Ash Wednesday
February 22, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
Back when I was in college, I had a classmate who
was filled with all sorts of creative, fun, and crazy ideas. He was the one who regularly initiated rubber
band wars by simply opening someone’s door and shooting rubber bands at them
while they studied. He is the one who
organized a number of capture the flag games in the spring and fall as well as
quite a few snowball fights during the winter.
On one occasion he convinced us that it would be fun to go play paint ball. The only problem was that, none of us had any
paintball equipment with us, nor did we have the funds to go off to Milwaukee
to play. So, we improvised! We built swords out of PVC pipes and held a
battle right there in the long hallway of our dorm building. I still remember it to this day. There were six of us battling each other in
pairs of two stretched from the stair well at one end of the hall about 1/3 of
the way down the rest of the hall. We
were all fiercely battling each other, switching combatants and gaining up on
each other when suddenly the cry rang out, “Put your swords away!” At first we thought we were all in trouble,
but then we realized it was simply one of our dorm mates who wanted to go
downstairs, and we were blocking the access to the closest set of stairs. Hence his cry of “put your swords away.”
Put your sword away!
These same words are the words that Jesus spoke to Peter in our lesson
tonight, and as he spoke these words, Jesus and his disciples were in the
Garden of Gethsemane. They were standing
before the group of Roman Soldiers and the band of men from the chief priests
and Pharisees who had come to arrest Jesus.
They were standing there and they had just heard Jesus tell them that he
was willing to go with them; that he would allow the religious leaders to
arrest him and take him for the trials that would ultimately bring about his
crucifixion. This is what John is
telling us as he writes in our lesson tonight, from John 18:4, “Jesus, knowing
all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you
want?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas
the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they
drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 “I told you that I am he,” Jesus
answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9 This happened
so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of
those you gave me.” 10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck
the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was
Malchus.) 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the
cup the Father has given me?”" (John 18:4–11, NIV84)
So zealous was Peter to defend his friend and Master
that he struck out with his sword wounding the servant of the High Priest by
cutting off his right ear. Thus Peter
proved that he either hadn’t heard or hadn’t heard what Jesus had just been
saying or what Jesus was doing for Peter, his disciples and the rest of the
world. So zealous was Peter for Jesus
that the thought he needed to fight to free Jesus from these soldiers and
prevent the immanent arrest of his Master.
Yet what did Jesus say to Peter? “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink
the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11, NIV84)
In some ways it was as if Jesus was saying to Peter,
“Don’t you realize what’s going on?”
“Don’t you understand what I am doing for you?” “Didn’t you just see my display of power and
realize that they are not taking me but I am willingly going with them to my
death so that I might pay the price my Father demands and free you from your
sins?” “No, put your sword away and see
my cross. I am going to that cross for
you, for my disciples, and for all the people of the world.”
Put your sword away!
With four simple words Jesus speaks to Peter, rebukes his misplaced
zeal, lays out his mission and reveals, yet again, the purpose for the
cross. And with these simple words,
Jesus is doing the same thing for you and me.
For if we think about it, how often aren’t we just like Peter? How often haven’t we forgotten that Jesus
didn’t need any force, not even once single sword to save humanity? The cross was the only instrument that he
needed in order to provide us with his salvation. He was the only one who could achieve our
salvation through his willing and innocent sacrifice in our place. There was nothing that we could do to achieve
it for ourselves; no human action that could even remotely help no matter how
brave or how noble.
Yet how often don’t we lose focus on the purpose of
the cross, grab our own swords as it were, and start flailing them about in an
effort protect and defend our Savior, like Peter, or in an effort to aid our
Savior with his salvation? How often
don’t’ we like to brandish the swords of our own godly lives as we thank God
that we are not like all those other people who don’t serve him as faithfully
or as well as we do? How often haven’t
we felt that we are worthy of heaven because we have used our own swords to
accomplish so much for our God with our faith, with our good deeds, with our
incredible public devotion to him, with our record of church attendance or
Bible study attendance? Or how often haven’t
we felt that God’s church depended on us being a part of it, or the efforts
that we put forth in serving? How often
haven’t we felt so important in God’s kingdom because of the status we suddenly
have from being part of this one group or another? How often haven’t we felt that if our
particular group stops meeting or stops functioning in any way then the church
will quickly follow suit? How often
haven’t we been so zealous for our Savior and his church that we were tempted
to change the message we preach, even just a little bit, in the hopes that it
might attract more people and help us to grow?
These are the times that Jesus rebukes us as he did
Peter, saying, “Put your sword away.”
“Put your sword away and see my cross, because without my cross there is
no hope, no forgiveness, no salvation, and no life! But when you let go of your own importance
and focus on my cross, you live in my forgiveness, my life, and my
salvation.” Thus, tonight, as we have
gathered to see our Savior, we have heard him calling on us to put our swords
away, and put them away we have. But not
only have we put them away, but we have come to lay them at the foot of the
cross; we have come to place all our misguided zeal, our attempts at helping
our Savior, even our thoughts of changing his message at the foot of his
cross. Tonight, we have placed our
swords away by laying them before our Savior, and he has washed us clean of
every spot and stain of our sins. He has
completely removed every trace of our guilt, and he has restored us to live a
new life for him. Tonight we have seen
and been reminded of what Jesus did for us, what he knew he had to do to free
us from our sins. Tonight we have felt
his gentle hand of blessing upon us assuring us of the hope and salvation that
we have through faith in him. Tonight,
through faith in Jesus, we have put our own swords away by laying them at the
foot of the cross. Through faith we have
been assured that his cross is the reason for the hope we have. Through faith in Jesus we look to the cross
as the instrument through which our sins were forgiven. Through faith in Jesus we see our Savior’s
great love for us in his sacrifice. We
see the forgiveness he won for us in his death.
We see the undeniable assurance of salvation in his resurrection, and we
see the hope of eternal life in his empty tomb.
Though the image of a bloody, crucified, Savior is
not an attractive picture to the world or even our sinful nature, through faith
in Jesus it is an image of victory and strength. Though the message of the cross is
foolishness to some and a great offense to others, it is God’s wisdom for our
salvation. Though as sinful human beings
it is so easy to grasp the hilt of our own swords and seek to fight our way to
salvation, through faith in Jesus we have lain those swords aside. In the same way that my classmates and I
stopped our hallway sword battle when someone wanted to get to the stairs, so
we have stopped our battling through faith in Jesus. We now see our Savior’s
cross. We know its purpose. We know the forgiveness that is ours and
because of that we have also put our swords away.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
