Mark 15:39

            And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this many was the Son of God!? 

 

            Jesus has just been put to death.  The charges brought by the High Priest and the temple leaders was blasphemy, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.  The official notice that Pilate had posted on the cross was, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  The ridicule Jesus receives from those watching included his ability to save others but not himself.  He was taunted for predicting that he would rebuild the temple in three days.  The high priest and the Sanhedrin broke the rules as they turned Jesus over to Pilate for crucifixion.  But to them, justice was served.  Pilate declared that he had found no guilt in Jesus, but washed his hands and let the leaders have their way.  To him a certain type of political justice had been served as the rebellious crowd was now happy. 

 

            Jesus said several things as he was dying there.  He committed his mother to the disciple John’s care.  Justice was served as his widowed mother now had someone she could depend on.  She did not need to be a beggar but the mother of our Lord would be taken care of honorably the rest of her life. 

 

            Justice was served as Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  At first this does not look like justice served.  An innocent and honorable man has been falsely convicted and sentenced to death.  The man whom the crowds in Jerusalem had welcomed and celebrated him as their long awaited king is now being executed for treason.  All of the things that Jesus’ followers had learned and were hoping for is now turned on end and there does not appear to be any hope left.  God himself who had proclaimed, “This is my son whom I am well pleased,” has turned his face against his one and only son.  God’s words to his people, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you,” now seem hollow words as the Christ cries out questioning why he is the one forsaken.

 

            The wages of sin is death – justice is served that true death, being forsaken by God, is done.  The high priest earlier that year counseled those around him saying, “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."  He did not realize at any time that this was God’s plan how justice was served.

 

Jeremiah 31:31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  In order to carry out justice, 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people….34b For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

 

            God made this new covenant, to forgive your sins instead of holding them against you as he paid the price for all sins through this suffering and death by Jesus, his son, our brother and Lord and Savior.  Justice is served in this death, a dishonorable death, a death being forsaken by God, an unjust death by one who did not sin but obeyed God willingly and served people completely, not taking anything for himself, but giving all glory to our heavenly father and giving himself up as the ransom for many.

 

            In God’s love this is justice that one lay down his life for his friends.  Justice in God’s sight is his loving the world that he gave up his one and only son, that all who believe in him will have eternal life [John 3:16].  This is justice, that through one man all have sinned, but through the second man all are redeemed from that sin   Romans 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  We cannot make ourselves just before God.  In his love for us, he makes all things just through the suffering and death we see today, and the great resurrection we will celebrate Sunday.

 

            Today we celebrate through what appears to be an injustice is God’s perfect plan of justice.  Without this injustice that is God’s true justice we are condemned eternally.   With God’s justice of his eternal and unfailing and undeserved love in Jesus Christ, we are saved eternally.  That is why God gives us these words through the apostle Paul, [Corinthians 15:57].  “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  God’s Holy justice is he died so that you will not die.

 

In Jesus’ undying love.                       Amen.