Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
In Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, there are two characters, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton look incredibly similar, yet they couldn't be more different. Charles is a French nobleman while Sydney is an English barrister who barely has his life together.
Charles comes to England and marries Lucie Manette. They make a lovely life together until Charles is called back to France during the French Revolution.
Charles is quickly captured and forced to stand trial. As a nobleman, he is seen as an enemy of the Revolution, and faces death.
Sydney, however, is in love with Lucie, so he does the unthinkable. He arranges for Charles to be freed from prison and takes his place at the guillotine. That way Lucie can be with her beloved husband once again.
It takes love to undergo such a trial for someone else. There is no other reason to do so.
Today, we hear of Jesus' trial. We hear of His death.
On the surface, we might look at Jesus' death and wonder why it had to happen. A just man should not have to suffer. A just man shouldn't have to stand trial or be put to death.
And a just man shouldn't be put to death in a barbaric way, for Jesus' death was a painful one. It was designed so that in order to keep your lungs working, you had to continual move yourself up. But the strain of doing so while nailed to a cross made it impossible to do so forever. Eventually you would lose strength, suffocate, and die.
After death, your body would hang there, viewable by all. Your body would serve as a billboard saying "this is what happens when you mess with the Roman Empire."
It was a particularly cruel death. And one that Jesus could have avoided. He didn't have to go to Jerusalem that Passover. He didn't have to go to the garden of Gethsemane so Judas could find Him. He was a just man. He didn't have to do this. He didn't have to die.
So why did Jesus do it? He did it to take our place. He did it to make us clean of our sins. He did it because He cared for us. He did it because He wanted us to be whole.
Jesus died for us. He died for us out of love. That is the only reason anyone would choose to die for another.