The Passion of Christ

Newsletter article for April 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Christ’s “Passion” refers to His suffering. The work of Christ has long been identified with His suffering because that is what the Holy Scriptures tell is the work of Christ. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” If you have seen the new movie “The Passion of the Christ” you will note that this Scripture verse opens the movie and gives the necessary context in which to view it.

There are many ways to wrongly consider the Christ’s passion. Even before the new movie was released some Jewish groups were complaining that it would incite people to punish the Jews for their role in the death of Christ. This has happened in history, and it is absolutely a wrong interpretation of the sufferings of Christ to single out the Jews (or anyone else) as the ones who brought about some great injustice. It is equally wrong for those same Jews (and all others) to view the passion of Christ without believing that they were responsible for the death of Christ, and being responsible for Christ’s suffering and death also receive the benefits of that death.

Isaiah made it clear long ago that the Christ was to suffer and die for our sinfulness and through that punishment we would receive forgiveness and eternal life. Pressure from Jewish groups moved Mel Gibson to remove from the subtitles the quote from Matthew 27:25 where the crowd tells Pilate, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” That is an ironic statement because although the crowd meant it as a self-curse, it is a blessing which all of God’s people can apply to themselves as John writes in 1 John 1:7 “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] son, purifies us from all sin.”

Although Martin Luther never saw Mel Gibson’s movie (or any other movie, for that matter), he did write a short essay in 1519 entitled, “A Meditation on Christ’s Passion”. In this essay Luther notes, “They contemplate Christ’s passion aright who view it with a terror-stricken heart and a despairing conscience. This terror must be felt as you witness the stern wrath and the unchanging earnestness with which God looks upon sin and sinners, so much so that he was unwilling to release sinners even for his only and dearest Son without his payment of the severest penalty for them.”

If we take Isaiah’s prophesy seriously (and we should) then we understand that Jesus suffered so much because of our sins. Because we love Jesus we ought to be horrified that our sinfulness and the disobedience of our sin caused our beloved Savior to suffer. If you can watch the scene in the movie where the soldiers are taking such pleasure and enjoyment in beating Jesus into a bloody pulp and not understand that it is you who is doing that every time you take some guilty pleasure in some sin, then you are also not correctly considering Christ’s passion. The movie shows this pretty well how the devil was taking pleasure in the murderous hatred of the soldiers. Satan tempts us all to sin by making sin seem fun even though the least of our sins caused Jesus immense pain.

Christians know, however, that the “terror” and “despair” in our hearts that we must feel for our guilt and sin is not an end in themselves. That would also be a wrong way to view the sufferings of Christ. Judas is the example which shows us that it is not enough to simply be sorry that we have done wrong. Faith trusts that although we are terribly guilty in the death of Jesus, He loves us and will forgive all the sins of those who trust in Him for salvation. Our sorrow over our guilt should cause us to fervently repent of all our sins, and look to Jesus to forgive us for all the pain we caused Him. Luther explained this wonderfully when he wrote:

You cast your sins from yourself and onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sins, to be borne and paid for by him, as we read in Isaiah 53 [:6], “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” St. Peter says, “in his body has he borne our sins on the wood of the cross” [I Pet. 2:24]. St. Paul says, “God has made him a sinner for us, so that through him we would be made just” [2 Cor. 5:21]. You must stake everything on these and similar verses. The more your conscience torments you, the more tenaciously must you cling to them. If you do not do that, but presume to still your conscience with your contrition and penance, you will never obtain peace of mind, but will have to despair in the end. If we allow sin to remain in our conscience and try to deal with it there, or if we look at sin in our heart, it will be much too strong for us and will live on forever. But if we behold it resting on Christ and [see it] overcome by his resurrection, and then boldly believe this, even it is dead and nullified. Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that “Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification” [Rom. 4:25]. That is to say, in his suffering Christ makes our sin known and thus destroys it, but through his resurrection he justifies us and delivers us from all sin, if we believe this.

Any Christian who views a reenactment of the passion of Christ will have to feel ambivalent (i.e. have mixed feelings) about it. On the one hand we are sad that we caused Jesus to suffer and die because of the guilt of our sins, but on the other hand, we are glad that Jesus endured the pain and death so that he could rescue us from an eternity of such suffering.

Another thing to remember if you go to view the movie is that what you are seeing is not the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a movie with actors and fake blood. This ought to be obvious to everyone who goes, but these days you can never be too careful. You are not necessarily closer to Jesus if you view this reenactment of His death. Many people have seen the movie, and still do not believe in Jesus, and are still on their way to damnation. Many other people, who have never seen the movie still repent of their sins and trust in Christ and receive forgiveness and eternal life. Remember the words Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

(All Luther quotes from Vol. 42 of Luther’s works, p. 7-13. Philadelphia: Fortress Press; translation by Martin Bertram.)

The Scandal of the Cross

Newsletter article for February 2000

© 2000 Rev. Paul A. Wolff

1 Corinthians 1:20-31 (NIV)
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Haven't we had enough scandals lately? Surely if this is a true scandal, then it can't be very good, but what is so scandalous about the cross? These are probably the kinds of reactions you might have when you hear of the "scandal of the cross," but this is a true teaching from Holy Scripture which is given for our benefit. It is, however, a hard teaching, and as the Scripture passage above shows it is not appreciated by everyone.

Simply put, the "scandal of the cross" is that as Christians we put our faith in a man who was killed as a common criminal before he seemingly accomplished anything great in his life. We call ourselves "Christians" to honor Jesus as the Christ (the chosen one of God) even though the man himself seemed to be defeated, disgraced, disinherited, and worst of all, dead.

To those who don't believe in Jesus this sounds ridiculous (scandalous, even). They say, "Who would put their faith in such a disgraced savior, except children and fools?" Because of our sinful nature, if we had a choice, we would prefer a God who is more of a show-off. We want a God who not only is all-powerful, but who isn't hesitant to demonstrate his great power and maybe who will sweep us off of our feet and carry us with him to victory over our enemies. Or we want a God who will empower us to overcome our enemies and prove that we are on the right side, and they (poor chaps) are on the wrong side.

This is the seduction of those religions which promote the false messages such as "name it and claim it." Who can resist the allure of the idea that God is a "too rich by half" candyman who only gives out his goodies to those who ally themselves with him? Many times it is not enough for us to be on the winning team, but we must teach our enemies a lesson. Many people are willing to let God get a little of the glory as long as we get our share, too. These messages are very popular with many people (even some Christians) because we respond to what we want to hear, but that's not how God works.

The truth is scandalous. The truth is that there are no good people who deserve God's rich blessings. The truth is that each one of us deserves to be hanging on the cross instead of Jesus. It's scandalous. Who wants to hear that? No one, I'm sure. This is not a very uplifting message. This is not inspiring, nor is it empowering, nor is it self gratifying. And rather than dig a little deeper for the good part of the message, most turn away and go somewhere else to hear a less scandalous message, where someone will tell them "what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Timothy 4:3)

The scandal of the cross really is good news, for those who listen and believe. We are certainly unworthy of God's blessings, and His forgiveness, and the riches of heaven (or even the blessings this life for that matter), but remember that it is Jesus who hung on that cross. It wasn't me, and it wasn't you, and it won't be you or me in the future either. Jesus took our place when he hung on the cross, so that you or I won't have to suffer for our sins.

The further scandal is that not only the good, righteous, upstanding citizens get to enjoy the eternal blessings of paradise, but also the poor, the sinners, the criminals, and everyone who acknowledges their sin and trusts in Jesus to forgive them. In fact, only those who are sorry for their sins and trust in Jesus will receive the paradise promised by Jesus. But while the word "only" sounds restrictive, it isn't. It takes no effort to believe in Jesus, and everyone can do it. It is certainly a lot easier than hanging on a cross for eternity, and that's no scandal. It is because of God's grace that He provides this salvation to everyone, no matter how good or bad they are.

Jesus paid the price for our sins, and thank God that He did because none of us could afford the price. Our sins belong to Him now so if we love Him and trust in Him He will take them away to where they can't hurt us. It's scandalous to have to admit your guilt and sin, but there's no scandal in being forgiven. There is nothing to be ashamed of in being an adopted child of God.