The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John:
The Sermon:
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 140:1–9, 13
✠ Lection: Hosea 5:15b—6:6; Exodus 12:1–11; John 18:1—19:42
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John begins and ends in a garden. So does man’s redemption story. So, this evening, we meditate upon the bookends of this Passion and upon the one that takes us back to the first garden, seeking to grasp how all three present to those who need to hear it the Good News of God’s salvation. They tell of life taken and Life given in divine reversal that is eternally sufficient to quell man’s rebellious and sinful heart. That heart, when made anew, longs to have the garden restored; to no longer exist under the curse of sweat, thorn, and birth pang. Jesus leads into a garden and all who are His disciples desire to follow Him there.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. He made the heavens and the earth and every living thing upon it, both plant and animal. He made the first garden, formed man in His own image, placed him in the garden to tend it, and gave him a suitable helpmeet, a bride taken out of his own side as he slept. Eden was rightly called Paradise, for it was paradisical in that man and woman had all that they needed including perfect communion with the Lord. His first covenant was simple: Enjoy all that I have given to you, for I have created and sustain you in perfect joy, and it is very good. But you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This covenant they broke, fell into sin and shame, and where they had once sought to be in the Lord’s presence wherever He walked, now they fled from Him in the garden. From themselves, they had taken life and entered into a place never intended for them: under God’s wrath and judgment. Yet, the great divine reversal quickly appeared in accordance with His own heart and with sign that it shall be accomplished at His only-begotten Cost, for the Lord came in the garden in search of the sinners, calling out to them, pronouncing the tragic effect of their sin, yet bestowing both promise and mercy upon them by telling of the Seed of the Woman Who would come and by casting them out of the garden. They had to be booted out, to be removed due their sin, lest they live in it forever by staying and eating of the Tree of Life, and thus could only then reenter Paradise through the forgiveness of their sins, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus, God’s providence ordained all events of history to bring about the fullness of time so that when had come, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, condemned by our sin and by the original sin inherited from our first parents. Jesus was born of a woman and grew in wisdom and stature in a town in Galilee. God is Jesus of Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Indeed, He can, for He is Jesus, Yahweh Who saves.
Jesus repeatedly met with His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, a place named for the precious oil extracted from the olives hanging upon its trees, for when this Son was ultimately pressed to the point of death, even the death of the cross, what flowed from Him was a blessed anointing unto eternal life, the bestowal of His Spirit, and the creation of His Bride. On the night when He was betrayed, Gethsemane became a place of pressing upon our Lord and as the first garden would’ve served as our forever prison had the Lord let us remain there, Jesus turned not away but walked in the garden of His own prison into which the vicious betrayer with guards having lanterns, torches, and weapons entered during the night darkness of their sin and unbelief.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Hearts steeped in unrepentant sin behold Salvation with their very eyes and ears, but seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear. And the Light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Jesus’ response, literally saying “I AM,” shone forth the brightness of His true identity and in the face of such, darkness could not stand. Now when He said to them, “I AM,” they drew back and fell to the ground. But the judgment and destruction of sinners in that moment would not accomplish His and His Father’s will; it would not restore man unto the true garden of God. Paradise would not exist unless Jesus of Nazareth replanted it and reconciled man to God. Thus, He withdrew His power and laid down His life of His own accord. Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I have told you that I AM,” this time Himself submitting to them on our behalf, in our place; giving Himself over into the hands of sinners for sinners’ sake, saying, “Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way.”
And they arrested Jesus and bound Him, and those there in the garden who once desired to be with Him fled in shame from His presence. Yet, He condemns us not. The troops led Him away at the Father’s bidding just as Isaac willingly ascended the mountain with Abraham placing the wood upon his back. But this Son was not spared. He opened not His mouth to deter the sacrifice, but carried out the work necessary to replant the garden. Jesus was crucified; a sweet aroma offered by the high priests as was their duty of office. They know not what they do.
Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain; many like Him. In every place where people gather at the foot of the Crucified, here is a new, eternal garden growing, a plot of holy ground where Christ’s Spirit calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith. Man’s dark sin cannot overcome the power of the Light of the World Who was planted into the earth to spring forth Himself on the third day to restore a garden greater than the first; one entered into by the blood and water pressed from His side that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish, joyous to possess Paradise once again by His sacrifice. This spiritual paradise is for now wherever two or three are gathered in His name around the altar that feeds unto you the fruit of Jesus’ Body and Blood; He, the true Tree of Life. He is the divine Reversal. He is the Paradise Restorer, the Great Reconciler, The Sacrificed Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world; Who plants, feeds, and waters His blessed Garden, the Church, in the sure hope that what she receives now is a heavenly taste of the fullness of Paradise to come. Long for it, for into it He ever leads you to join Him. Life Himself has been planted to spring up in you a garden never to be uprooted or taken away again. It is finished. Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, I AM has done this.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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