Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Epistle lesson (Colossians 2: 13-15) read earlier.

Perhaps you've seen a blacksmith at work before, perhaps at Silver Dollar City or Wichita's Old Town area or someplace like that. Imagine with me that you are a blacksmith, but not in the Old West. Imagine you are a blacksmith in the Jerusalem area about the time of Jesus. You work hard over this hot furnace in this hot land, forging whatever metal pieces someone asks you to, hammers, saws, hoes, plowshares, pruning hooks, or scythes for cutting wheat. But in some hours of the day, when you've caught up on the larger pieces that have been commissioned, you work on forging nails, one at a time, because nails are always in demand. Someone will eventually buy your nails if you already have them made, if you've already forged the size they need. So you pound them out, one by one, and wonder.

"I wonder where these nails will go? The temple construction workers sometimes come and purchase my nails. Maybe these nails will be holy because they are used to build something in the temple area." "Sometimes simple townsfolk come and purchase my nails to help construct the joists for their small houses. Perhaps some of these nails will go to build those." You're curious enough about where your nails go that you begin to make a little mark on each head with your last blow of the hammer. It's a small, insignificant mark, a signature so to speak that only you would notice. But it's enough. If you see a nailhead at the temple or in a house, you'll be able to tell if it was one you made.

But then months later something you hadn't imagined happens. Roman soldiers come and purchase your nails.

You dare not even ask them the reason for the purchase. They might cuff you just for asking, or leave without paying you. You think "Oh, I hate the thought that my nails might be used to build another Roman garrison around our city. Or even worse, might they use some of my larger nails to actually execute Jewish prisoners. Will they perhaps use some of my nails to crucify someone? That day you stop putting your signature mark on the nailheads; you don't want to know how some might be used.

God has given us our reason and senses, our ingenuity. Many things that man's ingenuity has created are used for good and noble purposes. Matches can create a flame that warms a home on a cold night. Knives can be used to cut our food. Baseball bats can be used to play a great game. Airplanes are the quickest form of world travel man has ever known. Atomic energy is being used provide electricity for millions of homes and businesses. But yet all of these creations can be perverted, can be used for sinful purposes. Matches can be used by an arsonist to burn down a home. Knives and bats can be used to rob, maim, and even kill others. Atomic energy has been formed into the most fearful of all weapons, bombs that have killed thousands before, and now, we fear may fall into the hands of terrorists and be used against thousands more. And even commercial airliners, since September 11th, we now know can be used as weapons to bring down huge buildings and kill thousands of people. Sinful man has ingenuity given to him by God, and the objects of that ingenuity can be used either for noble or sinful purposes.

Tonight we focus on the nails, a simple little creation that can do so much good, but at the time of Jesus, nails were used not just for building, but in the cruelest form of execution that had been devised, one of the cruelest of all time. Whenever I watch one of the many video versions of Christ's life, I always shudder when I hear those hammer blows into the cross.

Those few moments of the nails being driven into Christ' feet and wrists, were seem to be the most excruciating of the crucifixion. Perhaps during this Lenten preparation time you would like to watch a video version of Jesus' life and see again what your Lord for us all.

Not everyone who was crucified was nailed to a cross. We know from history that some were only tied to crosses. But even those who were only tied still died a slow death by asphyxiation. But Jesus was nailed. We know that from what Peter told the crowd in Acts 2, from what Paul told the Colossians, from what Jesus told Thomas after his resurrection. Jesus was crucified, he was nailed to the cross. Those nails that were perhaps created for a good intention were instead used to maim and kill. Imagine if you were that blacksmith who had marked your nails with a little signature mark of your own. Imagine how you would feel if you knew that went and checked and discovered to your horror that it was some of your nails that were being used for crucifixion purposes. Imagine that you discovered that three of your nails were used to crucify this innocent man who others calling a prophet, even the Messiah who was to come. You had heard Pilate declare him innocent, not worthy of a death sentence. But yet the Jewish leaders had insisted, and manipulated this Roman governor into handing Jesus over for death. Imagine the guilt you would feel if you knew that your nails were being put to this perverted use. Your nails were not being used to build the holy temple or a house for a poor family.

No, your nails were responsible for holding an innocent man to a cross until dead.

But then again, it really wasn't a blacksmith's nails that held Jesus to the cross. As Peter said to the crowd in our responsive reading (Acts 2: 23) "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." Can you imagine? Jesus was held to the cross, not by nails, but by the sins of the people 2000 years ago, by the sins of all people at all times, by the sins of people in Junction City KS in the year 2002. Can you imagine, that our sins, our unbelief held him to that cross? Can you imagine that every careless word, every anger and bitter thought, every impure desire, every moment of disloyalty to our Lord Jesus is what held him to the cross? Jesus went to the cross and every sin that was ever committed, all sins by every human in the history of the world was attracted to and clung to that cross. Jesus chose the nails, for us. For you see, in another sense what held Jesus to the cross was not really the nails, it was his great love for us. His enemies, the wicked men who physically arranged for his crucifixion, taunted and mocked him. They said "Save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." The men who nailed Him to the cross didn't realize that their own sin and his own love had really fastened him to the cross. He could have come down from that cross at any time, could have avoided all that pain, but because He was the Son of God, God himself, He would show his love for the world, for you, through the nails. Human sin perverted the use of good nails into a horrible, killing instrument. But yet God's love took that perverted, distorted, evil instrument and turned it into a symbol of love and forgiveness. Through the nails, he forgave us all our sins. He cancelled out all that accuses "us and stands opposed to us, he took it all away -- nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2: 14). Through the nails he took all the perverted powers and authorities, sin, death and the devil, and triumphed over them. Through the marks of the nails still seen on his resurrected body he convinced doubting Thomas that He had truly risen from the dead (John 20: 24-28).

At the beginning of the sermon I asked you to imagine being a Jewish blacksmith at the time of Jesus who made those nails. We conjectured together that this blacksmith may have hoped that his nails would have been used to construct something at the temple, but then was horribly disappointed when he learned his nails were used for the crucifixion of an innocent man. We'll never know if the nailmaker ever actually knew that his nails were used for Christ's crucifixion. But in retrospect we do know that whoever made those nails, ultimately his blacksmith skills were used to build God's temple. God did use those nails to build. Through those nails he began to build the greatest temple of all time, His Body, the Church, you and me and all those who trust in the "Nailed One", Jesus Christ, for our life. We who trust Him also follow Him and take up our crosses, are in a sense fastened to his cross in death at our Baptisms.

May we always, through Lent and beyond, ponder Jesus' passion, renewing our hearts in his love. Amen.

Many of the concepts and direction for this sermon come from a sermon written earlier by Rev. Marvin Barz.