If I were to ask most people how they are preparing for Easter, how do you think they might respond? Now, I'm not asking you. I'm asking most people in this world, not this godly, heaven-minded, holy and spiritual family of believers here this morning. But if I were to ask the common person on the street how they were preparing for Easter, how do you think they would respond?
I think best-case scenario would be that they were going to dye some Easter eggs and get some baskets and fill them with that plastic grass stuff and go buy some chocolate bunnies and wear pastel colors to church. That's best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario would be, "Nothing. We don't celebrate Easter. It's just another day."
Now, I know. I know that some people think Easter is a pagan holiday because somebody somewhere once worshiped a Saxon goddess whose name sounds like "Easter" sometime in the spring or something. They say similar things about Christmas and, good grief, don't get 'em started on Halloween! But we celebrate Easter as a day set aside to remember and celebrate the day that Jesus rose from the grave after being dead for three days.
That's kind of a big deal for us Christians. No other religion or belief system can say that about their god. Our God was the Judge who decreed our sin required death. Our God was the Attorney who took our side in the case and our God was the Sacrifice for our sins and paid the price we couldn't pay. Our God died on a cruel cross but came back to life three days later and lives today and is our close Friend. That's something to celebrate, is it not? That's something to say "yeet" about or "amen" or "hallelujah" or something.
Well, this year I want to start getting ready to celebrate Easter by looking in detail about the events that led up to the days that Jesus was crucified and then rose again. I want us to think about what was going through the mind of Jesus, the people around Him and the religious Jews -- the Pharisees and scribes -- and other leaders who actually sentenced Him to death.
We need to realize that Jesus was not responding to the actions of His killers. His killers were reacting to Him and His plan. This was a plan that was set in motion before the creation of the world. Jesus didn't come to Earth to be a good teacher and heal a few folks. He came here to die. That was God's plan all along.
So, for the next few weeks, I want us to take a few snapshots, if you will, of what was going on thousands of miles away and thousands of years ago that affect us here today so wonderfully. Each Sunday through Easter, we will take a picture of a time that represented what was going on as Jesus got closer and closer to the time for His great resurrection. Some of these pictures will be uplifting and some of them not so much. But I want to start with a look at a typical day in the life of Jesus at the beginning of His ministry here.
Turn to the book of Matthew and put your little Bible ribbon there at chapter 9 for today but we will be in Matthew the next few weeks. At this point, Jesus has called most all of His disciples to follow Him and He has done some incredible miracles including calming a raging storm and healing all kinds of diseases and problems and He has taught them some amazing things that they had never heard before. And in this passage we see that no good deed goes unpunished or at least doesn't go without being slandered and bad-mouthed.
Let's read Matthew 9:27-34. There we will see right off that Jesus, in just a short period of time, has already developed quite the reputation and the following.
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith let it be done to you"; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. 32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."
In this snapshot of the life and ministry of Jesus it seems that it's just another ordinary Tuesday afternoon for Him. Earlier that day, as He was on His way to raise a dead girl back to life, a woman touched His cloak and was healed. Then Jesus heals these two blind men and then casts a demon out of this other guy so he was able to talk. He did all of that, practically without breaking stride or a sweat but I want us to look at what this means in the big picture scheme of things.
Here in this passage, we see the Old Testament scriptures practically screaming with fulfilled prophecy. First, look at what the blind men call Jesus. They call Him, "Son of David." That is a messianic title from all the way back to Isaiah 9 where the Messiah is promised to be from the line of King David.
Then we see Jesus doing all this healing which is also a Messianic prophecy. Again, Isaiah says that in the day of the Messiah, "the deaf will hear the words of the scroll and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see." (Isaiah 29:18) And I'm sure that was a pretty cool thing for most of the people to see those days. And why wouldn't it be cool to see? They were seeing the prophesied Savior right there in the flesh.
The problem was that the Pharisees and scribes and all the religious folks wouldn't or couldn't believe that Jesus was actually the One that was promised. He didn't fit into what they thought He was going to be, nor did He fit into what they wanted Him to be.
They wanted and expected a military and political ruler to come. When Old Testament scripture said the Messiah was going to set them free, they assumed that meant He would free them from the Roman rule that they were under. They thought that since they were God's chosen people and sons of the great Abraham that they didn't need to be set free spiritually. They needed somebody to get them out of physical and political trouble. And pretty soon, it was obvious that Jesus was not there for that.
Have you ever prayed for something when you had a big decision to make or had some big need and you prayed asking God for help but in the back of your mind, you knew what kind of help you were asking for? In your mind, you were asking God for money but God answered your prayer with a job. You were asking God for a spouse and He answered your prayer with a church. You were asking God for a new house or new car or more stuff and God answered your prayers with contentment with what you have. You were asking God for healing but He answered your prayers like He did Paul and said, "My grace is sufficient for you."
I'm sure the Pharisees were expecting the Messiah to come and solve all their worldly problems but Jesus said, "In this world you are gonna have problems but don't worry because I have overcome the world." Jesus knew their prayers would be answered if they would just draw closer to Him. But the religious folks didn't want their prayers answered that way.
Another problem that we will see more and more as we get closer to the resurrection is the issue of the culture and mindset in those days that was focused on honor and shame. Today, we focus more (or should focus more) on what is right and what is wrong. For that culture, everything revolved around attaining and keeping honor.
They saw their circle of influence as a pie chart and that pie chart was all the honor. As one person's honor went up, another person's honor went down. As somebody's piece of the pie got bigger, somebody else's got smaller. That's just how they saw it. The scholars and religious teachers like the Pharisees and the scribes and the rabbis worked hard to attain honor over the years and here comes Jesus on the scene and in just a few months, He starts cutting into their piece of the honor pie. His honor is going up among the people as they see Him doing miracles and teaching with authority and so in the minds of the religious guys, their honor was going down. Well, that's going to be a problem.
Because of that honor / shame mindset, the Pharisees didn't have a lot of options. They could admit that Jesus was the Messiah and that His miracles were of God but they didn't think He was and didn't want it to be true because they would lose all their honor. They could try to say that Jesus wasn't actually doing any miracles but all the people were seeing that with their own eyes. They could try to distract the people from what Jesus was doing. "Hey, look over there! Is that Bigfoot?"
But none of that would work for them so the only option they had left was to claim that the miracles that everybody saw Him do were by the power of Satan. Like that made any sense. They say it again later in chapter 12 and Jesus calls them out for it and says, "That doesn't make any sense. If Satan drives out Satan, how can his kingdom stand? Y'all goofballs." Ok, maybe He didn't say "y'all" or "goofballs" but you get my point and you get the point Jesus was making.
So, what we are seeing in this passage, again as a snapshot of the events leading up to what we now call Easter, is Jesus fulfilling His calling and His ministry. And by doing so, some people became followers of Him and some people started to hate him. Some people had their lives changed forever and some people didn't want to change. Some were willing to admit that Jesus deserves all the honor and some people want that honor for themselves. That's what it boiled down to and that is still what it boils down to today.
Jesus is and always has been a fork in the road. You can't go around Him or under or over Him. You have to make a decision. Jesus Himself said in the next chapter that He didn't come to bring peace. He didn't come to make everybody comfy and happy with warm fuzzies. He came as a sword that would divide a man against his father and a daughter against her mother (Matt. 10:34-36), meaning that everybody has to make a choice when it comes to Jesus.
He is a fork in the road and you have to decide if you are for Him or against Him. Do you believe today that He can still heal you like He healed the blind men and the demon-possessed man? If so, then you should honor Him as such. But what if He doesn't heal you? Does that mean He doesn't deserve your honor? What if He doesn't set you free from jail or deliver you from over-eating or lust or smoking or whatever else? Does that mean He doesn't deserve your honor?
Are you for Him or against Him? Again, Jesus knows that you are praying for such things but He also knows that what you really need is not necessarily exactly what you are praying for but to draw closer to Him. And if you will focus on drawing closer to Him then you will start to see some of those other prayers being answered as He gives you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Lastly, I want us to see that as we prepare for Easter, that we can expect that what happened to Jesus here could very well happen to us. As we go through our lives giving God honor and making Him look good, we can expect some people to believe in Him and have their lives changed.
We can expect to see miracles. We can expect to see God work through us and in us and around us as we make Him our focus. And that is just a fun place to be. Well, it is until somebody starts slandering us. It's fun to see God at work until somebody decides they don't want their life to change and they don't want Jesus to get the glory. They want the glory and they feel you are taking it away from them and so they will disparage the name of God, mock the sacrifice of Jesus and blaspheme the Holy Spirit and slander you as well. Just expect it.
Jesus told us to expect it. He said in John 15, "If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well." Paul said in 2 Timothy 3, "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Are you ready for that? Are you ready for things to spiral out of your control? Are you ready for people to abuse you and lie about you and misinterpret what you are trying to say and do? How will you handle it?
Will you handle it like Jesus handled it? By keeping His mouth closed and allowing it to happen? That may very well be the way He wants you to handle your persecution. But I hear ya. "Todd, I don't think I can handle that." And you're right. You can't. Thankfully, the dumb old saying of "God will never give you more than you can handle" is an old wives tale and it's not true. God often gives you more than you can handle. The good part of that is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Phil. 4:13)
Just like Jesus asked the blind men in our passage today in verse 28, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" And if you believe that Jesus is still able today to rescue you from situations that are beyond your control then He still says today, "According to your faith let it be done to you." And like the young boy's father said in Mark 9, "Lord I believe. Help my unbelief."
Do you believe today? Do you believe that Jesus is alive? Do you believe that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, just waiting for the Father to give the word for Jesus to come back once again and get His bride, the church, at the rapture and take us all to Heaven to be with Him? Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven? Do you believe that He is able to heal you and free you and protect you?
If you have never made that belief public, then you need to do that today. Romans 10:9 says, "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is LORD," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Allow God's Spirit to come into your life today and change you. Give God all the honor that is due Him today by confessing to Him all your many sins. Then repent of those sins. Turn away from that old life and God says He will make you a new creation. (2 Cor. 5:17) Do that right now as the music plays.
