I want to begin this message with a look back at what occurred in the days just before Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. This is from Mt 20:17…Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"
(Sobering-except its as if they didn’t even hear what he said. Listen what happens next…) Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. (They were all more concerned about what was in it for them than the suffering Jesus was about to endure – they were in complete denial of the evil about to befall them.)
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Did they get what he was saying?)
A ransom is a bailout. 100 years from now, historians will look back and label this time the age of the great bailouts. Or at least, the attempts at the great bailouts! Whether or not these bailouts work is yet to be seen. One of the questions is how far should we go with them?
Do they in fact pay the debt or just put off the inevitable judgment day until the next year, next decade, next generation? If you are a student of history, you know the answer.
The truth is - we have accrued a debt we cannot pay. How did this happen? According to a recent survey 43% of Americans have grown accustom to spending more than they earn. The average family carries over $18,000 in debt outside of their mortgage, $8,000 of which is credit cards. Figure in our national debt and the amounts become staggering.
In the early 80’s a clock was set up in Times Square to track our national debt. You could stand there and watch the amount go up. If you divided that debt among all the families in America at the time, it amounted to nearly $50,000 a piece. That’s not personal debt, that’s government debt that we are responsible for. The numbers today are many times that.
But the real problem isn’t economic. Nor is it political. These are only symptoms. Our real debt is spiritual. We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. All our attempts to pay this debt in our strength or effort just puts off the inevitable judgment that is coming our way.
I want you to imagine a clock that tallies our sins and the sins of our nation. With every sin, the number grows. Every sin increases the debt. It’s a debt far beyond anything we can pay. When the Lord told Cain the debt he had incurred as a result of murdering his brother, Cain said, “My punishment is more that I can bear, more than I can carry.” He had no idea how right he was.
So how is this debt to be paid? Let’s read these words together from 1 Peter 2:22-24 "He (Jesus) committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:22-24
Jesus had no sin. He had no debt before God. Yet he chose to take our debt upon himself. There is an economy in heaven that makes no sense to us because our sin has so distorted our thinking that we can’t even conceive of real holiness - of living without being in debt.
One of the great spiritual truths in the economy of heaven is this, “The soul that sins shall die.” Freedom is always a gift. It comes from God. But when we turn that freedom into license to do as we please instead of as we ought, we move into dangerous ground. God wasn’t trying to restrict our freedom; he was telling us how to thrive within our freedom!
God warned Adam and Eve of this reality in the Garden. “You can eat of any tree in the Garden but this one. If you eat from it you will die.” But Satan, the liar said, “You won’t die, you’ll become like God.”
The second truth in the economy of heaven is that everyone must eventually pay their own debt.But we can’t. How could Cain atone for the murder of his brother? To atone means to make right again. Cain spilled his brother’s blood, and life is in the blood. The Lord confronted Cain saying, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” Gen 4:10
How much blood is crying out before the Lord? The murders, the genocides, the abortions, the starvations, the abandonments, the wars. Jesus said if we scorn or despise or ridicule our brother or sister, it is murder in the eyes of heaven. The debt meter keeps clicking!
How will we ever pay our debt? If our national debt is incomprehensible, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the debt of our sin. Given enough time and good management it is conceivable that our financial debts might be repaid. But we can never repay the debt of our sin. If we really knew the enormous weight of the sin debt we owe, like Cain we would cry out, “My punishment is more that I can bear, more than I can carry!” And we would be right!
So who will carry it for us? Who will pay this incredible debt? Who will go that far for us and why? I cannot tell you why, except there is one who loves us with a love not of this world.
I can tell you who. God sent his one and only Son to become the atoning sacrifice for our sin. He took on the load of our sin debt and carried it to the cross. He who knew no sin, had no debt, willingly became sin for us so that we might become righteous, debt free, before God.
He looked down from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” And with his last breath, he cried out, “Tetellestai!” It is finished, paid in full, debt erased.
In a few minutes we will gather around the meal Jesus has prepared for us in his body and blood. It’s a gift we could never buy or deserve. But it comes to us as a gift to be received by faith. In it we remember the cost of our salvation. This is not a bail out, it is the payment in full of our debt, not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Jesus, the sinless lamb of God.
Heb 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” But not just any blood will do. It must be the blood of one without sin, without debt. And it must flow from the one who offers himself as a substitute in the place of another. Is there anyone who qualifies to do this great thing? Is there anyone who would go that far for us?
The Bible tells us there is only one. His name is Jesus. He is both qualified and willing to go that far. Will you join me on Thursday and Friday night at 7 pm as we hear the rest of this amazing story. One Friday we will be hosting the rest of the Whitefish churches.
Together we will gather under the cross and I’ll be attempting to answer the question about the torture that occurred in Jesus crucifixion. Why was he tortured and what’s the meaning of it all. You might be surprised at what you learn. I hope you will be here and invite a friend. AMEN
