Intro: A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?" "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"
TWO WORDS THE WOLD HATES
The “Road to the Cross” is a road of commitment that quite honestly very few travel. Every one wants to line the streets and enjoy Palm Sunday praising God for the relief the Messiah offers. A relief they thought to be political much like the relief we have been witnessing in Baghdad. The relief that Jesus offered of course was not political but spiritual and the only way to receive this relief was to repent of sins and receive His offer of eternal life. Two unpopular words then come into play: they are submission and commitment. We always step back away from Palm Sunday and get all up in arms at the fickle crowd who cheered Jesus on Sunday and then turned and jeered him on Friday. But are people any less fickle in our day and culture? During the Passion Week Jesus focused the majority of His teaching to submission and commitment. How did the people respond? They readily accepted and ran to His offer of grace but quickly drew back and shunned any obligation to live under the umbrella of God’s protection. Too many people do this still today, they run to God’s grace desiring eternal life in heaven, but quickly pull back from God at the first hint of obligation or responsibility to this grace we freely enjoy.
Illustration: Lest we be too critical of Jerusalem, ask yourself this question: What city even today would not be shaken by Jesus’ entry into it? Imagine Jesus entering New York, Baghdad, Washington, or even Grand Saline. Oh, I’m sure we’d welcome him with our hosannas - at first, anyway. We’d line the streets and strike up the band and have a grand parade right down Main Street. But I’m equally sure that, by the end of the week, we’d have him nailed to a cross, too. Why? Because the Kingdom Jesus came to establish still threatens the kingdoms of this world -- your kingdom and mine -- the kingdoms where greed, power, and lust rule instead of grace, mercy, and peace. And who among us really wants to surrender our lives to that Kingdom and that King?
We live in a free society, but our freedom not only comes at a price it’s maintained at a price. Yes, it has come at the cost of soldiers shedding their blood to provide and protect our freedom, but it also comes at a monetary cost to us everyday as we pay taxes to support our government.
Salvation although free to everyone came at the high cost of Jesus shedding his blood on the cross for our sins we must also bear in mind it cost a real man, real blood as He experienced a real death on a real day. So as we understand the value of our relationship with God we also must understand that with this salvation God has given us a trust. This trust involves our attitude and action towards God and other people. Just as the fire on the alter was to never go out in the Tabernacle so should we never allow the excitement of our spiritual life to dwindle. God is not asking us to die for Him but He is asking us to live for Him.
A SHIFT FROM MIRICLES TO COMMITMENT
It is interesting to note that in all four Gospels after Jesus enters Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna and palm branches there is not another miracle recorded. There are some events we might count as miracles but no miracles are done for the people. On the face of it this may not seem significant but when you consider that nearly one half of the Gospels is devoted to the last seven days of Jesus life, you then understand significance of this. Open your bibles and see if that is not true. But listen to this: While there are no miracles recorded in these chapters what you will find is a persistent call to commitment.
WE COULD NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH
It’s interesting to think about the Passion Week of Jesus, we call this coming Friday as “Good Friday” a day when an innocent man was murdered in an awful way. If you try to step outside of all we are and all we know the fact that we call it “good” is interesting. It seems like we should call a day someone was killed as “good” I think it would be more appropriate to call it “Bad Friday”. I think what’s so weird about it we don’t want to think we’re that bad of a person. If you get away from understanding the need of Christ death on a cross it fogs up the whole meaning of the cross.
Rosie O’Donnell when asked if she thought God would be disappointed with her when she stands before Him after she dies answered this way. “God ought to be happy I’m doing the best I can.” And I think that if that’s the world’s perspective which seems to sep it’s way into my heart and into yours; that ultimately I ought to get some credit because I’m doing the best that I can. Then the “Passion Week” is all out of place and none of it will make any sense. In an interview in USA Today back in 1999 Soffell Loren was being interviewed. They were asking her if she was religious and what she thought about God. She said; “Well, I’m not really into it, I’m not a very religious person. But, I should go to heaven, other wise it would not be nice. I haven’t done anything wrong - my conscience is very clean, my soul is as white as those orchids over there. I should go straight to heaven.” Most of us wouldn’t be so brash as to say that, but also most of us don’t think we’re all that bad. And if we don’t think we’re all that bad then the quandary of the cross, the paradox of saying, “I will cherish the old rugged cross” will just fly right over our heads.
We want to come to church and enjoy the festivities of Palm Sunday and the miracles of Easter Sunday and somehow skip right over “Good Friday”. We’re “OK” and we want our salvation to be all up beat and happy feelings with no hint of the pain or sorrow of the death of Christ. But we’re not OK; we’re not even close. When ever I consider from a theological standpoint Rosie’s response that God ought to be pleased that I’m doing the best I can; it just doesn’t hold water according to what the Bible tells us. The Bible is very clear that the best that we can do is not even close to good enough to getting us into heaven.
GOD’S THE KIND OF GOD WE NEED
The fact that our good deeds are not good enough to get us into heaven is no more cruel than it’s cruel for you to tell the fish in the water (I hope your not talking to the fish in the water) “I just can’t breath in your environment.” To say that, is not a cruel statement it is just a statement about your nature. You can’t breath under water. To say that my good deeds to God is like water to my lungs is not to say anything cruel about God it’s just the facts. God can’t tolerate us. And that’s not mean and it’s not cruel it’s just the facts. And in the world of our modern celebrities who seem to represent the thoughts of our culture, they in essence want us to believe that God can hang with sin. That God, the perfect God can somehow tolerate imperfection. And God can look at people like you and me, people who’s lives are out of sink and say “you know what, it’s OK”. But God would cease to be God the day He said that. You don’t want a God who accepts sin. Because a God who accepts sin is not a holy perfect God. It’s like when Grocho Marks said “I will never join a club who will accept me as a member.” And in reality we don’t want a God who looks at us in our sinful fallen state and say, “it’s OK your alright your in.”
The fact that you can’t breath underwater isn’t entirely true. People can breath underwater when equipped with scuba apparatus. You can conquer the environment but it’s going to take something, something you don’t have inherent in yourself. And that is what Good Friday is all about. Good Friday is about what we have in a bloody cross that allows us to live in God’s environment. And God says I’m going to provide the oxygen tanks for you, I’m going to make you acceptable in my sight. But you must recognize that there is an exchange that has to take place; your life for my Son’s. You take His life and you trade yours in for it and you can be with me. God will accept us but as the Bible puts it He will only accept us in Christ. I don’t want to just be accepted in David, I want to be accepted in Christ. That retains God’s perfection and makes me understand that I cannot be accepted aside from Jesus Christ. What I need I can’t provide, God is going to have to provide it for me.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is (scuba gear) eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:26) God says in effect you put on the scuba gear; put on Christ and you can survive in my environment.
WITHOUT THE SHEEDING OF BLOOD
My sins require death but God is going to have someone else die in my place. No one understood that better than Abraham. God came to Abraham and told him to take his son, his one and only son up on a mountain and kill him. The gloom of death hung heavy over Abraham, it would have been easier if God would have told him to give his own life, or even to kill his wife (just joking) but to kill his only son, nothing could be worse.
They ran the infertility class at their church, they had given up on having children and then God gave them Isaac when they where up around 100 years old. Isaac represented all their hopes and dreams of the future not to mention the promise of God to build a mighty nation out of Isaac. When Abraham got to the point to where he was about to kill his son God stopped him and provided a ram to kill instead of his son. And God symbolically received the life of the ram in place of Isaac; who represented all that Abraham had and trusted for his future. Easter follows the Jewish Passover, which mirrors the sacrifices that took place on Mount Moriah. Millions of animals where sacrificed on Mount Moriah and this is what Easter is all about. The first born represent all the familie’s hopes and dreams and during the first Passover the firstborn of every house hold was to die with out the blood covering the doorpost of the families home.
On the 10th day of Nissan the family was to bring in the lamb and let the family get acquainted with the animal then on the fourteenth day of Nissan Moses instructed the people that they were to kill that animal and spread it’s blood on the doorpost of their home and God’s judgment would Passover that family. (Remember when Lindsay Ray’s family had killed a calf and Lindsay came over crying to me and Kevin begging us not to eat the meat because he loved that calf.) Then they were to go inside their house and roast the lamb and have the roasted lamb for dinner. And outside God will go through the homes in Egypt and if God sees the blood on the doorpost his judgment will pass over that home.
Many years later there would be a couple of more post that would have blood on them. On these posts the Lamb of God would die and shed His blood for our sins. Jesus came and lived on this earth for just a little while so we could get to know Him. Just as the sacrificial lamb was to come into the Jewish home and the family would become familiar with it before it was sacrificed. You see - the death of the little lamb was more of a sacrifice when the whole family was familiar with it. Is the death of Jesus for your sins a sacrifice to you, are you familiar with Him, do you know Him? All those years later on those two posts Jesus died for us and those two posts now become our entry way into God’s presence.
Christ wasn’t crucified in a cathedral between two candles, He was crucified in the marketplace among the world, where thieves and soldiers cursed and religion mocked Him. He died for the world’s sins in open view for all to see. I believe the cross of Christ should still be held up high in the market place for all to see and believe.
What is Your Colt?
Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry." He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing---she couldn’t even speak English---but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I---I---I love you too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash......."I love you and Jesus loves you." ....Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life---from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.....
What can you give? What is your "colt". You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the colt, move Jesus and His message further down the road.
Mark Adams, "The Roads He Walked - Palm Avenue"
A Shoe Clerk Named Moody
A 19th century Sunday School teacher named Kimball led a shoe clerk named Moody to Jesus Christ. Dwight L. Moody became a famous evangelist who influenced Frederick B. Meyer to preach on college campuses. Meyer led J. Wilbur Chapman to the Lord. Chapman while working with the YMCA arranged for Billy Sunday to come to Charlotte, North Carolina to attend revival meetings. Community leaders in Charlotte scheduled another revival with Mordecai Hamm. Under Hamm’s preaching Billy Graham gave his heart to Jesus Christ. Billy Graham has preached to more people than any man in history. I am sure this Sunday School teacher in Boston had no idea what would happen from leading a shoe clerk to Christ.
As we examine this passage of Scripture, I encourage you to look at the owner of the donkey and his response to the king who entered into Jerusalem that day.
John G. Davis, "On the Backs of Donkeys"
