On Purpose

Our sermon text this Sunday brings us face to face with one of Jesus’ most pointed and poignant statements of his purpose in living and dying:  “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

To be sure, Matthew has already recorded Jesus’ passion predic­tions several times:  “The Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (20:18-19; see also 16:21; 17:22-23; 26:2).  But in 20:28 we get more insight as to why—as to what designs are being realized at the cross.

The death of Jesus involved incalculable suffering, but the key thing is to see that it was a suffering of service, a substitutionary act “for” others.  So, his death was not tragic, nor did it signal any failure of mission.  And further, the death of the Son of God was not an assault by the Father against him.  Those who suppose there is some rupture of the perfect eternal union of the Triune Godhead in the death of the Son to satisfy the just wrath of the Father totally fail to pay attention to Jesus’ own interpretation of his dying—as in Matthew 20:28:  he “gives” his life; he who is “God with us” (1:23) “came” to die.

Or in John 10:18:  “No one takes it [i.e., my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Jesus Christ freely offers himself as the sacrifice of infinite value, the only ransom price able to secure eternal freedom for all who trust in him.

Maybe you’ve heard the words, “Jesus died for our sins,” a thousand times, and now this stunning truth doesn’t grip your soul.  Or maybe you never really knew what awesome divine aims were being accomplished at the cross.  Either way, let our trek through Matthew be a time for you to fall on your face before the Suffering Savior:  bow down in thanks that he achieved what the angel said he would do:  “save his people from their sins” (1:21).