The third Sunday in Lent, February 28, 2016
2 Cor.4:7-15, Isaiah 53:3-12
Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who gladly gives himself to us. Amen.
Pastor Kai Nilsen asks us in his book what our image of God is. And he said that our answers to this question form and affect our relationship with God and the way we see the world, others and our own life. Then, what is your image of God? How do you understand God? Do you believe that God is angry? Judgmental? Or loving? Or do you believe that God is gracious and merciful? Pastor Kai confidently tells us that he was able to be revitalized as he reflected the image of God through Jesus who came to this earth as human. He confesses that he “rediscovered the wellspring of the renewable energy of God’s grace”. This word grace is easily found and heard in our daily conversations or reading both inside and outside the church. And, as believers of Jesus, we often misuse this word grace without truly knowing the depth and weight that it carries.
Do you know what the difference of grace and mercy is? Grace is God giving us what we can't earn or deserve, while mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve.
Grace is at the heart of Christian faith, and this grace is revealed the most clearly at the cross of Christ. It is grace that the Son of God took on flesh, and it is grace that he taught us how to live — but it is especially grace that he died on the cross in our place from the result of our sins, our iniquities. The cross is where we were supposed to be and where our destination would be without Jesus’ redemptive action.
Surely enough, talking about the cross might sound like an old cliché and you might have heard about it so many times. But because it is an old cliché, sometimes we easily neglect and assume that we know enough about the cross. But let us be honest. How much do we spend time thinking and studying deeply and deeply about the cross? And how much time do we spend to truly understand how we’ve been made righteous to God? The reality is that most of us don’t know about or meditate on it as much as we think we do. So today, through looking closely into Isaiah chapter 53, we are going to walk deeper into realizing the weight of the cross – how Jesus suffered and what it means to us.
When I was young, I used to question myself and God, “Why is the cross so important for me to know? What does it have to do with me?” But I couldn’t ask anybody at the church. Since I was a pastor’s kid, it was either that I knew it already or understand it or not, I just had to believe that it is important. After college, when I left behind all I had and poured all my time to pray and meet with God, God very softly and kindly told me why I had to treasure the cross inside my heart as I live. I will share with you how God spoke to my heart at the end of the sermon, so I hope that you don’t fall asleep until then.
I believe that it was not just me to question why the cross is so important to us. And it is indeed important, because your faith is a representation of how much you understand the basic knowledge about God and what God has provided for you. It also leads you to worship because you can’t worship what you don’t know.
In chapter 53, the writer continuously mentions about one person, ‘he’, and you will find so many descriptive words about him. Let’s take a look at them. There is… “despised”, “rejected”, “suffering”, “infirmity”, “disease”… In other translation, ‘he’ is also described as the man of “sorrow” and “grief”. All these words, they are what we, human beings, use to describe our pain and sickness. What does that mean? By the use of such words, the Bible tells us that ‘he’ went through every single emotions and pains that a human can experience. And because of this, ‘he’ was “afflicted”, “wounded”, “crushed”, “bruised”, “oppressed”, “stricken”, and “cut off from the land of the living”. And who is this ‘he’? The messiah, Jesus Christ… Right? Then, in the first place, why did he come to us? What for? Why did he experience such agony and suffering while no one esteemed him nor paid attention to him?
Isaiah is clearly telling us that it is because of us, you and me. “He was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our iniquities.” It was in our place that the Messiah suffered. Precisely, in Hebrew, our transgression means treason and rebellion against God. And it is true that Jesus was nailed on the cross because of his disciple’s betrayal. But it is also true that our sin is considered as rebellion in God’s eyes. The relationship between God and us was broken by our sin. Do you see the connection there?
This entire chapter is evidently and fully describing how severe our penalty would have been. It says very clearly that all sin must be judged. And the penalty must be paid. But here comes grace, abundant grace from God. This is what is says in The Message: “But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.”
Now let’s look at verse 6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Here’s one part that we easily neglect as we interpret such text. The writer uses the pronoun, “we” and it means that the writer himself is included. When you say “we,” yourself has to be included in the group, otherwise, “we” becomes “you.” Are you with me? In other words, the first person, “I” should be included in order to become “we.” But we often overlook ourselves when we talk about sins. Preachers can easily fall into this and easily point their fingers toward the audiences and not themselves. But it isn’t only the leaders who preach or teach that overlook our own sins. When we talk about others who commit horrible crimes, and when we talk about sexuality issue, racial issue and gender issue, we point our fingers and judge them as if we are innocent and pure.
But Isaiah says that including himself, WE all have our own transgression toward God. You have unforgivable sins against God but Jesus died for you, for your sin. He was beaten, he was tortured, and he carried all of your pains and sufferings which you would eventually have. How great is his love, how great is his grace? And it is never enough to say this over and over again.
Now, back to verse 6, sheep has bad eye sight and this animal is well-known as one of headstrong animals. They don’t know what is in front of them and they sometimes go the other direction not knowing where to go. And just like the sheep, we don’t even know what it will happen after 5 minutes and we go so many other directions against God’s way trusting our own knowledge and wisdom. And even though we go through the pain and the suffering because of our sins, we still make the same mistakes over and over again.
But Jesus became the sheep like one of us and willingly became the sacrificial lamb for us, the stubborn me and you. In verse 12, Isaiah well described by saying “he poured out himself unto death.” Actually, in Hebrew, the word “poured out” means “be naked,” “uncovered,” “empty.” So we can interpret it by saying “he consumed himself until his soul and life was all gone. There was nothing left, nothing more He could give. This speaks of the totality of Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
I could go on and on explaining the deeper meaning in every word in chapter 53 since this was beautifully described about Jesus’ sacrificial love.
So now, I will share with you how God affirmed me of God's grace and love. I was uncertain of God's love and so I kept asking God as I prayed, "Lord, how much do you love me?" And God spoke to my heart: "I love you that I entered into time; because of you I used my power, because of you I lay down on the stable, because of you I shivered in the cold, because of you I slept outside, because of you I had my teeth broken, because of you I was spat on my face, because of you I went up the cross, because of you I died, because of you I came back to life and now I am here with you. This is how I love you.”
2 Cor.4:7-15, Isaiah 53:3-12
Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who gladly gives himself to us. Amen.
Pastor Kai Nilsen asks us in his book what our image of God is. And he said that our answers to this question form and affect our relationship with God and the way we see the world, others and our own life. Then, what is your image of God? How do you understand God? Do you believe that God is angry? Judgmental? Or loving? Or do you believe that God is gracious and merciful? Pastor Kai confidently tells us that he was able to be revitalized as he reflected the image of God through Jesus who came to this earth as human. He confesses that he “rediscovered the wellspring of the renewable energy of God’s grace”. This word grace is easily found and heard in our daily conversations or reading both inside and outside the church. And, as believers of Jesus, we often misuse this word grace without truly knowing the depth and weight that it carries.
Do you know what the difference of grace and mercy is? Grace is God giving us what we can't earn or deserve, while mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve.
Grace is at the heart of Christian faith, and this grace is revealed the most clearly at the cross of Christ. It is grace that the Son of God took on flesh, and it is grace that he taught us how to live — but it is especially grace that he died on the cross in our place from the result of our sins, our iniquities. The cross is where we were supposed to be and where our destination would be without Jesus’ redemptive action.
Surely enough, talking about the cross might sound like an old cliché and you might have heard about it so many times. But because it is an old cliché, sometimes we easily neglect and assume that we know enough about the cross. But let us be honest. How much do we spend time thinking and studying deeply and deeply about the cross? And how much time do we spend to truly understand how we’ve been made righteous to God? The reality is that most of us don’t know about or meditate on it as much as we think we do. So today, through looking closely into Isaiah chapter 53, we are going to walk deeper into realizing the weight of the cross – how Jesus suffered and what it means to us.
When I was young, I used to question myself and God, “Why is the cross so important for me to know? What does it have to do with me?” But I couldn’t ask anybody at the church. Since I was a pastor’s kid, it was either that I knew it already or understand it or not, I just had to believe that it is important. After college, when I left behind all I had and poured all my time to pray and meet with God, God very softly and kindly told me why I had to treasure the cross inside my heart as I live. I will share with you how God spoke to my heart at the end of the sermon, so I hope that you don’t fall asleep until then.
I believe that it was not just me to question why the cross is so important to us. And it is indeed important, because your faith is a representation of how much you understand the basic knowledge about God and what God has provided for you. It also leads you to worship because you can’t worship what you don’t know.
In chapter 53, the writer continuously mentions about one person, ‘he’, and you will find so many descriptive words about him. Let’s take a look at them. There is… “despised”, “rejected”, “suffering”, “infirmity”, “disease”… In other translation, ‘he’ is also described as the man of “sorrow” and “grief”. All these words, they are what we, human beings, use to describe our pain and sickness. What does that mean? By the use of such words, the Bible tells us that ‘he’ went through every single emotions and pains that a human can experience. And because of this, ‘he’ was “afflicted”, “wounded”, “crushed”, “bruised”, “oppressed”, “stricken”, and “cut off from the land of the living”. And who is this ‘he’? The messiah, Jesus Christ… Right? Then, in the first place, why did he come to us? What for? Why did he experience such agony and suffering while no one esteemed him nor paid attention to him?
Isaiah is clearly telling us that it is because of us, you and me. “He was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our iniquities.” It was in our place that the Messiah suffered. Precisely, in Hebrew, our transgression means treason and rebellion against God. And it is true that Jesus was nailed on the cross because of his disciple’s betrayal. But it is also true that our sin is considered as rebellion in God’s eyes. The relationship between God and us was broken by our sin. Do you see the connection there?
This entire chapter is evidently and fully describing how severe our penalty would have been. It says very clearly that all sin must be judged. And the penalty must be paid. But here comes grace, abundant grace from God. This is what is says in The Message: “But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.”
Now let’s look at verse 6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Here’s one part that we easily neglect as we interpret such text. The writer uses the pronoun, “we” and it means that the writer himself is included. When you say “we,” yourself has to be included in the group, otherwise, “we” becomes “you.” Are you with me? In other words, the first person, “I” should be included in order to become “we.” But we often overlook ourselves when we talk about sins. Preachers can easily fall into this and easily point their fingers toward the audiences and not themselves. But it isn’t only the leaders who preach or teach that overlook our own sins. When we talk about others who commit horrible crimes, and when we talk about sexuality issue, racial issue and gender issue, we point our fingers and judge them as if we are innocent and pure.
But Isaiah says that including himself, WE all have our own transgression toward God. You have unforgivable sins against God but Jesus died for you, for your sin. He was beaten, he was tortured, and he carried all of your pains and sufferings which you would eventually have. How great is his love, how great is his grace? And it is never enough to say this over and over again.
Now, back to verse 6, sheep has bad eye sight and this animal is well-known as one of headstrong animals. They don’t know what is in front of them and they sometimes go the other direction not knowing where to go. And just like the sheep, we don’t even know what it will happen after 5 minutes and we go so many other directions against God’s way trusting our own knowledge and wisdom. And even though we go through the pain and the suffering because of our sins, we still make the same mistakes over and over again.
But Jesus became the sheep like one of us and willingly became the sacrificial lamb for us, the stubborn me and you. In verse 12, Isaiah well described by saying “he poured out himself unto death.” Actually, in Hebrew, the word “poured out” means “be naked,” “uncovered,” “empty.” So we can interpret it by saying “he consumed himself until his soul and life was all gone. There was nothing left, nothing more He could give. This speaks of the totality of Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
I could go on and on explaining the deeper meaning in every word in chapter 53 since this was beautifully described about Jesus’ sacrificial love.
So now, I will share with you how God affirmed me of God's grace and love. I was uncertain of God's love and so I kept asking God as I prayed, "Lord, how much do you love me?" And God spoke to my heart: "I love you that I entered into time; because of you I used my power, because of you I lay down on the stable, because of you I shivered in the cold, because of you I slept outside, because of you I had my teeth broken, because of you I was spat on my face, because of you I went up the cross, because of you I died, because of you I came back to life and now I am here with you. This is how I love you.”