Sermon Snippet – Psalm 22:1-18 “I Am a Worm”
INTRODUCTION – I preached this sermon in 2009. It is not a traditional Easter message, but the content is Biblical and evangelical. This Psalm was written by David and describes how he felt. It is not an actual event from David’s life, for nothing in his life story matches these graphic details. This Psalm reveals how David felt, but it prophesies what actually happened to one descendant of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other interpretation is possible. Verse 1 was quoted by Jesus on the Cross (Matthew 27:46). The description of crucifixion, especially verse 16, was written before the cruel invention of that form of execution. Furthermore, verse 18 was fulfilled by pagan Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:35). Clearly, this Psalm was fulfilled in the atoning death of Jesus on the Cross. The prophetic precision does not surprise us: it is what we expect from an all-knowing God. However, there is something here that we do not anticipate – and that something is that Jesus would call Himself in verse 6 “a worm.” This is not a word that I would associate with Jesus; the possibility never would have crossed my mind if it were not written down in God’s Word. As far as I know, there is no poetry, no song, no art, no sermon that deals with this subject.
- A WORM IS DEFENSELESS
I am thinking particularly of an earthworm. (As an aside, earthworms are not indigenous to the New World but were brought by settlers. I would like to think of earthworms heading west in tiny Conestoga wagons, but it didn’t happen that way.) A worm has no real defenses against attack; I can’t imagine that one strikes fear into the heart of even the most timid robin. Certainly Jesus made Himself defenseless on the Cross. Matthew 26:51-54 tells us that He could easily have called tens of thousands of angels to rescue Him. In fact, Jesus did not even need angels,because He is the omnipotent Yahweh (John 18:5-6, esp. “I am”). However, Jesus followed the divine “must” (Matthew 26:54), which clarifies that His defenseless death on the Cross was the only way to effectively deal with our sins. Jesus is fully God; He is all-powerful. Only if He placed that power aside could He die; only if He placed that power aside could He die for us. With reverence, I thus conclude that Jesus made Himself a defenseless worm to die for us.
- A WORM IS DESPISED
Personally, I do not despise a worm (the earthworm is especially useful). However, if an earthworm (alive or dead) showed up in my daily peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I would despise it; if I dropped one down your back, you would probably despise it and me. Isaiah 53:3a says prophetically of Jesus, “He is despised and rejected of men.” Matthew 27:39-44 records some of the abuse that Jesus experienced on the Cross. Note verse 43, which is an almost exact quotation of Psalm 22:8. These revilers were unwittingly fulfilling prophecy, unwittingly demonstrating that Jesus was the promised Savior. Again, with reverence, I say that Jesus made Himself a despised worm as He died on the Cross for us.
- A WORM IS DIRTY
To say that an earthworm is dirty is an understatement: it lives in the dirt, is dirty on the outside, and eats dirt! Our Lord Jesus walked this dirty earth, dealt with the dirt of life (including sorrow, sickness, and sin), and took the dirt right into Himself. II Corinthians 5:21 starkly states, “For He hath made Him [Jesus] to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” Matthew 27:46 tells us that on the Cross Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” During three hours of darkness that descended upon the world at that time, Jesus, God the Son, was taking our very real sin (our dirt) into His very being and suffering a very real separation from God the Father, for sin ever and always must be separate from a holy God. Was Jesus holy? Yes, for there was no dirt of sin in His life (see II Corinthians 5:21 above). However, He took our sin and was separated from His Father so that we do not have to be separated from Him forever. With reverence once more, I proclaim that Jesus made Himself a dirty worm as He died on the Cross for us, taking into Himself our sins and our separation from the Father.
CONCLUSION – Philippians 2:5-11 provides an excellent summary of Jesus’ ministry and ends with the blessed Easter message of His resurrection from the dead and His ascension to heaven. Before this exceptional example of Jesus, we are called to be humble. If Jesus would make Himself a worm for me, how dare I have even a grain of pride? Isaac Watts wrote, “Alas! And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sov’reign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?” Some hymnals have changed “worm” to “one.” If I am ever in a church that uses this new version, I’m going to sing “worm” anyway – really loud and half a beat too soon! Jesus died for us, for each one of us. May we humble ourselves before Jesus, Who has shown us so clearly what humility is.