The Crowd Cheers

It was early on the 9th day of Nisan in the Jewish year 3793 – the day that we would call March 29, A.D. 33, when the crowd began to stream down the road from the Mount of Olives toward the eastern gate of Jerusalem.

The evening before had been remarkable. That evening, after sunset had cleared away the Sabbath laws, Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples had come to the house of Simon the Leper in Bethany on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives. There, Jesus was the guest of honor at a feast catered by Martha, probably this time with some enthusiastic help by her sister Mary. Their brother Lazarus was also honored, lying beside Jesus beside the low table on the cushions that were common at the time as they ate the feast. Lazarus was honored for having come back from the dead – he had been dead four days! Jesus was honored for having brought Lazarus back from the dead.

These were just two of the remarkable things. The others?

The feast, honoring a Jewish rabbi, was held in the home of a leper! What a remarkable location! Jesus had come to home of an untouchable man!

And then, there was the point in the evening where Mary took a pint jar of pure oil of spikenard, very expensive perfume worth an entire year’s wages – how much do you make in a year? – and she poured it over Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair, an amazingly intimate act that set tongues wagging. The house was filled with the smell of the perfume! Judas Iscariot, the disciple who held the money bag, was outraged – the perfume should have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. They could have raised a year’s wages - $30,000 in 21st Century money! But Jesus simply said that the poor would always be with us, but that He would not be around much longer. And everybody wondered what He meant. Was He leaving town?

And since Bethany is only a couple miles from Jerusalem, many people had gone out to see Lazarus and Jesus, wanting to see with their own eyes that Lazarus was truly back from the dead, raised about ten days earlier by Jesus. And both of them were there. Alive. Laughing together.

So that morning, when the crowd began to walk back to town, everyone had someone they wanted to tell about Lazarus and Jesus and the miraculous story. And everyone wondered if the teacher from Galilee, the man from the rural north could actually be the Messiah, the savior figure who would kick the Romans out of Jerusalem and Judea, and restore the kingdom of David to its rightful place in the world. Was this the man who would make Jerusalem great again?

As Jesus and his closest disciples approached the crest of the hill, He sent two of them to get a donkey’s colt. Once again, Jesus knew exactly what the disciples needed to say to borrow the animal without trouble. He climbed on the animal and then He, His disciples, and the rest of the crowd walked down the hill toward Jerusalem, waving palm branches they pulled from the trees on the side of the road.

The road from the East that crosses the Mount of Olives is visible from much of Jerusalem as it crests the hill and comes down toward the Eastern Gate. And so, the group of people began to attract attention. In fact, they sang and chanted as they approached with words from Psalm 118:

“Hosanna”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

The Temple of God was just the other side of the wall. In fact, there was a gate that opened directly into the Temple area. So it is likely that the leaders of the Temple heard and saw this victory parade coming. In fact, the Gospel writers say that the parade was upsetting to those very leaders, and so they decided to remove Jesus at that point. But the crowd was so supportive of Jesus that they could not make a move on Him.

Why was the crowd so excited? Why were the leaders so upset? Why did things change so drastically that week?

Human beings, throughout history, have demonstrated time and again that we are mostly timid, lazy creatures who want other people to think for us – and do all the difficult things for us. In I Samuel Chapter 8, the elders of Israel gathered together and went to Samuel, the High Priest. They asked for a king to rule them. They were tired of being ruled by God through the High Priest, or through temporary judges. They wanted a king like everyone else had.

Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord told him that the people had not rejected Samuel, but they had rejected the Lord as their king – just as people throughout time have rejected God as their king, preferring to keep God at a distance, as far away from them as possible, safely in Heaven on a throne that they never plan to see until after they die. God makes people uncomfortable, for encountering God and bowing to God means that we are NOT God, we are not truly in control of anything, we are not the masters of our own lives. We prefer our rulers to be kings who can die, presidents who can lose their re-election, men and women like us whom we can remove from office when we don’t get our own way. We don’t really want God to rule us, because we can’t get rid of God if we accept Him as our Lord. WE have to change. WE have to do what God asks. WE lose our ability to micromanage our ruler when we accept that God is our ruler.

Kings have rights, you know. They can announce taxes. They can draft young men into the army. They can draft young women to be household servants. They can take your land, your livestock, your cash. And it doesn’t really matter if you call your king a governor, a mayor, a president, or an emperor. The man or woman who rules on earth has all those same rights. And that ruler may be strong, that ruler may be wise or stupid, that ruler may be concerned about the people or about the ruler’s legacy. Kings have rights.

God told Samuel to warn the people about the rights of a king, how he would have taxes and take young men and women to fight in his army and work for him. But the people refused to listen. Their response is instructive: “No. We must have a king over us. Then we’ll be like all the other nations: our king will judge us, go out before us, and fight out battles.”

They wanted to the king to “go out before “ them and “fight” their “battles”. They thought that they would have a champion to do their fighting for them. Somehow, they forgot that they would still have to be in the battles, standing shoulder to shoulder with their friends. They thought that the king would handle it. And in ancient Israel, God led Samuel to anoint the very tall, strong, man Saul, who became the first king.

Even today, we want a political leader who will “take it” to our enemies. We want political leaders that will show the other side of the political battleground the truth by showing up the hypocrites on the other side, by finding the cutting insults, by taking away the industries and jobs which support the other side financially and by providing new jobs at higher pay for “us.” And the wise among us realize that this happens on both sides of the political divide. The wise realize that this is gradually splitting the nation. The wise realize that treating politics like high school football rivalries is bad in the long term. The wise realize that no government is much worse than bad government by the other side. The wise realize that a much worse other side exists who loves nothing more than to see people who should be working together falling into fighting amongst themselves instead.

In ancient Israel, it wasn’t long before King Saul came up against the leader of the other side, a 9 ft tall man named Goliath who had chosen the side of the Philistines. And Saul, a brave man, wasn’t an idiot – Saul knew that in hand-to-hand combat Goliath would beat him. So Saul kept the entire Israelite army camped on one side of a ravine, daring the Philistines led by Goliath to cross the ravine where the Israelites could take them as they climbed up the steep slope toward the Israelite army. You see, it took the entire Israelite army playing defense to hold back Goliath and the Philistines. Saul was concerned because he feared Goliath.

Today, we have formed political armies we call “political parties”. And we still look for the Goliath for our side who will lead the attack on the other side, whichever side we’re on. And we fear the Goliath of the other side who will lead the attack on us.

In ancient Israel, though, a young boy, David, realized that God fought on Israel’s side – if Israel would remember this. And so, young David attacked Goliath and destroyed him with God’s help. David, you see, did not rely upon an earthly king to fight his battles – He relied upon God. And after some time, David became the most successful of Israel’s kings.

At the time of Jesus, the crowd once again wanted a king to fight their battles, this time against the Roman army. And they believed that Jesus was the man who would become the king, the king of Israel in the sense of becoming a military leader. And so they cheered for Him as they marched down from the Mount of Olives. Here was the man who would destroy the Romans for them. Here was their new Goliath – although they called Jesus the King of Israel.

The leaders of the Temple and the religious council were concerned because they feared the Romans. They were afraid that a riot would break out, an insurrection. They were concerned that the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor, would be stormed by a group of rural extremists. The were concerned that, while this might defeat or kill Pilate and the local garrison, they understood that the Romans had legions upon legions with which to return to Jerusalem. They were concerned and feared that the Romans would come back, destroy the Temple, and kill those who led the Temple – themselves. They were not stupid or evil or fools. They had legitimate concerns. But they did not accept that Jesus was the Son of God. They understood that He was simply a charismatic man, a popular leader of the ordinary people. And so they determined that the best way to stop an insurrection was to kill Jesus. Quickly.

Throughout history, the story has repeated itself. A man – or sometimes a woman – rises in popularity. A political group chooses this person to be their king or queen, to fight their battles for them. The Emperor Napoleon fought the battles of the democracy-and-liberty-focused French against the kings of Europe – until he lost. Geronimo fought the battles of the free-living Apache against the American army – until he lost. Hitler fought the battles of the poverty-stricken German people against the French, the British, the Russians, the Americans – until he lost. You can undoubtedly name many other leaders who became war kings – until they lost.

Jesus was not the crowd’s puppet leader. He was not going to fight a war against the Romans until He lost. For Jesus was already born to be a king – and he was already a king. His kingdom had already begun with His core followers. He told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. He had plans to conquer the Roman Empire. Indeed, He had plans to conquer the entire world. But it was not going to be a conquest by the sword and the chariot. And it certainly was not going to result in the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies because of a revolution led by Jesus.

The conquest that Jesus planned would be by the heart and the Spirit. He would change the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, and by changing their hearts with His Spirit, he would build a huge army of people who would fight the war against evil locally with the deadliest weapons of all – their tongues, their love, their hugs, their submission to every injustice done to them by the enemy. They would win because they could not be killed – only their bodies could be destroyed.

The Spirit would guide and coordinate the attack upon the enemy. Forget trumpets, forget runners with messages, forget semaphores, radios would never be needed, codes were not necessary – the soldiers of the Spirit would communicate by asking the Father for help and the Father would send help and guidance where it was needed.

It took years and decades and a dedicated group of Christian believers for the army to grow. Meanwhile, a group of Jewish Zealots rebelled against the Romans around the year 65, defeating the Jerusalem garrison – and the Romans destroyed the city in 70 A.D. when they returned with extra legions of men. A second rebellion in 130 A.D. meant that the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem, never to return until 1967.

And through the ages, Christian men and women listened to the Spirit, followed the teachings of Jesus, and conquered, mostly without bloodshed. The Roman Empire became ruled by Christian Emperors. The Spirit conquered Europe, then America. Even now it is conquering Africa and Asia.

But people still look for a champion, a king to fight their battles for them. A king to lead them into Jerusalem. But what the people didn’t realize was that their king was always with them, and had been from the beginning. Jesus was not needed at the head of a procession riding down a hill on a donkey’s colt. For God the Father and God the Spirit were already there. No, Jesus did not plan to conquer Jerusalem and the Roman garrison by killing Romans. He planned to conquer Jerusalem and the Roman Empire and the rest of the world by dying in front of Roman soldiers on Friday afternoon – and then, by rising from the dead on that Sunday morning He would begin the counterattack as one person after another surrendered to Him, acknowledging that He had defeated the common enemy of all humans – Death was destroyed by Jesus Christ. The Romans surrendered one-by-one to follow Jesus over the centuries.

Even today, there are those who fight political and personal battles by the swords of insult and embarrassment – there are those who want to destroy their political opponents, there are those who want a king to fight their political battles for them. There are even those who fight in the name of Jesus. But they are not following Jesus. For Jesus has always taught that converting enemies into friends through gentleness, persuasion, and love is the way to win wars – not by attacking with weapons or even with words.

For Jesus always fought by healing His enemies. He fought by giving them the choice of following Him and living forever – or by continuing to fight Him and being destroyed by Death. For the true Christian realizes like David that Goliath cannot harm us, for Goliath can only destroy the body – while because we follow Jesus, we live forever. Spread the eternal Good news of Jesus – this is far more important than any politics that only affects this life.

When you and your team is doing well, it is worth remembering that the crowd loved Jesus on that Palm Sunday. They cheered for Him and told of His great deeds, His healings, His teachings, His raising of Lazarus. But the crowd was fickle. By Friday morning, the crowd was chanting “Crucify Him”. 

And hours later, Jesus was dead.

The Gong Has Sounded

Saundra and I like to watch mysteries. In particular, we like watching British mystery shows, because their plots are generally much more complex than American shows. Right now, we are watching the Touch of Frost series, about a detective inspector in a small city north of London.

One of the things we enjoy about these shows is how the clues lead one way, then another, with the tension gradually building up, narrowing down the suspects to just a couple who could each have caused the murder. Then, all of a sudden, a particular clue falls into place and the detective smiles because he has now realized that he’s got the murderer, that it is time for the arrest. It is like a gong has sounded, telling the detective and us that the story is almost over and its time for the grand finale.

Sometimes things like this happen in real life, too. We come near the end of our senior year and finish up a key test and we know that we will graduate – we just have the ceremony ahead of us. We meet the girl of our dreams and one day she asks how many children we’d like to have and we know that she will say yes when we ask her to marry us. We are looking for a home and a particular house has the garden plot that we’ve always wanted and we know that this house will be our home.

When Saundra and I were living in Atlanta about 20 years ago, we decided to move back to the Mid-Ohio Valley. But in Atlanta, everybody had a horror story to tell of the house that didn’t close. We visited this area in early March – that year there was still a foot of snow on the ground. We found a home we like near Lowell, OH, and began the process. We brought a load of stuff up on May 1, but we were still uncertain whether or not the house would close the following week. On the way up, Saundra turned to me and asked if we could have a lilac bush, which don’t grow well in Georgia because the weather is too hot. It seems that when Saundra was a little girl, she would take blossoms from a lilac bush in the early afternoon and put them on her pillow, closing up the room as she left. Then, when she came back later to go to sleep, the fragrance would have filled the room. I said, “Of course you can plant a lilac bush. We’ll own the place.”

When we arrived with that load of stuff on May 1, there in full bloom under our bedroom window was a huge lilac bush and beside the door to our warehouse building where Saundra would spend time with our business was another large lilac bush in full bloom. The gong had sounded – God had said this would be our home – and it was for ten years until we went into full-time ministry and moved to Clarksburg.

Saundra was not expected at her first church in Clarksburg for a few weeks. She was very nervous as to whether or not she was truly called to ministry. And when she went to that church – beside the door was another blooming lilac bush. BONG! Under her leadership with God’s guidance, that little church tripled in numbers over the next three years.

In our Gospel reading from John 12, Jesus is teaching at the Passover festival. This spring festival doubled or tripled the population of Jerusalem as a hundred thousand or more pilgrims came from all corners of the Roman world to sacrifice and worship at the Temple of God. While about half of the Jews in the Empire lived in the Holy Land, the other half lived scattered about the Empire from Egypt and Turkey to Italy, North Africa, even Spain and France, which the Romans called Gaul. Most of these scattered Jews spoke Greek as their primary language, dressed like Greeks, and were culturally much more Greek than the Jews who lived in the Holy Land who spoke Aramaic.

Additionally, scattered around the Holy Land were some cities with large Greek populations, both Jewish Greeks and pagan Greeks. One of these cities was Bethsaida in Galilee, the hometown of the disciple Philip, who was even named after Alexander the Great’s father, Philip of Macedon.

So while Jesus is teaching at the Passover festival, a group of Greeks who had come to worship at the festival came to Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

They don’t merely want to look at Him. They could do that from a distance, but they would like a private discussion with Jesus. Philip goes and tells Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew also bears a Greek name which means “manly”. Why not take the Greeks straight to Jesus? There are a couple of reasons. First, there was a general idea that speaking to a non-Jew would pollute a rabbi, much the same way many people today feel that some people are not good enough or worthy to speak to a minister – and how some people don’t want their minister to be seen speaking to certain types of people. Should a minister spend time in a bar or with a group of drug addicts? Many people still believe the answer is “no”, but the example I see with Jesus is that these places are exactly where I should spend much of my time. But Philip and Andrew did not know whether or not Jesus would want to talk to pagans – or even non-Jews who were trying to worship at the Temple.

The other reason they were uncertain is because Jesus had clearly said His ministry was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Greeks were not of the house of Israel – although their ancestors may have come from Israel – or they may have been from pagan ancestry, but they had come to worship at the festival. It was a difficult call for Philip and Andrew – will Jesus want to speak to these Greeks?

They both went and told Jesus. It is unclear whether or not the Greeks are tagging along or whether they stood at a distance. But the message from Andrew and Philip sounds the gong for Jesus. Three times previously in John’s Gospel, Jesus has said that it is not His time. Three times, Jesus tells people to back off because God has not completed things for Jesus. But this time, the fourth time, the gong sounds for Jesus. BONG! He announces: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He is ready for the cross.

But why? Why does Jesus suddenly start talking about His up and coming death? To understand, we must delve a bit deeper into the mind of Jesus. And in doing so, we will find that although Jesus was far above any other man as Son of God, He often used information that was available to any person who truly wanted – or wants – to understand God’s plan for history.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus often referred to details found in Scripture – which at that time was the Old Testament. In particular, Jesus had an encyclopedic knowledge of the first five books of the Old Testament – the Pentateuch – and He also commonly referenced the Book of Isaiah the Prophet.

In this case, Jesus has in His mind Isaiah 49, particularly verses 5 and 6. He had referenced Isaiah 49:5 before:

And now the Lord says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength—

He has been focused upon Israel. For example, He says that He has come to the lost sheep of the House of Israel to a Syro-Phoenician woman, who begs for healing as if that healing was a scrap of bread given to dogs around the family dinner table.

But now, a group of Greeks has come to listen to Him. Gentiles want to talk to Jesus and find answers. And Isaiah verse 6 comes to mind:


6 [The Lord] says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Perhaps Jesus knew that if He died too soon, His death would be seen as just for the house of Israel – with all the pagan Gentile nations of the world left out. Perhaps Jesus knew that if He went too soon for the cross, His life would be soon forgotten. But perhaps Jesus understood and had the faith in what had been revealed 800 years before to Isaiah, that Messiah had come, not just for the good people of Israel, not just for the lost sheep of Israel, but for every man and woman and child in the entire world who chose to look up to Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to follow Jesus! Because these Greeks had stepped forward, persistently, trying to speak to Jesus, God was ensuring that through Jesus, salvation would reach the ends of the earth! IT WAS TIME FOR THE CROSS!

"Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Jesus would be that kernel of wheat, buried in the ground, producing many seeds of life through His death.

"Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

Are you willing to give up your life for God’s plan, to serve Jesus? We think so often of the big, grand ways we can give up our life for Jesus, standing boldly in front of anti-Christian terrorists, jumping on a grenade to save our friends, conducting a suicide mission against a would-be dictator. But there are countless people who have given up their lives for God’s plan, serving Jesus. There is the woman who teaches the children’s church and gives up an hour every Saturday evening to prepare a lesson about Jesus for them. There is the man who takes his hard-earned cash every week and puts more than his share in the offering plate every Sunday, who puts not 10% of his tax return in the plate, but 25% and with it chooses to take a vacation to the local state park instead of a Floridian beach. There is the man who chooses to spend two nights a week practicing gospel music to sing at festivals. There is the teen who gets up every Sunday morning early so that the Facebook Live will be functioning at her church. There is the woman who picks up 5 other people every Sunday and takes them to her church. There is the college kid who makes short TikTok videos about Christ and posts them every week. There is the pastor who almost falls asleep driving back from the trauma hospital because she has been visiting a frightened family, and she needs to preach at three churches the next morning. That is how to give your life to serve Jesus and keep that life for eternity.

Or something even simpler, a four-step process:

1) Read a bit of your Bible every day. Just 15 minutes or so.

2) Pray everyday for the salvation of a dozen people whom you don’t think know Jesus.

3) Plan carefully something to say to these people by phone, text, or in person about something Jesus has done for you in the last week or two. It doesn’t have to be long – just a couple of sentences, like “Jesus sent me money just when I needed it”, or “God gave me just enough time for me to get to my appointment yesterday.”

4) Take time to listen to people when they want to talk about problems, or have questions about life.

Read, Pray, Plan, and Listen. That’s all. You will get closer to Jesus and help other people get closer to Jesus. That’s giving your life to serve Jesus.

Jesus, after the Greeks had arrived and the metaphorical gong had sounded, continued: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour."

Jesus knew His destiny was upon Him. What is your destiny? Has God been calling you to do something scary, something glorious, something you have special skills for that God has developed in you years ago? Step forward and say, “This is the reason for my life!” At this point, Jesus could have turned from the cross, but He knew that it was for this very reason He came to this hour, and so He shouted:

"Father, glorify your name!”

"Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him."

"Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine."

It was another sign that Jesus was the Son of God, God on the earth, as He had repeatedly said. If you watch, God will speak to you and tell you when you are at the right place and doing the right thing. For Saundra, God spoke through lilac bushes. She settled into our home and then into her ministry. Confirmed by God booming Voice, Jesus then turned to prophecy. He first spoke of Satan.

"Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out." 

And then He spoke of Himself:  "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 

"He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die," John adds

For the cross lay before Him. And He looked past the cross to the joy that lay on the other side, for He knew that He would be the one to defeat Death, that all people could know that Death could be defeated.

How about you?

It is a pleasant thing to think of, that someone died so that we could live. For over 75 years, we have celebrated the sacrifices that our grandparents made during World War II, fighting in Europe and the Pacific to protect us, dying on battlefields we sometimes visit in movies and occasionally in person. But those people gave up their lives, and they died. Whether or not they will live again doesn’t depend upon their bravery or heroism, it doesn’t depend upon whether or not they were American or Canadian or British – or German or Italian or Japanese. It doesn’t depend upon anything they did – except whether or not they decided that they would choose to follow Jesus the Christ as a pattern for their lives.

Jesus is to be our pattern, our example, the one we are to follow, our leader.

The writer of Hebrews, in chapter 5 tells us that Jesus was appointed as our high priest, forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

In Genesis 14, as Abraham returns from battle against a group of bandits, a puzzling man named Melchizedek, whose name means “the king of righteousness” comes out of Salem, the city that would become Jerusalem, and greets Abraham with gifts of bread and wine and blesses Abraham. Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils of the battle, a tenth of all the loot. Melchizedek is also known as both the king of Salem and the priest of God Most High. We don’t know his parents – we don’t know his descendants.

And the writer of Hebrews – and King David, the author of Psalm 110, tells us that Jesus was appointed as our high priest, forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus, has become the high priest who is entitled to connect God and man together, the connection that was broken in the Fall, when we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And He will pray for us in John chapter 17, just outside another Garden – the Garden of Gethsemane.

If you will follow Jesus – be sure that you are truly following Jesus. For Jesus, as the gathered disciples – and the Greeks - learned the day the Greeks came to Philip and Andrew, Jesus is not just another philosopher who gives us guidance for living a good life. Jesus came to die that He might draw all people to Himself, the entire world, all people. Jesus did not intend a group of followers who rejected people of different speech or nationality. No, Jesus intended to draw to Himself good Jews and prostitutes, corrupt tax collectors and bar tenders, Greeks and Romans, Persians and Arabs, Chinese and Mexicans, British and Irish, Germans and Italians, Africans and Russians, Hindus and Pakistanis, doctors and fast food workers, business owners and the unemployed, single mothers and drug users, politicians and drug pushers, alcoholics and lawyers, and even farmers and fishermen.

The most exciting time of the Christian year is upon us. March 28 is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Come join us at the 10:30 am service inside our sanctuary. Come meet each other. April 4th is Easter – we will have a Sunrise service in the lower parking lot at 7 AM, followed by breakfast together for the first time in two years. And then, at 10:30 Am, we will have our Easter service. Come and join us. Bring a friend! Come and find out what it means to be with joyful people in a joyful place. Wear a mask, yes! But come and join us safely as we go to the cross.

For spring is here and the seed of wheat that died and lay underground is ready to blossom here at Cedar Grove United Methodist. Jesus Christ is alive and so are we!

Sing with us, Now the Green Blade Riseth 

Lifted Up

Throughout human existence, there have been various concepts of being healed, or, as the ancient languages are more properly translated, “being made whole”, for that is the proper sense of the ancient words we often translate as “heal” or “healing”. It is a more complete sense – and I think it is fairly easy to see the connection, for a person who is healed has been “made whole” in some sense. The ancients just looked a bit broader than we do today, looking not just at physical healing, but physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing as necessary to make a person whole and complete.

In addition, throughout history, people have looked at various ways that healing happens. At first, healing either happened or it didn’t happen. Then, men and women arrived who developed family recipes for healing drinks, food, and lotions. Other people said that to be sick meant we had upset certain gods, goddesses, or spirits, and sacrifices had to be made to those gods, goddesses or spirits.

Then, beginning seriously about 500 years ago, people began to look for natural causes of illness and the science of medicine began. Drugs and surgery have gradually become the healing method of choice. Yet mature medical doctors will tell you that they have seen healings that they simply can’t explain by science.

For, you see, since the Israelites came out of Egypt, there has been another method used to heal – in specific circumstances and specific places. That method assumes that many illnesses have spiritual roots, and a strong belief that God will heal us will cause actual healing.

In the Book of Numbers, after several small rebellions against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, Israel begins to attempt to move toward the Holy Land from the wilderness. The country of Edom blocked them with a large army, and another man, the king of Arad in the wilderness attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. The Israelites made a vow to God and wiped this country out. And so they proceeded to try to travel around Edom through the wilderness, as described in Numbers 21.

But the people were upset with the conditions. They complained, “There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Complain, complain. They complained enough the Lord sent poisonous snakes among them who bit the people and many of the people died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We sinned with our complaining. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed and God answered.

You see, the Lord knew that the people had lost faith in Moses – and in God. So the Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. And those who came by and looked up at the bronze snake lived.

And our scientific 21st Century minds want to know WHY? Why should looking at a bronze snake on a pole heal a person of snakebite? WHY? In fact, even today, the symbol of a snake on a pole is the symbol used by medical doctors.

We have to dig deeper. You see, the snake symbol wasn’t critical, the pole wasn’t critical, It didn’t even matter that it was made of bronze. What WAS critical was that the people of Israel would look UP to the symbol in hope and faith that they would be healed by God.

This isn’t commonly recognized by our scientific society, but God is sovereign. God created everything – including us – and including all the various ways that we can be injured or become ill. Germs were created by God. Even flies and mosquitoes were created by God. And God has control of our immune system and can choose to heal each of us when God chooses. But God does not heal us, God does not make us whole, just because we ask.

God is sovereign. That means that God has all the power under God’s control. Unlike those who believed in magical healing, unlike those who believed that a particular god or goddess could be bribed by an offering, unlike those who believe that a certain potion – or spell – or drug – or procedure will necessarily give a cure, Christians have always remembered that God is in control and has wisdom far beyond us.

And so, in this case of the snakebites, God wanted to teach the Israelites this lesson, that God has the power to send snakes – and to heal snakebite. But it was important for the Israelites to recognize the authority of Moses, that Moses operated under God’s authority – and that God could decide whether or not they lived or died. They could still leave the camp – but God would not protect them as God had protected them since the night they were asked to kill the lamb, put its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their front doors, and roast and eat the lamb as the Angel of Death flew over Egypt killing the first born of those who did not believe, while the Angel “passed over” the families who believed and obeyed.

The snake worked. The people came to the snake and looked up at it, implicitly accepting that God was in control and that Moses was appointed by God.

And about 1600 years later, as described in John 3, Jesus said that He, Himself, “the Son of Man” must be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Jesus. Looking up to Jesus means that we have faith in Him, accepting that God is in control and Jesus is the Son of God, God’s representative on earth. Eternal life means a complete healing, being made complete.

And so we turn to Jesus for healing today. Our loved one, indeed we ourselves are frightened, anticipating a possible death – and we look upon Jesus for healing, trusting that He can and will heal us. And He does – sometimes quickly, extraordinarily, in a few minutes – sometimes He uses surgery and drugs and a few days – and sometimes He gives us complete healing in the next life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Have you looked upon the Son? Have you looked up at Him from a position where you are lower, humbled, bowed down, accepting that He is much wiser and stronger and more power that you are?

And do not forget the next verse, verse 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” This is the verse for all people who are frightened of God, who are scared that God will punish, all those people who have prayed for someone to live -a grandmother, a father, a wife, a child, a dog named Old Yeller – and for whom Jesus said, “I think it is better for all concerned to heal this person (or pet) in the next life.”

For God did not send his Son Jesus to condemn us, but to save the world through Him. You know, despite your hurt, it isn’t all about you and your needs. Sometimes someone else needed desperately to learn a lesson about God so they could later join grandmother in heaven. Sometimes, we need to learn some lessons about living without our wonderful puppy. Sometimes, we have leaned too much on our friend’s connections with God and not enough on our own relationship with God, like the people of Israel had relied on Moses’ relationship with God and needed to learn to look up in faith at something that represented Him on earth.

Jesus said that “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” It is time for people to come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. We cannot hide in the shadow of our friends, our parents, our grandmothers and grandfathers for ever. One day, we must walk out of the darkness and into the light, so that we can remember that God can see us, everything we do.

It is only then that, remembering that Jesus came to save us and not condemn us, that we can look to God and say, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Will you take me back?” And through Jesus, through choosing to follow Jesus, God will accept us back into His arms.

For, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, we were dead in our transgressions and sins. All of us lived in our sins, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desire and thoughts. Just as all the people, we were by nature deserving of God’s wrath.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Grace is God’s free choice to do good to us, especially when we did not deserve good, but deserved punishment.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

It is our faith that we contribute. We look upon Jesus, just as the Israelites looked upon the bronze snake and we have faith that Jesus will rescue us forever. God has said that Jesus is like the bronze snake, but instead of healing us from snakebite, Jesus heals us from death. Jesus makes us whole and give us eternal life.

You see, God’s power and love underlies all healing – sometimes by looking at a bronze snake, sometimes by drugs and surgery, sometimes by simply having faith that Jesus and God can handle it. For that is really what God wants out of us – to turn to God and God’s Son, choosing freely to follow Jesus, bowing down and accepting that God’s Son is so much wiser and more powerful that we are, that Jesus is worthy of being followed where no one else in this world is worthy of being followed.

And when we bow down and look up at Jesus, who has been lifted up – our healing begins. Every time we look up at Jesus, accepting that He is so superior to us, our healing continues. For our hearts reach their proper level – we who are arrogant become properly humble that Jesus should be followed; and we who feel worthless become properly joyful that God has thought us worthy of being saved.

Lift up Jesus. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Look up to Jesus with a deep faith that He will save your soul, healing you for eternity.

Let us sing, My Faith Looks up to Thee #452

Lord, Clean This Temple

All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name – It wasn’t always so. Today’s passage is from the early days of Jesus’ ministry, when most people, even in Jerusalem, were trying to figure out who Jesus was and most importantly, what authority He had.

Our Gospel reading from John 2 is a passage which is at least somewhat familiar to both Christians and most people who have grown up in America. Listen again as I explain this passage and its meaning.

It was almost time for the Jewish Passover. Every spring, at a time which was tied to the moon, the Jewish nation would celebrate a special meal, with special sacrifices at the great Temple of God in Jerusalem. This was not Solomon’s Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians when the people were taken into captivity about 800 years earlier, but this Second Temple had been built around 515 BC. The Temple had been completely renovated and vastly expanded with a program started by King Herod the Great, during a forty year period beginning about 15 years before Jesus’ birth. The Temple was the largest temple complex in the Roman world. Today, just the Western retaining wall remains, which you see on television as a place of prayer for Jews. The remainder was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman army.

There was an outer court for the Gentles, non-Jewish visitors. There was a death sentence for Gentles who entered further into the Temple. The next inner court allowed Jewish women who could not pass into the next court which allowed ordinary Jewish men, the next allowed just Jewish priests, and then there was the inner area, reserved for the High Priest, who entered it once a year on Yom Kippur, the September Jewish Day of Atonement, when this man would wash, purify himself specially, and take a special offering of blood from a specially sacrificed perfect bull into the Holy of Holies. Before he entered, other priests would tie a rope securely to his leg. He would enter, and pour the blood on the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant, between the two Cherubin to cover any sins that Israel had committed that had not been covered by any other sacrifice. Why the rope? It was there in case the High Priest had done something wrong or sinful. It was there to pull his dead body out of the Holy of Holies – High Priests had been known to be killed suddenly by God if they were out of order – or had secret sin. It was a deadly serious job to make the annual sacrifice. That happened at Yom Kippur, just before the fall Festival of Booths.

But this was Passover week, the week when people from all over Israel came to make their sacrifice of their best bull, cow, lamb, or a pair of doves, depending upon their wealth. Most chose a lamb because that was what they could afford. Thousands of lambs were sacrificed that week in Jerusalem. They were remembering that night 1500 years before when the Angel of Death had flown over Egypt, the tenth of the plagues that God had decreed, the plague that killed the firstborn of the Egyptians and finally convinced Pharaoh to let Moses and the Israelites leave. But to avoid the Angel of Death, the Israelites had to sacrifice a lamb, take its blood and slap it on the doorposts and the over head lintel in the doorway of their homes, they roasted the lamb in the house that night as thousands of Egyptians – and unbelieving Israelites – died. And then, the next morning, the Israelites fled for the desert, following Moses, who was following a pillar of smoke that was God.

Jerusalem city had a normal population of about a hundred thousand people, but the city population would more than double for the festival – most people stayed about a week, crowding into the homes of relatives and guest houses. One of these visitors that Passover Week, perhaps in the spring of the year 32 was a young carpenter who had become a rabbi, a teacher. The man was named Y’shua. Joshua – or as the Romans eventually called Him – Jesus of Nazareth.  

Nazareth – indeed the whole northern area around the Sea of Galilee – was considered by the urban people of Jerusalem to be a place where hicks lived. The men of Galilee had a different accent than the sophisticated people of Jerusalem. And so the people of Jerusalem treated Galileans as people from Atlanta treat men from Alabama, or people from Pittsburgh or Columbus or New York treat men from West Virginia – they considered them uneducated, yokels, hillbillies, rednecks, and a little bit stupid. The city versus country rivalry is nothing new – no, it dates back thousands of years. Today, a country preacher would walk into the center of the Great Temple in Jerusalem. And He would not like what He saw.

In the Temple, mainly in the outermost courts of the Gentles, it had become common and the custom for people to set up booths and pens to sell visitors the cattle, sheep, lambs, and doves they might need, for some people showed up without the proper animals to sacrifice and would need to buy an animal or two, much as someone who had come to see a Broadway play today or attend a fancy restaurant might arrive without proper clothing and need to buy a more formal jacket. Naturally, these animals cost much more than buying the animal outside the Temple area.

It was also rumored that there was a scam going on – the animals had to be “without blemish”. Animal inspectors checked your lamb, and they were very sharp eyed, finding the smallest of spots. When your lamb was rejected, you would be referred to the brother-in-law of the inspector, who ran one of the animal booths.

Actually, there were additional booths for changing money. Unlike today, where the same money is used across America, and one coinage is used across Europe, in ancient Israel, many different coins circulated. Some were brought by Jews who lived in other parts of the Empire or even outside the Empire. Other coins were just acquired during normal trade. And the Temple required a special coinage be used, supposedly so “impure” foreign coins would not pollute or desecrate the Temple. So visitors always had to get their money changed – and the moneychangers took a significant cut.

And so when Jesus arrived, Jesus saw that these men and women who ran these booths and stalls were blocking people from getting close to God, from making the sacrifices that the Law of Moses required.

Today, there are still churches who do the same. How? Do we have people selling animals and changing coins in the entranceway? No. But perhaps a church has a dress code – men must wear jackets and women must wear dresses. Just to show respect for God? But the people of the church forget that there are many people who can’t afford a hundred dollars for a jacket and another hundred dollars for a woman’s dress – especially if similar clothes are also needed for the children. That’s why we say dirty blue jeans are ok.

Another way today’s church puts up barriers to people is to pass the plate for special collections – you only need to give $10 or $20! But what if I don’t even have $5 to give – I’ll feel embarrassed and probably won’t return. And so we leave the plate at the entryway so no one is embarrassed.

What are some other ways we put up barriers like the Temple did? Maybe every week the pastor says, “Open up your bibles to such-and-such scripture.” What if I don’t have a bible? That why we used to have bibles in the pews – and we shifted to putting the scripture on the overhead screen so people who have trouble finding Amos Chapter 9 don’t have to search through their bible to find it.

We probably have other barriers today – but we try to get rid of these barriers. Why?

Because Jesus, when He saw what was happening in the Temple made a whip out of cords and attacked the sheep, cattle, and shopkeepers. He flipped over the tables of the moneychangers and chased out the sellers of doves. Let me make this clear, it wasn’t the fact things were being sold in the building, it was the way the cost of getting close to God was being run up by the merchants. Unlike what many people think who place barriers in front of people – dress well, get rid of your tats, stop drinking before you can come to church - Jesus really wants to make it easy and simple to get close to God. Jesus wants everyone to come to God – just as you are!

Well, all this commotion from Jesus attracted some attention, as you can imagine. You can just see the merchants stopping behind a row of fences and yelling back at Jesus: “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” “WHO ARE YOU?” they asked. They wanted him to say that he had come from the High Priest or from the head of the Sanhedrin, the religious council. They would have accepted it if he was from the Roman governor or King Herod.

You know, the Gospel of John was never meant to be read just once. The Gospel was designed so that the first time you read through it, you are wondering who Jesus is, just like the people in the story wonder. But after you have read through once, you can go back and, knowing the ending, our eyes are opened and we can see much clearer who Jesus is. It is like one of those movies that moves so quickly we don’t really understand it until the end – and then we have to go back and watch it again to fully understand it. Like the masterpieces The Book of Eli, or The Shawshank Redemption, there is so much that doesn’t make sense until the end – and we have to go back and look again with our eyes opened.

The people asked Jesus to prove His authority to chase the merchants out of the Temple. And Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

The people listening thought Jesus was talking about the magnificent Second Temple in which they were standing. They pointed out it had taken 46 years to build the temple – and yet you, Jesus, will raise it again in just three days?

John tells us that the temple Jesus was speaking of was his body. The disciples remembered this after He was raised from the dead, and then believed.

You see, Jesus is filled with God the Son. His own completely human body was full of God. And this is another tricky concept about Jesus we have to understand.

Jesus was a completely human man. Jesus was also completely God on the earth. After hashing this out for decades, the assembled bishops of the ancient church decided that Jesus had two natures – God and human – and they aren’t mixed together, He isn’t part God and part human, but His two natures are both completely present in Him. 1 + 1 = 1.  One God nature plus 1 human nature = 1 Christ.

And so, the temple of which Jesus spoke is His own body. For where can God be worshipped better than when we speak directly to God on the earth who is Jesus the Christ?

And this leads us back to last week’s discussion of the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit enters each Christian, typically at baptism, and so our bodies become temples of the Holy Spirit, and should be kept pure and holy temples, clean and in excellent condition. How is your temple? Is it clean and pure? Or is it dirty and grimy, in need of repair?

If Jesus came to you and said He’d like to live in your spare room, what condition would you put that room into? Wouldn’t you sweep it, vacuum it, clean the walls, repaint it, and put only the best furniture in it?

How about your body, your mind, your brain? The Spirit is living there.

And when we go back and think about Jesus cleansing the Temple to make it simpler for people to come to God…what do we do that puts barriers in front of people and keeps us from leading people to God?

Perhaps we only want to allow perfect sheep near us. I once knew a church which had such high standards that the only people who were good enough for that church were the people who attended…and the people who had left the church. They held one outreach event each year…they sent out letters to all the former members, most of whom had left 30 years before, and invited them to a homecoming event. And one or two would come every year, and then return to their current churches. Yet they would not invite the people in the neighborhood to any events. They had fellowship luncheons every quarter – but no community dinners. Those in the neighborhood weren’t Christians, you see, so they weren’t invited. Those in the neighborhood didn’t dress well, they didn’t speak well, they used foul language, they drank, they fought. Yes, I knew this church and then a few years later I met another church just like them. And then a third church.

But here, I am delighted to say, we encourage all sheep to join us.

But back to us as individuals. Jesus said to go to all people. Have we decided to select which people we will go to? Have you thought in your mind that a particular person might not be worth inviting to hear about Jesus? Is it because they are too poor – or because they are too wealthy? When was the last time you spoke with your doctor about the things of God?

Oh, I know we find friends who are just like us. But can that be a barrier to leading someone to Jesus? How about people who are new to this country? Saundra and I found great success when we made friends of international students at Marietta College. We made some great friends – and led several of them to become baptized Christians. You can too.

For Jesus is not the only person with the authority to chase evil out of the temple. If you love God, if you want to be close to God, God will support you getting closer to God or helping others get close to God.

What are the barriers you have put in front of yourself? Do you say, “I don’t know enough about Jesus to speak to people about Him?” Or do you say “I don’t know enough about Jesus to come to church?”

Either are just barriers that need to be removed, and you have the authority to remove those barriers. Come talk with me and we will help you remove those barriers.

For the barriers are usually, “I don’t think I know enough” or “I don’t think people will want to see me” or “I’m not good enough.” Or “I’m just uncomfortable and nervous about the things of church.”

Relax. You are welcome. Church is a place to learn, to make friends, to be with a group of people who are learning how to be good enough, to be with a group of people who once were uncomfortable and nervous and now can’t wait to come back here.

For Jesus cleansed the Temple so that anyone could walk in. And we believe that here. There are people here who have spoken to Africans in Africa about Jesus, People who have spoken with Saudi Moslems about Jesus, people who have led Chinese Communist party members to Christ, and people who have changed from being outspoken atheists to becoming teachers of the Bible. There are people who have given the homeless and the poor respect and helped the wealthy become humble. There are farmers and office workers and nurses and McDonald’s workers here. Some have worked in large corporations; others have run their own businesses, still others have been teachers or engineers or dentists or lawyers. Others have not worked much outside the home. Some are married, others divorced, others have never married, some have been married more than once. And their kids attend also, while others watch online on Monday evenings because they can’t make it on Sundays due to work. For, you see, all are welcome here.

Yet, we all still put up barriers to people – yet we are all working to take down these barriers we each have to others. Have you noticed that the world encourages putting up barriers to others, by insisting we speak of politics, of national origin, of race, of so many things to make sure we decide who is “okay” and who is “not okay”?

Jesus drove out those who would put barriers between people and God. We should drive out the barriers, destroying them ourselves – and we are working on that. That is the difference between the true follower of Christ and the pretender. We are trying to remove those barriers, welcoming all.

If you are listening to us but have not yet joined us, will you try to help us by stepping over the tables we have torn down, by climbing over the fences we are dismantling, by walking past the cow patties that we are sweeping out of our lives because we found they are barriers to helping lead others to Christ. Perhaps you can join us as we sing:  

Forgive us Lord