Living in an apartment, in a large building, with three other guys meant one thing: Cockroaches. We would go into the kitchen, flick the light on and watch them scatter. I’m sure I’m giving you the creeps right now. Sorry. I had a nightmare once about holding two fly-swatters as I pasted them to the wall. But they moved from apartment to apartment living off our crumbs. We were why they were there. We invited them. They were quite confused I’m sure. We fed them, but didn’t want them around. Dumb humans, they thought.
It reminds me of these little bugs I once had in my pantry. I could not get rid of them. They ruined all the food, and the bug-sprays seemed useless. The only thing I could do was throw out the flour and potatoes and tea and everything else in there. I had to get rid of the source. They had gotten into my house through something – I couldn’t tell what. So it all had to go. Purging, they call it. You see, sins are like those little bugs. The only way to get rid of them, is to throw out their source – the Sin nature that makes them.
Just outside Jerusalem, there is this place called Golgotha. It means, the place of a skull. An aerial photograph would tell you why. You can see eye-sockets and the rest from a helicopter. But this hill was built on an old garbage dump. They used to burn refuse there, calling it Gehenna. Jesus actually used this name when talking about Hell. So, Jesus was crucified on Goglotha – a garbage heap. When people in that day walked by there, they would say, “Man, this place is a dump.” The Lord Jesus was thrown out there, for you and for me.
He was treated like garbage - As if he had no value. That’s why we find him being abused and abandoned, mocked and ignored, and finally crucified. He was treated as if he was the very worst of sinners – as if he had sinned every sin ever sinned. Once again, it wasn’t just us that treated him that way – God the Father did too. Jesus was forsaken by his Father. On the top of an old pile of refuse, nailed to a Roman cross, Jesus died the death of a common thief, after which the plan was to toss his body into a hole without a grave-marker.
So, Christ was put out by the curb. I do not mean to be sacrilegious. I want you to really get the point that the Prince of Life was not only killed, but that he was disposed of – and that we needed him to be. This is another picture, another metaphor, that I really hope to be of some help for you to understand how God dealt with sin. Just like I had to get rid of the source of those little bugs in my pantry, the Lord had to dispose of the sin nature that caused the creepy-crawlies of sin – lying, theft, greed, pride, lust… and the rest. I think it’s clear that Jesus was treated like garbage, but how did that do anything about our sin?
A verse of Scripture that has come up already, is found in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, and verse 21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Paul later in that chapter refers to the concept of “reconciliation”. That’s a money-word. Biblically, it means “to change currency.” When Christ was made to be sin for us, it was as if he was a gold coin that was changed into aluminum foil. It was like he became one of those chocolate loonies, from which the wrapper got crunched up and dropped in the trash. And the chocolate was bad, so it got spit out. We’re chocolate loonies too, but we were never gold. All we were good for was the garbage heap, so Jesus went there for us. And, in having himself thrown out, he took our trash with him.
Our sin was purged from us, by Jesus when he was crucified on Gehenna. He could do that, because he was made to be sin for us. He was made to be our garbage for us. He was actually made to be US for us. We got our sin from one person, Adam. And now our sin is disposed of by one person, Christ. Becoming a Christian means being a part of Christ. His history becomes our history. What is true of him, is in so many ways true of us. We are talking once again about a spiritual reality. So, when Jesus was crucified, we were there with him, and so he was able to dispose of our sin. We were there, so our sin was there too.
This stuff is not easy to fit in our heads. It runs contrary to our normal thinking. It’s backwards, really. But God has always worked that way, so that we know that it’s Him. Peter Larson put it this way: “The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked, "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."
Our sin-nature was separated from us. We dealt with that earlier when we walked through the idea of being “dead-to-sin”. But the way it was done, was by the death of Christ. We don’t have to throw out our sin natures. We don’t have to put them in the disposal unit in the sink, or bag them up and wait for the truck. It’s already been done! The trash has been taken out. Jesus did it for you. He carried it off. You’re not sure, are you… I know. You are wondering why you can still smell it.
The problem we all have is that our sin nature is still available to us. It is not attached to us in the same way as it was before we got rescued, but we still have access to the dumpster. We still sin, don’t we? Hourly. We don’t have to, but we can. We are not forced to, but we sometimes go out of our way to do it. Our job is to leave the lid on the can. Our job is to trust that Christ knew what he was doing when he threw out all that stuff we used to love. Jesus really did purge our sin from us, so let’s not undermine that. Let’s not disagree with the one who loved us enough to become our trash for us. Leave it in the bin. After a while, you really won’t miss it. I promise.
That’s it, isn’t it - We don’t really think it’s trash sometimes. We think that there is still some good stuff in there. It’s like we are these spiritual pack-rats that are afraid to just let it go. “How dare you throw those out! Those are collector’s items!” we say. We are not really convinced that it is all sin. The Bible uses another word for sin. It’s the word, “flesh”. It’s a helpful word, because it reveals the nature of sin to us. The flesh can seem really noble. It can seem good. The flesh can dress itself up and be on its best behaviour. But it’s still “the flesh”. It is that part of us that is ambitious, determined to promote ourselves. It makes both the Olympic athlete and the crime boss. The ends do not justify the means. Much of what this world would call “great accomplishment” has been fueled by the flesh. It’s time to agree with God, and call it what he calls it – Sin.
The Apostle Paul talks about garbage in his letter to the Philippians. He says this, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” He had just been describing how great he was. He was smart, dedicated, had the right genes, was an all-around good guy. But he calls it all garbage – “rubbish”. I think the actual word there means “dung”, but you get the point. Even sin at it’s very best had to go. It’s worth it. Trade your garbage for Jesus. He gave so much more than he took. He gave himself.
Putting it all together, I hope you can see that the cross was a place where our sin – the source of sins – was given the respect it deserved. None. It was garbage worthy of the dumpster. Jesus spiritually – supernaturally – included us with him on that cross, so that our sin could be purged from us. We were separated from it by the cross. That is our only hope. Anything else we choose to do with ourselves is only cosmetic. And really, we’re only fooling ourselves. Everyone else can smell our trash a mile away. Take the new life that Jesus gives – a life that cannot spoil – and rest in the fact that you are far removed from your old life, seated with Christ in Heaven. Remember, Jesus has left the building. You arrived at your new life dead too, right? The firebreak was made so that sin can go no further. Jesus was thrown out for you, but he rose out of that heap, never to go back. It’s a done deal. Trust in the cross of Christ. Lean hard on it.
One more thing: We still need to realize that this place is a dump. The earth is only fit for fire, Peter tells us. It will all go. The Lord is not out to change the world, but he is out to save people from it. Keep your eyes of faith open and remember that this world is a place that rejected Christ. It still does. And it will only get worse. That is not to say that nothing beautiful happens here. Wild flowers still grow at the dump. But this world is past renovating. We can be good stewards of the things God has entrusted us with, but don’t get too comfortable here. Abraham lived all his life in a tent, to consciously keep himself from getting too cozy on this planet. Consider yourself a camper – a foreigner, stranger and pilgrim here. This is not the promised land. Our citizenship is in Heaven, so let’s act like it.
I wrote earlier that when they crucified Christ, the plan was to throw him in a common grave, without any dignity. Well, that’s not the way it actually happened. Even though he was treated like garbage on the cross, his body was carefully laid in a rich man’s tomb, by Joseph of Arimethea and his buddy Nicodemus. It fulfilled an important prophecy found in Isaiah that said, “they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death.” When God made him to be sin for us, he didn’t stay that way. When the cross was over, Christ was actually deemed to have more worth than before, if that is possible… “Therefore he gave him a name that is above every name…” Jesus is the only one ever to have inestimable value in both directions. He was valued as both the least and the greatest. He is the First and the Last.