How Sin Kills God and How God Kills Sin

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Matthew 27:27–31 NIV Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. CONSIDER Sometimes when we have read something multiple times we think we've gotten it. In fact, because of our familiarity, it's easy to shift into a kind of skimming mode of reading. And yet the catastrophic absurdity of this tragic scene is unfathomable. This is a divine being, the only Son of the one, true, and living God, easily the most significant human being—and the only Divine human being—to ever walk the face of the earth—being subjected and submitting himself to the most undignified, disrespectful, dehumanizing, absolute tortuous cruelty by a detachment of merciless Roman soldiers.  In an effort to interrupt the sleepy familiarity of our standard approach to reading a text, I have extracted and listed the indignities inflicted upon our God. My encouragement is for you to read this list aloud and with a slow-paced deliberateness so your ears can hear. Reading is good, but hearing is better. Reading silently is not hearing. Remember, faith comes not by reading but by hearing. Reading leads to thinking. Hearing leads to seeing. It's why Jesus is ever crying out for "ears to hear" and "eyes to see."  The governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium. They gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him. They put a scarlet robe on him. They set a crown of thorns on his head. They put a staff in his right hand.  They knelt in front of him and mocked him. They spit on him. They took the staff struck him on the head again and again.  Then they led him away to crucify him.  Here's my question: What if the outcome of my sin actually carries the real effect of directly and particularly assaulting Jesus Christ, the God of heaven and earth?  What if this always was and is the impact and effect of our sin and our sins upon our God? What if my self-gratifying lust has the effect of stripping the clothes off of Jesus's body? What if my toxic anger has the effect of taking a stick and striking Jesus on the head again and again? What if my envious jealousy has the effect of setting a crown of thorns on Jesus's head? What if my self-righteous pride has the effect of spitting in Jesus's face? And what if my narcissistic self-righteousness has the effect of leading Jesus away to crucify him? Repeating: What if the outcome of my sin actually carries the real effect of directly and particularly assaulting Jesus Christ, the God of heaven and earth?  I think it does. Why? Because sin kills everything, even God. But here's the miracle of all miracles. In Jesus Christ, God killed sin and in killing sin, God killed death. It's why we will welcome Chris Tomlin again today to lead us in one of his new songs—Still the King. The refrain say sit all—"The blood is still the blood, and the King is still the King."  PRAY Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I confess I have mostly understood sin as my failure instead of comprehending it as your pain. Help me to grasp the real effect and impact of my sin on you and on other people. Come, Holy Spirit, and sensitize me to experience the toxic impact of sin. Thank you for killing sin. Would you lead me into this reality in my life, that I am dead to sin and alive to you. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.