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.)

Rejecting the Survival Instinct

Newsletter article for May 2003
© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Behavioral philosophers (Psychologists and sociologists call themselves scientists, but human behavior is so complex and inscrutable that their work is nothing more than philosophical speculation) describe something which they call “survival instinct”. This is a subconscious drive to preserve one’s own life when faced with life-threatening danger. In some situations this instinct is a gift from God. Many people’s lives have been spared from dangerous situations when they acted on this instinct while their rational minds were paralyzed by fear. However, in God’s kingdom here on earth (i.e. among Christians) this natural instinct must often be overcome in order to remain God’s people and survive in His kingdom.

Proverbs 14:12 tells us that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” The way that seems right to us is that we ought to do everything we can to save ourselves both for this life, and in the life to come. However Jesus taught that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) This goes against all of our natural survival instincts, and yet, Christians know that Jesus loves us and He would never tell us to do anything that isn’t in our best interests, so we accept this as true, and we struggle to understand this paradox and live our lives according to it. So then we need to know, “What does this mean?”

It doesn’t mean that we ought to try and hurt ourselves. Instead Jesus means that we ought to put our lives into God’s hands in all things, and instead of trying to save ourselves we ought to be obedient to God in all things, even if it causes us pain or costs us our lives. In doing this we must rely and trust in God to rescue us from all dangers of body and soul. One of my favorite examples of this in the Old Testament is David. Several times in his life, David acted in a way which was sublimely faithful to God, but from a human perspective was suicidal. The first incident happened when David was only a teenager or a young man. David risked his life in a one-on-one battle with the giant Philistine warrior, Goliath. David trusted that God would give him the victory over the blaspheming pagan, and that is exactly what happened. (1 Samuel 17) Later David allowed King Saul to escape his sword twice even though Saul had sworn to kill David, but David refused to kill the man God had chosen to be king. (1 Samuel 24 & 26) David did this even though Saul had turned against God, and God had already chosen David to replace Saul as the next king.

Other Old Testament examples of risking one’s life in order to save it are shown in the lives of Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Each of these four men remained faithful to God in violation of the King’s decree, and would have been executed except for the miraculous power of God who rescued Daniel from the hungry lions (Daniel 6), and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the blast-furnace (Daniel 3).

In the New Testament we see faithful believers going even further. Stephen continued to witness to the Lordship of Jesus even while he was being stoned to death, and other Apostles and believers were persecuted and killed for their faithfulness to Jesus.

What is wrong with instinct? Since we are by nature sinful, our natural instincts are basically selfish. Selfishness means that we are more concerned with pleasing ourselves than pleasing God. God doesn’t want us to be selfish because he knows that selfishness will lead us to despise Him and we will be lost forever. Instead God wants us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5) Gideon is a great example of this (Judges 6-8). When God called him to raise an army to defend God’s people against the attacks of the Midianites he started with an army of over 30,000 soldiers. God told Gideon that he had too many soldiers because when they won the victory they would think that it came by their own strength and power, and they would again forget about God (which is why God allowed the Midianites to harass them in the first place). When Gideon’s army was down to only 300 soldiers God was satisfied that it was small enough that they would know that the victory was won by the power of God, and not by their own strength.

If we save our life by losing it then does this mean that we shouldn’t care for others? Not at all! God commands us to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31& 33; Luke 10:27; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8) However, this command is described as the Second greatest commandment. The First is that we ought to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 13:3, 30:6; Joshua 22:5; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27) This means that while we do care for the needs of others, we don’t do it above and beyond the will and commands of God. If we try to love our neighbor, but in the process disobey God, then not only are we not loving God, but we really aren’t loving our neighbor either. We can’t despise God and still love our neighbor at the same time.

So what does this mean for the church? Well, in times of trial and testing, as we are presently experiencing, it means that we don’t necessarily take the obvious or easy path. If our problem seems to be a lack of money then we don’t solve the problem by seeking to get more money. God is in control of His church. If God thinks that we are trusting too much in money He can invent ways to relieve us of that problem, and no matter how much we may try to keep up with the bills, it won’t be enough until we learn the lesson that God wants us to learn. In God’s tests the only correct solution is to die to yourself and live for God. This means that we may have to do things which we “know” won’t work. The ways which “seem right” to us, are often wrong in God’s eyes.

If we want to grow the Church then we “know” that if we stand firm on teaching the true Christian doctrine of the Lutheran Church we will drive people away. However, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) The Lutheran Church has a marvelous treasure in its doctrine and teaching. It is nothing less than the treasure of heaven itself. If we are to call ourselves by the name “Lutheran” then we should learn exactly what that is all about and know and make use of the great riches which have been entrusted to us. This calls for great faith because it means trusting in God’s Word and Sacraments to work miracles when we would rather trust in ourselves and the way that “seems right” to us. God is faithful (1 Cor. 1:9) and His word will accomplish great miracles that we can’t understand how (Isa. 55:11). Through His Word, God has kept His church alive through all kinds of trials and tribulations for many thousands of years, and He will continue to do so to the end.

Why Is It So Hard to Do What is Right?

Newsletter Article for December 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

It is always a struggle to do what is right. It is rarely easy. Perhaps that is why an act of kindness from a stranger is so special and noteworthy, not only because of the kindness itself, but also for what has been overcome or sacrificed to get to that point. If you have studied Luther’s Small Catechism you ought to remember that we have three major powers working against us which make it hard for us to obey God and do what is right. These three powers are the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.

Our first obstacle is our own sinful nature. Even without any outside help, we are drawn to disobey God. This is our sinful Pride. Our sinful nature leads us to believe that we can do no wrong, and we believe that as long as we do what is right in our own eyes we don’t have to do right in the eyes of others. However, Jesus gave us the golden rule which says that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are not the ones to determine the rightness of our own actions, but instead God and others ought to determine if we do right by them.

The second obstacle to doing right which we face is the world. Because the world is full of sinful people they want to justify their own sinful actions and bring us down to their level. After all, if we are just as bad as everyone else, then we have no right to condemn anyone else. This is the “everybody is doing it” argument which we all know all too well. The trouble with this is that it leads us into an ever deepening spiral of sin and depravity until we destroy ourselves.

This is clearly shown in the struggle for peace in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Soon after a recent peace agreement was reached between the two sides there was a terrorist bombing which was meant to re-ignite the hatred and destroy the peace process. I can’t even remember which side bombed the other, but it doesn’t matter because there are groups on both sides which would rather see both nations obliterated rather than swallow their own pride and live in peace and prosperity with their closest neighbors. Those who don’t want peace must have a death wish, and they will likely get what they want. Those who want peace are afraid for their lives because their own people think little of their lives and will try to murder them. This is an example of how the world makes it hard to do what is right, even when it is clearly in our own best interests to do so.

Behind both of these obstacles is a third obstacle, the devil. The devil is the original enemy of God, and he wants to do everything he can to destroy God’s will, and hurt God’s people. The devil is a powerful enemy, but there are limits to his influence over us. God keeps the devil on a short leash so that he cannot destroy us against our will. Remember that even in the book of Job, the devil couldn’t torment Job without God’s approval, and even then God limited his power. But the devil is a tough opponent, and he knows that we are all sinful by nature. Even though Christians have been reborn as holy children of God, the devil works on our sinful flesh to try to get us to do evil, and kill the new life within us from God.

Any of these three obstacles would be enough to keep us from doing what is right, but with all three working together it is impossible. Fortunately for us we are not alone in our struggle. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) Christ has overcome the devil so we should trust in Jesus to give us the strength to resist the devil’s temptations to sin. Jesus also told us, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We don’t have to fear the evil intentions of the world, because Christ has rescued us from all that the could do to us. Jesus also rescues us from our greatest obstacle, our own sinful flesh, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) Even though our sinful flesh must die because it is corrupted by sin, we have Christ’s guarantee that He will raise us to life and glorify our bodies so that they are perfect, without sin.

Why is it so hard to do right? Because we are trying to do it on our own, apart from Christ. Let us submit our will to Christ and let Him guide our actions, so that by His grace, we will continue to do good and give Him all the praise and glory.