March 20, 2024 – Lent Text: Luke 23:26-34
Dear Friends in Christ,
There are less and less Christians in the United States. A middle schooler is shamed by his teacher in front of the class for saying he believes God created the world. A woman loses her job for refusing to go along with immoral and unethical behavior. People give caricatures of Christians that are unflattering. Does any of this bother you? Should we look for pity? Is that what Jesus would say?
Jesus sure makes for a sympathetic figure on his way to Golgotha. Actually, pathetic might be a better word. His back is shredded. Face is mangled from the punches. Blood is dripping from the thorns. He has been up all night and is exhausted, he can’t even carry his own cross. And you Christians, this is your Savior from sin? Ha!
No wonder the women were mourning. They were in tears at the brutality. As He walks to the cross does Jesus need our . . .
“SYMPATHY”
Well, does he? Look at the text. “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.” Just five days earlier, Jesus had wept for the people of Jerusalem. Because they rejected the Messiah, they would experience God’s judgment. History records that is what happened to mothers and children when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem a generation later.
Jesus uses a proverb for a warning. “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (v. 31). Jesus is saying that if he, the innocent one, was tortured and put to death, how much more could the sinful inhabitants of Jerusalem expect to suffer and die? Could we turn that saying toward us? If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, was put on trial and suffered, why would we sinners be surprised when the same happens to us?
When we watch Christianity decline, when we see portions of society leaving godly values behind, when we might experience some form of rejection because of our Jesus connection, do we see ourselves as victims in need of sympathy? If we do, then we have lost perspective. We still are blessed in our freedom to worship and to wear a cross and to say a prayer and witness to our faith. Look around the world brothers and sisters at our fellow Christians in other parts of the world who are hiding for their faith, smuggling in their Bibles and going to jail for preaching Christ crucified. If we are playing the woe-is-me mentality than we are sinfully self-centered.
God never told us to play the victim. Self-pity is the opposite of what we see in
Jesus. His pity is not for himself but for the women – and the children and their husbands and all their countrymen who are going to suffer. His pity extends to the cross, “Father, forgive them.” Forgive who? The disciples? Those poor women? No, the soldiers who are driving the nails through his hands and feet.
Jesus’ words reveal a heart focused not on self but on others. Jesus had sympathy for us. Relish that for a moment. Jesus didn’t just weep for you, he took God’s punishment for you. He died for you. He shed his blood to cover you, to hide you from the destruction to come. Through pain and fatigue and insult, you were on his mind.
Jesus can sympathize with us in our weakness. His heart still goes out to us when we suffer, including and especially when we suffer for his name. Don’t wallow in self-pity. Look past yourself to him. Let him help you carry your crosses and give you strength in His Word and Sacraments.
He allows us to have sympathy for our brothers and sisters in the faith who are struggling with pain and temptation. We have fellow Christians feeling alone because of the attacks on their faith. Our Savior would have us pray for them, reach out to them, and remind them of his promises.
Then our Lord would direct our sympathy toward our enemies. There is a destruction coming that is worse than what happened to Jerusalem. The people of the world, even the ones who make our lives harder as Christians, don’t know it’s coming! Just like those putting God on trial. They do not realize they are fighting against the Son of God, and they have no idea how badly that fight will end for them.
What can we do for these misguided souls? Warn them. Pray for them. Tell them about God’s forgiveness. Point them to a Savior whose compassion knows no limit. In other words, let’s save the sympathy for others. God can change their hearts, like he did a centurion soldier – “Surely he was the Son of God.” May that be our prayer.
Amen.