Holy Monday, 2024
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Mark 14:1-15:46
Holy Monday
March 25, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
God gave this Law to Moses, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:22-23).
Jesus committed no sin. But because of our sins, God, “Made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Having never committed any sin, Jesus takes on our sin and is declared to be a sinner in our place. He willingly takes on the curse, having been hanged on a tree. Because our sins are attributed or “imputed” to Him, He also suffers death.
God cannot die. But God became man in the person of Jesus Christ for this very purpose: to die. Death is the unnatural separation of the soul from the body. This is something that God never intended for His creation. And because all men sin—all fall short of the glory of God—thus, all will die. Even Jesus, Who committed no sin, died. And because Jesus died, even though we die, we live, because Jesus lives.
When we speak of death, we speak of death in two ways: temporal death and eternal death. The wages for sin is both. Because we sin, we are deserving not only of temporal death, that is, dying in this life—our souls leaving our bodies and our bodies being laid in the grave, but also eternal death, that is, eternal punishment in hell.
Jesus as our Paschal Lamb, our Substitute, our Scapegoat embraces being a curse by being nailed to His cross. He lays down His life for the life of the world. He suffers both temporal death and the torment of hell when He is forsaken by His Father. Hell is not only a place of eternal torment, it is a condition in which men are rejected from the presence of God, that is to say, in which they are forsaken of and by God. So when Jesus cries out from the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He is actually forsaken by His Father, rejected from His Father’s presence, alone, with no one to save Him. And when Jesus cries out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” these words are by no means the words of despair. Rather these are the words of Jesus giving notice that He is, that that moment in time, enduring extreme agony of the soul and pains which are truly of hell. His Father turns His back on the Son. He is a worm and no man; He is scorned by mankind and despised by the people. He is poured out like water, all His bones are out of joint; his heart melts like wax; His strength is dried up; His tongue cleaves to His jaw; and He is laid in the dust of death.
He suffers the full blast of hell in a mere few hours. And in so doing, He satisfies the punishment that the Law demand it do to us, and then He died. He cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last. We’ll hear Luke’s account on Wednesday where he records Jesus saying, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Thus, he suffers not only an eternity of hell in a mere few hours, but He then suffers temporal death. His body and His soul separate and His body is laid in the tomb.
All this He does, of course, because He is the Good Shepherd and He lays down His life for His sheep—for you and for me. And He did not despair throughout any of this. He did not doubt that His Father would see Him through. He was not sad. This was His mission. He was glad to do this. He accomplishes the salvation of the world because He loves His Father and both He and His Father love us.
So even though He is forsaken by God, the Father’s declaration is still true, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus also says earlier in the Gospels, “The reason the Father loves Me is because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”
Because Jesus has been given this authority from His Father, He also has authority to raise us up again. Jesus suffered temporal death and the eternal punishment and torments of hell for us, so that even though all men suffer temporal death, if we have faith in Him, we will not die eternally, but we will live. This promise we have from God.
In +Jesus’ name.
