"Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, that we to judge thee hath in hate pretended? By foes derided, by thine own rejected, O most afflicted." Jesus' death is probably the most moving story ever told. It is a story filled with sadness and tragedy that stirs the human soul to its foundation. It moves us to sadness; he was that last person on earth who deserved to die like that. It moves us to anger because of the injustice of it all. It moves us to love because of his selflessness. It moves us to tears because he did it for others.

Jesus' death have moved many. It moved the early Christians to write accounts of it. The earliest Gospels were nothing more than accounts of Jesus' death. It has moves thousands to march to a martyrs' death for the glory of God. It has moved poets to write poetry, musicians to write music. It moves many of us to devotion.

Centuries before Jesus birth the Prophet Isaiah was moved by the vision of Jesus' death. Somehow the Spirit revealed to Isaiah how the Messiah would die. That vision inspired Isaiah to write a poem. Bible scholars call it the Suffering Servant poem. It tells of the suffering of God's servant, who we recognize as Jesus. Let's look at it.

Isaiah wrote, "The Servant was oppressed and was afflicted, yet did not say a word." Jesus, the Son of God, was obedient to God's will even unto death. He was a servant of God and a servant to us. He washed his disciples feet. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He did the will of God to its fullest. Jesus was a servant. Even in the Garden of Gethsemene, when he wanted to run away, he said, "Father, your will be done."

He was a servant, but he also suffered. Jesus left his home in heaven to come and die. And people beat him and spit on him. They accused him of blaspheme and they killed him.

Jesus suffered the pain of torture, but what made it worse was the pain of the injustice. He was innocent of any wrongdoing. He was a righteous man. Yet by a perversion of Justice they took him away. The innocent one was hung between two thieves like a common criminal. They paraded him down the street and I am sure that ignorant bystanders watched and said, "Now is that one the murderer or his he the thief?"

Jesus served God and suffered, but Isaiah shows us something else about this servant, In the midst of his suffering he didn't say a word. Jesus simply marched to his death. In the same situation most people would have hollered and screamed. "I am innocent! You have the wrong man!" But Jesus went, as a sheep goes to the slaughter, silent. Sheep are silent because they don't know what is happening. They go silently because for all they know they are being taken to a pasture to feed. But Jesus knew what was happening. He knew they would kill him. He knew how they would kill him. Yet he said not a word.

It is fitting that Isaiah mentions the servant's silence. It is probably the most striking aspect of Jesus' death. Why was Jesus silent? Why didn't Jesus defend himself. The Bible tells us that the witnesses against him couldn't agree. He certainly could have cross examined them to discredit their testimonies. Then he could have moved for dismissal of the charges. He could have taken the stand in his own defense. He had talked his way out of trouble before. He had used words to make people see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, he could do it again.

Why didn't Jesus defend himself? Jesus was silent because he knew that his death was God's will. Isaiah writes, "Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain."

Why was it God's will for Jesus to die? Of course we all know the answer to that question. Jesus died for the sins of the world. That is a correct answer, Jesus did die for the sins of the world. When I first wrote this sermon that was the answer I offered at this point.

But that answer seemed a little cold to me. It is theologically correct, but it was too impersonal. Jesus' death moves our emotions and stirs our souls. That cannot be just becasue he died for a bunch of people I don't know. There is something more personal about Jesus' death.

"Why was it God's will for Jesus to die?" God willed that Jesus die so that he could die for me. Christ died for me. I want everyone to say that with me, "Christ died for me." He died so that each of us could know the glory of God. If I were the only sinner, Jesus still would have died. That is very personal, but that is how close God wants to be to each of us.

Christ died for me, now that is moving; that stirs the soul and moves the emotions, that is personal. You remember the hymn I sang at the beginning of the sermon. The fourth verse goes like this: For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Jesus went through all that for me. He came to earth, leaving his heavenly palace. He was bruised and bled for me. He poured his life out for me. He suffered and died for me. All so I could be saved.

If Christ died for me what should I do in return? I could never give God something in return that matches this great gift. "If the whole realm of nature were mine it would be an offering far too small." I like the words from Hebrews as a response. "Let us therefore approach the throne of Grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need." Jesus has come down from heaven and interceded on our behalf. The only possible response is devotion.

How should we respond to Christ's death? I like our hymn writers response: Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee and will ever pray thee, Think on they pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. Jesus gave his life for us, the only suitable response is to give our lives for him.

"Can anyone be saved?" one of the disciples asked. It is a question worth pondering and not throwing off too soon. Consider the plight of Adam and Eve. They lived in paradise. But that wasn't enough, they wanted to be God. So they took the serpent's advice and ate the fruit.

What happened next reminds me of a story of a little boy. One night this little boy woke up and was hungry so he wandered to the kitchen with his teddy bear. On top of the counter he saw a cookie jar. He knew he wasn't supposed to touch that cookie jar but he wanted a cookie. He put his teddy bear on the floor and climbed up on the counter. While he was eating cookies to his heart's content the lid to the cookie jar fell on the floor and broke. The boy quickly got to the floor before his parents came out. When they got there they could see some cookie on his face. His mother said, "Did you break that cookie jar." The little boy nodded no. Then who broke it? Then the boy's face lit up and he pointed to his bear, "Teddy did it." Well the Lord heard something fall and when God arrived in the garden Adam and Eve still had forbidden fruit all over their faces figuratively speaking. They were hiding because they were ashamed of their nakedness. They wouldn't have been hiding if their eyes had not been opened by the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. God said, "Have you eaten the forbidden fruit?" And the finger pointing began. Adam pointed his finger at Eve. And Eve pointed her finger at the serpent.

Well God knew they were all in it together. And ladies, don't let the men tell you any different, Adam was a willing participant. So God blamed the whole lot of them. God said, "You serpent, you will crawl on the ground for all of your generations and you will be the most despised of creatures." "Eve, you will bear children in pain." "Adam, you will toil with the ground for your food and the ground will bear thorns for you."

This is basically the plight we are in today. We are the inheritors of the sins of Adam and Eve. Sin is in our genes. We inherit it from the mother and father of the human race. It runs in the human family. You know if you are born with your father's nose or your mother's ears you are stuck with them. Sure a plastic surgeon can change your outward appearance but your chromosomes will stay the same and you will pass it on to your children. In the language of genetics we have all been born with a dominant gene for sinfulness.

And along with that sinfulness we have inherited its consequences: death among other things. Like Adam and Eve we toil for our living and bear our children in pain. I am not talking just about the physical labor of a career or the painful labor of child birth. The human race toils and works to try to produce something of value. But all it seems to produce are thorns of hatred and greed. We try to further our species but all our growth is borne in pain and suffering.

How can we be saved from this? We can't change ourselves. We are who we are. We are direct descendants of Eve and Adam the father and mother of human sin. Our inborn tendency is to sin, how can we counteract an innate tendency? It is like asking a leopard to change her spots for the zebra's stripes.

Jesus knows our situation. Jesus saw it at work in the rich young man. This rich young man asked, "How can I have eternal life?" Jesus asked him, "What does the law say?" He replied, "I have done all those things what more do I lack?" Then Jesus said, "Sell all you have and then come follow me."

The young man might have done anything for eternal life but not that. Jesus was asking too much. His own greed allowed him to work hard at keeping the laws. But he was not willing to give it all up for the Kingdom of God; so the young man walked away distraught.

I wonder how many men or women either young or old have done the same thing? They came and asked for eternal life and Jesus said give this up and follow me. And they replied, "No, Jesus, not that." Not my dreams of the good life. No, Jesus, not my Sunday mornings on the golf course. No Jesus, not my pride. And they walked away.

When Jesus saw this young man walk away he turned to his disciples, and he said: "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God." They didn't understand so Jesus went on. He said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Now don't try to water Jesus' saying down. Some say that the small gate of a city was called the eye of the needle and that occasionally someone would try to get their camel through it. It was very difficult but possible. I think Jesus was talking about a sewing needle and an actual camel.

At least that is how the disciples understood it. Because they replied, "Then who can be saved?" If that young man had the same chances of going to heaven as camel does of waltzing through a needle's eye, then what chance did the disciples have. Obviously their chances were not much better. Who then can be saved?

Jesus' reply cuts right to the bone of the matter. "For mortals it is impossible; but not for God, for God all things are possible." God is the one who created the laws of nature that makes it impossible for camels to go through needles. And God has command of those laws. God is the one who cursed Adam and Eve and all their descendants. And God has control over that curse.

All we have to do is trust Christ, but that is easier said than done. It was not easy for Eve and Adam. All they had to do was keep their hands out of one tree. But for them that was too much to ask. It wasn't easy for the rich young man. All he had to do was sell his belongings. But for him that was too much to ask. And it is not easy for us, there is always something getting in our way. We can't trust in Christ because we are too busy trusting in ourselves. We expect our wealth or brains or good looks or power to save us, but they can't. Only God can save us through Jesus Christ.

If you wish to inherit eternal life, or if you wish to grow in grace, don't do it alone. Trust Christ to do it for you. Begin the same way the rich young man did. Ask Jesus what to do to gain eternal life. And when he tells you, give up whatever it is that is holding you back.

You may have to give up a lot to gain eternal life: your wealth, your dreams, your pride, your Sunday mornings. But like the disciples you will be rewarded with much more.

"Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, that we to judge thee hath in hate pretended? By foes derided, by thine own rejected, O most afflicted." Jesus' death is probably the most moving story ever told. It is a story filled with sadness and tragedy that stirs the human soul to its foundation. It moves us to sadness; he was that last person on earth who deserved to die like that. It moves us to anger because of the injustice of it all. It moves us to love because of his selflessness. It moves us to tears because he did it for others.

Jesus' death has moved many. It moved the early Christians to write accounts of it. The earliest Gospels were nothing more than accounts of Jesus' death. It has moved thousands to march to a martyrs' death for the glory of God. It has moved poets to write poetry, musicians to write music. It moves many of us to devotion.

Jesus' death was the worst injustice ever committed. He had done nothing but love and yet great hatred was vented against him. He had done nothing but proclaim God's word, yet he was accused of blasphemy. He had preached nothing but peace yet he was executed for inciting rebellion. He had even raised the dead yet he was nailed to a cross to die. He had done nothing but reach out to befriend the lonely yet he was betrayed by his closest friends.

Job could relate to what Jesus went through. At the beginning of the book of Job God described Job as "blameless and upright" and says that there is "no one like him on earth."(Job 1:8) Satan then accuses Job of insincerity. He says that Job is only good because God has blessed him so much and Satan asks permission to take Job's things from him. In the verses that follow this discussion between God and Satan, Satan takes all of Job's riches away from him and even his children die all in the same day. Yet Job says, "The Lord giveth the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord."(Job 1:21)

After this God says, "You see, I told you that Job was righteous."(Job 2:3) But Satan replied, "Skin for skin. Let me tough his flesh and make him sick and he will turn against you."(Job 2:4) So Satan afflicted Job with running sores all over his body and he had to go to the city dump to scrape himself. Even Job's wife advised him to "Curse God and die." But Job replied, "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God and not the bad?"(Job 2:10)

What a grave injustice that such a righteous man should suffer. Job himself, even though he had faith in God, felt the injustice of it all. In our Old Testament reading today he said, "Today my complaint is bitter; God's hand is heavy upon me despite my groaning." And Job yearns to stand before God and plead his case to find some justice. But in despair he says, "If only I could vanish in the darkness."

We have all been at that point at one time or another. Perhaps none of us has suffered as much as Job suffered. But we have all been so despondent that we wished we could disappear. We have all been in a situation that we wished would just go away. And we have all said, "Why me? Why this? Why now?"

God was right; there is none on earth like Job. He blessed God in the face of disaster that would lead any other person to take his wife's advice to curse God and die. We may not be as blameless as Job, but we are probably above the average. Most of us here, I hope, try to live our lives according to God's will. With God's help we try to love our neighbor. We don't always succeed. Often times we fail and make mistakes, but we try. Most people in our world don't even do that.

And yet bad things happen to good people. As the song says "It seems the good die young." Righteous, upright, and loving people suffer from cancer and Alzheimer's. Innocent babies are born disabled or contract AIDS. And good people, like us, who are trying to reach people with the eternal love of God are slowed down by tragic circumstances of health and lack of materials to do the job.

But Jesus knows how we feel. The Book of Hebrews says that Jesus is our Great High Priest. In ancient Israel the high priest was the one person that was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. This was the part of the temple where the glory of God dwelt. And once a year the high priest would enter with the blood of the sacrifice to present it to the Lord on behalf of all the people. It was an important job and the people, all men, who did it were given privileged positions. It soon became a position that people yearned for because of its power. By Jesus' day it became a position that was manipulated and passed down or sold for profit.

But Jesus is not like that. He did not become our high priest to get position or rank. In fact he gave up his position in heaven to become a homeless helpless newborn refugee. He even sacrificed himself to be an offering for our sins. But like the priests of old he goes before God, not in an earthly temple, but in heaven itself, to present the blood of the sacrifice that he made on the cross for the sins of the world.

So he knows how we feel. He has experienced our pain and the injustice of our lives. In fact he experienced it to a much greater degree than any of us have. Jesus knows how Job felt because Satan took his family and friends from him and Satan touched Jesus flesh with thorns and nails. And Jesus knows and understands the temptations and trials and pains that you and I go through everyday.

Jesus truly understands our situation. Hebrews says, "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession." We all waver and faultier at times. But Jesus understands the pressures we are under. He has been there. But he had the strength to make it through and he can get us through as well.

It goes on to say that "since we have a high priest that sympathizes with our weakness we should approach the throne of grace with boldness." We don't need to be afraid to open up to God and tell him what we really think. That's what Job did. Some would say it's wrong to say what you really feel to God. But he already knows. So approach the throne of grace with boldness.

Since we have such a great high priest we should pray and act boldly! I like the way the hymns writer put it: "Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee and will ever pray thee, Think on they pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving." Jesus gave his life for us, the only suitable response is to give our lives for him.

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