The Lord Jesus Christ is the very Word of God in the Flesh. He is the Word by whom all things are made, who has become true Man, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in order to obtain eternal Life for all the children of men. And He alone has the Word of Life for you.
But the Word that Jesus has for you and yours, the Word that He speaks to you, is the Word of His Cross and suffering. And that Word of the Cross is not simply hard for you to bear; it is not simply difficult for you to comprehend; it is impossible for you. You cannot bear it or believe it, not by any reason or strength of yours, and not according to any of your own wisdom and experience.
It’s not enough for you to try harder, to study longer, to work smarter, or to pray more sincerely. You cannot comprehend the Word of the Cross, just as you could not atone for your own sins or accomplish redemption and salvation for yourself or anyone else. It’s not something you could ever do as a finite creature, far less as a fallen, sinful mortal. Nor is it anything you would ever want or choose to do in your native sinfulness, but a burden you would rather flee at all costs.
It is the Holy Spirit who enables you to hear and receive and bear the Word of the Cross of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit opens your heart and mind to comprehend it; and it is by His gracious work that you believe and trust it, love it, and cling to it for Life, although it sounds like death itself.
The Cross is not only the curse and consequence of sin — although it certainly is that. The Cross is the culmination of all the pain and suffering that sin has caused within God’s good Creation. It is the culmination of all the death and damnation that you and all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve have brought upon yourselves, from which you could never have set yourself free. As such, left to yourself, you could not bear the Cross, because it would surely destroy you.
But the Cross is not only all of that. It is also — and all the more so — the very Glory of God for the salvation of the world, as it is the means whereby the Lord God Himself, in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, suffered and died the curse and consequence that you and all people deserved. He bore and comprehended the Cross, atoned for sin, and defeated death forever.
And so it is that, by and from the Cross of Christ Jesus — in and with His crucified and risen Body — the Holy Spirit is poured out upon you through the forgiveness of all your sins. It all belongs together. And it all comes to you from outside of yourself; otherwise you would never have it.
It is from His Cross that Christ Jesus hands over His Spirit; and in His Resurrection from the dead He then breathes that same Spirit upon His disciples — by and with the speaking of His Word of Absolution — whereby all your sins are taken away. Your sins no longer accuse or condemn you, and the devil no longer has any charge to bring against you. You are set free from sin and death.
The Holy Spirit breathes this forgiveness upon you from the Cross of Christ, from the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus. And so, too, with that forgiveness He gives you Christ Jesus Himself. Heaven itself would be void and bare if the Lord Jesus were not there. But He is not only there; He is here, He is with you. The Holy Spirit lays Him upon your heart through the Ministry of the Gospel, by the forgiveness of all your sins, unto faith and Life and eternal Salvation with God.
As you have heard this morning, the Holy Spirit brings you into this Life with God in Christ Jesus through the narrow and painful opening of His Cross and Passion. As a disciple of the One who has been crucified for you and your transgressions, His Cross is now also laid upon you, that you should carry it after Him. You are a student in the school of His Cross. And that is for your good. It is for repentance unto Life. It is for the strengthening of your faith in Christ Jesus, your Savior.
By the way of the Cross you are taught — and so, by the way of the Cross, you learn — to die with your Lord: To die to yourself, to this world, and to your sin. By the Cross you learn to die; and so, by the Word of the Cross — by the Word and Spirit of God in Christ, by His Gospel — you also learn to live with Christ Jesus: by faith in Him, and not by any of your own works and efforts.
It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It’s not about making a life for yourself; it is rather a case of dying to yourself, in order to rise and really to live in and with Christ Jesus.
But think of how often you are tempted to suppose that you are making a life for yourself; that you are feeding yourself, clothing yourself, providing yourself with a home and shelter, insuring your life, establishing foundations, and building up a legacy to hand over to your descendants.
All such thinking is presumptuousness in the presence of God. It is idolatry. You cannot feed and clothe yourself, nor is it you who opens up your own hand to satisfy all your needs and desires.
So the Cross teaches you to trust in the only One who can save you, because the Cross makes plain that you cannot survive by any wisdom, reason, strength, or ingenuity of your own. Indeed, there is this fragile precariousness to your life in this world, which daily reminds you of your weakness, of your utter inability to keep you and your family safe and secure. Every surgery is a kind of death. Every time you lay down to sleep, it is like a little burial. Every goodbye is like a final departure. And every birth includes a reminder of your sinful condition and your frail mortality.
Every day there is the chance of death. Every breath you take and every moment of your life is by grace alone. You did not give yourself life, and you cannot preserve it by anything within you.
The Cross towers over everything. It encompasses the height and depth and width of your entire life in this world — and all of creation. It fills every tiny detail, every nook and cranny. And yet, that Cross is not laid upon you to crush and destroy you forever, but to teach you repentance, to teach you faith — to bring you to repentance and faith — so that you would not rely upon yourself, but find your comfort and your hope and your true joy in Christ Jesus alone, who by His Cross — by His death — has destroyed the reign of death and taken away the devil’s power over you.
And in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, He has turned your grief and mourning into great rejoicing, as He has brought about the New Creation in His own crucified and risen Body, and as He has opened up Paradise to you and to all who believe and are baptized in His Name.
You do not see it now, not with your own eyes. There is no empirical evidence to prove it. You have only the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, your Savior. But that is exactly what you need, as He teaches you by His Word and Holy Spirit to trust in Him, come hell or high water against you.
And by faith you do see Him in the Liturgy of His Gospel, in the waters of your Holy Baptism, in the preaching of His Word of forgiveness, and in His Body given and His Blood poured out for you and for the many, unto the Life everlasting. You know that He speaks the Truth. The Spirit Himself testifies by the Gospel that Jesus is the Truth, that He is the Way, and that He is the Life.
What is more, He beholds you. He sees you in His love for you. And He is with you always.
The Day will come, that great and glorious Day of the Resurrection of all flesh, when you will see Him with your own two eyes. You will see Him, your crucified and risen Lord and God, your living Savior and Redeemer. You will see Him from your own glorified and living body. Even if your mortal body has died and returned to the dust whence it was taken, the Lord will raise it up again, and it will be glorious, immortal, and imperishable. Then you shall see the Lord Jesus as He is, and you will be like Him in body, soul, and spirit, forever and ever.
No one can snatch you out of His hand, who loves you and gave Himself for you. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that can take you away from Him or take away the joy that is yours in Him.
Now no more can death appall, now no more the grave enthrall. For Christ has opened Paradise, and His saints in Him shall rise. Alleluia!
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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