We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You. For, by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world. Amen.
Crucifixes make us uncomfortable–and well they should. We squirm before them. And this is even apart from any lingering, anti-Roman Catholic bias we still may have. It is simply painful to look at our Lord suffering in such a way, especially knowing why He suffered. We shudder before it. We sing, “Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain” (LSB 450:3).
In the darkness of that Good Friday, the entirety of our sin was collected, pressed together, and then off-loaded onto thisMan. That included the first sin of our first parents. That even included the last sin of the last human being who would ever live. Jesus bore the whole weight of every sin and owned it as His own. And so Jesus also bore its penalty–both earthly and eternal death.
Look at Christ’s cross. See His wounds, the nails piercing His hands and feet to the beams. See the blood running down His face from the thorns. See the quivering mass of His mutilated back as He is forced to rub it against the tree, pushing up against the nails to take in a breath of air. Look, seek, and realize: this wounded Man, dying in agony, is not suffering for a single wrong that He has done.
As we have seen, His whole life was only that of love. He was the only person who fully loved the Father with His entire being and His neighbor as Himself. Yet, it is because Jesus is love that He is now on the tree, the cross. Such Love will not leave the sinner in his sin. Such Love takes that sin into Himself. Such Love is wounded to grant us healing. And so Jesus offers atonement for all the wrongs that we have done.
Yes, it is hard to look a crucifix in the face. It is hard to accept the truth we sing: “Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve Thy place” (LSB 450:3).
Yet it is for our own benefit to look. It is right to fall on our knees before His bleeding image and ponder it. It is right even to beg Him to imprint this image on our hearts, so we might carry it with us wherever we go, so it can be before our eyes even in the moment of our death.
You see, when the moment of your death comes to you, Satan will press hard. That will be the last chance he has to get you back. In that moment–above all–he will use his last opportunity to snatch you away from God forever. And he has a powerful weapon to use. The cunning serpent will shrink a sin when he would lure you into it with his temptations. But when the time is right for his kingdom of wrong, he will expand your sins in your memory, especially during a time of despair, during your hour of death.
When death is coming for you, Satan will happily set up images in your mind and replay for you the many sins you have all but forgotten. He will taunt you, then, that you are no Christian. He will declare that you are unfit for the kingdom of God. He will tell you that you are his and that you willed to be his with every sin you committed along the way. And all those sins will be replaying in your mind in vivid detail as you struggle in your final breaths.
And that is why you must train yourself in life to look on the crucifix. That is why you must learn to behold your Savior’s wounds and hold them close to your heart, counting them as your most precious treasure. For during life’s last hour, they will be a strong weapon against the despair of the enemy.
You can look at all of your sins as the accuser brings them before your eyes, and you can recognize their hideous nature as an irrefutable testimony to your countless failures. But against them all, you will set another image: the image Isaiah holds before your eyes today–the image of the Crucified One. And it is that image that will shatter the devil’s efforts to draw you into despair before your death. That is why we sing:
Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh. Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, Upon Thy cross shall dwell, My heart by faith enfold Thee. Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB 450:7)
The image you want before your eyes as they are closing in death is the image of God’s Son, Jesus, during His last agonies. For that is when He fully owned and answered for your every sin. That was when Jesus poured out His blood to blot out the accusations that Satan will use against you. For as hideous as your sins are, each one has been accounted for and covered in innocent blood, the blood of your Lamb, your Jesus.
In that hour, you will say with boldness: Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin. In Yourself, You have taken what is mine and, in its place, You have given to me what is Yours. You have taken what You were not and have given to me what I was not (AE 48:12).
That’s how you will be prepared for death, when the image of the Crucified One hangs before your eyes, and you know that His life is now your righteousness. That’s when you will know that His death is your forgiveness, His wounds are your healing, and His sufferings are your crown and glory.
God loves you beyond all human imagining. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, has indeed proved to be your dearest Friend, and He would make you His forever. Look boldly at His cross, confidently, continually, and you will see.
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You. For, by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world. Amen.
