Wrestling the Grizzly, for You - Sermon for Palm and Passion Sunday

Palm and Passion Sunday
April 2, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Wrestling the Grizzly, for You

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  John 15:13

   Is there anything that offers us a comparison to the astounding work that Jesus of Nazareth achieved for us?  Any modern story that helps us grasp the magnitude of the Passion of the Christ? 

   No.  The short answer is no, the project God’s Son undertook and completed is utterly unique.  Of course, poets, novelists and screenwriters continuously try to fashion copycat stories of self-sacrifice that seek to subtly or not-so-subtly mimic what Jesus did.  C.S. Lewis’s “Tales of Narnia” and Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” come to mind.  But these are fictions.  What about in everyday life?  I recently came across a story that shares some of the same contours as the climax of all four of the Gospels, a story that is also pretty close to home for us. 

   Brady Lowry and Kendall Cummings were collegiate wrestlers at Northwest College over in Powell, Wyoming.[1]   They met just last year, at the start of the 2022 fall term.  And, as can happen on a wrestling team, they quickly became good friends, the type of friendship forged in brutal workouts and wrestling against each other in practice day after day.  On October 15^th, along with two other teammates, they headed over near Yellowstone Park to go hunting for shed antlers, an enjoyable way for outdoorsy college students to make some cash. 

   Late in the afternoon, the four friends separated into pairs, and Brady and Kendall headed into a thicket of trees.  Did I mention they were right next to Yellowstone Park?  Brady came across a steaming pile of bear scat, and was about to call to Kendall when he heard it coming.  Brady called our “Bear!” just before a 500 lb grizzly hit him in the chest. 

     The bear knocked Brady into a clearing, and Kendall turned to see his friend being mauled.  What to do?  Run for his friends, one of whom had a sidearm?  But they were hundreds of yards away, and Brady would be dead in seconds.  Kendall shouted at the bear, then threw a stick and hit it, and then a rock.  No reaction; the bear was intent on Brady.  And that’s when Kendall did the unthinkable.  He raced toward the bear and hurled himself on the beast’s back.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friend.  

   Human beings, no matter how fit, stand no chance against an attacking grizzly.  And yet, remarkably, Kendall’s crazy stunt worked, sort of.  He pulled at the fur on the bear’s neck, which finally got its attention.  The bear turned away from Brady and toward Kendall, who had now lept off its back and was sprinting away.  Kendall hoped that Brady would be able to escape during the distraction, even as he hoped to get away.  But Kendall hoped in vain.  As fast as a 150 lb. college wrestler can sprint, the bear still caught up with Kendall in a few bounds.  But Kendall had given Brady a chance to escape, by taking his place under the wrath of the grizzly. 

    We can clearly see Christ-like love in the actions of Kendall.  When I stumbled across this story on ESPN.com, I was blown away, moved as I read the account.  Such self-sacrifice and bravery is stunning.  No one could have faulted Kendall if he had run for help, or even just watched helplessly as Brady was killed.  But he didn’t.  Instead, he exposed himself to devastating pain and almost certain death, on the slim chance that he could save the life of his friend.   

   Kendall’s action is similar to Jesus’s Passion in several ways.  And yet, in the most important ways, what Jesus did is much greater than even the amazing sacrifice that Kendall made. 

   For starters, Jesus did not wrestle His Grizzly on the spur of the moment.  His sacrifice was pre-meditated, decided before the creation of the world.  Jesus did not go to Golgotha wondering what might happen.  He was fully aware of what was coming.  And yet, He continued moving forward, His face set like the flint, toward the Cross.

    What Jesus did was not done for the sake of good friends.  Because Jesus didn’t have any truly good friends.  Oh, Jesus had friends.  Indeed Jesus was the best friend anyone ever had.  He loved His disciples and followers greatly, and displayed great affection for them.  But it’s hard to see why.  Because Jesus’ “friends” routinely failed to reciprocate.  All too often they saw Jesus as a ticket to personal glory, and bickered amongst themselves about who would have the highest ranks in Jesus’ coming kingdom.  Even those closest to Jesus, His chosen Disciples, and the women who supported Him, even they failed to help.  One of the 12 betrayed Him unto death.  The best the rest could muster was to look on helpless and hopelessly, as Jesus tackled His Grizzly. 

   And this is to say nothing of the others.  The crowds who asked for Barabbas to be spared, while demanding Christ be crucified.  The priests, scribes and Pharisees who plotted against Jesus, even though these religious experts who knew the Scriptures could see better than any that Jesus had to be sent from God.  The Romans, who thought nothing of inflicting horrible and unjust torture on an innocent man, just to pacify a mob.  Jesus tackled His Grizzly for them too, for His enemies, for all of sinful humanity, we who collectively reject and declare our independence from God every time we sin. 

   St. Paul captures this difference in Romans chapter 5, (vv 7-8):  Paul writes: For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  I think Kendall fits in this category.  Paul concludes:  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8 

   Finally, Jesus’ Grizzly was far worse than Brady and Kendall’s bear.  And what was Jesus’ Grizzly?  Was it the rejection and shame heaped on Him by the Jews?  The physical torture of the Romans?  Death by crucifixion?  No, none of these, not really.  All of these are horrible, and more than any of us could bear of our own strength.  But the real Grizzly that Jesus faced on our behalf was invisible to human eyes.  Jesus hints at it with His cry: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  The true Grizzly Jesus tackled was the just wrath and punishment of God against human sin. 

   In a sense, since Jesus is God, now made man, He faced His own justice.  But because the debt had to be truly and fully paid in order to save mankind, the deeper reality is that God’s Son accepted His Father’s anger, against our sin, dying the death our sins have earned.  God the Father’s Beloved Son was separated, for a brief and yet eternal moment, separated from the love of His Father, and suffered all the torments of Hell, so we would not have to suffer such separation from God, forever. 

   Stories like Brady and Kendall’s are awesome.  And in case you are wondering, they both survived.  I can point you to the full story, if you like.  There is even a bit of a resurrection angle, in that Kendall, though severely mauled, was able to return to wrestling in just months, and Brady is still working towards the same goal.  A great true story, that inspires us.  

   But as wonderful as it was, Kendall only saved Brady for a time, in this life.  The Grizzly Jesus tackled for us was far more costly, but the benefit is also far, far greater.  Infinitely greater.  For the willing self-sacrifice unto death that Jesus made heals the mortal wounds of our souls.  In His death, and victorious resurrection, we have peace with God and eternal life.  And so we continue to sing Hosanna to our Humble King, the Holy One who rode unto death, in order to wash away our sins, and share with us His indestructible new life. 

   This is our song, a song of love unknown, which has now been made known, and delivered to us, in Word and Sign.  This is the song that sustains our hope and motivates our love, no matter what life throws our way.  This is the song we sing for the whole world, in prayerful confidence that many more will hear and believe what Jesus has done, for them, and for all people.

   Loud hosannas to Jesus, and love and peace to sinners, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.       

 

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[1] From ESPN online story by Ryan Hockensmith, https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/35820049/college-wrestlers-grizzly-bear-attack