Jesu Juva
Text: Isaiah 62:11 - 63:7
The trampler is the
trampled. The vanquished is the victor. The blood poured out is His own.
So unusual is the sight that the question rings
out: Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments?
“It is I,” says the Lord. “Speaking
in righteousness, mighty to save.”
This bloody scene is the way it must be. Jesus
goes alone. Indeed, He must. There is no one who can help Him. No one able. No one who can bear the awful
load, the weight of the world’s sin. The day of vengeance had come. The
wrath of God will be poured out against all sin, all rebellion, all iniquity. Jesus drinks that cup of wrath down to its
dregs. He takes it all and is crushed - not by man, but by His Father, in our
place. He dies that we may live.
This bloody scene is still the way it must
be. Although many would like a clean, sanitary Jesus, and never have to look at
Him on the cross or acknowledge the horrid reality that it was our sin, your
sin, my sin, that put Him there, it must be this way. We must look and behold
our Saviour is all His agony and death, so disfigured
that we ask: Who is this? Can this be our God?
Indeed it is! Saving us in His
mighty weakness. This is His steadfast love. This is His compassion and
great goodness. This is His glory and the object of our praise.
And so Isaiah said: Say to the daughter of
Zion, - to those born from the gracious dwelling of God with us, which is you and me. Say to the daughter of
Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with
him, and his recompense before him.”
His salvation, His
reward, His recompense. What is this that He brings for us,
provides for us, the payback for our sins against Him? The
gifts of His forgiveness, life eternal, and salvation from our enemies.
By His blood He restores us as sons and daughters of God, rightful heirs again
of His kingdom. Though we threw it all away and still do, He comes and keeps
coming to offer it again. We’ll hear it again tomorrow night: Take,
eat, this is My Body. Take, drink, this is My Blood. Same Body, same
Blood, from cross to altar, for you.
Some deny that. Those who want a clean, sanitary
Jesus don’t want His Blood in the cup! But a clean, sanitary Jesus is no Jesus,
no Saviour, at all. He came to be bloodied, and to
give that blood for you, to you. And with the blood of the new covenant, the
new testament on you and in you, that you be reconciled to God and at peace
with God once again. There is no other way.
And because of that bloody scene, this is true
for you as well:
And they shall be called The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord;
and you shall be called
Sought Out,
A City
Not Forsaken.
For He was the forsaken one on the cross, He came
to seek you out, He came to redeem you from your sins,
and to make you holy once again. And when the mouth of the Lord calls you
something, all these things, then that is what you
are. His Word does what it says.
In the Name of the
Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.