TITLE: THE TEARS OF A CROWN
SCRIPTURE: ISAIAH 53:3a
We have all watched in horror as the news media has replayed the events of two weeks ago and we have watched it over and over again on our television sets. A man walks into a local Wal-Mart in El Paso, Tx and takes the lives of 22 people and injuring over two dozen others. He drove for over 9 hours to take the lives of those that don’t look like him. And then less than 12 hours later a man walks outside a night club in Dayton, Oh, and guns down 9 – one being his own sister and her boyfriend. Thankfully he never made it into the nightclub alive where he could have done extreme damage and perhaps taken more lives.
Before that dreadful weekend, there were 18 high-profile, mass shootings at least as deadly as Dayton in the past dozen years, including –
• At a Concert in Las Vegas, Nevada
• At the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida
• At Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia
• At a Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas
• At a Church in Charleston, South Carolina
• At an Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut
• Sadly, the list goes on and on
In the midst of all this pain is the big picture, we have been telling children -
• How much God Loves them
• That God Knows them
• That God Hears them
• That God Strengthens them
• And we send them out to share God’s love with others
We send them out into a world where a gunman can walk into a Nightclub -- An Elementary School -- A High School -- A Movie Theater -- A Church -- and people die.
The amount of mass shootings across the U.S. so far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to a Gun Violence Research Group. This puts 2019 on pace to be the first year since 2016 with an average of more than one mass shooting a day. As of Aug. 5, which was the 217th day of the year, there have been 255 mass shootings in the U.S. We should be shocked by this because we live in the United States and things like this aren’t supposed to happen here. This should not be our reality.
The sad reality is knowing Christians in America hold diverse views about guns and gun culture.
• Some Christians have never owned or fired a gun
• Others, primarily evangelicals and fundamentalists, appear to revere or at least give credence to the Second Amendment as if it were nearly on par with the Bible
• They seem to think that appealing to it should settle the matter
• Therefore, nothing gets done
• We just wait for the next Mass Shooting in our nation
• If we are not careful, we will become immune to them
A proper interpretation and application of the Second Amendment would settle the matter legally. However, this would not settle the matter morally or spiritually. The mixture of faith - patriotism -- and the veneration of the constitution, and in particular the Second Amendment, is worrisome.
As America grapples with a relentless tide of gun violence, pro-gun activists have come to rely on the Second Amendment as their trusty shield when faced with mass-shooting-induced criticism. In their interpretation, the amendment guarantees an individuals right to bear arms—a reading that was upheld by the Supreme Court in its 2008 ruling in District of Columbia. v. Heller.
• The Second Amendment doesn’t say what you think it does
• The amendment protects gun ownership for purposes of military duty and collective security
• It was drafted, after all, in the first years of post-colonial America
• An era of scrappy citizen militias where the idea of a standing army—like that of the just-expelled British—evoked deep mistrust
• It is about time our Congress and Senate wrestle with the direction of our nation as it pertains to high powered weapons in the hands of its citizens
I see in the El Paso shooting which stirs up the ongoing battles and divisions within our communities --
• The Islamic community
• The LGBTQ community
• Gun control
• Immigration
• Democrats and Republicans act like enemies
• House of Representatives and US Senate behave like Squabbling Children
• The President of this nation has no desire to bring our country together
• And the hatred, violence and division swirls around me, and I am oftentimes overwhelmed
And it makes it seem like the Gospel is just a good Novel to read. Like it is just a Pollyanna wishful thinking where we Sugar-Coat the harsh reality of life.
• How can I hold up a candle to this?
• I don’t even have to look at the National or World News to be overwhelmed by this
• I know that I can’t do much to change the whole world
• Yet, when I look at my own family and my friends and see the deep lines of hurt and division that go way back and I see the pain in people’s eyes
• I also see Churches filled around the nation with those who come looking for Hope
• And I wonder
• Yet, I am determined to make a Positive Difference
Church, we are to remind ourselves of Jesus’ words time and time again — in the face of hopelessness and death, when all possibilities are over, and nothing can be humanly done -- “DO NOT BE AFRAID. ONLY BELIEVE.” You may say, “But when I’m in pain, I don’t have the strength to believe. I’m too weak, too overwhelmed.” I admit that even after thirty-six years in ministry I still pray --
• “Lord, you have to put faith in me. I can’t believe on my own”
• Yet I also can testify that the Holy Spirit is faithful to do that work
• He has never failed to do it for me
We live in a sin-soaked world where each of us is fully capable of being the gunman.
• Where each of us, in our own way, has gunned down another person on multiple levels
• We live in a world where the dividing lines of FEAR - HATRED - VIOLENCE go so deep, and go back so many generations
But my calling is to stand and declare to you today that there is another reality.
• I am reminded today there are TWO REALITIES
• There is a reality in which God looks at all our Sin
• Where God looks at all our VIOLENCE - FEAR - HATRED - BETRAYAL
• And in spite of it all, God loves us anyway
It is a reality where God became flesh in Jesus Christ and He who knew no sin became sin for us. Consider this key text with me again - ISAIAH 53:3a “HE IS DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN; A MAN OF SORROWS, AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF…” We are not “ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF” in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it.
• We endure it and live through it
• But we do not become intimate with it
At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God.
• But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account
• Namely, Sin
• And it upsets all of our thinking and our plans
• Sin has made the foundation of our thinking UNPREDICTABLE - UNCONTROLLABLE - IRRATIONAL
We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming.
• Sin is blatant Mutiny against God
• And either sin or God must die in my life
The NT brings us right down to this one issue —
• If sin rules in me - God’s life in me will be killed
• If God rules in me - sin in me will be killed
• There is nothing more fundamental than that
THE CULMINATION OF SIN WAS THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us.
• We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin
• It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth
• And it is the explanation of the Grief and Sorrow of Life
Can I lift up to you that mass shootings is why Jesus came into the world the way he did. What kind of Savior do we need when our hearts are shredded by brutal loss?
• We need a Suffering Savior
• We need a Savior who has tasted the cup of horror we are being forced to drink
• And that is how He came
He knew what this world needed.
• Not a Comedian
• Not an Educator
• Not a Sports Hero
• Not a Movie Star
• Not a Political Figure
• Not a Doctor
• Not a Lawyer
• Not even a Pastor
• The world needed what no mere man could be
The world needed a suffering sovereign.
• Mere suffering would not do
• Mere Sovereignty would not do
• The one is not strong enough to Save
• The other is not weak enough to Sympathize
• So, He came as who He was
• The Compassionate King
• The Crushed Conqueror
• The Lamb-like Lion
• The Suffering Sovereign
As our hearts are still heavy for Dayton, OH and El Paso, TX, God still draws near as the Suffering - Sympathetic God-Man - Jesus Christ.
• No one else can Feel what He has Felt
• No one else can Love like He can Love
• No one else can Heal like He can Heal
• No one else can Save like He can Save
Jesus takes our grief personal. Remember with me when Jesus asks where Lazarus is buried and they invite him to come and see, he begins to weep out of the well of his own grief. Lazarus was his friend, and now he is dead. Even though the Christ/Messiah has plans for resurrection, the human Jesus is overwhelmed by sorrow in this moment. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright says of this scene
--“When we look at Jesus, not least when we look at Jesus in tears, we are seeing not just a flesh-and-blood-human being but the Word made flesh…The Word, through whom worlds were made, weeps like a baby at the grave of his friend.
--Only when we stop and ponder…Only when we put away our high-and-dry pictures of who God is and replace them with pictures in which the Word who is God can cry with the world’s crying will we discover what the word ‘God’ really means.”
We read in the NT in REVELATION 21:4 “GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES; AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH, NEITHER SORROW, NOR CRYING, NEITHER SHALL THERE BE ANY MORE PAIN: FOR THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY.”
• The Word of God tells us of the day when tears shall be gone forever
• Until we come to that day, we move through this world in the midst of tears
Let me footnote here for a moment -- don’t boast about your hardheartedness or refusal to shed tears. Instead, pray that God will give you a tender heart which will sympathize with others. Jesus was a man of tears. On three (3) occasions Christ is pictured as weeping -
• At the Grave of Lazarus
• Over the City of Jerusalem
• The Garden of Gethsemane
• Think of our great Savior weeping over a city
• His heart was torn
• His tears represented His attitude toward a lost world
Who was this One who was crying?
• The Author of our Bible
• The Refuge of our Souls
• The Hope of our Resurrection
• The Builder of our Heaven
• The Source and Provider of all our Spiritual Blessings
he wept over Jerusalem because he saw their blind eyes. Christ could see men in their true spiritual condition.
• He saw them Dead in Trespasses and Sins
• He saw them under the wrath of God
• He saw them without God and without Hope
Oh, that we might have the eyes of Jesus to see the condition of men without Christ! We need to see people as dead in trespasses and sins, sinking into the pit of Hell without our loving Savior.
• It is not right that we should consider this so lightly
• It is an evil tendency of our day that Christians care so little about the spiritual condition of others
• That is why the Church is in the condition it is
• Let us be less concerned about Building Programs
• Let us be less concerned about Building Names for Ourselves
• Let us be less concerned about our Titles and High Mindedness
• Let us be less concerned about One Church in multiple locations
• Let us begin to look upon men and women as Lost or Saved
• And when we think of men lost, let us think of all that it means
• Let us recommit to Evangelizing the Lost
Tears come because of death.
• There is no Home without a Hush
• Death is no respecter of persons
• It may be the going of a baby or of a mother, father or husband or wife
• It may be by continued senseless acts of violence and mass violence in our nation
• With death come tears
Yes, we have tears. But thank God, we have a Savior who cares. He gave us demonstrations of His love when -
--He walked upon this earth
--He showed His concern at the grave of Lazarus
--He expressed His sympathy when He wept over Jerusalem
--He showed His Compassion
--He Healed the Sick
--He Raised the Dead
--He straightened the limbs of the crippled
--He opened the eyes of the blind
--He saw the tears of the sorrowing widow as she followed the casket holding the body of her boy
--With compassion He looked upon the thief who died by His side and, because of his faith, gave him the assurance of Heaven
--Yes, my brothers and Sisters that is THE TEARS OF A CROWN
--He weeps with us as we continue to wrestle with something broken in our nation
--He weeps with us over these senseless use of weapons of mass destruction
--He weeps over those who feel superior over others and act out in such violent ways
--We weeps when our Government continues to sweep Gun Control under the Carpet
--Yes, God does care
--THE TEARS OF A CROWN
--My brothers and sisters, this is a world of Tears
--This is a world of Sorrows
--But there is a Tearless Tomorrow
--It is a place called Heaven
--And the way to reach Heaven is by the way of Jesus Christ, the one who wears the Crown
--He said, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE: NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER, BUT BY ME”
--THE TEARS OF A CROWN
