February 2020
Order of Service: The Order of the Confessional Service, Page 46.
Psalmody: Psalm 40, Page 132.
Scripture Lesson: Passion History – Lesson 1.
Sermon: “Behold Our Savior, A Man Of Sorrows, And Acquainted With Grief: Behold Him Praying In Sorrow In Gethsemane!” Isaiah 53:3a
Hymns: 140, 457, 305 (1-4), 390
Dear Friends in Christ,
The theme of this year’s Lenten sermons is “Behold Our Savior: A Man Of Sorrows., And Acquainted With Grief.” This theme is based on the words of our text which were just read. Hence, “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”
There is no question but that the earthly life and ministry of Jesus was filled with sorrow, suffering and persecution. As we preached a few months ago, Jesus even in His infancy faced persecution at the hands of King Herod who sought the Child’s life. His parents had to flee with the Child down to Egypt. As an adult, Jesus encountered the mocking, ridiculing scribes and Pharisees. When He taught in the synagogue in Nazareth, men sought to throw Him over the brow of a hill. On other occasions the scribes and Pharisees sought to entangle Him in His speech. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus literally wept tears of sorrow. He wept tears of love for Lazarus and tears of sorrow over what woe sin caused. Also, as Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem for the last time before His death, He wept over the city, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” (Luke 19:42)
However, during this Lenten season, we are going to consider the sorrows of our Savior during His last days and hours as He trod the way of sorrows to the cross. Each week we are going to behold our Savior, a Man of Sorrows, in a specific situation of sorrow and learn from Him. Indeed, Jesus once said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall finds rest unto your souls.” (Matt. 11:29) Truly, the ultimate purpose of beholding our Savior, a Man of Sorrows, is to learn from Him so that we might find rest for our souls.
Tonight we shall behold our Savior bearing great sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember what we heard Him say in our Passion History reading? He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here, and watch with me, and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” Therefore, we shall behold Jesus praying in sorrow, and in so doing, learn from Him how we also should pray in our sorrows.
In our Passion History Lesson for tonight, we heard that even as Jesus entered Gethsemane, He entered with great sorrow weighing down upon His soul. The Lesson said, “And He took with Him Peter, James, and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sore amazed, and sorrowful, and very heavy.” What was this sorrow which weighed down Jesus’ true human soul? It certainly was not due to any failure on His part. Even though in all points He was tempted like as we are, yet He was always without sin. Thus, the sorrow which burdened Jesus’ soul was the sorrow caused by our sin and guilt. His sorrow consisted of His actually bearing our sin and guilt in His own human soul! Already He was feeling the load of our sins which He would eventually carry to the cross in our stead. This fact alone, that Christ the sinless Son of God was actually bearing our sin and guilt upon Himself is beyond the comprehension of our reason! We know and comprehend it only by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God. It is because Scripture says, “He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows,” that we know exactly what He was feeling in His soul. Indeed, let us recognize that the sin and guilt of the whole world were being charged to Christ! Even in Gethsemane Christ was overwhelmed with the world’s sin being imputed to Him. He was made the guilty one, the sinner of all sinners, in our stead. I Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
It was for this very reason that Jesus, true man as well as true God, went into the garden to pray. Yes, Christ our Savior, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, went into Gethsemane to pray! He went to pray so as to pour out His soul to His heavenly Father! In His State of Humiliation, Christ did not always nor fully exercise His divine attributes. In His humiliation, He needed and sought the help of His heavenly Father. His soul thirsted for God, for the living God!
Behold what He prayed! He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” O what a profound prayer! What was Jesus asking? He actually asked to have the cup taken away. What cup was He referring to? It is a figure of speech. It refers to the wrath of God which Jesus was to endure on the cross the next day. Going to the cross with our sin and to be punished for our sin and guilt, that is, to have to endure this, was like drinking the bitterest and most aweful drink ever drunk. Christ realized in His true human soul how awful the wrath of God upon sin and the sinner is! He personally saw and felt in His soul exactly what Scripture means when it says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Hebrews 10:31)
It is for this reason that Jesus asked the Father if it were possible that He be spared drinking of the cup of suffering. It was that awful! It was that dreadful! Yet as our Savior, as the Son of God whose very purpose for coming into the world was to take away our sins, Jesus knew it was the will of God that He drink that cup. Thus, He said, “nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” This willing obedience of Jesus had already been prophesied in Psalm 40, our Psalmody for tonight. Speaking through the prophet David, Jesus said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm, 40:8) Yet because this was such a heavy burden on His soul, Jesus prayed this prayer three times in the Garden. Three separate times He left behind Peter, James, and John, and fell on His face and prayed to the Father! So earnest was His praying that we are told, “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground!” So draining was this anguishing siege of prayer that an angel came to Jesus to strengthen Him!
However, Jesus’ earnest praying to the Father in the midst of this great sorrow was not in vain! The Father gave His Son the strength and the unwavering resolve to go forward to the cross the next day. As a Lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus opened not His mouth. Quietly, meekly, but resolutely, Jesus drank that awful cup of suffering to the bottom dregs. He did it for you, for me, and for all mankind. He drank that cup so that you and I would not have to bear the eternal wrath of God which by our sins we deserved. O how we thank and praise Him for that! This is why we behold our Savior, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief! By beholding Him, we behold our very salvation being won!
Yes, as we behold our Savior praying in Gethsemane, we learn what we also should do in our sorrows. We, as Jesus did, should pray. Just as Jesus took His sorrows to His heavenly Father, so also we should take our many sorrows to our heavenly Father! Indeed, let us realize that God the Father is not only the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also our Father. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
In short, Jesus has given us an example to follow! If even our Savior, true God and true man, had need of prayer, should we not all the more see the need to pray? Although our salvation is not gained by following the example of Jesus, this does not mean that He is not an example. For us who are saved by faith alone in Christ, we are to follow His example. The Bible even says, “leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps.” (I Peter 2:21)
In fact, God Himself commands us to pray, not as a threat of the Law, but as a gracious counsel of His will for us. Out of love for us, God the Father says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15)
Sadly, we often permit our many sorrows to be a reason not to pray! Is it not amazing how little we make of prayer? We let our sorrows discourage us from what we need to do most – – – to pray! This is why the hymn we sang before the sermon says, “O what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we dear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” Yet the same hymn goes on to say, “Have we trials and temptations, is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a Friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness – – – Take it to the Lord in prayer!”
Indeed, it is precisely because Christ prayed for strength and then proceed to drink the cup of suffering for us, that our sins are paid for and forgiven, and therefore God’s ears are open to our prayers. God has been reconciled to us in Christ. This is why Psalm 34 says, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry . . .The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
And O how precious this promise is on this Ash Wednesday as we come to confess our sins and partake of the Lord’s Supper! If there is one prayer we most earnestly ask God to answer, it is that He forgive us our sins which we confess to Him with a contrite heart. When we with a broken and contrite heart pray, “Lord I have sinned; forgive me for Jesus’ sake,” not only does God answer, but He answers with mercy and forgiveness. The Bible assures us of this with a promise. The promise is this: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
Thus, as we behold our Savior, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, this does not give us sorrow, but joy! The joy of our hearts and the joy of our lives is that our Savior loved us so much that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows all the way to the cross. Behold Him! Amen.