Luke 23:31
This Good Friday devotion has been excerpted from a sermon I gave on March 18, 2018.
The truth of it is that sometimes what Jesus said is hard to swallow. Hard enough that people turn away from Him.
I need to confess that preparing message was hard, because what Jesus says in the above verse is hard. Then just a week or so before I was to take the platform to deliver a Lenten message, something happened that left me feeling a bit battered. That battered feeling helped me get past Jesus’ difficult words and recognize the importance of following His agenda.
In Luke 23:26-30 We see Simon of Cyrene pressed into service to carry the cross that had become too heavy for the severely beaten Jesus to carry all the way to Golgotha. Relieved of that mortal burden, Jesus then turns his attention to the women who were mourning and wailing for Him as they followed with the rest of the crowd. He tells them “don’t cry for me, you still don’t understand what’s happening, I know fully what is going to happen and what is coming – so cry for yourselves instead, cry for your children – there is a day coming when the people will cry for the mountains to fall on them.” Remember that their beloved Jerusalem with its beautiful temple would be destroyed and many would lose their lives to the sword or be once again exiles as they fled the destruction. Then He say something really dark and hard – we are gonna soak in those words for a bit to see how The Cross is more than dead wood.
As I read the about verse over and over I thought – wow, that is really tough – I knew what I thought is meant after I had sat with it for a bit and let it roll around in my head. A Bible translation called The Voice speaks this verse more plainly by saying “For if they treat Me like this when I’m like green unseasoned wood, what will they do to a nation that’s ready to burn like seasoned firewood?”
Let’s talk about green and dry trees.
Green trees, they can be young, but regardless of their age if sap is flowing through them and no pests or diseases are harming them - they are vibrant, they bear fruit. Green wood is hard to cut and hard to burn. Jesus is the green tree – He is relatively young, being a 30 something at the time, He was certainly vibrant and His life had been very fruitful. He was also innocent, pure and holy. He had done nothing to deserve the punishment He was about to endure – nothing except to love the people who in his context were responsible –
The Jewish leaders – whose fear of change and pride blinded them to the truth they should have known. The Jewish people who turn against Him as their leaders incited the mob - despite the fact that he had fed them, healed them, welcomed them into fellowship with Him. The women whom He tells not to cry for him but instead for themselves and their children – that they should be weeping for their sin worn souls - that we should weep for our own sin worn souls. That they should weep for the judgement that was coming - that we should weep for the judgement that is coming.
Peter had denied Him when the going got tough, even though he had recognized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Even Pilate – who recognized that Jesus was an innocent man – going so far as to wash his hands of the matter so that they would not be stained by the blood of an innocent man, had not the courage or the strength to put down the mob in his courtyard and so surrendered Jesus to be brutally beaten and nailed to some dead wood.
If this was how the Romans would treat the innocent – how would they treat the guilty?
If God would cause His own innocent Son to suffer on our behalf. What will HE do to us if we fail to live lives that reflect the love of Jesus Christ?
Now let’s look at dry trees – they are fruitless, dead, no life giving sap runs through them, the wood from them burns easily. The dry tree is guilty, corrupt, wicked and ready for judgement good for nothing but the fire.
If Jesus is the green tree – then in His context it was the Jewish nation and to some extent the Romans who were the dry trees – Jerusalem would be destroyed and eventually the Roman empire would fall. Today – If we like the disciples of old turn our backs on Jesus because of His hard teaching or if we fail to take on Jesus’ agenda; allowing our pride, our fear or whatever to keep us from becoming the people, the nation, the kingdom he has purposed us to be - we too risk becoming dry trees as our sin worn souls suck the life out of us. Because we are all sinners – yes, some of us, many who are reading this have been saved by grace - but we all fall short sometimes, because our humanness gets in the way.
Has it gotten dark enough for you?
Let’s try to bring the light back in.
In Mark chapter 10 we encounter the rich young man, who walks away sad because Jesus’ words were too hard. The disciples where so amazed at the severity of Jesus saying it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God that they asked “Who can be saved?” Jesus was honest in his response “With man – with us this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” – There is hope.
Both Mark and Luke call our attention to the poor widow who put all she had into the treasury and how Jesus commended her. He commended her not for her money but for her total surrender to God. It is in our total surrender that we find our real reward.
In John Jesus talks of being the vine and of believers being the branches – we when abide in Him we find a fruitful life.
Following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension Peter and the others faced persecution, they were arrested and commanded to stop talking about Jesus – They responded they had no choice but to obey God. You (Peter said) speaking to the religious leaders - hung him on piece of dead wood to die, but he had been raised to life and exalted to His rightful place by the God of our fathers – HIS FATHER. Because this is true - when we repent we are forgiven.
What good news for us – Amen!
So here’s the bottom line – here is the amazing grace filled light that shines for this dark world,
Jesus’ Sacrifice – on that cross made of dead wood - Plus - Our belief, because we are saved by grace through faith in the Son that was given – Equals – Eternal Life! That makes the Cross way more than dead wood!
A Prayer
Father – thank you for your words – even when they are difficult to hear. Send your Holy Spirit to be with us as we soak in the Words of Your Son Jesus – grant us eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts ready to be filled with all you have for us. In the name of Jesus, who make the cross more than dead wood – Amen.
