Jesus: He Made His Grave with the Wicked

Larry Kirkpatrick. 28 September 2002. Mentone SDA Church

"And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth."

Introduction

Jesus made His grave with the wicked. His body was lodged with the rich, at least temporarily. He had done no violence, no evil. Although speaking with care there was no deceit in His mouth. His mouth went to His grave having never uttered an untruth. He was Jesus. Our Savior. Our Example. Our Substitute. Our Brother. Our Sacrifice.

He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who only after four millennia took the nails in His hands. We would not have understood had He done it right at the beginnings of sorrows in Eden. He came to His own and His own received Him not. And they slew the Lord of glory -- our Lord of glory -- and threw Him out of the vineyard.

Today we continue our journey through Isaiah 53 at communion events. Today we pause to reflect on the goodness of Jesus, the love of Immanuel who came to us and gave Himself for a race of scoundrels and rebels. He did not die to no purpose. He did not give the priceless treasure of Himself on a whim or out of boredom. He gave that we might receive. He gave to open the grave. He gave to clean man up and close the tomb for eternity. He came to break the power of death in its lair. He came to conquer in flesh like our own. The carpenter came to His earthly workshop and lived and died to an end, for a goal, to achieve His purpose. To reveal to humankind and all the creation His love.

But His love was not just love for man. There was also love for righteousness, a willingness to give His perfect life to sustain God's perfect law. There was a "confirmation" of His divine character if you will. Rather than setting it aside there was a fulfillment of its penalty over sin. And Jesus went to the cross for you and me.

He Made His Grave with the Wicked, and with the Rich in His Death

It is interesting that the parallelism of Hebrew thought is found in our verse twice. The first parallel describes His death, the second His life. We are reminded that "He made His grave with the wicked." Jesus didn't have to come and die for us. We are, after all, the wicked. Jesus did not have to come and identify with us. He did it voluntarily.

Although voluntary it was not random. I hope we can keep clear the difference. If we were to be saved it had to be done. And He did. He descended into the pit. He came to earth. He came to the one toxic place in all the universe, the one planet upon which were restrained the rebel demons. He came where a non-angelic race he had created had rebelled. He came here to do battle. He came here aware that to fulfill His plan here he must also die. He came here knowing that He would give His life for a crew of traitors.

But He came. He came. He came anyway. He came knowing all of this. He came here. To buy you and me back from the destruction to which we otherwise were bound.

"He made His grave" with us. He voluntarily chose death on the tree. He chose the cursed death of the God forsaken, for His purpose was to taste your death, to taste my death. He came to die in my place. We come to take. He came to give. An d it gives us pause because too often believers come and they have a sneaky underlying question for god, really. They want to know how little they can give and how much they can get. It may scandalize us but isn't the question really, how little can I give Jesus back after what He gave me on the cross? How much of the change can I keep? How much sin can I continue to play with?

I don't mention that to make us all feel bad. That's not what communion is about, seeing how sorry we can all feel together. But it is mentioned here because I know of no better time for transitions than such times as these. We've known this hour was coming all week. And we've gathered here together as a church family. And we want to be completely clear of sin. Today we can purpose that by God's power we will walk in victory, that the death of Jesus will be effectual for us, that He did not make His grave with the wicked, for nothing. What will we do?

The parallel to making His grave with the wicked is that it was with the rich that His still body was buried. The tomb where they had placed His body was close to the city. It was the tomb dug for a rich man named Joseph.

How often the rich seem to get richer and the poor poorer. And sometimes it seems that the wicked go out with a lot of stuff. Remember the contemporary bumper sticker that says, "The one who dies with the most toys wins." OK. I'll grant that, in a way. Yes indeed. The rich man may get a shinier tomb. He may have a bigger space for whatever riches are buried with him to molder. He may have more crawlspace for the bugs and the worms. But none of this can he enjoy. None at all.

Our Lord asked, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26. And what if someone dies "rich" but dies in sin? Jesus' question to one with that risk is, Friend, what are you profited if you gain the whole world? What are you profited if you loose your soul? Have you counted the cost of the way you are living now? What are you giving in exchange -- these days -- for your soul?.

Jesus made His grave with the rich, but there is more than one way of being rich. Having your health is having richness. What will you give in exchange for your health? Jesus was rich in another way. He told those who would follow Him to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then whatever other riches were necessary and right, God would add that all in in its order.

I can try to have riches on my terms, or I can receive my riches on God's terms. In other words, I can do the sifting and sorting and acquiring, or I can let God do most of that. The big difference is that God knows what would be too much for me. I probably don't. Then isn't it better to have Him accomplish the enriching so that I avoid the pitfalls I might subject myself too?

Jesus made His grave not only with the wicked but with the rich. Now it may be that those graves His grave was near, that they were filled mostly with scoundrels. We don't know. But He also made His grave in Joseph's new tomb. Now I don't know how many here will remember Joseph. He doesn't come up in Scripture very much. But he came over to Jesus' side at the end. He showed what he was made of. He believed in Jesus. He connected His life with He who gives life eternal.

But can we go one more level with this? Can we realize that when Jesus made His grave with the wicked and died for you and I, He also made His grave with the rich. He identified with those who would receive eternal life. He identified not only with humanity but with the humanity remade. He connected His life with the lives of those who would believe on Him for salvation, who would receive His power to follow the narrow path to heaven in a world ripped to shreds by sin and indulgence. I want to suggest that Jesus made His grave for you too. Jesus identified Himself with a victorious people, a people who would leap out of the grave one day at His return, and nevermore molder, nevermore sleep in the dust. Thank God.

Because He had Done no Violence, Neither was any Deceit in His Mouth

He was only able to die for the ungodly because He was godly. He was only able to make His grave with the rich because He lived as one filled by the divine riches. He sought first the righteousness of God. And He was recipient. He was source and He was receiver. And He did it all to sustain what was right in the universe, and to win us back. His plan was to show love. And He did that by maintaining what was right and paying the ultimate price for those who came with empty hands. We all come to God with empty hands. Jesus went to the cross for the poor. And we are the poor, the poor indeed!

We bring nothing to Jesus. We bring no purchase price, no lottery ticket, no bribe, no, not even obedience for merit. By His grace we come with obedience, but it earns us nought. We come to God empty handed of our own merit or any self-righteous merit. And looking up to Him dying for us on the cross we see One who is rich beyond all measure. We see our Lord like we havenÕt seen Him before. We see Him identifying with us. Us.

He came bringing no violence. But when He ran the usurpers and commercialists out of the temple, not once but twice, He came with firmness did He not? If that wasn't violence was it zeal for righteousness? Imagine that, buying and selling sacrificial animals in the temple of Jerusalem! Jesus put a stop to that. But he came there as guardian, as Restorer of right. It was altogether proper that He came and drove out the scoundrels and the charlatans. Had He, Jesus, left the fakes in the temple, then He'd have done violence in actuality. He would have been guilty of sin of omission, of letting smoothness prevail, of being too unruffled, too uncaring, too unconcerned about sin. He would have confirmed them in their wicked seeking of gain. He didn't come to go that way.

Deception in the mouth does not just mean speaking lies. It also means refusing to speak against the lie. If we seek God and His kingdom and His righteousness first, we cannot cease from speaking against the lie. When we come up against evil, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us to deal with something, we have to deal with it, or we are joining in the lie. This is the reason why the Seventh-day Adventist church exists. The truth is the truth. The truth about Jesus is the truth about Jesus. We cannot join in with those who would unify on the lying counterfeit program some other group has either knowingly or unwittingly embraced. Error leads to confusion, and Jesus is not the Author of confusion.

We know that the world is waiting for a people so entrenched in, yes, in love, that they will not be bought or sold. For the price of peace they will never betray the Prince of Peace. They will make their grave with Jesus, and let Him bury all that pollutes, all that self which is so cheap, is so unwilling to confess righteousness or condemn what is wrong. "Blessed are you, " said Jesus, "when men revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." Matthew 5:11. Such are blessed not because they have some innate goodness in them that suddenly comes gushing out. They are blessed because they have become like their Lord. Because their lives are atuned to what is right, because sin never gets to slide with them. They are blessed because as Jesus had to die to rise again, by His grace they are dying daily to rise again, to live in newness of life provided by their Lord and poured out upon a world in need of just this remedy of God.

Being a Christian means that we do not live only in a comfortable world where all that is wrong happens out there, and it is never us and never our friends who offend, and the truly wicked people all live in a fantasyland over the horizon somewhere. Such a view would be naivety. The world happens up close. Jesus lives up close. Then devil is trying to live up close to you. We have to stand right next to Jesus' side or we'll be sucked into the slime and destroyed for eternity. I am so glad that although He knew the conditions on the battlefield would be fierce, Jesus came for me. He came for you. He is Lord.

Conclusion

Today we join again in this fellowship of Jesus' sufferings, His death at the cross. And we ourselves return to the cross. And we ourselves return to the nexus, the place of hope, the place where all that is evil is met and conquered by He who is our Life. He longs to continue to be your Way, your Truth, and your Life. May God grant us acknowledgement that Jesus died on the cross to save sinners like ourselves, and to restore us to His family, His kingdom, and at last His home, that He longs to make for eternity with me and with you. You are so precious in His sight that He died on the cross. And that is the gospel. God grant us that we shall receive no less than what was given by our Lord of glory. May Jesus come soon. The world is watching and waiting to see His love again. May we let Him work in us, and purify us even as He is pure. And may we never forget these small pictures of the mighty thing that Jesus has already done for us and is still doing for us even as we speak. May today be a day of high communion with our Lord who identified Himself with us to save us and make us His own.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.