May 29, 2022 Text: Acts 1:12-26
Dear Friends in Christ,
Concordia Publishing House is the publishing arm of our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. A few years ago, they greenlighted a book entitled, Gory Deaths. Why would they publish such a book? Well, the subtitle may help a bit: Not-So-Nice Bible Stories. The book is written by Rev. Jonathan Schkade and proven to be quite popular. Yes, they are gory stories, but they are also Bible stories and we do believe that Scripture is God-breathed, right?
This morning let’s focus on two of the gory stories in the book. One is in our text for this morning from Acts 1. The other is not explicitly in the text but relates to every other story in the Bible. You will see…be patient as we view . . .
“THE GLORY IN GORY”
Let’s get to the first gory story. It starts out calm enough. Jesus has ascended to heaven as the disciples are without their leader. Kind of like getting dropped off at college. OK, now what, I am on my own. The disciples have each other but they are down a man. If I recall one of them did a dastardly deed and now we are getting to the gory story.
The Apostle Peter does the honors. “Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.” (v. 18). How do you handle those words? Do you picture the scene? Block it out? Many of us grew up in the era of Freddy Krueger, Jason and others in horror movies. It could be frightening unless you suspended belief and knew it was just Hollywood trickery. Judas’ death was no prop. It had to be horrible to see and witness. How far this disciple had fallen.
Humankind has always had horrible, bloodthirsty enemies. Satan, the one behind the actions of Judas. He too was once a follower of Jesus, but he rebelled against God and now he works on the hearts of men and women to turn them from Jesus. It all started with his deception of Adam and Eve.
Sin. 1 John 3:8 says, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning.” He brought sin into the world. He continues to wreak destruction against God’s creatures and creation.
Death. It didn’t take long for gory death to make an appearance in the Bible in the person of #’s 3 and 4 – better known as Cain and Abel. It was a slaughter over nothing more than jealousy and anger. Gory stories abound in Scripture – the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, military slaughters. Death can be graphic just like the death of Judas.
Hell. Judas not only suffered physical death, but he had the most horrific fate: eternal death. It is important we continue to talk about hell in the church. Many today want to deny its existence for their own, selfish reasons.
This death of Judas reminds us of the horrors in this life. In my profession I have seen some pretty awful things. Many of you have as well. The shootings the last few weeks again remind us in horrible, horrible ways of the depravity of man. The devil is a roaring lion who wants to devour us. Help!
We have it. The glory in gory. The death of Jesus appears as a chapter in the book Gory Deaths. It is not unthinkable or heretical to compare the two. They have a few things in common and many things different.
Judas and Jesus both died on a tree. Judas by hanging himself. Jesus nailed to the tree by others. Judas’ tree was just that. The tree of Jesus is actually a glorious tree for all who believe. It was a bad Friday when Jesus suffered and died but we now celebrate it as Good Friday. We hang crosses in our churches. We wear them around our necks. We place them on the walls of our homes. We celebrate this so-called instrument of death because it is actually an instrument of life.
Judas and Jesus died gory, bloody deaths. Judas place of death was called “Field of Blood.” We turn away from his gory death. The blood of Jesus on the other hand, “cleanses us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7). We fix our eyes on the cross we don’t turn away. We also rejoice to partake of this body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine for our life and salvation.
Both Judas and Jesus were abandoned in death. Judas’ “camp became desolate.” He died alone as he faced separation from God. Jesus was forsaken by his disciples and His Father. But this provides us comfort. He had to be forsaken to die in place. He was our sin-bearer. The promise now is that God will not leave us or forsake us.
The gory yet glorious death of Jesus assures us that all our bloodthirsty enemies have been vanquished forever. The gory death of Jesus allows us to taunt death, hell, sin, and Satan: “’Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:54-57)
Amen.