examples of sin are therefore given to us not in an effort to make us feel arrogant or superior, but to learn to recognize and either prevent or eliminate this same demonstration of evil in ourselves.

The first thing that we learn about all those who spoke those infamous words is just how rock solid certain they must have been of their actions and goals. Again, it is one thing to take a personal risk; it is quite another to risk one's own children. Add to that the fact that these folks were not only willing to place themselves and their children at risk; they were willing to gamble an eternity in hell, both for themselves and for their children!

Ask yourself this question: On what today would you dare to risk your eternal future, together with the eternal souls of your dear children? I would hope and pray that the answer of every single soul here today would be that you would, under no circumstances, take such a risk based on anything other than that which has been revealed to us in God's Holy Word – on which you do indeed already base your eternal future. Nothing else in all creation could ever be trusted with so great a treasure. You and I stake the eternal future of all that is dear to us on the gospel promises of Jesus Christ, as revealed to us on the pages of our verbally inspired Bibles. Our basic foundation can be no less, nor could it be any more certain.

Understand that love for children is a near-universal human trait. You and I have no corner on that market. We therefore have no reason to believe that the Jews that spoke those terrible words to Pilate also loved their children, and would never think to place their children in such eternal danger if they were not absolutely certain that they were right.

Yet they were, in fact, absolutely wrong – terrifyingly, catastrophically wrong; and still they spoke those terrible words with absolutely rock-solid certainty.

Learn from this. Recognize that conviction alone is not enough. In fact conviction, apart from the Word of God, is most often the very worst of all possible worlds. Hear that again: Conviction, apart from the Word of God, is most often the very worst of all possible worlds.

The devil loves nothing more than an adamant, fully convinced unbeliever – and he knows that the best way to get folks into that sort of predicament is to encourage human being to follow foolish advice like: "Look for the answers within" and "Just go with your gut." Then, once you have arrived at what you instinctively believe to be the truth, Satan would have you clamp down on that worthless scrap of nonsense like a bulldog on boot leather.

The question the devil never wants you to ask yourself is whether or not you really want to base heaven or hell – for you and for your children – on any sort of a "gut instinct."

In reality the Jews probably made two mistakes. Not only did they gamble eternity on the basis of their own human opinions, they first based those opinions on the arguments and convictions of others. It was the scribes and Pharisees that feared and hated Jesus. They are the ones who, in turn, stirred up the crowds and called for the death of God's Son – unabashedly so. The message, the warning, ought to be obvious. Not only is it foolish in the extreme to trust our eternal future to our own instincts or opinions, so also it is just as foolish to entrust our immortal souls to the whims of another human being.

And so we are thus now well and truly warned by these words from the Jews on Good Friday.

Or are we?

To imagine that this is the only danger, the only threat posed by Satan in this area is to focus on the obvious frontal attack, and to miss altogether the devil's deadly flanking maneuver. In fact I would imagine that it is fairly obvious to everyone here this evening that it would indeed be foolish to endanger your own or your child's immortal soul by guessing at the path to heaven, or by blindly entrusting your child's soul to the doctrine or convictions of another human being. Again, if that is all that there is, then we are already well and truly defended. A quick look around will immediately tell you that there is more.

Jesus himself warned against offending one of his little ones. Today we don't generally do that by calling for the murder of Jesus Christ, and calling down any guilt for that action upon ourselves and our children. We do that today by skipping Bible Class and worship services whenever we don't feel like going – and then are surprised when our children grow up to do the same. We offend our little ones with the language we use, the television we watch, the anger we exhibit, and the rationalizations that we employ, and then stand puzzled and perplexed when we see them fall into the very same sins. These are our sorts of sins, and we call them down upon our children whenever they witness what we do. All of these sins, and countless others, all serve to effectively shout out those same words we read in our text: "His blood be on us and on our children."

Yet here is where our similarity with those Jews in our text, and with the unbelieving world around us, ends; for our sins do not cause us to despair, they drive us, full of shame, to the cross of our Lord. There the Lord died not for the good and lovely, but for miserable failures like you and me. And there he made you and me into new creations – not unblemished manikins but forgiven sinners. There he washed us, cleansed us, removed every blemish of sin and set our feet on the path of glory. There he pronounces to each of us: "I forgive you."

"His blood be on us and on our children"? Absolutely. And on every single one of our friends and neighbors – for in the blood of Jesus Christ we rest our hope for eternal life. Learning as we have this evening from the folly of the Jews who first used such words, we do not use them lightly. Yet tonight we are reminded again that there simply is no other hope for sinners like us. We have no options, no comfort, no solace apart from the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which alone cleanses us from all sin. His blood indeed be upon us, and thanks be to God, who has given us victory and life through that lifeblood of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.