Jesus in the middle

[AI translation] The terrible death sentence was pronounced: be crucified! Three roughly hewn crosses staring skyward at the place of destruction, on Skull Mountain. On each of the two outer crosses a malefactor is placed, and on the middle one Jesus. What a sight: a murderer on the right, another villain on the left, and in the middle, the second person of the Triune God! How literally the prophecy uttered many centuries ago has been fulfilled: "He was numbered among the sinners." (Isa 53:12)Crucifixion was at that time not only the most cruel method of execution, but also the most humiliating and damnable death. The most vicious evildoers, murderers and staunch resisters and rebels were executed in this way. Even in such cases, Roman citizens were not allowed to be subjected to this punishment, only slaves or the sons of conquered peoples. And the fact that Christ was placed in the middle of the three victims crucified not only means that He was counted among the sinners, but also that He was considered the ultimate sinner. This placement was deliberate, since it was intended to show that even among the accursed evildoers, Jesus was the most damned and the greatest sinner. Little did they know the profound truth they were expressing! Hidden from the wise men of the world, but to us who look at that central cross with the eyes of faith, God is declaring the shockingly serious meaning of the fact that it was Jesus' cross that had to be in the middle.
First of all, Christ our Lord hung on the cross between heaven and earth. In the middle, between heaven and earth: therein lay the greatest shame of the crucifixion. For the crucifixion is an example of being almost thrown out of the earth. It shakes him off, like someone you no longer want to carry on your back. But heaven does not want to receive one so banished from earth: what business would such an evil soul have in the realm of the saints? Exiled by earth, ashamed by heaven, neither heaven nor hell needs him. Hence he must die as a stranger, a wanderer, unwanted, cast out, hanging between heaven and earth, miserable.
Thus Jesus hung, thus Jesus died, between heaven and earth. The earth did not need Him, for it could not bear His innocent purity, the holiness radiating from Him was a judgment upon Him. And heaven would not receive Him, for He took upon Him the multitude of sins. He was more cursed than His cursers thought, for the curse of the whole world was upon Him. In the words of the Word, "being made a curse for us" (Gal 3:13), He was more cursed than the two evildoers, for they suffered only the punishment of their own sin, while Jesus bore the sins of the whole world, for "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isa 53:6) He was too good for the world and too bad for heaven, so He hung as a stateless, cast out, between heaven and earth. On the one hand all earthly sin was lifted up in Him to heaven, and on the other hand the full severity of God's wrath was visited upon Him on earth. Let us look with holy horror and reverence on His person lifted up between heaven and earth, for in Him divine justice has reached and judged human sin. Therefore He had to die a damnable death on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth.
Secondly, it is for this very reason that the Crucified Jesus can be the middle between God and man. How do you stand before God? Have you ever wondered what would happen if God were to hold you to a strict account? Have you ever felt that there would be something fatally wrong if God were to measure your class in the world beyond the earth according to His absolute righteous judgment? What would you deserve according to the measure of divine justice? Have you ever thought that if Christ was crucified, there is almost no punishment worthy of man? Have you ever felt that there was something very wrong between God and man, that there was a breach of peace, a breakdown in mutual good relations? That there is a gulf between them which cannot be bridged? Is there a rift between them which cannot be bridged even by the best of your efforts?
How do I get to God? Who fills the gaping hole between us? How can I be freed from the weight of a thousand sins of a human life, great and small? Who reconciles me to the holy and mighty God? Or should I resign myself to the fact that we are far apart, and so fortunately have little to do with each other? But perhaps we will one day? Should I solve the problem by leaving Him alone, so that He may leave me alone? How long can I do that? Or do I give the respect I can to a concept of God I have imagined for myself? Do I cover myself by not taking Him seriously for the ordinary sins I have? Shall I further deceive my conscience that I can explain my affairs before Him? But what if I find out too late that I've been kidding myself? What if, when I am brought before His holy and righteous judgment seat, I find that I have no holiness?
Well then, that's why there is no other way to conceive of the relationship between God and man except with Jesus in the middle! Sin-contaminated man at one extreme, the absolutely holy God at the other, and in the middle the God-man, Jesus Christ! From man He takes sin upon Himself, and from God He takes judgment upon Himself, and thus reconciles the two extremes, bringing them together. It is as if he were clinging with one hand to the Father, and with the other embracing sinful man, and thus drawing the two into blessed, holy communion with each other once more! He reaches out with his arms spread apart on the cross and breaks the distance between God and man.
Jesus is in the middle between God and man! This precious grace was once rejoiced in by a Hottentot woman who had found Christ, and was asked by her pagan friend if she was not afraid to die, and what she would do when she reached heaven. The answer was childishly simple: as soon as I get to heaven, I'll look around to see where Christ is and then I'll hide behind him. When God looks at me, he will see nothing but Jesus, and when I look at God, I will see nothing but Christ! This pagan-turned-Christian woman was not expressing herself theologically, but she understood very well that only the crucified Christ could be there between God and man.
According to an old Eastern custom, when a person paid off a debt on his house, the creditor who had received his money back would cross out the note with two strokes and nail it to the door of the house, so that everyone could see that the debt had been paid and that the person who lived behind the door was once again free of debt. This is what the Apostle Paul refers to in one of his letters, when he says that God has forgiven us all our sins: 'By blotting out the handwriting of the commandments which was against us in the commandments, which was against us, and by taking it out of the way, and by nailing it to the cross' (Col 2,14) Yes, this handwriting, this debit note, which contains the sins and omissions of God, is always troubling the conscience, it is always standing between us and God. It is the cause of the broken relationship and the distance between us. Well then, God has taken that debt out of the way, all the debts, all the debts that were laid upon him. Jesus paid it all off to the last penny! There is the body of Jesus, like a debt crossed with a bloody cross, nailed to the cross, as a sign that the great debt has been paid off, and that the one who lives behind him is completely free of debt. Behold, this is what Jesus in the middle means, if he is truly in the middle between man and the Lord God!
It follows that Christ alone is in the middle between sin and grace, or in other words between damnation and salvation. I might say that at Christ crucified, at His cross, humanity, the path of human life, is divided into two camps. Up to that point, on one side of the cross, is where condemnation and sin begin, and on the other side of the cross is where salvation and grace begin. This is clearly seen in the scene of Good Friday. One was a great sinner, doomed to die with a hardened heart, ripe for hell. The other was also a great sinner, also doomed to die, yet ripe for heaven. Now if we were to ask why there is such a great difference between them, let us look to Jesus, who hangs in the middle between them on the cross, for an explanation. Whoever is not on the right side of Christ is lost. But he who has approached Him from the right side will be saved forever. So one can be in the immediate vicinity of Christ, in the immediate vicinity of His cross, and yet be damned there too. So it depends on which side you are on: the side of salvation or the side of damnation?
How do you know? Let us look at the example of the two evildoers. One of them cursed and mocked because he only saw Jesus as a man. The other, with his last breath, pleaded with Him for mercy, because he recognized in the crown of thorns the glorious King of the Kingdom of Heaven. One of them was indignant, cursing his bitter, cruel fate, and wishing Jesus would save him from this terrible situation. The other, seeing the suffering of Christ, realizes that it is not he who has been wronged, but Christ. He is justly punished, he deserves no less, but this true, pure, holy one may yet help him in the next world! One makes demands, the other asks for mercy. Jesus answers nothing to the plea of the one on the left, but opens the gates of Paradise to the penitent plea of the one on the right.
Which side are you on? In vain do you look at Him in shock, in vain do you pray to Him, in vain do you beg Him to help you, to change your desperate fate, to alleviate your unbearable suffering. In vain do you show Him your reverence, in vain do you serve His Church, because until you give up all self-righteousness, until you admit that you are a great sinner, who can only be helped by God's forgiving grace, you are on the left side of Christ, where damnation is. Suffering the cruelties of life, even if you are crucified like the three men on Calvary, will not get you to heaven. It is a realization more poignant than any suffering that opens the door to salvation: the realization that even one drop of my sin is such a deadly poison that only the redemptive death of the Son of God can save me from eternal damnation! Whoever stands with Christ on the side of the repentant and merciful evildoer can pass from death to life!
Just as Jesus once hung with arms outstretched in the middle between heaven and earth, between God and man, between salvation and damnation, so He stands in the middle of a sinful world, here among us today. With open arms, he calls sinners: 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Mt 11,28).
Amen
Date: Good Friday, 26 March 1948.