He Entrusted Himself to God

He Entrusted Himself to God  

A Reflection for Good Friday 2018

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

 Date:   March 30, 2018

Series: Holy Week 2018

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

When the apostle Peter urges his Christian brothers and sisters to suffer injustice with dignity and grace, he appeals to the example set for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus pioneered a trail, and it is the disciple’s privilege to “follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Peter tells us, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

Of course, it is one thing not to speak sinfully or deceitfully on fair-weather days when the skies are clear, the air is crisp, and everything is going your way. But what about on days when everything is against you and lies are hurled at you and bodily suffering is upon you? Peter continues, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23)

If you were mocked, falsely accused, and unjustly condemned, what would you do? The perennial temptation is to fight back, defend ourselves, and set the record straight – sooner rather than later. The problem is not that we desire justice and vindication. The problem is that we tend to assert ourselves as the champions of our own defense. Instead of trusting God to straighten it out in His time and His way, we enter the fray as the frantic administrators of our own cause. Others revile us, and we revile in return. Others bring suffering upon us, and we threaten to retaliate. Pressed hard enough, we might even resort to deceit.

Jesus, however, is very much unlike us. We would take up our own defense, but what did Jesus do? He “continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” He trusted His Father to do the judging; He waited patiently for His Father to do the vindicating. Now, this is a remarkable and praiseworthy thing that Jesus did. But it is all the more remarkable and praiseworthy when we remember who Jesus is – He is the King! We know that a servant or subject should be humble, but why should a sovereign king be humble?

It is frankly laughable that lowly folks like us get puffed up with pride. Every heartbeat and breath, every privilege and opportunity, every ability and talent, every penny in the bank and every person in our social circle – it is all gift! As Scripture says, there is nothing that we have that we have not received (see 1 Corinthians 4:7). So we have much to be grateful for, but nothing to be proud about.

But suppose you are the Lord of glory? Suppose you shine with a brilliance ten thousand times brighter than the radiance of the sun? After all, you made the sun – and with it all the stars and galaxies, all the sky above and earth below, and all the human beings who have ever been conceived. You designed it all, and you direct it all. Everything that exists is Yours. You are the reason for everything, you are the One who holds it all together, you are the purpose and goal toward which all of history is moving. You say to this molecule ‘Go’ and it goes. You walk up to a blind man and say ‘Receive your sight’ and immediately the blind man sees. You walk up to a demonized man and command the unclean spirit to take a hike, and it flees. You multiply five loaves of bread and two fish in order to feed thousands. You have the authority to forgive sins, heal lepers, and raise the dead. When You speak, the only thing that comes out of Your mouth are good, true, and wonderful words – words that give life to the humble, and yet words that judge the proud and self-assured. You are the Bread of Life; the Light of the world; the Door of the sheep; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the Life; the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and the True Vine who gives life to Your people. You are everything, and the rest of us are as nothings who can do nothing without You. Of course, I am speaking not of you or me, but of our Lord. It is utterly impossible to over-praise this Lord of glory – “The LORD, strong and mighty” (Psalm 24:8) – the Lord Jesus Christ who is the great “I am” – the eternally self-existent Son of God who is glorified with His Father from everlasting to everlasting. For Jesus, it is not pride to have a high view of Himself, for He truly is altogether high and holy and wonderful, and it is a simple matter of truth that He recognize His own worth.

Why am I telling you all this? So that you will stand in awe of His gracious willingness to humble Himself for our sake. “… though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). He did not count His high position as something to be used for His own benefit, but instead He leveraged His high position for our benefit. The Son of God “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8) God became Man! The High King became a humble servant! The Lord of glory became an obedient slave! The Prince of Life became subject to a shameful death!

The whole attitude of His humble servanthood is captured in the words of Psalm 40:8 – “I desire to do your will, O my God.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus contemplated the awful reality that very soon He would drink the cup of God’s wrath poured out upon Him, not for His own sin, but because He was carrying our sins. “My Father, if it be possible,” He prayed, “let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39) – “… not my will, but yours, be done”(Luke 22:42). He would not turn away from the path of obedience, and He would go all the way down that path to that moment when He offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

What a dark and awful path this was! He was betrayed by one of His disciples, and He was arrested by thugs in the Garden. It is at just this point that we should marvel at the Lord’s humble restraint. As the arrest was in process, the apostle Peter was with the Lord and thought he would fight back, so he “drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.” (Matthew 26:51; John 18:10 indicates that it was Peter who did this) But the Lord’s confidence was not in an earthly sword. Jesus healed the guy’s ear, and He told Peter, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Later on Jesus would tell Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36) King Jesus was establishing His other-worldly kingdom, not through political and military forces, but through the higher forces of truth, righteousness, and sacrifice. Back in the Garden, He told Peter, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) Jesus had access to an unseen world in which tens of thousands of angels could have been dispatched to deliver Him and blow His enemies to smithereens, but He didn’t, and He wouldn’t, because He had come “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Men testified against Him. “But Jesus remained silent.” (Matthew 26:63) “… they spit in his face and struck him” and said “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?” (Matthew 26:67, 68) But Christ, the faithful Prophet and King, would not play their game. The religious leaders testified against Him in the presence of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. “But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.” (Matthew 27:14) They “struck him on the head” and “mocked him” and “derided him” (Matthew 27:30, 31, 39) They said with mockery, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross…. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now….” (Matthew 27:40, 42-43) All this mocking and reviling just poured out of sin-sick hearts who were blinded to the truth.

But think about it? Put in similar situations, human beings would be tempted to answer the accusatory words. Human beings would be tempted to adopt an ‘I’ll show you’ attitude. And if it was possible for you in a super-hero like way to get yourself out of the jam and take vengeance against your enemies, you just might do it. How dramatic it would have been for Jesus to “come down from the cross” and “save himself”! But Jesus wasn’t there on that cross in order to prove anything to His detractors and critics. Further, Jesus didn’t come into this world to “save himself”. Instead, He came into this world precisely to save others – and His self-sacrifice on the cross is the supreme act of salvation that was designed to save others – indeed, to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). In so doing, Jesus is the perfect embodiment of what He taught us when He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it?” (Matthew 16:24-25)

When we deny ourselves and take up our cross and lose our life and sacrifice the good things of this world for the better things of God’s kingdom, it might look foolish or stupid or weak. We might be criticized or mocked or persecuted. But if we suffer such injustices or assaults from the world, we have our example.

Jesus denied Himself – He denied Himself the right of immediate vindication, He denied Himself the right of heavenly comfort and glory. Jesus took up His cross and lost His life for His Father’s sake: “I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7; quoting Psalm 40:8). At the same time, Jesus lost His life for our sake: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

On this holy day, Good Friday, the living Word fell silent: “he did not revile in return” and “he did not threaten,” and after entrusting Himself to the Father by saying “into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46), then Jesus “breathed his last (Luke 23:46) and “yielded up his spirit” (Matthew 27:50). He died as He lived, with complete trust in His Father, confident that His vindication would come. And come it would, on resurrection morning.

Amen and amen.