I know I should not have a sermon that says anything about amazing, especially when yesterday's sermon was about how God is predictable. Something can't be amazing when it's predictable. "Amazing" and "predictable" just don't go together.

But as I had said last night, His predictability is sometimes hard for us to grasp. His Word is powerful. His mercy is everlasting, and yet when we see His Word doing its work or we see His mercy in action, it catches us by surprise. He is predictable in that He sees to all the details of not only providing the gift, but making sure delivery is made, particularly when He gives us His body and blood. And yet, the wonderful way He does it is amazing to us.

What can we say? In our unbelief, we find it hard to comprehend that He is what He says He is, and that He does what He says He does. When we hear His mercy endures forever, we tend to think of it as only words, but not really grasp what it means. When He extends His mercy to us, we don't consider us so much as amazing, nor that it is expected because He tells us He does so, but rather because we actually tend to think we deserve it, but when He shows mercy to all the people of Nineveh, it takes our breath away. Why? Because we have trouble believing His Words. Oh, our damnable lack of faith! This is why we are here at Good Friday. This is why the sinless Son of God is hanging on a cross.

Still, we must confess what we are and what we do. We are amazed at things He does. For example, He stands out there on the outskirts of Nineveh reasoning with Jonah. Jonah is actually angry because the people of Nineveh repented and they were spared. And God is talking to His rebellious little child, who is having a pity party. "Are you right to be angry?" He asks Jonah. And Jonah astoundingly, answers, "Yes."

Wow! One thing you can say about Jonah: He's got guts. And yet, the Lord continues to be patient with Him. In fact, He doesn't give up on Jonah.

He appoints a plant to grow up to give him shade. He appoints a worm that kills the plant, and then He appoints a wind that makes Jonah wish he could die. Does God give up on Jonah? Not hardly. He keeps pursuing Jonah. The sin Jonah will not confess, is still there, still unconfessed. He hates people who the Lord had provided salvation, and he holds his hatred as though it were his right. He doesn't deny his hatred, but he's denies that it is wrong. And yet, the Lord won't let go. The Lord provides the plant and then the worm and the wind to show Jonah what he is doing, all so Jonah would repent. This is patience. The Lord wants so badly for Jonah to grasp all the riches He has in store for him, but Jonah won't repent for this sin. Jonah won't bend. As a result, Jonah doesn't know the mercy of God.

What about us? I can tell you that as His people, the Lord exercises patience with us. He provided this series, didn't He? He has been speaking to us in this series, as we have looked at Jonah. Week after week, we have been shown our own sinful resistance as we looked at Jonah. Does the Lord give up? No, He continues to drive His point all so that we would see our sinfulness and cry out for mercy, and learn to continually cry out for mercy-something Jonah did not do.

Neither did the religious leaders who arranged Jesus' death. They were so sure they were right, or at least convinced themselves they were right. "This man is worthy of death. He has committed blasphemy. He calls Himself the Son of God."

How they hated Jesus. When given the choice between setting Barabbas or Jesus free, they choose Barabbas. Barabbas probably disgusted them, maybe even scared them. What are we doing, by asking him to go free? The guy who had already started at least one insurrection, and could lead the people to riot, has been set free to do it again. We could lose the convenient peace we have the Romans, by this." And what about their families? This was guy was a legitimate criminal. But no matter. They hated Jesus even more.

When we hate someone we can usually justify it by pointing to something in that person that makes that person worthy of being hated. Even if we can't find it, we can comfort ourselves with the idea that there must be something.

What did they have? Everything Jesus did, He did out of love. They could see it. Yeah, maybe what he did upset them, but they knew what He said and did was right. They couldn't find some hidden fault because He had none and they knew it.

And yet, they still pressed on. They arranged false witnesses. They mocked Him. They lead the crowd to cry out, "Crucify Him." They rejoiced when He was scourged and then brought out before Him. They grinned when He had to carry His own cross and stumbled under its weight. They rushed up the hill of Calvary to make sure they could see the whole grisly affair. They hurled insults at Him. They tried to add insult to injury by having the sign above His head changed, so the accusation would be even more stinging-not that He is the king of the Jews, but that He said He was the king of the Jews. They glare at Him with smoldering hatred.

And this first thing out of His mouth, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." Is that patience or what? Talk about heaping hot coals upon a person's head. It forces them to take a look at what they are doing. "Forgive us?" At first, they probably thought, "How dare He ask for us to be forgiven! He's the one who is being executed for a capital crime."

But then it would have to settle in. The words would worm their way into their ears and into their heart. "Forgive us. He's praying that we would be forgiven. We do all these nasty things to Him, and He asks for forgiveness for us." His love in the face of their hatred stands out. Their evil becomes even clearer. They can't ignore it any longer. He is still trying to reach them. How amazing! If not for them, the witnesses of all this could hardly miss what is happening.

Here we see the heart of our Lord. Here is the love of our God. He is being abused, and at the same time He is praying for forgiveness. This is patience. When we are being impatient with another person; when we refuse to confess sin; when we embrace our sin as though it were an entitlement, Jesus is praying for us. And the Father hears. He continues to send His Holy Spirit so that His Word would break our heart and we would repent.

How can He be so patient? How can He continue to hammer through our resistance? He is so patient with us, because the Father was so impatient with His Son. Yes, this is impatience. The Father's patience against sin has run out. He has been holding back. He has been waiting for this moment. And now He lets it all out. The hatred of the religious leaders is nothing like the hatred Jesus feels from His Father right now. Theirs is basically out of ignorance. They don't realize how bad what they are doing actually is. The Father does.

The Father knows the Son intimately, but now He doesn't even recognize Him. The Father knows who is on the cross, but does not see Him. Instead, He sees all the filth of the world. His beautiful creation was thrown into disorder. Unspeakable pain has been the result.

Now, it has found one source. One man is responsible for all of the disorder, the corruption and the pain. It is no longer Adam. It is Jesus. The fury the Lord would have felt toward Adam has been displaced and directed at Jesus, because Jesus did it or at least seen as though He did. The fury the Lord would feel toward us for our rebellion and resistance is directed at Jesus, because Jesus did it, or at least is treated as though He were the rebellious and resistant one.

Look now. We will probably not look so closely at the cross and the pitiful man hanging on it as we do this evening for another year. There Jesus hangs, not asking us to pity Him for the horrible suffering He endured. He doesn't want us to weep tears at His pain. He wants us to see it is for our sin that He does this. He wants us to weep over our sinfulness, which continues to drive us to sin further, and to even seek to justify that sin.

And then He wants us to see that when He says, "It is finished," it is all truly paid. When He gives up His Spirit, it meant He had done it all. Our price was paid. He wants us to see, that nothing more needs to be done. We who deserve nothing, have been given everything, and it happened here. As His people, we have experienced and will continue to experience the patience we have seen here, and rejoice for it.

AMEN