How could they have been so wrong. One by one they each chose to leave everything and to answer the call to follow Jesus and become fishers of men. For 3 brief years they watched in anticipation as Jesus worked miracles and taught with authority. Peter even stated that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But now the unthinkable has taken place, and their joy has been replaced with despair as Jesus is brutally beaten and now lay hanging on a cruel wooden cross. To be disappointed in man is one thing, but to be disappointed in Jesus is the worst.
Now life has never looked as bleak to you as it did that day to the disciples but truth be told we all have dismal times. Perhaps yours discouraged this morning with your place in life and in society; or you distressed over a wayward family member who has left the church fold, or perhaps your grieving over the loss of a loved one, or you are anxious over a deep inbedded hurt that has been festering for years. What ever the reason, for the next few moments I want you to look to the cross of Jesus Christ and be consoled.
You know it’s amazing how an instrument of death that was originally one of cruelty, suffering and shame has now become a symbol of endurance, love, and hope. This past week I attended the funeral of Mr. Benny Mills who went home to be with the Lord this week, and during the funeral I couldn’t help but notice that in the Freeman Funeral home there is a large wooden cross hanging on the wall, and that cross is their to symbolize hope to grieving families. Is no wonder how Paul could look to the cross and say what he said in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Now the disciples had heavy hearts when they originally looked at the cross, and I want us to look at the cross from their perspective; to think their thoughts and to feel what they felt…but in addition I want us to see the elation they received when they saw the cross a few days later.
Now originally the disciples were disillusioned by the cross. They were disillusioned. They were convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah and they had good reason to. They had saw one miracle after another. They saw Jesus change water into wine, give sight to the blind. They saw Him display His amazing authority over nature when He calmed the stormy sea, they saw Him cast out demons, heal the sick. They watched as Jesus was dramatically transfigured before their very eyes, and most recently, they had even seen Him raise Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days from the dead. The crowds had welcomed Him with great anticipation with the waving of palm branches and shouts of hosanah, and Jesus even confirmed His identity that He was the Messiah.
But the disciples had misconceptions on what the Messiah would do. They thought that the Messiah would be a political Messiah who would come and demolish the oppressive Roman Empire and restore the Mighty Kingdom of King David. And they were eager to be a part of that kingdom. Over and over they asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to establish Your kingdom?” They often argued about which one of them would be the greatest in the coming kingdom, with James and John asking for position of authority.
They had misconceptions due in part because they had completely ignored the Old Testament prophesies that said that they Messiah would be a suffering servant. That He would be like a lamb led to the slaughter, that He would be despised and rejected and would be betrayed into the hands of evil men. And no matter how many times Jesus would try to convey to the disciples that He was heading to Jerusalem to be crucified, the disciples never quite grasped it. Luke 9:44-45 “While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, "Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men." But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.”
So when Jesus took His disciples to the Garden to pray, and when He was arrested that night and by 9 am was hanging on a cross, they were not only in shock and dismay, but also they were disillusioned as well. You can sense this in the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus when they said, “We had hoped…that He would be the Messiah.”
Now let me stray here for a second and say that we can be disillusioned by Jesus as well if we come to Him with the wrong misconceptions of what He will do for us. There was a country song a while back that said, “I don’t care if it rains or freezes as long as I have my plastic Jesus…on the dashboard of my car.” That’s why I love country songs, such depth. But if we have that shallow understanding of what Jesus will do then we will be disillusioned by Him as well. Now it’s true that Jesus Christ is our protector and healer, but if you think that just because you are a Christian that you’ll never get sick or have any trouble, just look to the Cross, and you see Jesus suffering. If you think that you’ll never have any financial trouble look to Jesus, He died penniless.
Now not only were the disciples disillusioned by the cross, but they were also disappointed by the cross. Consider first all that the disciples had invested in Jesus. They gave up their careers, they left family and friends, and invested 3 entire years of their life to following Jesus. Now all that they had hoped now hung on a cross.
Now the longer you live in this world the more you realize that life is filled with disappointments. Perhaps you’ve invested all into a relationship only to see it fail. Perhaps you’ve invested your whole life to a cause only to see it never come to be. Perhaps you’ve prayed for and worked with your children to teach them the things of God, yet your child still has chosen to wander from the faith. Perhaps you rooted all season for your team only to see them bow out of the NCAA tournament in the first round.
Maybe you’re disappointed with yourself. Consider the disciples. When they looked to the cross they felt guilty because they realized how they had been so cowardly. Now to their credit, the lives of the disciples was at risk in the garden. Had they not have fled they would have more than likely been arrested with Jesus. In our text we see that their was a young man, who many believed to have been Mark who was following behind to catch a glimpse but had to flee and when he did the soldiers grabbed the sheet he had wrapped around him and he fled naked. Now, many of us would like to think that we would have been brave in that situation, but how would we really choose if given the choice between standing with Jesus or giving our lives for Jesus. But after the fact, they must have thought they had acted cowardly. The one point when Jesus need them most, and they fled. And remember the boast that Peter made, “If all others deny you, I never will!” But he did and now Jesus hang on a cruel cross.
You see the disciples looked to the cross and it revealed their sin. And when we look to the cross we see the sin at it’s worst. Now we all know what it is like to feel guilty over something we have done wrong. After a man died, the attorney said to his wife, “He did not leave a will. So we need to know the last words he ever said to you.” She said, “I don’t want to tell you.” He said, “Look, he did not leave a will. We need to know his last words.” She said, “I don’t want to tell you. It was something between the two of us.” He said, “May I beg you one more time.” Exasperated she said, “Well, if you have to know, I‘ll tell you. The last thing he ever said to me was, “You don’t scare me. You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with that old gun.”
You know we’ve all done thing like that that we are not proud of but we tend to want to overlook our own sins. You’ve all heard the old story about the preacher who was asked to do the funeral of a wicked man in town. His brother came to the preacher and said I’ll give you $500 to preach the funeral but only if you say that my brother was a saint.” The preacher agreed and got up to speak at the funeral and said, “This man was a thief, a liar, a heathen, and just a rotten person…but compared to his brother he was a saint.” You see we say, I’m not bad but compared to who and whose standard. And when we look to the cross we see that our sins our no laughing matter. When we see the blood stained cross, we see that sin has dire consequences.
You can’t look at a picture of the thin bodies of the holocaust victims without saying that sin has awful consequences. And the cross reveals to us, in a very bloody manner just how deadly our sins are. Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boy’s funeral into a huge protest march, but the doctor chose another means of protest.
At the funeral, the father displayed his son’s body as he had found it in the jail - naked, scarred from the electric shocks and cigarette burns and beatings. All the villagers filed past the corpse, which lay not in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display. Now we may think that was awful, but he didn’t try to cover up the awfulness of their sin, and when we see the cross, we see just how awful our sins are.
Now the disciples were originally distressed by the cross, but two things took place that changed the cross from one of dispair to one of rejoicing. The first was the resurrection. When Jesus appeared to them alive, they knew that He was indeed the Messiah, they had been wrong, they just had the wrong misconception of who he was. They realized that He was stronger than death and that He had conquered sin and the grave. Romans 1:4 says, “and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Chuck Swindoll told a story of a little boy in a Sunday School class near Easter time and as the teacher told the story of Jesus she could tell that he was hearing it for the first time. When she got to the part of the cross the boy said, “Oh that’s to bad.” but then when she told about the resurrection he said, “Totally awesome.” And if you don’t see the cross through the eyes of the resurrection you’re only seeing half the story. It’s only through the resurrection we can say, “Totally awesome!”
The second thing that happened was that they came to understand the purpose of the cross. The cross was not an accident, nor was it a last minute decision. The cross was designed by God to be a payment for the sins of mankind. Hebrews 9:22 says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Now I can’t tell you that I fully understand that, but the Bible does say that the without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness and that the life is in the blood. In the Old Testament we see that the yearly sacrifices were to prepare us for the ultimate sacrifice that was to come, a lamb from God without blemish that would be the payment for our sins. Forgiveness lies in the blood and Jesus bled. From the nails in His hands to the crown of thorns on His head, to the spear in His side, to the bruises on His back, and the blood spilled from his skinned knees when He stumbled and fell. Jesus died for our sins and the cross had a purpose behind it.
Now for the next few moments I want to share with you some practical applications to help you overcome your disappointments. First, be patient; that which disappoints you may just be the best thing for you. Consider the cross, the cross originally seemed to be the worse thing that has ever taken place, but in reality the cross was the best thing that happened not only to the disciples but to us here as well.
That’s why we can’t be so quick to judge our circumstances as either being good or bad. A farmer had one old horse that he used for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and when all the farmer’s neighbors heard about it, they sympathized with the old man over his bad luck. “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?” said the farmer.
A week later, the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?” said the farmer.
Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone agreed that this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, who replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?” Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and forced every able-bodied young man to go fight in a bloody war. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they let him stay. Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck. “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?” This could go on forever , but you get the point.
Next, be patient, desperate circumstances can quickly be reversed. It took only three days to change the plight of the disciples. Tony Campolo has written a book entitled, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming!” Be patient, and persevere though your tough times.
Finally, If you are disappointed in the mistakes you’ve made, I want you to look to the cross and find forgiveness. Peter fled, even denied knowing Jesus, but he turned to the cross and was restored, and we can do the same. You see, not only does the cross reveal our sins, but it also reveals to us the amazing Grace of God.
In 1983 the First Presbyterian Church of Concord, California was in the headlines. Pastor Leon Thompson had convinced his 500 member congregation to purchase the pornographic theatre adjacent to the church. The community was thrilled by the church’s gutsy move. The only catch was that the theater proprietors still had another several months on his lease. For the better part of a year First Presbyterian Church was the landlord collecting rent on a theatre that showed X-rated adult films.
Willing to be misunderstood and criticized, the church took the heat in order to guarantee that the theatre would be closed down. Within two years the old Galaxy Theatre was the Presbyterian Community Center. Where once degrading sexual fantasies flickered on the big screen, Bible studies and recovery groups now met.
In the actions of First Presbyterian Church we see a reflection of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. To battle sin head on, he entered into our sinful world and risked rejection and being misunderstood in order to pay the price of our redemption. That’s the love of God, that’s the love He has for you. Let us respond to that love this morning.
