The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Over the past six plus weeks of Lent, we’ve considered the good kings of Judah, Wednesday after Wednesday. We saw that each of their reigns, no matter how much good they did and how righteous they were by faith, nonetheless they fell into sin time and time again. Scripture distinguished these good kings in the Bible by a phrase that became rather common over these last six weeks: that so-and-so “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” Each one, though, proved to be a sinner through and through. Even the most well-intentioned kings and faithful kings squandered opportunities, fell into sin, and left the door for idolatry wide open for the people to practice. Over these past six weeks, we saw that where the kings failed, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, fulfilled his office as prophet, priest, and king perfectly — did it without sin. On this Good Friday, we are not considering one of the good kings of Judah tonight. We consider the worst king ever, really.
Throughout the books of Chronicles, the good kings are described as following in the ways of their father David. That is, they believed in the God David did, and like David, who was a man after God’s own heart, they too sought to be like David — or they abandoned the true faith for the gods of Baal. For example, you might remember King Jehoram, who was said to follow the wicked ways of King Ahab of Israel, his father-in-law. King Manasseh was so wicked, by the way, that he got his own special attribution in Second Chronicles 33:2: “And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.” That’s a fancy way of saying he was such a rotten king that the pagans were better behaved than he was. He was so bad it would be an improvement to go back to the land without the kings of the Old Testament, because Manasseh was truly an evil man. Ahaz took Judah back to the days of wickedness of every kind that prevailed before the conquest of Joshua and the planting of Israel in the Promised Land. Second Chronicles 33:9 says Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom God had destroyed before the sons of Israel. Under the reign of Manasseh, the land was worse off than it had been before. Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah, who had torn down the pagan temples and drove out all the evil practices. But Manasseh undid what his father had done. He erected altars to Baal and Asherah. He himself worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars. He defiled the temple which his father Hezekiah had cleansed. He had altars built in the temple courtyard for the purpose of worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars. And instead of listening to the Lord God’s prophets, he consulted sorcerers and necromancers and diviners. He even offered his own children as a burnt offering — you heard it in the sentence: he made his children pass through the fire. They were burned as a sacrifice to the gods of Baal. That’s a pretty rotten king. Second Kings 21:16 tells us Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin with which he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. That’s a pretty evil king.
Therefore, God looking down upon the kingdom of Judah and their king Manasseh, the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. In other words, they put a hook through his nose when they caught him in battle. They marched him all the way east to the kingdom of Babylon, and there he was a prisoner. But only then, at his lowest point, far away in the land, tortured and in pain — no power, no name, no nothing, with the kingdom of Judah teetering on the verge of extinction — only then did he turn to the Lord God, the God of David, and humble himself in faith. And he begged God, the God of Israel and Judah, for forgiveness and to save him from the inevitable. There in Babylon he repented of all the evil that he had done against the Lord God and against God’s children. When he prayed to God, verse 13: God was moved by his entreaty, and he heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Now that is contrary to every expectation and every customary protocol on what one nation does when it captures the king of another nation. You don’t just pat them on the head and send them back to be king again in the land from which you have taken them. But for some unexplainable reason, that’s exactly what they did. He got back, and he began to bring reforms to the people. But it was too late for the people of Judah. They had been taken captive by the wickedness of Baal, and they liked it. They liked being wicked and evil people. We see that around us these days. There was a faithful few, but they were always just a faithful few who believed in the land of Israel and Judah. In chapter 34 we read that because of their unrepentant nature, they wouldn’t be spared from God’s judgment — that ultimately Jerusalem and the temple would fall. The die had been cast, and God would do what he said he was going to do.
But what about Manasseh? The repentance came. The one who was truly an evil man — God heard his prayer and had mercy on him. The Lord God forgave him, had him set free, and returned him to the land of Judah. In fact, for each and every good king and Manasseh, the worst king, God’s mercy flowed equally. There’s an appropriate word used for that: God’s mercy flowed. God’s mercy forgave Solomon, forgave David, forgave all those other good kings who did what was right in the sight of the Lord by faith. David and Manasseh ended up in their reigns, by the way, in the exact same place. Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house — that is, they buried him in the house of David. They buried him with all the other kings, except those who had been kicked out of the burial place. But this evil king was buried there because of his repentance.
But satisfaction still had to be made. The sins of David and Manasseh — indeed, everyone’s — needed to be atoned for. And the only perfect sacrifice would come from the son of Manasseh. The only sacrifice that does the job of appeasing God’s anger and wrath towards sin is the sacrifice given on Good Friday. David’s sins, Jehoshaphat’s sins, Joash’s sins, Uzziah’s sins, Josiah’s sins, Hezekiah’s sins, your sins and my sins are all paid for — the sins of the whole world. The son of Manasseh offered the perfect sacrifice, not for his sins, for he had none, but for others. The son of David, the son of Manasseh, was the only true righteous King who always did what was right in the sight of the Lord. There was no deceit in his heart or mind or mouth. The Son of God never worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars, because it was through him that the sun and the moon and the stars came into existence, and without him nothing that came into existence has come into existence. He worshiped God his heavenly Father, who sent him into the world to die so that all who believe in him would have everlasting life.
So the son of Manasseh, the Son of God, the best King eternal, shed his blood for all the Jewish blood that Manasseh the king shed of his own people. As for the King of kings, the son of David, he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to great expectations that he would be a great bread king. He would make life easier for them. He would usher in a new kingdom. And he did. It’s just that it wasn’t the kind of kingdom they expected. It was called, and is called, the church. On Good Friday, Jesus was bound and led into the judgment hall of a foreign governor. There the King of the Judeans was mocked and beaten and wounded by men who didn’t really understand what they were doing. Though he prayed for relief — “Father, if you are willing, let this cup of suffering pass me by” — God’s will was that he had to drink it, and drink it full. The hour had come for the Son of Man to be lifted up and glorified. And that glory would come on the cross of Good Friday. A strange glory. A black glory. A glory that we really can’t see with our eyes, but only comprehend by faith. And there on the cross they would put the sign: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Judeans. And he would say, “It is finished.” Read this last. And he would give up his spirit. Sacrifice complete.
After the sacrifice of his Son, God the Father restored the temple of Jesus in the bodily resurrection from the dead. In time, the temple in Jerusalem, as well as previously Solomon’s temple, would be destroyed, ultimately finished off in 70 A.D. But the temple of Jesus’s body is alive and well in the heavenly realm. His temple continues to offer us, in the sacrament of the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins through his sacrifice. The son of Manasseh is the best King eternal. Not only does he lead his people in righteousness — that is, teach what is right and wrong and show us an example — but he accomplishes righteousness for our sake and then gives it to us freely in faith. Whatever our sins, however long we’ve been distant from his body and blood, however close we are to our own death, Jesus’s sacrifice has moved God the Father to be merciful to you. The King of Judah has established an eternal kingdom of righteousness, and in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he has given you a new kingdom in which all people in that kingdom do what’s right in the sight of the Lord — for your sins have been washed away. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.