“If He's the Son of God, let Him come down now from the cross! He saved others; He can't save Himself!” So they enemies of Jesus mocked Him. It does seem a bit silly. Jesus DOES have power. He could hop down from that cross and blast those enemies with His mighty power, causing them to melt with fear and be destroyed for their evil. But He hangs there. He could have called down twelve legions of angels in the Garden and not ended up on the cross in the first place. But He let Himself be taken. People like to get all excited about how mighty and powerful Jesus is. But He's not powerful now. Now He's weak and dying and almost dead and then dead. He's no big, powerful, lighting tossing, glory-shining God now, is He? He's just nasty. And scary. And horrible. And sad looking. He's naked on a cross, nails through His hands and feet, a head crowned with thorns. He's surrounded by people who hate Him so much they can't even find a drop of human pity at such suffering but instead mock and laugh at Him. What a sad and sorry sight that this is what the Son of God looks like: bloody, dying, nailed to a cross, the Roman Empire's sick version of capital punishment.
But the mockers have it half right. If Jesus comes down off the cross, He'll save Himself. Himself. Just Himself. If Jesus comes down of the cross He'll save Himself but not us. If Jesus saves Himself, we perish. We die in our sins. We are doomed forever. But if Jesus doesn't save Himself, He saves us. Can't be both. You can't have a God who doesn't touch sin and still gets rid of your sins. But you can't get rid of your sins unless there's a God who becomes man to touch them, to carry them, to get covered in them and be crushed to death by them. No, they're right. He can't save Himself and others. If Jesus saves Himself, others are doomed. If Jesus doesn't save Himself, others are saved.
This is our faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the God who became man to save us does it by not saving Himself. We would save ourselves. If we were being tortured on a cross, and we could somehow get down, we would. When we sin we always try to save ourselves. We try to ignore it. Cover it up. Blame it on someone else. Say it's not our fault. Make excuses why we did it. Just hide it and hope it goes away. That's why Jesus doesn't save Himself. He knows that we try to save ourselves and that's exactly why He needs to save us. If we try to get rid of our own sins, our own condemnation before God, then we're done for. So the Father sends the Son to do it and the Son comes willingly and does it. Jesus knows that the only way to save us is to not save Himself. So He does not come down from that cross. He hangs there until the bitter end, until the sins of the world are paid for and He can say, “It is finished” and then commends Himself into His Father's hands, knowing that He will be raised the third day, having triumphed over all things.
And now, the One who didn't save Himself so that He could save you, does for you what He did to the thief who saw that He could be saved if Jesus died. Jesus declares your eternal life. At the font, from the pulpit, at the altar, the Lord is saying to you: I gave myself up for you. Now you will be with me in paradise on the day you die. No working out some religion or way of life. No figuring out the part you have to play. No wondering whether you can be sure. Just this Good News: The Son of God who DIDN'T save Himself has saved you. The One who was lifted up on the cross and refused to come down now lifts you to the heavenly places and won't let anything bring you down from there. Happy Lent in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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