Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1442
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning November 3, 1878
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And you now, therefore, have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man will take from you.” John 16:20-22.
WE were singing, just now a hymn in which the first verse started a difficult question—
“‘It is finished.’ Shall we raise
Songs of sorrow, or of praise?
Mourn to see the Savior die,
Or proclaim His victory?” The case is very well argued in the second and third verses—
“If of Calvary we tell,
How can songs of triumph swell?
If of man redeemed from woe,
How shall notes of mourning flow?
Ours the guilt which pierced His side,
Ours the sin for which He died;
But the blood which flowed that day
Washed our sin and guilt away.” The conclusion at which we arrived in the concluding verse seems to me to be the right one—
“Lamb of God! Your death has given
Pardon, peace and hope of Heaven:
‘It is finished.‘Let us raise
Songs of thankfulness and praise!” The chief thought connected with the Redeemer’s death should be that of grateful praise! That our Lord Jesus Christ died upon the Cross is a very natural cause for sorrow and well may they who pierced Him—and we are all among the number—look unto Him and mourn for their sin and be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Before we know that we are pardoned, our grief may well be exceedingly heavy, for till sin is put away we stand guilty of the Savior’s blood! While our souls are only conscious of our guilty share in the Redeemer’s blood, we may well stand aghast at the sight of the accursed tree, but the case is altered when, by faith, we discern the glorious fruit of our Lord’s sufferings and know that on the Cross He saved us and triumphed in the deed. The feeling of sorrow at the sight of the crucified Savior is one to be cultivated up to a certain point, especially if we take care to avoid mere sentiment and turn our grief into repentance—then it is “godly sorrow” which works after a godly sort—and it is likely to create in us an intense horror of sin and a strong determination to purge ourselves from all fellowship with the works of darkness.
We do not, therefore, condemn those who frequently preach upon the sufferings of our Lord with the view of exciting emotions of grief in the hearts of their hearers, for such emotions have a softening and sanctifying influence if attended by faith and directed by sound wisdom. There is, however, a middle path in everything, and this needs to be followed, for we believe that such preaching may be carried too far. It is most remarkable and instructive that the
Apostles do not appear in their sermons or Epistles to have spoken of the death of our Lord with any kind of regret. The Gospels mention their distress during the actual occurrence of the Crucifixion, but after the Resurrection and especially after Pentecost, we hear of no such grief. If I confine myself to the sayings and writings of the Apostles, I can scarcely find a passage from which I could preach a sermon upon sorrow on account of the death of Jesus.
On the contrary, there are many expressions which treat of the Crucifixion in the spirit of exulting joy. Remember the well-known exclamation of Paul—“God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He had, no doubt, as vivid an idea of the agonies of our Lord as any of us have ever attained and yet, instead of saying, “God forbid that I should cease to weep at the sight of my crucified Master,” he declares that he glories in His Cross. The death of Jesus was to him a thing to rejoice in and even to glory in! He kept no black fasts to commemorate the world’s redemption! Note well the exalted key in which he speaks of our Lord’s death in the Epistle to the Colossians—“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
When you turn to John’s Epistles, where most of all pathos and tenderness would naturally abound, you hear no weeping and wailing, but he speaks of the cleansing blood which is the very center of the great Sacrifice, in a calm, quiet, happy manner, which is far removed from bursting grief and flowing tears. He says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This allusion to the blood of Atonement rather suggests joy and peace than woe and agony! “This is He,” says John, “that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.” And it is evidently to John a theme of congratulation and delight rather than a cause for sorrow that Jesus came by blood as well as by water.