Primary Goal: that the hearers follow
Jesus
Secondary Goal: that the hearers get
something out of the sermon besides “pastor has cancer”
In the Name of Jesus, our coming King,
dear fellow redeemed,
There’s absolutely no
way that I can talk about anything besides what’s going to happen to me next
week in the sermon. I know that if I don’t, none of you will get anything out
of it. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t either.
Pastor Mehl gave me the
option to sit out this Sunday and let him preach. I thought about it and turned
him down on his offer because I think we need to talk about this. Okay, I need
to talk about this. What better place is there for any one of us to begin a
struggle than here in God’s house, hearing His word, receiving His forgiveness,
coming to Him in prayer and receiving encouragement from Him and one another?
It doesn’t look like it
at first, but as we look at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday there’s
something I’ve found very comforting this week.
Our text this morning
is ten verses long. Notice what Jesus is talking about through the first six of
them. The first six verses of our text are all about the donkey—the colt,
actually. The donkey is important because it directly fulfills the promise
about the savior we heard from the prophet Zachariah.
But Mark doesn’t just
tell us that Jesus rode into town on a donkey, he goes into detail about how
Jesus described how the disciples would find the donkey. It sounds kinda
strange—taking a colt from strangers. But He even gives them the words to say
in case someone suspects they are trying to commit grand theft donkey.
It’s like Jesus is
saying, “It kinda sounds weird—I know, but trust me on this. Follow me.” The
disciples go, find the donkey, they’re questioned, and everything happens just
as Jesus said it would.
But this would only be
the first time that week that something like this would happen to the
disciples. On Thursday of that week, something similar would happen.
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they
sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where will you
have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" And he sent two of
his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a
jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the
master of the house, 'The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat
the Passover with my disciples?' And he will show you a large upper room
furnished and ready; there prepare for us." And the disciples set out and
went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the
Passover. (Mark 14:12-16)
Again this sounds kinda
strange. It reads something like a spy novel—go meet this guy and he’ll show
you the secret room. No doubt Jesus wanted to keep it a secret so that Judas
wouldn’t betray Him during the last supper. It was strange enough because
usually it was the women who carried the water jars. A man doing that would
stick out. It’s even stranger because a stranger will lead you to a room where
the table is already set.
It’s like Jesus is
saying, “It kinda sounds weird—I know, but trust me on this. Follow me.” The
disciples go, meet the man carrying the jar of water and they find the room
with the table set.
By then the disciples
would be able to take Jesus at His word—at least you would think so. But Jesus
does the same thing to them one more time. After that meal, they got out to the
Mount of Olives. “And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all fall away, for it is
written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” But
after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.’” (Mark 14:27-28)
Again it’s like Jesus
is saying, “It kinda sounds weird—I know, but trust me on this.” It all
happened just as Jesus had said. Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered.
He was tried, crucified and died. Somewhere along the line, the disciples
should have remembered that Jesus had told them it would happen three times!
Actually, when Easter
morning rolled around, that was the message the women received at the tomb.
And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You
seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See
the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is
going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you."
(Mark 16:6-7)
No doubt Jesus led them
through these experiences to get them to trust His Word. These experiences are
recorded for us so that we would do the same. Sometimes we come across
situations in our lives where Jesus says us, “It sounds kinda weird—I know, but
trust me one this. Follow me.”
Dear friends this is
the wonderful thing about Holy Week. It is a microcosm of Christian life and
emotion. Jesus leads His disciples through everything: there’s the excitement
of Palm Sunday, the stillness and learning that happens when Jesus teaches in
the temple, the tradition of the Passover, the celebration of the Last Supper,
the peace of the garden (they fall asleep even though they shouldn’t), the
disruption of peace as Jesus is arrested, the fear as the disciples flee. He
even leads them through death, to a tomb and finally to indestructible life. In
a way, it’s everything that we experience and feel.
Yet, through it all,
Jesus is there. He knows what is going to happen even before His enemies make
it happen. He is the one who is in control even when the world around Him is
spinning out of control.
That’s good news for
you and it’s certainly good news for me. Not only is Jesus in control, but He
gives peace to His disciples. They don’t listen, they don’t believe and they
don’t understand. Neither do we. But despite their sin and failure, Jesus
doesn’t let go of them. Instead He dies for their sins, your sins, and my sins.
They are all forgiven and so are you. So am I.
Now that He is risen
from the dead, He calls you and me to follow Him through not just the ups and downs
of this week, or the weeks ahead, but the rest of our lives.
For the past six weeks
I’ve been preaching the same sermon at different congregations on Wednesday
evenings. It was based on Matthew 16:24, “If anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
For
the last two Wednesday, I’ve kind of had a slight inclination that this was
going to happen. Really, I found myself preaching as much to myself as I was to
the people at Mt. Leonard and Sweet Springs. Here’s what I’ve been saying:
Today, Jesus is directing our attention so that our
whole life goes the way that He leads, not the way that we think it should.
Jesus gets to give the directions. Even if it looks like we’re going the wrong
way to us, we still follow. Even if we know that we’re going to go through pain
we still follow…………
We can’t forget that Jesus called Peter to follow
Him. Even though Peter continued to have the wrong idea, do the wrong things,
say the wrong things and do everything else wrong, even dying that he even knew
Jesus, Jesus never kicked him out. Jesus’ call never expired for Peter and it
will never expire for you…
People see how others bear their cross (sometimes
literally) and want to know more about this Jesus for whom people are willing
to die…
What will bearing your cross look like in your life?
(For the next little while I do.) It will be different for every one of us, but
we know that Jesus has borne the cross for us. We follow, Jesus leads…
This may be a difficult road, but it is Jesus’ road.
We are in Christ. Let’s follow Him this Lent (This Holy Week) to the suffering
and the scourging, the beating and the betraying, the denying and the dying,
the tormenting and the tomb because we know that Easter is at the end.
Since Jesus is leading us we have confidence
in Him. The first person I called after we found out that things looked bad was
my dad. Even though he was shocked, he pointed me to the words of Psalm 130.
Martin Luther paraphrased those words into a wonderful hymn which we’ll sing
here in a second. It’s called, “From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee.”
Unfortunately the title and melody can keep us from seeing the confidence that
we have in Christ and in His forgiveness. Open your hymnal to 607 and let me
read it for you to show you what I mean.
From depths of woe I cry to Thee, in trial and
tribulation;
Bend down Thy gracious ear to me, Lord hear my
supplication.
If Thou rememb’rest every sin, Who then could heaven
ever win
Or stand before Thy presence?
Thy love and grace alone avail to blot out my
transgressions;
The best and holiest of deeds must fail to break
sin’s dread oppression.
Before Thee none can boasting stand, but all must
fear Thy strict demand
And live alone by mercy.
Therefore my hope is in the Lord and not in mine own
merit;
It rests upon His faithful Word to them of contrite
spirit
That He is merciful and just; This is my comfort and
my trust.
His help I wait with patience.
And though it tarry through the night and till the
morning waken,
My heart shall never doubt His might nor count
itself forsaken.
O Israel, trust in God your Lord. Born of the Spirit
and the Word,
Now wait for His appearing.
Though great our sins yet greater still is God’s
abundant favor;
His hand of mercy never will abandon us, nor waver.
Our shepherd good and true is He who will at last
His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow.
Amen.
Please stand, let’s sing this hymn
together
