They Hit Him With Their Best Shot - Colossians 2:6-19 (April 3)
They
thought they had Him. They had convinced
one of His closest friends that they way to make Him the kind of leader the
friend expected was to force His hand by betraying Him. They got the religious leaders all worked up
and even found someone that would falsely accuse Him of blasphemy. They got the soldiers fired up to the point
that when they began whipping them, they went into such a frenzy that bone was
exposed and flesh hung loosely when they were done. They got the crowd in such an uproar that the
called for the release of a murderer rather than this nonviolent teacher. They were joyous as He walked up that hill
and the soldiers drove spikes into his wrists and ankles, and dropped the cross
into the hole with a jarring thud. They
incited the crowd to mock Him and spit at Him.
They started their victory party when the stone was rolled in front of
the tomb.
And then
He stripped them of their power and embarrassed them. How did Christ disarm them? How did
Jesus make a public example of them? Did He belittle them in front of
their friends? Did He tell embarrassing stories about them? Did He
tell someone their deep, dark secrets? Did He attack them or assault them
in any way? What is this “It” through which He triumphed over the rulers
and authorities? It is the cross. How did that disarm them?
How did that embarrass them? Because Jesus endured the worst they could
throw at Him, He willingly surrendered to what they were doing to Him.
Jesus trusted in God above all else, and through the cross and the
resurrection, Jesus was vindicated. Their worst could not stop Him.
The cross and the grave were not the final word in His life, they could not
contain Him. They hit him with their best shot, and though He fell to the
ground, at the count of three, He stood up, never to fall again—vindicated and
victorious.
If Jesus
is “Him” and the cross is “it,” then who are “they” that Jesus overcame and embarrassed? Are they the religious leaders? Are they Pilate? Are they the soldiers? Are they the crowd who mocked him? Are they Rome? Are they demons and spiritual
forces of wickedness? Can the answer be
“Yes” to all and more?
Jesus stood condemned by
the religious leaders, accused of blasphemy, accused of claiming the role of
God for Himself.
Jesus stood condemned by
Pilate, not because Pilate found fault with Jesus, but because Pilate ruled out
of fear—fear of Rome, fear of public uprising.
Jesus stood condemned by
the soldiers because they viewed Jesus’ humility and refusal to respond with
violent power as a sign of weakness.
Jesus stood condemned by
Rome as one who would claim the emperor’s power.
Jesus stood condemned by
the crowd for failing to be the messiah that had been waiting for.
And as Jesus took our
sins upon Himself, Jesus stood condemned by the “accuser,” who, having failed
to tempt Jesus to voluntarily submit to himself, sought to claim Jesus as his
own, as Jesus was laid in the grave.
All of this condemnation
was nailed to the cross as each spike was driven through the wrists and ankles
of Jesus. It seems as if all of the
embarrassment was born by Jesus as He hung on the cross, stripped naked,
exposed by those who would condemn him, and died. The condemners hit Him with their best
shot—and nailed it.
Or so they thought…for
with the resurrection God turned Jesus’ humiliation and death into victory, and
the condemner’s supposed victory into powerlessness and embarrassment.
What did Christ overcome
and embarrass? All that would seek
condemn and humiliate Him and all that would condemn and humiliate any by
claiming they are unworthy of being called a child of the One True King.
It is what Jesus’
ministry had been about from the beginning.
Those with infirmities
were condemned to a life of wondering what sins had left them in their
condition, condemned to isolation as they were cast out of the community, or
condemned as worthless as they were left to fend for themselves. Jesus touched the blind, giving them
sight…Jesus touched the leper, making them whole…Jesus’ power flowed from Him
to heal the woman who was hemorrhaging.
Jesus brought them healing, removing their condemnation.
Those who were possessed
were cast out of the community, condemned to isolation, and often chains and
shackles. Jesus touched their lives,
freeing them from claim of the spirits that controlled them and the
condemnation of the community.
Jesus spent time with
those who sins left them condemned and cast out of the community…showing them
the love and compassion of a God who desired to forgive them and call them into
a relationship…freeing them not only from the condemnation of the religious authorities,
but from any self-condemnation that may have bound them.
Children, women, and
foreigners were condemned as unworthy, insignificant, and unclean. Yet Jesus welcomed children into His presence
and blessed them. He embraced women as
followers and chose them to reveal Himself first in the Resurrection. Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the
well and validated her as a child of God.
He healed the Canaanite woman’s child and the centurion’s servant.
What Jesus did for each
of those through His earthly ministry, on the cross, and with the Resurrection,
God did for the entire world for all time.
For all who come to God through Christ find that all condemnation has
been removed and they have been welcomed into the loving embrace of their
Savior. As Paul says to the church in Rome,
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”[i]
What does that mean for
you and I, my brothers and sisters?
It means that no matter
how worldly or spiritual powers try to condemn us, in Christ, we stand before
the throne of God, declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemn us because they see us as too old or too young,
in Christ we have been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemn us because we are male or female, in Christ,
we have been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemn us because we are of our economic status or
educational level, in Christ we have been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemn us because of our body size, our hair color, the
color of our skin, our ethnicity, or the language we speak, in Christ we have
been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemn us because of struggles with mental health, in
Christ we have been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
It means if worldly or
spiritual powers seek to condemned us because of our history of sin, in Christ,
we have been declared innocent, loved, and valued.
In means that when worldly
or spiritual powers seek to condemn anyone else because of their age, because
of their gender, because of their economic or educational level, because of physical
appearance, because of their ethnicity, because of the language they speak or
don’t speak, that because of their background or sin, that WE are to declare
that in Christ they are innocent, loved, and valued.
For the truth of the
matter is, according to Paul, now that Christ has been vindicated…now that God
has unarmed all earthly and spiritual powers and embarrassing them by proving
that their best shot was a miss,
“What then are we to say
about [the powers would condemn]? If God
is for us, who is against us? He who did
not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him
also give us everything else? Who will
bring any charge against God’s elect? It
is God who justifies. Who is to
condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died,
yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us…in
all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”[ii]
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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