When I Survey – The Sunday Next before Easter

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

How can words express with greater clarity what God the Holy Ghost hath revealed in St. Matthew’s account of our Lord’s Passion? My words lack any insight, and can only offer the reader my sense of awestruck mixed with horror and tainted by the guilt of my sin, yet overcome with joy that God the Father should love this sinner to not spare His only Son – the faithful Son of God, Son of Man, who willingly offered Himself up on that tree.

Perhaps it is better to start with the epistle lesson, as St. Paul explains to the Philippians the sheer unfathomable act of God manifested through the incarnation, Good Friday, and Easter morn. St. Paul speaks to us today by calling us to change our mind from the worldly, the natural, the fallen, up to the heavenly, the spiritual, the true reality embodied in Jesus Christ: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5, KJV). What, praytell, is the mind of Christ that we should conform to?

Servanthood.

No, servanthood is too gentle a word and too overused in today’s modern conception of “servant leadership.” What God the Son has done and is doing, is servitude to our Father, who art in heaven. A service which we could not perform, and yet after Pentecost, a servitude which we are invited into so that we may be godly subjects to the Lord God Almighty.

For Jesus, “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7, KJV). It’s a reminder that Christmas is brought forward to Good Friday. Why, even before Christmas, during the Annunciation of St. Mary the Virgin, only a few weeks ago (March 25), we are reminded mid-Lent that God the Son became enfleshed within the womb of St. Mary to accomplish our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ did not refuse to condescend and be made “a little lower than the angels.” (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7 KJV). Instead, He willingly knew before the creation of the world that He would be incarnated and not only become man, but would submit to death itself.

Christ did not boast in His Godhood and refuse to become man, but instead “being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8, KJV).

Forbid it, Lord! That I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

The cross. Rome’s preferred method of executing criminals, rebels, and non-Romans. The Son of God is killed brutally by the epitome of “civilization” in the most barbaric method possible. However, the cross is desanitized today. It appears to us as decor for the home, decorative for a church, and hangs as a necklace to claim one is a “good Christian.” It is meant to beautify the bodies of our homes, our churches, and our bodies. However, it is the brutal method of killing thousands during the age of Rome. There is no decorum in the Cross, only brutality and death. And yet the Cross is the method that the God-man, Jesus the Christ, willingly stepped out of heavenly glory into earthly dust and chose to die upon. Not the gallows, nor beheading, not by firing squad, nor the electric chair. The Cross. Nailed by hands, nailed by feet, crowned by thorns, and enthroned upon a wooden tree so the nectar of His blood might flow down the splinters and into the soil. There upon the wooden tree of a Roman cross, we find the fruit of the tree of life.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down:
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Adam once failed Eve and humanity by taking the forbidden fruit and eating it. The New Adam protects His bride by stamping upon the serpent’s head through the nailed feet of the Cross. Adam yields to the serpent’s temptation to taste and become like God. The Son of God becomes the New Adam to taste our pain, our exile, our death, and paves the way for man to become like Him. Adam is expelled for tasting the tree that was forbidden to mankind. The New Adam ends our exile by taking the tree on His back, and tasting the bitter fruit of death. The death of God removes the exile of mankind from God’s presence. When Jesus died on Calvary, He removed the curtain that forbade man into His presence. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” (Matthew 27:51 KJV).

The Good News of Jesus Christ is that before He created the cosmos, He knew He would become man to save us from ourselves, our captor, and our death. He knew, and incredibly, He still willingly chose to die for every one of His image bearers. The same ones who praised Him on Palm Sunday and cursed Him on Good Friday are the very ones whom He died for so that His resurrection would redeem them, resurrect them, and restore them to new life.

The exalted Son of God descends to the earth, knowing that the sons of the earth would hoist Him up upon the tree of death. There, hanging before all of humanity upon that Cross, hung Life Himself. Pierced upon that holy wood blossomed the fruit of our salvation. By lifting Christ up, we enthroned the Son of God and killed Him. Only by looking up at the Son of Man can the sons of Adam find their redemption and sanctification. We exalted Him with words on Palm Sunday, and executed the Word of God on Good Friday. Yet in His execution, “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:9 KJV).

Because of our sin, we are accomplices to Divine regicide. What can we do? What hope do we have?

We have hope beyond all measure, for Life has bled out for us.

We have faith, beyond all doubt, for we trust the One who defeated death by His own.

We have charity towards all, because Love died for all mankind.

We find ourselves at the foot of the Cross, surveying it from the rocks that would praise His Name should we fail to do so. At Christ’s crucifixion, the whole realm of nature cried out as God died, for “the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” (Matthew 27:51 KJV). The question today is – will you continue crucifying your Lord by denying Him and your sin, or will you confess Him as Lord, as God, and as your Savior?

There is a day appointed for all men to die, and then judgment. There is a Day appointed when all things will be made new. A Day in which Christ the King shall descend. When that Day comes, will you bow willingly or unwillingly? For “at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11 KJV).

Let this day be the day you choose to humble yourself and worship the humble Lord who poured Himself out like a drink offering for your salvation. In humility, confess your sin, then worship the God who humbly gave Himself up for you. Satan thought he humiliated Christ upon the Cross, yet in His humiliation, He healed us, and the Father exalted Jesus as the Name above all names.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.