Luke 23 26-31 Places of Passion
The Way of Sorrows: A Place of Tears
Text: Luke 23:26-31
Dear Christian Friends,
“Schmaltz.”, You may not find the word in your dictionary, but it means “a sentimental display of emotion that is easily [and sometimes purposely] overemphasized for an ordinary event.” Schmaltz is when politicians kiss the babies of people they don’t even know. Schmaltz is when your mother told you the sob story about children starving to death in Africa to get you to clean your plate at the supper table. Schmaltz is a TV commercial with the violins sighing as a husband and wife embrace, having solved all their problems because they discovered a new brand of coffee. You are being “schmaltzed” whenever someone tries to manipulate your emotions by overemphasizing symbolism and underemphasizing substance. Sometimes this emotional intensity blurs person’s eyes with such thick tears that they can’t see or think straight.
That’s exactly what happened with the women who wept for Jesus. Today/This evening, continuing in our series “Places of the Passion,” we will listen to these women and to Jesus and discover how easy it is to be “schmaltzed into a wrong understanding,” especially when we ponder the pain of our Savior. Yes, Jesus’ suffering does cause us to shed a tear, but it is not without a great degree of relief and rejoicing. This portion of Scripture teaches us that Jesus’ suffering is our joyful sorrow.
1. Because Jesus suffered, he carried our sins away
What about the man who jumps on a grenade and saves over a dozen lives? What about the animals killed for scientific research and the advancement of medical technology? What about the Christian who loses a job, gives up a promotion, or is ridiculed by influential people because he or she will not compromise Christian principles? Do these things make you sad or glad? What about Jesus’ suffering? Does it make you sad or glad? If you consider the big picture, it will be both. Isn’t that why we call the Friday on which Jesus died “good”?
Luke takes us to the place where Jesus carried his cross, sometimes called the Way of Sorrows, and begins, “As they led him away” (vs. 26). That’s noteworthy—that Jesus was led “away” from the city. You might remember the riotous mob that killed Stephen; they “dragged him out of the city” (Ac 7:58) before stoning him. Why? Because anything or anyone unclean, according to the laws God gave Israel, had to be taken outside the camp either to be destroyed or to fulfill part of a purification process. Luke is telling us that Jesus was considered unclean not only by the Roman authorities and not only by the Jewish leaders, but by God.
A picturesque ritual that God prescribed for his Old Testament people was the Day of Atonement. On this day, one of the events centered on a special goat that, rather than being sacrificed on an altar, was “presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat” (Lev 16:10). The priest would lay his hands on the goat’s head, as if he were collecting all the unclean sins of the people and depositing those sins on the goat, and then send the unclean goat outside the camp into the wilderness to take those sins away. It was as if all the sins would perish in the wilderness with the scapegoat and bother the people no more.
This picture was fulfilled in the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus took our uncleanness outside the camp as he was led “away” outside the city to die. That is why we sing, “O Christ, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.” We remember Jesus is our “scapegoat. Jesus suffered, and was led away to die, to take our sins away. Because of this, Jesus’ suffering is our joyful sorrow.
God redeemed you through the crucifixion of his Son. Doesn’t that make you glad? It makes Jesus and the angels glad, who rejoice over each repentant sinner. I’m afraid, however, that Lent is sometimes abused as a time to turn on the crying violins, a time to jerk the tears of people who love Jesus by describing the gory details of his suffering, a time to “schmaltz” it up so much that we forget about the gladness and glory behind the cross. God’s Word doesn’t intend for us simply to look at our suffering Savior and be sad. God’s Word urges us to respond to Jesus’ suffering with gladness, by realizing he was accomplishing our forgiveness, which we receive by faith, and in turn respond with the fruits of sacrificial love and good works. Schmaltz is for politicians and TV commercials. Forgiveness, faith, and the sacrifice of love are for real-life Christians.
2. Because Jesus suffered, he carried our sentence out
St. Nicholas church in Amsterdam is known for its beautiful bells. A man wearing wooden gloves sits in the tower of the church pounding on a keyboard to make them ring, and if you are in the tower with him, all you hear is the clanging of the keys and the deafening noise of the bells over your head. No harmony. No meaning. The people outside, however, standing a few blocks away, hear a beautiful sound coming from those bells because they are in a position where they hear all the sounds together in harmony from a wider perspective.
The problem with the wailing women at the Way of Sorrows is that they didn’t understand why Jesus was suffering. They didn’t understand God’s eternal plan for salvation, and, most unfortunately, they didn’t see themselves in that picture with Jesus. While their eyes were filled with tears, their hearts were not melted by sorrow and repentance for their own sins and the sins of their people who had rejected Jesus. They didn’t look to Jesus in faith for their salvation. So Jesus rebukes these women, not demanding that they refrain from weeping, but telling them to weep for the right reason.
Jesus tells these women that if they are to weep they should weep for themselves. Jesus came to love and save these women, their husbands and children, and their neighbors. They rejected Jesus as their Savior and only pitied him as a good teacher that was being unfairly and poorly treated. Weep for yourselves, Jesus tells them, for the judgment of God was coming upon Jerusalem because of their unbelief. The city of Jerusalem would soon be surrounded, besieged, and destroyed; the physical suffering and emotional agony would be so great that Jewish women would say, “Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore children.” They will beg relieve for their suffering asking that the mountains and the hills fall on them to give them immediate relief.
There is a lesson here for us today. Jesus’ suffering and death is more than good drama, more than a good movie where we walk out in awe only because we have been “schmaltzed” from start to finish. We are not an audience. We aren’t spectators to Jesus’ suffering. We are participants. We were with Jesus as He carries His cross. We were their when they put our Lord Jesus to death. We were there as God’s wrath was poured out on His one and only Son. We were there as Jesus Christ satisfied His Father giving us peace with Him. For those who believe in Christ, there is no more fear. Our sorrow over our own sinfulness, for which Jesus was crucified, is turned to joy.
The suffering of our Savior doesn’t just move us, it changes us. It changes who we are, how we think, and what we do. The Holy Spirit leads us to respond to the story of our Savior not just with stirred emotion, but with strengthened faith and an energetic trust in our dying and rising Lord. Now we are able to resist Satan and temptation and charge into a life of good works. It’s a faith that rejoices in worship and praise. It’s a faith that falls on its knees pondering Jesus’ sacrifice for sin. It’s a faith that can’t help but share the joy of Jesus with others and finds fulfillment in humbling itself to treat others with a sacrificial love. Jesus isn’t looking for sympathy; he’s looking for faith. His suffering is our joyful sorrow.
Our sins should make us sad, and we’re blessed when we pause and ponder them, as we do during Lent, but our Savior makes us glad. So it’s okay to smile, even for Lutherans, even during Lent. Amen.