I saw this commercial the other day, for one of those Community churches in Saint Louis. Have you seen it? There is a puzzle that is missing a piece, and the church claims that the puzzle is your life, the pieces are the different aspects of your life, and there is a missing piece in the center. The missing piece to that puzzle of your life is Jesus, OF COURSE! All of the problems in your life, the trials that you face, and the diseases that plague you will be solved by you putting Jesus first in your life. It is a matter of trust. Do you choose to trust Jesus? Do you choose to put Him first?
The point to the commercial is that there is something missing in your life and it must be Jesus. He can fix all your problems. That is what the crowd, in our Gospel, was missing. They chose to save Barrabas and not Jesus. The Jews wanted a Savior to solve their problems. They thought that their problems were things like the Romans and how they were going to please God. Jesus did not come to give them the easy answer. Jesus did not come to tell the Jews what they wanted to hear, and so they rejected him and chose Barrabas.
HOW do you choose Barrabas? When has Jesus solved your problems? Has Jesus taken away your bills? Has Jesus cured your diseases? Better yet, has Jesus cured the problems of the world like hunger, poverty, warfare and oppression? What has this Jesus done for you and me? It doesn't sound like this Jesus could fit in my puzzle. What good does Jesus do if He does not fix my problems? It is natural to think, as did the Jews of Jesus day, that the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer sent by God would fix those problems.
But maybe there was something that the Jews were missing. Perhaps Jesus did come to fix our PROBLEM. But you can just look around and see that life’s problems did not disappear at the cross or at the resurrection. Jesus is not the Savior that the Jews expected, and so they handed Him over to be crucified. He hung there on the cross and prayed the Psalm “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was forsaken by God.
Christ came not to fix the petty problems of this life, but to fix the BIG problem of this life, namely that you were born sinful. You deserve to be forsaken by God. That is your problem. Jesus was punished that Barrabas might go free. Jesus was crucified that we might be free from the sin that binds us all.
But what do we do with that freedom? We receive that freedom in the forgiveness of sins through the Absolution and through the body and blood of our Savior. Christ makes us whole by taking our sins upon Himself. He is the missing puzzle piece, and yet when we leave this place, we still focus on the petty problems of this world and wonder, as did the Jews, is God there and what is He going to do about my problems? The problems that we face in our lives dominate our thinking and preoccupy our thoughts.
For example, where was God when my dad developed a brain tumor? Where was God when we found out that he will lose control of his body and then his mind and then die in the coming years? Jesus did not die to prevent my dad’s cancer. Jesus did not suffer so that my dad would live to know his grandchildren. Jesus conquered death and hell because my dad could, not and in doing, so took the punishment that we deserve. Jesus earned the forgiveness that we could not.
With that forgiveness, leave this place with the puzzles of your lives complete. It is that simple. But, you see, your puzzle was solved when Jesus put himself in the center of your life, in the waters of your baptism, so that when God looks down at you all He sees is one forgiven and blameless and will take you unto Himself for the sake of Christ who died and rose for you, to make you God’s child. Christ did not die to solve all of you problems, He died and rose to take your place. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
