Rev. David Holwick C
Boothbay Baptist Church
Boothbay, Maine
April 21, 2024
Romans 3:23-25
THE MOST OFFENSIVE THING ABOUT THE CROSS
I. A story that shook his faith to the core.
A. Father Kolbe in Auschwitz.
About 20 years ago, Pastor Martin Thielen was preaching at a
combined Maundy Thursday/Good Friday service.
He told a true story from the Holocaust which involved a Polish
soldier named Franciszek Gajowniczek and a Catholic priest
named Maximilian Kolbe.
In February 1941, the Nazis incarcerated Maximilian Kolbe at
the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In spite of the brutality of the infamous prison, Father Kolbe
lived out the spirit of Jesus.
He shared his food, gave up his bunk, and prayed for his
captors.
He soon earned the nickname "The Saint of Auschwitz."
In July of that same year a prisoner escaped from the camp.
The policy at Auschwitz was to kill ten prisoners for every one
who escaped.
The next morning, guards gathered the prisoners into the
courtyard.
The commander randomly selected ten names from the roll book.
Everyone knew if they heard their name called it meant a death
sentence.
The commander began calling the ten names.
At each selection another prisoner stepped forward to fill the
sinister quota.
The tenth name called was Franciszek Gajowniczek.
Upon hearing his name, Gajowniczek began to sob.
"My wife and my children," he wept.
The guards heard movement among the prisoners.
They raised their rifles.
The dogs tensed, anticipating a command to attack.
A prisoner pushed his way to the front.
It was the priest, Maximilian Kolbe.
He showed no fear on his face, no hesitancy in his step.
The guard shouted at him to stop or be shot.
"I want to talk to the commander," he said calmly.
Father Kolbe stopped a few paces from the commander, removed
his hat, and looked the German officer in the eye.
"Herr Commandant, I wish to make a request.
I want to die in the place of this prisoner."
He then pointed at the sobbing Gajowniczek.
"I have no wife and children.
Besides, I am old and not good for anything.
He's in better condition."
"Who are you?" the officer asked.
"A Catholic priest."
The entire crowd was stunned; the commandant was speechless.
After a moment, he barked, "Request granted."
Franciszek Gajowniczek later said, "Prisoners were never
allowed to speak.
So I could only thank him with my eyes.
I could hardly grasp what was going on - the immensity of it.
I, the condemned, was to live; and someone else willingly and
voluntarily offered up his life for me, a complete stranger."
Gajowniczek survived the Holocaust.
After the war he made his way back to his hometown in Poland.
In his backyard he placed a plaque, one he carved with his own
hands.
The plague reads, "A tribute to Maximilian Kolbe - the man who
died so I could live."
After the story, Pastor Thielen briefly compared Maximilian
Kolbe's sacrifice to Jesus's death on the cross.
"Like the priest," he said, "Jesus died in our place, to pay
the price for our sin."
They sang the old hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."
Then they observed Communion.
Although the service went well, Pastor Thielen felt
uncomfortable.
Back in his office, he sat at his desk and reviewed the worship
service in his mind, especially the story about the priest.
It seemed a fitting metaphor of Christ's sacrificial atoning
death on our behalf.
But still something felt wrong.
The story nagged at him.
For years he had quietly struggled with atonement theology -
the belief that Jesus died in our place to pay the punishment
for our sins.
But mostly he ignored his reservations.
After all, substitutionary blood atonement stood at the core of
Christian orthodoxy.
Who was he to question it?
But that night the struggle came to a head.
Still sitting at his desk, he again mulled over the Holocaust
priest story.
He asked himself, "In this metaphor, who is the God figure?"
God was not represented by the loving priest.
Instead, Maximilian Kolbe represented Jesus, who lovingly and
willingly gave up his life.
So he asked myself again, "Where is God in this story?"
And then, in a chilling moment of horrifying awareness, he
realized who the God figure actually was.
In his metaphorical usage of this story, God the Father was
represented by the Nazi commander at Auschwitz.
He had demanded blood, suffering, and death for behavior he
deemed unacceptable.
That realization stunned Pastor Thielen.
Behind the all-pervasive theology, prayers, songs, and hymns of
Christianity that Jesus "died for our sins" stood a
bloodthirsty, wrathful, and vengeful deity who required a
pound of flesh to pay the price for human sin.
That got my attention.
He is absolutely correct that the cross and the blood of Jesus
are at the core of Christianity.
Does it really portray vengeance and wrath of the worst kind?
Pastor Thielen concluded it did.
He couldn't reconcile Jesus's belief in an all-loving and
all-merciful God with this theology of the cross.
So that night he stopped believing in the substitutionary
blood atonement.
He no longer sings, "There is a fountain filled with blood,"
or "There is power in the blood."
For Pastor Thielen, for God to require the death of Jesus would
be divine child abuse.
#66726
B. I disagree with Pastor Thielen's conclusion.
1) But it challenged me to dig deeper. Much deeper.
2) Why do we believe in a doctrine that the modern world
certainly sees as barbaric?
3) Even conservative Christians neglect it.
a) This year our church had no service on Good Friday.
1> Can you imagine us skipping Mother's Day, or
Veteran's Day? Never!
b) Even my church in New Jersey had to join with 4 other
churches to get 20 people to carry a Cross down
Main Street.
c) Palm Sunday and Easter are exciting; Good Friday is
grim. A bummer.
4) Most of us prefer doctrines that are positive, uplifting.
a) But sometimes we need the harder, deeper stuff.
b) Like the blood of Christ.
II. There are three main views on why Jesus had to die on the cross.
#34366 and #34367
A. Jesus used the cross to prove his victory over Satan.
1) Mankind's main problem is we are oppressed by evil
spiritual forces.
2) Christ died to be a ransom to free us from these forces,
sort of like David taking on Goliath.
B. Jesus was an example to us of courage and overcoming attitude.
1) His death is primarily to have an effect on us.
a) We need to have a right relationship with God, and
Christ's death brings this about.
b) As soon as we are changed we become forgivable, and
he forgives us at once.
2) Christ's death on the cross also demonstrates God's love
for us in a convincing way. As he loved us, we should
love others.
C. Jesus became our sacrifice, our substitute, to satisfy God.
1) Our main problem is that our sinfulness separates us from a
holy God.
2) Christ's perfect sacrifice for our sins is necessary to
satisfy God's righteousness.
D. Most of the New Testament passages emphasize substitution.
1) The first two views are correct and biblical, but not
complete.
2) Sacrifice is at the core of Christianity.
a) Jesus saw himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
b) Jesus says in Mark 10:45 - "For even the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many."
c) And at the Last Supper, Jesus says: Matt 26:28
"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
3) The writings of Paul and Peter and John all support it.
4) Even an atheist understands this.
Christopher Hitchens was well-known for taking on Christians.
He didn't just reject the gospel, he ridiculed it.
His books sold millions of copies and he was often on TV.
Hitchens was once interviewed by a Unitarian minister in Oregon.
The pastor said the religion that Hitchens criticized in his
books was the fundamentalist kind.
Then the pastor said this:
"I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from
the Bible literally.
I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died
for your sins, for example).
Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and
liberal religion?"
Hitchens responded, "I would say that if you don't believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and
that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice
our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any
meaningful sense a Christian."
The liberal pastor quickly changed the topic.
#22762
III. The practice of sacrifice goes way, way back.
A. In Genesis chapter 4, Abel brings sacrificed animals to God.
1) Even before Moses received the laws of God on Mount Sinai,
Noah and Job and Abraham offered sacrifices.
2) At every major Jewish festival, animals were slain.
3) At the dedication of Solomon's temple, 22,000 cattle and
120,000 sheep and goats - that's 142,000 animals -
were sacrificed. 1 Kings 8:63
4) If we did that today - even one little lamb - there would
be demonstrations and riots!
B. Why sacrifice?
1) The key principle is found in Leviticus 17:11.
"For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have
given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on
the altar;
it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
a) Notice that blood = life, and makes atonement for
someone else's life.
2) This is also highlighted in their recent experience of
Passover, when the Jews put a lamb's blood on their
doorways - God saw the blood and passed over the home.
a) As Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness."
3) There is no torture involved, just substitution.
C. Does the sacrifice of Jesus require torture?
1) We sometimes focus on the torture element.
a) Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
1> I watched it in a theater with a rabbi sitting next
to me.
2> He called it "torture porn."
b) Some critics suggest our emphasis on the brutality of
the cross is why Christians are such supporters of
capital punishment and violent wars.
c) Life is emphasized in Old Testament sacrifice, not the
suffering of the animal.
2) However, Old Testament prophecies do associate suffering and
torture with the Messiah's death.
a) Isaiah 53 predicts the suffering of Jesus on the cross:
He is despised, rejected, pierced, crushed - by
humans.
b) Note that the torture of the cross reflects the cruelty
of humans, not of God.
c) So who represents the cruel commandant in the story of
Auschwitz?
1> He is not God, but us.
2> But aren't we the Polish prisoner? Yes, but we are
also the commandant.
3> All humans are victims of sin, and also perpetrators.
IV. Isaiah 53:10 admits it was God's will for us to abuse the Messiah.
A. It was part of God's plan to make Jesus a guilt offering for us.
1) Paul in Romans 3:23-25 supports this.
a) He says Jesus is the sacrifice for our atonement.
b) A rare Greek word is used, "hilasterion."
1> It is often translated PROPITIATION which means
means God's anger is appeased by sacrifice.
2) Earlier in Romans 3, God's wrath is mentioned and verse 25
gives the solution, the death of Jesus.
B. The focus on God's wrath is not popular.
Back in 2013, the Presbyterian denomination was putting together
a new hymnal.
They wanted to include the song, "In Christ Alone," but they
had a problem with one line.
It is the one that says,
"Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied."
The Presbyterians wanted to change it to "Till on that cross as
Jesus died, the love of God was magnified."
Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend, who wrote the song, refused to
make the change.
So their hymn was dropped from the Presbyterian hymnal.
#34369
God's love is certainly a wonderful thing.
"For God so loved the world he have his only Son..."
But God also has hatred for sin.
The world he created has light and it has darkness.
You cannot have just one side.
There are two sides, and you have to decide which one you will
choose.
V. The deeper principle behind sacrifice.
A. A holy God cannot abide sin.
1) It offends his character as God.
2) A price must be paid. Psalm 49:7 says:
"No one can redeem the life of another
or give God a ransom for them --
the ransom of a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough --
so that they should live on forever
and not see decay."
3) Old Testament sacrifices covered over sins, but did not
eliminate them. That is why they had to be repeated.
a) The sacrifice of Jesus wipes our sins away, once and
for all, forever.
b) He doesn't just take our place - he takes our penalty.
B. We have a problem with God, but our problem should be with sin.
1) It is much worse than we allow for.
a) Some people have no clue.
The movie legend Sophia Loren said in an interview in
1999:
"I'm not a practicing Christian, but I pray.
I read the Bible.
It is the most beautiful book ever written.
I should go to heaven; otherwise, it is not nice.
I have not done anything wrong.
My conscience is clear.
My soul is as white as those orchids over there; and
I should go straight, straight to heaven."
#17867
b) Our world is filled with fluffy expectations like this.
Everything is nice!
But it is not.
2) Do you see yourself as a sinner?
3) You don't need a little reform. You need to be covered
and cleansed with blood.
VI. There is power in the blood.
A. Jesus bled so we do not have to.
1) Our sins are washed away.
2) We are given the power of new life.
a) (We need to emphasize this more, focusing on this life
and the "now" by God, not just pie in the sky.)
B. Do you value Christ's death for you?
1) You may not see a need for it. You are a decent person -
but not in God's eyes.
2) He offers you a solution, but you must accept his terms.
a) Repent.
b) Believe.
c) Follow.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#17867 “Will Sophia Loren Be In Heaven?” by Dr. Ronald W. Scates,
Central Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland, Sermon:
What Is Heaven?; July 18, 1999;
<http://www.centralpc.org/sermons/1999/s990718.htm>.
#22762 “Renowned Atheist Leaves a Liberal Pastor Speechless,” by
Dave Hunt, April 28, 2010; <http://www.thebereancall.org/>.
#34366 “What Did The Cross Achieve? The Logic of Substitutionary
Atonement,” by J. I. Packer; derived from Packer’s 1973
Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture at Cambridge University
(England) by R.A. Mohler's in his blog on April 13, 2007;
<http://www.albertmohler.com For April 13, 2007>.
#34367 “Nothing But the Blood,” by Mark Dever, Christianity Today,
May 2006, page 29; derived from Albert Mohler's blog.
#64175 “Mainline Protestants Abandon Orthodoxy, Exhibit XXXVI,” by
David French, July 30, 2013;
<http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354762/mainline-protestants-abandon-orthodoxy-exhibit-xxxvi-david-french>.
#66726 “The Night I Stopped Believing In Substitutionary Blood Atonement,”
by Martin Thielen, March 29, 2022;
<https://doubtersparish.com/2022/03/29/the-night-i-stopped-believing-in-substitutionary-blood-atonement/>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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