A couple of weeks ago while I was preparing the sermon that I was to preach that Sunday, I did something that I do not often do. I wrote the end of the sermon first. I was reflecting on the words of Isaiah in his incredible 53rd chapter:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isa 53:4-10)

I was focusing on the 10th verse and in particular these words, “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” In meditating on these words, I began to weep uncontrollably. For those of you who do not know me, that is not me. I don’t often cry uncontrollably, but I did on that day. Like a great weight upon my heart, I realized with stunning clarity the cost that was involved for God to demonstrate His love toward sinners. I was crushed over the crushing of the Son of God.

Yet, it was the Father’s will to crush Him. To crush Him. God the Father’s love for sinners, that deserve destruction and wrath, is revealed in an unmistakable, awe-inspiring and humbling manner – through the crushing of His Son. It was the Father’s will to crush Him in our place. While it is true, in one sense, that we killed Christ, that our sin (my sin) was more than sufficient to cause His death as our substitute (as Luther so wisely said, “We all walk around with His nails in our pockets”) Isaiah makes clear that it was God the Father who crushed His Son. It is God who is ultimately responsible. He planned it in eternity past. He designed it for the salvationof sinners. He crushed His holy, perfect, always-pleasing, entirely holy and beautifulSon and in so doing He demonstrates His compassionate love for sinners like you and me. Behold the holy love of God for us revealed in the crushing death of His own dear Son in our place. Can you grasp it?

This is the greatest demonstration of God’s enduring, merciful, gracious, faithful love. The love of God is not some sentimental, warm, fuzzy kind of emotion; it is a bold, powerful, transforming, redeeming love that required for us the crushing of His Son on the cross. See, feel, and know the love of God revealed through this word, through these words of death for the Son and life for us.

Beholding with unveiled eyes the wonder of this passage makes John 3:16 more than we have made it to mean. “God so loved the world, that HE CRUSHED, HE CRUSHED, His only begotten, sinless, perfect, righteous, pleasing holy Son. He crushed Him. He bruised Him. He punished Him. He forsook Him. He placed the guilt of our sin upon Him and he crushed Him with the full, righteous, pure, holy, furious wrath against our sins. He crushed Him for us.

And Christ willingly received that crushing for us. The Father did not lay hold of a reluctant or resistant Son and force Him to become our substitute; no, the Son voluntarily offered Himself as a sacrifice in anticipation of the joy set before Him, the joy of an eternity spent with the Father and with the great multitude He would redeem. No one took Jesus’ life from Him; He laid it down of His own accord. It was the Father’s will to crush the Son to bring about our salvation; it was the Son’s will to embrace the Father’s will and be crushed. Thus Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

In a world that would just as soon receive from God baubles like a new house or a new car, or a Jesus that takes away all of your troubles, or who promises to make you happy in all the ways that we want to be happy – in success at work, in love, in reputation, in the pursuit of your life plans. To a people who are happy enough to hear that God is willing to offer them some help: spiritual wisdom and guidance, a successful life plan, etc. – God, who will not settle for less than redemption of sinners, offers the glorious gift of His Son, wounded for our transgressions, smitten by God and afflicted, crushed for our iniquities. Can we have the audacity to say that is not what we most want, what we most value?

It is the crushing of the Son on our behalf, it is the cross that declares to us the love of the Father, not stuff…never stuff. The crushing of the Son for us is the measure of love. You cannot measure love by any other standard. Are you convinced? How can we do less than with a whole heart worrship a God like that? How can we be unmoved by His love? How can we be so near-sighted that we are not broken and humbled and undone by this great love? How do we not respond with repentant joyous faith?

Let us be convinced, let us be amazed. Let us stop with all of the foolish talk of God’s love that is divorced from this reality. The cross is the ground of God’s love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1Jo 4:9-10)

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