May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal...May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel. For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. (Psalm 69:4,6-9)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: This year we will be looking at some of the Messianic Psalms on the Wednesdays of Lent. These Psalms are called Messianic because the words of the Psalms can to directly linked to the words and events of Jesus the Messiah. So for example, in tonight's Psalm is the phrase "Zeal for your house consumes me." John tells us in his Gospel that when Jesus chased the moneychangers and animals out of the temple area, the disciples recalled how this Psalm said of the Savior that zeal for the Lord's house would consume him (John 2). Another example-we read in the Psalm "they put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst." Again, this is precisely what happened to Jesus at Golgotha (Matthew 27). Though David and others wrote these Psalms and some of the events describe their lives, still the primary purpose was to describe Jesus, his words and life, to the people of the Old Testament and to us. So when the Psalm begins, Save me, O God,...the waters have come up to my neck...etc., these words describe the thoughts and feelings of our Savior in the midst of his difficult life here on earth. Tonight we see in this Psalm that JESUS SUFFERS FOR HIS LOVE.

Jesus is hated without reason. It may be hard for us to fathom and understand how anyone can hate Jesus. The Bible is accurate when it says that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38). Why would Jesus have to suffer for doing good? But that is exactly what happened-Jesus suffered for, just because, he showed his love to others. When Jesus healed a man who had a shriveled and useless hand on the Sabbath (Matthew 12), the Pharisees thought Jesus was "working" on the Sabbath and they called a meeting and began plotting how they could kill Jesus. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and gave him back to his family for an extended life here on earth, the religious leaders saw this kind and wonderful miracle as the last tolerable act of Jesus and accelerated their plans to kill Jesus. At that time Jesus quotes this Psalm saying: He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'(John 15:25) Their hatred progressed from being jealous of Jesus to accusing him of being in league with Satan to finally murdering him. How true it is that those who hated him hated him without reason.

But that was them. What about us? Certainly we could never hate Jesus for being good! Or do we? Because God loves us, he doesn't want us to be trapped in this vile, sinful, sad place and end up burning forever in hell. So from the time we are born the God who loves us is prying our sinful fingers off of this sinful, dying world. We hang on so tight because we people are enmeshed in sin; we're born with it and it seems normal to us. So he does something that is very uncomfortable to us-he gets angry at our sin and condemns us. He warns, more than that, he threatens. And his words are not merely a threat; they're a promise-the mortal cannot inherit the immortal; the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable; cling to that and you'll die with it! I'll toss all this sinful mess and you along with it to hell. He exposes our sin and brings us to repent. Not a pleasant experience to say the least. Is it not true that sometimes we resent his zealous concern over us? We complain about how it hurts at the moment instead of praise and thank him for his rescuing love that rips us off the road to hell. Or think of this. God who is love does not want us thinking that this life is the best he has to offer. So he disciplines those he loves. He lets us experience loss, sickness, pain, trouble, heartache, death. And how do we react? Even when we know in our mind that God does all out of love for us, our natural reaction is often, God, I hate what you are doing! Oh? You hate me because I love you too much to let you love the world and be damned with it? We too have hated him without reason. God forgive us!

How precious then are those words. "I am forced to restore what I did not steal." With these words Jesus reminds us that his suffering was a payment for the world's sin. I am forced, he says--certainly not against his will. Willingly Jesus went to the cross for us. He was forced by his own love and concern for us. Like a father whose children are beaten up by a thief and incur great medical expenses that the parents are "forced" to pay, just so our Savior says, I'm forced to restore what I did not steal. It is the force of grace and love. And how perfectly he has restored all. While we were yet sinners-wrongly hating him for caring enough to come to us-Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) He hangs on the cross, bloody and beaten, for us.

His shame offends those near him. One would think that everyone would appreciate such love. But seeing him there tonight and hearing his words reminds us that many are offended by his shameful death. Jesus prays that we will not be ashamed of his awful passion. These words are the Savior's prayer to the Father, May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel. For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

Ashamed of Jesus?--yes, many were. When they saw him captured, tortured and dying they were ashamed because they thought he was going down in defeat. Many wanted him to rush through Israel like a wildfire and consume everything in his way. Instead, he was humble. His own close friends betrayed him, deserted him, and denied even knowing him because his suffering and death they thought was defeat. Even as the risen Savior walked incognito among them the disciples said, We had hoped that he was the one (Luke 24:21). But, alas, he is dead and defeated.

And still today, it is so easy to be offended by a dying Jesus. It's easy to talk about a Jewish carpenter who preaches love and toleration. But when we get to the cross, then we have to admit something-we need more than just his advice; we need his body given over as sacrifice for my sin. The world doesn't want that, but it does need it. So Jesus prays that we with God's strength look squarely at the body of Christ sacrificed for sin, and that we tell others about it too. Because right there, at Golgotha, in the midst of all that bleeding, pain and dying-there and there alone-does the love and mercy of God display itself. Let us not shrink from it, for in it we find his love for us.    Amen.