Father Forgive Our Misplaced Sorrow

Luke 23:26-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our country today executions aren’t a public spectacle like they were in Jesus’ day, but the fact that they take place still makes the news. They are a source of a lot of controversy and sorrow. There are always those who gather outside the prison keeping vigil for the one about to be executed. Some are filled with sorrow over the fact that a life is about to be taken. Others, the friends and relatives of the criminal’s victim or victims, gather in the execution chamber, or in their homes. They too are filled with sorrow, but for different reasons. Their sorrow may be from remembering the loved one who is no longer with them. Their sorrow may be expressed in anger at the criminal, or tears of relief that justice is finally being carried out. The criminal himself may be filled with sorrow, maybe because they were caught and condemned, or hopefully, because they are filled with remorse for what they did.

This evening, as we walk with Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, the road that led from Pilate’s court, through the streets of Jerusalem and outside the city to Golgotha, we remember that this a “way of sorrows”. Jesus makes it clear that he does not want the sorrow of sympathy for himself. He wants the sorrow of true repentance from us.

Even though Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, despite the warning from his wife not to have anything to do with Jesus, even though Herod had found Jesus innocent, Pilate gave in to the Jewish leaders. He washed his hands, trying to absolve himself of doing what he knew was wrong, and then handed Jesus over to be crucified. Very unlike our system today, the sentence was carried out almost immediately. Normally the condemned were given a few days to prepare for their impending death, but that courtesy was not extended to Jesus. He and two others who had been condemned to die were led through the streets, forced to carry their own crosses. They were put on display for people to jeer and spit on, and to serve as a warning to any who might think about committing similar crimes or opposing the power of Rome.

The gospels tell us that Jesus began the walk down the way of sorrows carrying his own cross, but that, at some point Jesus crumpled under the weight of the cross and couldn’t carry it any farther. The soldiers grabbed a man from the crowd and forced him to carry the cross for Jesus. We are told this man’s name was Simon, that he was from Cyrene and that his sons’ names were Alexander and Rufus. It seems that these sons became Christians and were well known among the members of the early Christian Church.

It’s not surprising that Jesus collapsed under the weight of the cross. We know that he was dragged from one trial to another, to Annas, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate again. He had little if any opportunity to sleep, and nothing to eat for hours. We know that he was flogged and beaten. It’s not surprising that he would not be able to carry his own cross all the way to Golgotha.

As he passed through the streets, a large crowd had gathered including many women who were filled with sorrow. They mourned and wailed for him. It may be that they were just following custom, being a lot like those today who stand vigil outside a prison where an execution is about to take place. They may not even have known who Jesus was, but they mourned that a fellow countryman was about to lose his life. Some may have recognized that this was Jesus, the one that they had hoped would be the one who would liberate them from the Romans. They were mourning the loss of their hope. When Jesus collapsed, the soldiers had to stop the procession, assess the situation and look for someone to carry the cross for Jesus. This allowed the women to get very close to Jesus so that he could speak to them.

Jesus told them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Jesus did not want their sympathy. What they obviously didn’t realize was that he was about his father’s business. He was doing what he came to do. He had volunteered for the mission. He knew all along that it would come to this. As bad as he looked, as much pain as he was suffering, as horrible as execution by crucifixion was, he did not need or want their sympathy.

Then he said something astonishing. He said, weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, `Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then `they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!" and to the hills, “Cover us!" for if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?’

On Palm Sunday, as Jesus had entered Jerusalem to the shouts and praises of the people, he looked over the city and was suddenly filled with great sorrow. He wept over Jerusalem. He lamented, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Jesus knew what was in store for many of the people living in Jerusalem. He foresaw that the Romans would siege the city, that many would die of starvation and that terrible destruction would finally come upon Jerusalem. It would be a time when these women would wish they had no children because they could not bear to watch them suffer. It would be a time when they would wish for a sudden catastrophe to end their pain and suffering. But much worse than the physical pain and loss was the fact that this would all come about because they did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them. The one they claimed to be looking for, the Messiah, had come to them and they had rejected him and handed him over to be crucified.

Jesus didn’t need or want their sympathy. He had shed tears of sorrow over them. He wanted them to recognize the time of God’s coming to them. He wanted them to see that if they continued to reject him their fate would be much worse than death by crucifixion. He wanted to lead them to sorrow over themselves, to the sorrow of repentance.

As we picture Jesus on the way of sorrows, his clothing sticking to the dried blood on his back. As we think about the taunts and jeers of the crowd who had turned against him, and the streaks of blood on his face that had come from the crown of thorns on his head. As we think about what he would soon suffer, and how he had collapsed on the way. It’s easy to feel bad for Jesus. It’s easy to become emotional and to feel sympathy for him. But Jesus doesn’t want our sympathy any more than he wanted the sympathy of the women of Jerusalem.

As we see what Jesus is going through, we want to remember why. We want to remember that it wasn’t the fault of the Jewish leaders that Jesus was suffering. Jesus made it clear to all that he could have easily escaped if he had wanted to do so when he simply spoke the words, “I am he,” and the whole company of those who came to arrest him fell backwards in the garden. As we see what Jesus is suffering, we want to remember that he is suffering for our sins. We don’t want to be filled with sorrow for him, we want to be filled with sorrow for ourselves, because we recognize how serious each and every one of our sins is. We want to have the sorrow of repentance.

Luther teaches us, from Scripture, that we have an old Adam, and that this old Adam, this sinful nature that still lives in us, needs to be drowned by daily contrition and repentance. That’s what Jesus wants—he wants sorrow like Peter when he recognized how he had sinned against the Lord and went out and wept bitterly because of his sin. He wants sorrow like the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair because she recognized her many sins, and that Jesus had forgiven her. He wants the sorrow of repentance demonstrated by the prodigal son who came back to his father and said, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

I wonder how often we have misplaced sorrow. We feel sorry for ourselves when we experience consequences for a particular sin. We take the forgiveness Jesus won for us for granted, as if we deserve it. We have misplaced sorrow when we excuse our sins and think that they aren’t really that bad because other people do things that are much worse than we have done. But remember, even the smallest sin contributed to Jesus’ suffering. Sin, not just the sins of others, but our sins are the reason Jesus went to the cross. When we recognize this and then take comfort in the fact that Jesus has paid for our sins, then we have the sorrow Jesus seeks, the sorrow of repentance.

Jesus warned the women who were filled with sorrow for him that judgment was coming on Jerusalem. It came with a vengeance in 70 AD. The fall of Jerusalem is a reminder for us of the Last day. It is a reminder for us that judgment is coming. Jesus will come again, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. His message to us is to keep watch, to recognize the signs he has given us, to make sure we recognize the time of God’s coming to us. He comes to us in word and Sacrament until the day he returns in judgment.

As we hear the passion story and see Jesus heading to the cross, so beaten and bleeding that he is almost unrecognizable, so weak that he can’t even carry his own cross, Jesus doesn’t want us to feel sorry for him. He wants us to remember that He knew what he was doing. He volunteered for the mission. He doesn’t want us to shed tears of sympathy for him. He wants us to remember the reason he went to the cross. He wants us to recognize our sins and be filled with the sorrow of repentance. He wants us to sorrow over our sins so that we can then shed tears of great joy over the fact that Jesus has paid for them all.