The Cross, the Measure of Sin
by Rev. Francis A. Baker
Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)
“For my thoughts
are not as your thoughts; nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the
heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and
my thoughts above your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
I
A
Today, my brethren, is the beginning of Passion-tide, the most solemn part of the season of Lent. The two weeks between now and Easter are set apart especially for the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ. Therefore the Church assumes the most somber apparel, and speaks in the saddest tone. The actual recital of the Passion, the following of our Blessed Savior step by step in His career of woe, she reserves for the last three days of this sorrowful fortnight. In this, the earlier part of it, her aim is rather to suggest some thoughts which lead the way to Calvary, and prepare the mind for the great event that happened there.
B
I shall then be saying what is suitable to the season, and at the same time directing your minds to what I regard as one of the most useful reflections connected with this subject, by asking you this morning to consider the sufferings of Christ as a revelation of the evil of sin.
II
A
But, it may be asked, does man need a revelation on this point? Is not the natural reason and the natural conscience sufficient to tell us that sin is wrong? Undoubtedly a man naturally knows that sin is an evil, and without this knowledge, indeed, he would be incapable of committing sin, since in any action a man is only guilty of the evil which his conscience apprehends.
B
But this natural perception of sin is more or less confused and indistinct. Our Savior on the cross prayed for His murderers in these words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He did not, mean that they were ignorant that they were doing wrong, for then they could have needed no forgiveness, but that they did not realize the full atrocity of the deed. They were acting guilty indeed, but inadvertently and blindly. And the same may be said of very many sinners. Sin is for the most part a leap in the dark.
C
A man knows he is doing a dangerous thing, but he does not realize the full danger. He does not take in the full scope of his action, nor its complete consequences. St. Paul speaks of the deceitfulness of sin, and the expression describes very well the source of that disappointment and unhappiness which often overtakes the transgressor when he finds himself involved in difficulties from which it is all but impossible to extricate himself, and sorrows which he never anticipated.
D
It is the old story. Sin “begins pleasantly, but in the end it will bite like a snake and will spread abroad poison like a serpent.” (Proverbs 23:31-32.) Oh! how many are there who are finding this true in their own experience every day.
III
A
Tell me, my brethren, do you think that young persons who contract habits of sin that undermine their health know all they are bringing on themselves – the weakness of body, the feebleness of mind, the early decay, the shame, the remorse, the impotence of will, the tyranny of passion, the broken vows and resolutions, the hopelessness, the fear – perhaps the premature disease and death? No, all this was not in their thoughts at first.
B
These are the bitter lessons which the youth has learned in the school of sin. He has not found out what he was doing till it was all but too late. Or that married woman who has stepped aside from the path of virtue, did she realize what she was doing? Did she think of the plighted faith broken; did she think of the horrible guilt of the adulteress, of the agony, the remorse, the deceit, the falsehood, the trembling fear of her whole future life; did she realize the moment when her guilt would be detected, the fury of her wronged husband, her family dishonored, her children torn from her embrace, her name infamous, herself forlorn and ruined? Oh, no! these things she did not realize.
C
There was indeed, on the day when she committed the dreadful crime, a dark and fearful form in her path, that raised its hands in warning, and frowned a frown of dreadful menace. It was the awful form of conscience, but she turned away from the sight, and shut her ear to the words, and heard not half the message. And so the dreadful consequences of her sin have come upon her almost as if there had been no warning.
D
Or that drunkard, when he was a handsome young man, with a bright eye and a light step, and was neatly dressed, and was succeeding in his business; when he first began to tipple, did he realize that he would soon be a diseased, bloated, dirty vagabond; that his children would be half naked, and his wife half starved; or that he would spend the last cent in his pocket, or the last rag on his back, in the vain effort to allay that thirst for drink which is almost as unquenchable as the fire of hell? No, he little foresaw it, and if it had been told him, he would have said with Hasael, the Syrian captain, when Elisha showed him the abominations he was about to commit, “What, am I a dog, that I should do such things?”
E
Or that thief, when he yielded to the glittering temptation, and made himself rich for a while with dishonest riches, did he then see before him the deeper poverty that was to follow; the loss of all that makes a man’s heart glow and his life happy; the lies that he must tell, the subterfuges he must resort to, the horrible detection, the loss of situation, the public trial, the imprisonment? No! Of course these were all daily in his thoughts, for they were part of the risk he knew he was running; but so little did he bring them home to himself, and the suffering he was to endure, that when they came it seemed almost hard, as if a wholly unlooked-for calamity had overtaken him.
F
So it is. Wherever we look it is the same thing. Men imagine sin to be a less evil than it really is. It is so easy to commit it, it is so soon done, the temptation so strong, that it does not seem as if such very bad consequences would come of it. So it is done, and the bitter consequences come.
G
It seems as if the lie that Satan told to Eve in the garden, when he tempted her to eat the forbidden fruit, “You shall not die,” still echoes through the world and bewitches men’s ears so that they always underrate the guilt and punishment of sin; and although the lie has been exposed a thousand times, although in their own bitter experience men find its falsehood, yet they do not grow wiser, they still go on thoughtless, insensible to their greatest danger and their greatest evil, and when they stand on the shore of time, and hear God threatening eternal punishment hereafter to the sinner, they still set aside the warning with the same fatal insensibility.
H
If they are not Catholics, they deny or doubt the existence of hell; if they are Catholics, they think somehow they will escape it.
IV
A
Oh, my brethren, before you allow yourselves to act on this estimate of sin, so prevalent in the world, ask yourselves how it accords with God’s estimate of sin. That is the true standard. God is Truth. He sees things as they are, and everything is just what He considers it. He is our Judge, and it will not save us when we stand on trial at His bar to tell Him that we have rejected His standard and taken our own.
B
What, then, is God’s estimate of sin? Look at the Cross, and you have the answer. Let me for a moment carry you back to the scene and time of the Crucifixion. It is the eve of a great festival in the city of Jerusalem. It is the Parasceve, or Preparation of the Passover.
C
On this day the Jews were required, each family by itself, to kill a lamb and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were required to eat it standing, with loins girded, and with staves in their hands, because this feast was in memory of the sudden deliverance of their fathers from the bondage of Egypt, when God smote the first-born of the Egyptians with death, passed over the houses of the Israelites, and conducted them miraculously through the waters of the Red Sea.
D
It was a great feast among the Jews, and always collected together a great multitude of strangers in the holy city. But on this occasion a new excitement was added to the interest of the holy city, for there was a public execution on Mount Calvary, and turbaned priests, and Pharisees with broad fringes on their garments, and scribes and doctors of the law, mingled in the throng of mechanics and laborers, and women and children, who hastened to the spot.
E
The day is dark, but as you draw near the Mount, you see, high up in the air, the bodies of men crucified; and sitting on the ground, or standing in groups, talking and disputing among themselves, or watching in silence with folded arms, are gathered a vast multitude of spectators.
V
A
What is there in this execution thus to gather together all classes of the people? The punishment of crucifixion was inflicted only on slaves or malefactors of the worst kind, and two of the three that are hanging there are vulgar and infamous offenders. What is it, then, that gives such interest to this scene? It is He who hangs upon that cross, at whose feet three sorrowing women kneel.
B
Read the title, it will tell you who He is. “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Yes, this is Jesus, the merciful and kind; He who went about doing good, healing all manner of sickness, and delivering all that were possessed with the devil; He who spoke words of truth and love. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, whom a thousand prophecies fulfilled in him and a thousand miracles performed by Him pointed out as the promised Messiah; Jesus, whom the Eternal Father, by a voice from heaven, had acknowledged as His own Son. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
C
Why is this? Why is it that the just man perish? The apostle tells us: “Christ must need to have suffered.” He was the true Paschal Lamb that must die that we might go free. He was the victim of our sins. Pilate and Herod and the Jews were but the instruments by which all the consequences of our sins fell upon Him who came to bear them.
D
“Surely He has born our infirmities and carried our sorrows; and we have thought Him, as it were, a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one has turned aside into his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)
E
Yes, every sin of every kind received its special reparation in the sufferings of Christ. His mouth is filled with vinegar and gall to atone for our luxury. His ear is filled with reviling to expiate the greediness with which we have drunk in poisonous flattery. His eyes languish because ours have been lofty, and His hands and feet are pierced with nails because ours have been the instruments of sin.
F
He suffered death because we deserved it. He was accursed, because we had made ourselves liable to the curse of God, and hell had its hour of triumph over Him, because we had made ourselves its children. Nor was it our Lord’s body alone that suffered. It would be a great mistake to suppose that His sacrifice was merely external. The chief part of man is his soul.
G
St. Leo says that our Lord on the cross appeared as a penitent. It was not only that He suffered for the sins of men, but it was as if He had committed them. The horror of them filled His soul; sorrow for the outrage they had done to the Majesty and Holiness of God consumed Him. “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death,” He said.
H
Afterward the evangelist says He began to be very heavy, and it was sinners that on the cross made Him bow His head and give up his spirit. He was not killed. His enemies did not take His life. The flood of sorrow for sin came into His soul, and overwhelmed Him. It was too much. His heart was broken. Oh, the weight of that sorrow? He bowed His head and gave up his spirit.
I
Then sin was expiated. Then the work of man’s atonement was completed. At last man had done adequate penance. At last sorrow for sin had reached its just proportion as an offence against God.
VI
A
Here, I say, we have a revelation of the evil of sin. God does nothing in vain: His works are as full of wisdom as they are of power. Since, therefore, Christ died for sin, the cross of Christ is the measure of sin. “From the consideration of the remedy,” says St. Bernard, “learn, O my soul, the greatness of thy danger. You were in error, and behold the Son of the Virgin is sent, the Son of the Most High God is ordered to be slain, that my wounds may be healed by the precious balsam of His blood.
B
See, O man, how grievous were thy wounds, for which, in the order of Divine Wisdom, it was necessary that the lamb Christ should be wounded. If they had not been unto death, and unto eternal death, never would the Son of God have died for them.
C
The cross of Christ is not only an altar of sacrifice, but a pulpit of instruction. From that pulpit, lifted up on high, Jesus Christ preaches a lesson to the whole world.” The burden of the lesson is the evil of sin. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
D
And yet, my brethren, the law was published afresh by Jesus Christ. Mount Calvary but repeats the message of Mount Sinai – nay, repeats it with more power. Here, indeed, God does not speak in thunder and lighting, as He did there, but He speaks in the still small voice of the suffering Savior.
E
Oh, what meaning is there in those sad eyes as they bend down upon us! Oh, what power in those gentle words He utters! He does not say, “Thou shall not commit adultery; thou shall not steal; thou shall not bear false witness.” No. He cries to a guilty people, a people who have already broken the law, and He says to them: “See what you have done. See My thorn-crowned head. See My hands and feet. Look at Me whom you have pierced. Is it a light thing that could have reduced Me to such a state of woe? Is it a light thing that could have bound Me to this cross?
F
Me, the Creator of all things, to whom you owe all life and liberty? Who by My word and touch have so often healed the sick and released them that were bound to Satan. They say of Me, ‘He saved others, Himself He cannot save.’ And they say truly. Here must I hang. Not the Jews have nailed Me to this cross, but My love, and your sins. Yes, see in My sufferings your sin displayed. See in the penalty I pay the punishment you have deserved. See your guilt in My sorrow. Look at Me, and see what sin is in the presence of the All Holy God!”
VII
A
Can any thing show more than this what a mysterious evil sin is, that it is an offence against God, an assault upon His throne, an attack upon His life, an evil all but infinite? All the other expressions of the evil of sin, the cries of misery which it has wrung from its victims, the warnings which natural reason has uttered against it, the tender lamentations with which the saints have bewailed it, the penalties with which God has threatened to visit it, all pale before the announcement that God sent His Son into the world to die for it.
B
I do not wonder that, as the evangelist tells us, the multitudes who came together at the sight of our Savior’s crucifixion returned beating their breasts. Oh, what an awakening of stupefied consciences there must have been that day! How many, who came out in the morning careless and thoughtless, went back to the city with anxious hearts, with a secret grief and fear within they had never felt before.
C
I suppose that even the scribes and Pharisees, who had plotted our Savior’s death, felt, for the moment at least, a guilty fear. Why, even Judas, when he saw what he had done, repented, and went and hanged himself, saying: “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” And this book of the Passion has been ever since the source from which penitents have drawn their best motives for conversion, and saints their strongest impulses to perfection.
D
Here, on the cross, is the root of that uncompromising and awful doctrine about sin – the doctrine, I mean, that sin is in no case whatever to be allowed, that even the smallest sin for the greatest result can never be permitted; that it is an evil far greater than can be spoken or imagined; that it must never be trifled with, or made light of; that it is to be shunned with the greatest horror, and avoided, if need be, even at the cost of our life – which has always been so essential a part of Christianity.
VIII
A
And now, my brethren, it is because men forget the cross, because their minds no longer move on a Christian basis, that they make light of sin. There is a tendency in our day to do so. Crime – men acknowledge that, an offence against law, an offence against good order. Vice – they acknowledge that, a hurtful and excessive indulgence of passion; but sin, a creature’s offence against God, that they think impossible
B
“What! Can I, a frail creature,” say they, “ignorant and passionate, can I do an injury to God? I err by excess or defect in my conduct; I bring evil on myself it is true; but what difference can that make to the Supreme Being? Can He be very much displeased at my follies? Will His serene Majesty in heaven be affected because I on this earth am carried too far by passions? Can He care what my religious belief is? Or will He separate Himself from me eternally because I have happened to violate some law?”
C
Such language is an echo of heathenism, and heathenism not of the best kind, for some heathens have had a doctrine about sin which approached very near to the Christian doctrine. It is, moreover, a degrading doctrine; for, while it leaves a man his intellect and animal nature, it takes away his conscience. What is that conscience within us but a witness that God does concern Himself about us – that my heart is His throne, and that my everlasting destiny is union with Him.
D
“Everyone that is born of God,” says the apostle, “does not commit sin, for he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Not that sin is a physical impossibility with him, but it is in contradiction to his regenerate nature.
E
In order, then, to soothe yourself into the belief that sin is not so very bad, that God cannot be very angry with you for it, you have got to tear conscience from your heart, you have got to give up the good gift, and the powers of the world to come, which came upon you at your baptism; and you have to give up all the brightest hopes of Christianity for the life hereafter. Nay, more, you have got to deny the cross, to deny our Lord’s divinity, to deny His sufferings for sin, and thus to render yourself without faith as well as without conscience.
IX
A
I conclude with the affectionate exhortation of St. John the Apostle. “My children, these things I write to you that ye sin not. All unrighteousness is sin.” Every breach of the moral law is a failure in that homage, that obedience, that service we owe to God. It is a direct offence against God. It is a thing exceedingly to be feared and dreaded.
B
A wrong word spoken or a wrong action done has consequences which go far and wide. Do not say, you have sinned, but have done harm to no one. You have done harm to God, and you have certainly done harm to yourself. Do not sin. Do not commit mortal or venial sin. Do not make light of sin. Do not abide in sin. If you are in sin now, remember at this holy time to repent and turn back to God: and if your conscience tells you that you are now in the friendship of God, oh, let it be all your care to avoid sin.
C
Fly from the face of sin. Fly from the approach of sin. Avoid the occasions of sin. Watch against sin, and pray continually, not to be led into sin: and when your hour of trial comes,
when some strong temptation assails you, then be ready to say, as the prophet Joseph, “What! Shall I do this wicked thing, and offend against God?”
D
This is that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. This is the happiness of which the Psalmist spoke: “Blessed is the man that has not walked in the council of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence; but his will is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he shall meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all, whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:1-3)