“Behold the man!” was Pontius Pilate’s short, yet most profound, sermon. Our endeavor this Lententide and Easter Sunday is to behold the man, God in human flesh, Jesus. Each time together, we are meditating on and proclaiming His real, bodily suffering and death as well as His physical resurrection. He knew all that real bodies experience; He suffered, wept, bled, ate, and hoped.
Before their sin, Adam and his wife were both naked and unashamed. Shame requires self- awareness that only sinners possess. Without sin, their eyes and thoughts didn’t descend to idolatrous navel-gazing. But as soon as they doubted God’s Word and disobeyed His commandment, as soon as they ate, their eyes were opened, and they saw their nakedness. And they were ashamed.
Fig leaves sewn together to make clothes could not cover their sin. So after doling out the consequences of their sins, God proceeded to cover their sin and shame with clothing wrought from the skin of an animal. But animals don’t doff their skins willingly or easily. An animal stripped of its skin, exposed to a nakedness deeper than mere skin, is not long for this world.
In the same way, the Lamb of God, the enfleshed God, was first mockingly clothed at the hands of men intent on abusing and shaming Him. They first pressed a crown of thorns into His head and draped a purple garment around Him, intending to mock His claim to be the King. Then, when they took Him to crucify Him, they stripped Him naked and hung Him shamefully on the cross, exposed and soon to die. But He has no shame because He has no sin. He has no shame because He has no self-care, no thoughts of self-preservation. His nakedness is for mankind who, even while clothed, are covered in shame. He was clothed in our nakedness and shame, our sin and guilt, so that He might clothe us with the robe of His own righteousness.
Bulletin 20210310 Midweek of Lent 3 V.pdf
Wednesday (Mar 10th):
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