The Lutheran Hour
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Text: John 19:16-30
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PRAYER: O Lord of love, O God of grace, in Your mercy touch those today who are hurting. Heal the sick with Your Gospel, O Lord. Mend the broken hearted and through the death and resurrection of Your Son, give hope to the dying. In all of this, Heavenly Father, we plead for mercy, not on the basis of our own righteousness, but on the merits on Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on His merits alone. Amen.
One hundred and forty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. congress and financial entrepreneurs began to build a railroad track which would eventually connect the far-flung east and west coasts of the U.S. Each mile required 100 tons of rail, 2,500 railroad ties, and three tons of spikes and other needs.
As this ambitious plan unfolded, politicians planned cleverly; engineers designed carefully; and laborers worked endlessly. Finally, on May 10, 1869, six years after the project began, the final “golden spike” was driven at Promontory, Utah. This spike connected tracks laid from the east with tracks being laid from the west. At that moment in history, the long planning and the endless blood, sweat, and tears of 20,000 laborers had come to an end. A golden spike was then hammered into place joining these two railroads into one and the project was declared “finished”!
This incredible story of human achievement has been chronicled in numerous books. The hammering of the final spike, along with the feeling of being “finished” reminds us of another story recorded in the Bible. You see, after Jesus completed a demanding three-year pubic ministry, He was then put on trial. The religious leaders of that day were the planners. The Roman soldiers were the engineers. And, instead of having thousands of workers carrying railroad ties, Jesus, the innocent Son of God, was forced to shoulder His own horrendously heavy cross.
Then, not at Promontory Utah, but on a hill outside Jerusalem, the railroad of God’s love in Jesus Christ met “head on” with your “box cars” filled with sin. These are the terrible sins that keep you and me and millions of others apart from our gracious God. The Bible says our sins have alienated us from our gracious Heavenly Father. Isaiah, the prophet, writes: “Your iniquities have separated you and your God. Your sins have hid His face from you” (Isaiah 59:2). The Apostle Paul writes: “You were enemies in your mind by wicked works” (Colossians 1:20-21).
Yes, our sins have indeed separated us from our God as far as the east is from the west. However, when the Roman soldiers drove those spikes into Jesus’ hands and feet, as described in the Bible, and when Jesus cried out from the cross “It is finished,” a complete connection, a new reconciliation was made with God once again.
The Apostle Paul speaks about this reconnection as he explains when Jesus died on the cross, a barrier was removed and believing Gentiles became part of the New Israel of God, His chosen people, are known today as the Christian church.
The Apostle writes: “Now in the Lord Christ Jesus [those of] you who were formerly far off have now been brought near by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was the spikes driven through Jesus that now make it possible for you to be connected with God once again.
St. Paul also says: “Christ Himself is our peace. Jesus Christ has made both groups into one; He has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall. You are no longer strangers and aliens. You are now fellow citizens with the saints of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.”
So, as the driving of the golden spike joined the two railroads and permitted material goods to flow from east to west, and friends to be reunited, so also, the Roman spikes driven through the hands and feet of Jesus has opened a new relationship between you and your Lord. This now permits God’s many blessings, His presence, His forgiveness, His blessed assurance, His cleansing, and His strength, and the certainty of the heavenly hope to flow daily into your heart and soul. Oh, my friends, let us pray daily that through His Spirit God reminds each of us of the spikes driven through our Savior’s hands. Let us then, by the power of God’s Gospel, live each hour with the knowledge that when Jesus cried out “It is finished,” God completed the new connection of love and mercy which He desires for you and your family.
Now, before the transcontinental railroad was built, men dreamed and spoke of what might take place and of all the benefits as individuals and as a nation they might expect. This came to reality when the last spike was driven and the two railroads from the west and the east were joined together. Before Christ was born, and centuries before He had spikes driven through His hands and feet at His atoning crucifixion, men dreamed of what the coming of Christ would mean. This all came into fruition when Christ was crucified and cried out “It is finished!”
This dream of what Christ’s crucifixion would mean was given to the prophets by God Himself. In Hebrews, we read God “spoke to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways” (Hebrews 1:1).
The Apostle Peter also writes: “As to this salvation, the prophets who had prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry.” These prophets “sought to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories which would follow” (1 Peter 1:11).
Although men and women dreamed of what railroads could do for them and their separated families, it was the transcontinental dream that finally brought all these dreams into reality. Likewise, over the centuries there were prophets who spoke in bits and pieces of the coming Messiah and of the certain hope, which Christ would bring. However, it was Isaiah the prophet who spoke most clearly of the coming Savior’s suffering and death and how these spikes would pierce the innocent Son of God, causing the blood to gush forth-that blood which washes away all your sin. The Apostle writes, “The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all of our sin” (1 John 1:7).
Seven centuries before Jesus was born and crucified and raised from the dead, God the Holy Spirit moved Isaiah the prophet to write these words, “Surely, our grief that Jesus Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
“But He was pierced through,” Isaiah reminds us, “for our transgressions.” Jesus was ‘pierced through’ by spikes driven through His flesh. Because of our sin He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, the Lord Jesus, And by His scourging we are healed. “All of us,” Isaiah says, “like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of all of us to fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ” (Isaiah 53:1-6).
Last year, Stephen Ambrose wrote a book describing the building of the transcontinental railroad. His book was on leading lists of suggested reading. Reviewers often noted that reading this book, people would appreciate more the labor of all those who made this great transportation connection possible.
Now, the Bible is not included in these best seller lists simply because it constantly outsells all other books. Nevertheless, this Word of the Lord also makes all sinners much more thankful and much more repentant every time they read what Jesus went through. He did this so they can be connected to God again! In graphic, compelling, and memorable terms, the Gospel tells us how the “driving of the spikes” through the hands and feet of Jesus was a defining day, the holy hour, and that momentous moment. It was at that point in history, in blood and pain that Jesus suffered for all your misjudgments, for every one of your failures and every last one of your sins. At the climax of His suffering, Jesus cried out “It is finished.” And, at that moment, as Isaiah prophesied, God the Father saw the suffering of His Son and was “satisfied.” Through this act the Heavenly Father says His Son Jesus “will now justify many.” My friends, read good books such as historical records of building railroads. These works are good for your mind. But more importantly, read the greatest account of all. How Jesus had spikes driven through His hands and feet, and how He, for your sake, cried out clearly “It is finished.”
Don’t try to pay for your sins. You cannot do it. All suffering for your sins has already been done.
And then, with this Good News of the Gospel in your heart, sing with the hymn writer who wrote,
“Ten thousand times ten thousand in sparkling raiment bright. The armies of the ransomed saints throng up the steps of light. ‘Tis finished, all is finished their fight with death and sin; Fling open wide the golden gates and let the victors in.”
Today, let all gloom and despair be behind you. Just as the golden spike driven at Promontory, Utah, in 1869 opened the nation for many material blessings, and many restored relationships, so also the Roman spikes driven through Jesus’ hands and feet caused the sin-cleansing blood to pour forth. It is through these spike wounds, as Isaiah says, you, my friends, are healed from sin. You are given a hope, a living and eternal hope. Your salvation is finished. Your reservation in heaven is complete. Your hope is secured. In Jesus, nailed down with the spikes, driven into His salvation flesh.
O Lord we pray by Your Spirit, open our hearts to receive the forgiveness of our sin, which caused Christ to suffer. Yes, O Lord, now that You have made a complete connection to us in Christ, pour out Your blessing on all who hear Your Word today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for May 27, 2001
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Schulz, you’re saying even though we have been enemies of God, in His own love, God still reaches out. Through the bloody death of Jesus Christ, in fact, through those bloody spikes that held Jesus to the cross, we are reconnected and reconciled with God.
SCHULZ: Absolutely. Of course, these words may sound unusual or even absurd to our way of thinking. You see, this is sort of like a child who is disobedient and very sassy and cantankerous, making a big scene of disobedience. However, the father or mother, often out of love, expresses grace and mercy to this child, which then sometimes changes this child’s behavior.
ANNOUNCER: Why do you say sometimes?
SCHULZ: Well, this is the way it is when we hear the Gospel. You see, even though we sin daily, God still loves us. We are disobedient, cantankerous children but God still loves us. It is the love of God and His mercy that empowers and enables us to have a new attitude of repentance toward God and faith.
ANNOUNCER: This Good News of God’s forgiveness is centered on Good Friday, when Jesus hung on the cross; when those spikes were driven through His flesh and when He cried out, “It is finished!”
SCHULZ: Precisely. This is what we’ve been saying on this program for over 70 years. We are going to continue to do this as long as possible. This is not some message we’ve dreamed up here. This is the message that is very clear in the Scriptures. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He did it voluntarily. When He suffered pain and agony on the cross and when He died, He did this in our place. Jesus was our substitute and this has always been called in every century, a “substitutionary atonement” of Jesus.
ANNOUNCER: This is also why Christians around the world gather for Good Friday services.
SCHULZ: It certainly is. Good Friday is a church celebration observed by Christians all over the world. And, they do it in a variety of ways. In fact, in some countries it has happened where some people have tried to nail themselves to a cross, or have others nail them to the cross, so they could suffer for their sins.
ANNOUNCER: But we are saying this is not what God requires.
SCHULZ: No, it is not. You see when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” it means every last bit of suffering for the sins of the world has been accomplished. Jesus didn’t pay for part of our sins or a certain percentage of our failures. His suffering and death paid for all of this. Isaiah the Prophet says, “When God the Father looked down at the suffering of His Son, God was satisfied.”
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Schulz, what is the bottom line?
SCHULZ: The bottom line, I think, is very much like I mentioned in our message. When the last golden spike was driven to join the transcontinental railroad, great blessings followed, even though these blessings were basically material and temporal. However, when the spikes were driven through the hands and feet of Jesus, great blessings, temporal and eternal, came to those who hear this Good News of God and to those who respond to it by repentance and faith. We cannot repent on our own. We cannot have faith on our own. But, the Word of God spoken through this program, spoken through sermons and Bible studies, this powerful life-giving Word creates faith within us, and enables us to accept this Good News and to live a new life of joy. This is what we want for all of our listeners. This is why we broadcast this message week after week, as we have for over 70 years. The Good News is that Jesus Christ suffered and died once, for all. Therefore, all of our listeners can rejoice daily in the fact that even though they may feel miserable because of their sins, there is always hope in Jesus Christ whose blood covers their sins and guarantees them a place in the presence of God forever and forever.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Schulz. We come to the end of our broadcast for another week.