No introductory comments necessary!
Read John 10:24-31.
In verse 24 the people press Jesus to speak openly, “When will you tell us who are you?”, and Jesus responds, “I have told you.”
How and when did Jesus already tell them? Well, look at verse 7 in this chapter, “I am the door”. And verse 9, “Whoever enters through me will be saved.” Verse 10: “I have come that they might have life”. Or verse 11: “I am the good shepherd.” And verse 15: “The Father knows me and I know the Father.” One more – verse 16: “They will hear my voice and they will be one flock with one shepherd.”
So tell me, has Jesus really been covering up the essence of his earthly mission? Not at all! He is openly declaring the meaning, promise and divine intention of his coming. Nevertheless, the people go on asking, “Who are you?” Jesus’ answer is “I have told you, but you do not believe.” And that, of course, is really what this is all about. Regardless of how many words the Lord says, if the people’s hearts are unready to receive, then, no matter what, their next question is still going to be “Who are you?” Because, not believing, they don’t hear. In that case, words become useless. Even miracles hardly help. Jesus says, (vv. 25b-26a), “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify of me (26) but you don’t believe”. So neither words nor signs seem to make any difference. Why? Jesus goes on: “you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep, as I have told you. (26b)”
“Not of my sheep” – there is the essence, the crux, the core of this issue. Over and over Jesus has spoken of this relationship, a relationship in which the sheep know the shepherd, know his voice. As in verse 3 (read), and verse 4 (read); likewise, verse 14 (read) and verse 16 (read). For those who “have ears to hear”, Jesus makes it clearer than day what he means. In front of the people stands not only a teacher, not only a prophet, indeed not only Christ as many anticipated “Christ”. Rather, before them stands Christ as he really is, in himself, and it turns out that the real Messiah, Christ, cannot be defined according to human understanding. It turns out that the critical element in Christ’s call isn’t whether or not he corresponds to our assumptions, but whether our hearts hear what he's saying, whether his words reveal truth and life to our hearts.
Jesus can’t tell the crowd, “Yes, I am everything you were waiting for”, because they could never have imagined the Messiah as he really turned out to be. In fact, Jesus does them a kindness by not saying, “Oh, yes, I’m the Messiah.” As we know, Jesus talked that way only on the rarest occasion. It’s interesting, by the way, to take a look at the moments when Jesus did speak so bluntly. As a rule, it wasn’t when the people or their leaders were demanding an answer. It was more often when a person whose faith was just coming to life needed assurance.
We see such a case, in fact, right in the preceding chapter, in 9:35-38 (read). This man had been blind all his life, and Jesus gave him sight. Imagine.... And this man refused to denounce Jesus for the healing, even though the Pharisees threatened to throw him out of the Temple forever. So, all in one day, this man received sight he had never had in his whole life, and he was exiled forever from the most sacred place of his religion. Again, imagine the emotional earthquake that day was for this man. And in the midst of this earthquake, Jesus comes to him and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The poor man answers in desperation, “Who is he, Lord, so I can believe in him?” And Jesus gives him the answer he wouldn’t give to the movers and shakers of society when they demanded his credentials. He says, “You’ve seen him; you’re talking to him.” Just as Jesus also said to a woman at a well one day in Samaria, a woman disgraced for her sin and shunned by society, a woman who, just starting to catch a faint glimmer of light, let the half-suspicious, half-hoping words slip out, “They sa-a-ay that... when the Messiah comes... he’ll make everything clear....” Jesus looks her straight in the eye and tells her, “The one talking with you right now is he.”
The key element in these cases was that the person’s heart was already starting to open to the deeper reality of Jesus. And wasn’t demanding or ordering Jesus to line up with some already formulated checklist for Messiah. Jesus offers God’s gift of life to those whose hearts receive him, just as he is, in the fullness of his glory, yielding to him in full faith. The ones who receive him like that, he receives, just as they are. “Just as I am, without one plea, but that the blood was shed, for me. Just as I am... I come, I come.”
But why didn’t the Pharisees and the crowds understand? It was because they didn’t believe. And why didn’t they believe? (read 10:26-27) But what makes a person not Christ’s sheep? It’s the absence of any desire to meet God, to have encounter with him, to know and love the Creator. It’s attachment to self that doesn’t admit the possibility of the life-change that God brings.
The sheep belongs to the shepherd; it is his, and it trusts totally. But the bystander, the stranger, doesn’t belong to him, and doesn’t want to belong. Do we desire encounter with God, are we willing to trust everything to Him? If so, God opens up truth to our hearts. Jesus said to the people, in John 7:17, “Whoever is willing to do [God’s] will, that one will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I’m just speaking for myself.” If a person has the desire, if he’s ready to receive, if he sincerely seeks, then the Lord will find him. While we’re in chapter seven, look at the next verse, verse 18. This verse sparked me to meditate further on these matters. I noticed a fascinating parallel. (Read 7:18)
Jesus says about himself that he is not seeking his own; rather, he seeks the glory of the one who sent him. We can make a parallel here to his followers, the shepherd’s sheep. The good shepherd’s sheep also don’t strive for their own, but for what will glorify God. In this way, they are like the good shepherd – maybe partially and imperfectly, but in their hearts resounds the summons of the one who desires above all the glory of the one who sent him. So this is what they want, too. They hear him and become like him. They follow him and he knows them. And he can say anything to them, and they’ll willingly receive it. He can say something like this to them: (read 10:28-30)
Here is Christ, just as he is. Who can receive such words, such a Christ who says such things as “I and the Father are one”? The nation insisted, “Tell us plainly!” So Jesus did: “I and the Father are one”. It was clear from the start, wasn’t it, that this is where it was all heading? Who else could be within his rights to say things like “I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved”, or “ I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me”, or “I have power to lay down my life and power to take it up again”? Only the one who is one with the Father. This is the one who promises eternal life and actually fulfills the promise, who holds the believer in his hand, in the hand of God, and keeps him from the enemy. Jesus didn’t come to line up with some definition of the word Christ, but to define in his very self what being the Christ of God is. By his words, by his works, by his love and grace and self-giving, and by his power and authority, he did define it – and it is everything he is.
But when Jesus Christ made it clearer than day who he was, the people who had been demanding that he do so, did what in response? Well, they didn’t say, “Thank you very kindly for that!” (read 10:31-33)
There is the difference between the good shepherd’s sheep and the “non-sheep”. You saw how the non-sheep reacted. But the true sheep hear, receive, contemplate and submit to his word. They look at the one who is saying these words and think: if such a one, such a Person, who does such miracles, whose words radiate such truth and grace – if such a one as this says such words, then they’re true. It is precisely in this Jesus that God Himself, the Lord who is our shepherd, has visited his people.
But those who were ready to do nothing but judge his words and refuse to know him, they, of course, picked up stones. Stones or faith – these are the two responses to the Good Shepherd’s self-disclosure. Stones or faith. Outrage or love. Rejection or embrace. The response we make will show whether or not we belong to the flock of the true Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his sheep. Who gave his life, and took it up again, not because that was what people expected, but because that’s who he is. “Tell us who you are!”, the people shouted. Well, look at Jesus, listen to him, with a heart for God... and you’ll know.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Triumphal Entry (III)
Here is yet one more Palm Sunday sermon. For a Palm Sunday sermon, it devotes what may seem an inordinate amount of space to events following Palm Sunday, i.e., the Crucifixion (as if one could ever devote an “inordinate” amount of space to the Crucifixion...). But the intention behind this is twofold: 1) to drive home to the listeners’ the amazingly consistent prophetic theme running through all the events of Holy Week, beginning with the Entry, as foreshadowed in Psalm 118; for example, have you ever noticed that Jesus cites the same psalm to the Jewish leaders as the crowd quoted to him the day before? - it all seems to be a single, unfolding story already “told”, in a veiled way, in the psalm; 2) to “crystallize”, in light of this permeating motif, the way in which the Atonement truly consummates, in ways only God (“...the Lord has done this”) could have designed, what the crowds on Palm Sunday were really talking about... even if they didn’t know it. In short, this sermons tries (how successfully, I will not venture to say) to be a portrait of the divine hand actualizing the divine will, no matter what people thought they were accomplishing.
Read Isaiah 63:1-6, then Matthew 21:1-5, then Philippians 2:6-8
Even in his humility, Jesus’ greatness shone. It shone through his love, through the truth that he spoke, through the power that he demonstrated. Jesus healed people of their sicknesses. Most of all, he healed them of the sickness of heart, which comes from sin. He healed them from anger and envy, from fear and hatred. He showed them that the most important liberation is not political liberation, or economic liberation, but liberation of the heart. He brought them the fresh, clean water which is called new life. Many tasted this water, and they sensed the great power which brought them this new life.
And so, when Jesus rode into the city they shouted “Hosanna!” “Hosanna” means “Save!” In Hebrew it sounds like “hoshiyana”. Actually, the root of this word is the same as the root of Jesus’ Hebrew name Yeshua. And we know why Jesus received his name: because the angel told Joseph, “You will call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”. And so it comes about that the crowds now cry out to the Savior, “Save! Save!” And they call him Son of David. That shows how great their hope was for a Messiah, a son of David who would establish the true kingdom of God. Just as the prophet Zechariah prophesied, their king really was coming to them. The prophecy was fulfilled on that day.
The people greeted Jesus not only as Son of David, but also with the words of Psalm 118. In Psalm 118:26, it says, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” In Hebrew it sounds like, “Baruch ha-ba b’shem Yahveh.” Let’s look at that passage, starting at verse 25; we’ll read verses 25 to 29 (read).
These verses speak of joy; they speak of salvation. They speak of God’s mercy. They praise God who is our light. But they speak also of sacrifice (v. 27). Without sacrifice for sin there is no forgiveness because the debt of sin must be paid. Interestingly, in this psalm where it talks about joy and light and thanksgiving and mercy, it talks also about sacrifice. This is inescapable, because we live in a fallen, sinful world. And when we look again at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what do we see? Immediately after he came into the city, where did he go? Into the temple. He went to the place of sacrifice. The Lamb of God came into the city with one purpose: to present himself to the Father as the perfect redeeming sacrifice. The crowds who shouted for Jesus didn’t know that. When they shouted joyfully “Save! Save!”, they didn’t know he was really going to do it, or how. But Jesus knew, and was ready.
And yet, the Lamb of God did not die in this temple. All the lambs which the people offered in sacrifice had to die in the temple. But not God’s lamb. Jesus was rejected by the priests. The true Lamb was sent to die outside the walls of the holy city. Jesus knew about this, too. The day after his triumphal entry, Jesus was again in the temple, the temple he had cleansed, just as he came to cleanse our hearts, and he saw the chief priests and elders and... (read Matthew 21:42). Jesus quoted psalm 118, the very same psalm the people quoted when they shouted the day before, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The same psalm that talks about the Messiah’s glory speaks also about his rejection and suffering. Jesus was the only one there who saw the whole picture, the glorious and the terrible sides.
It is most probable that the place where they crucified Jesus was an abandoned stone quarry, a place where there was no more stone of good quality. Jesus literally died in the place where the builders rejected the stones. And dying there, Jesus became like one of the stones rejected by the builders. And who were the builders, the supposed constructors of the nation, the chosen people? They were the priests and elders, the Pharisees and scribes, the ones who claimed the authority and had to answer for it. They should have recognized the nation’s cornerstone, Jesus Christ, when he appeared, and welcomed him as Savior of the world. But they rejected him and sent him to the cross, to die outside of the city where all the other rejected stones lay, in an old, worthless quarry.
It is quite possible, too, that when Jesus worked as a young man, he didn’t work with wood but with stone. The word in the Bible that we translate as “carpenter” could just as easily refer to a stonemason, and given the lay of the land in Nazareth, it seems to make more sense. If so, then the spectacle of Jesus, who humbly worked in his youth with stone under the blazing sun, building walls and homes, now cast outside the walls of Jerusalem and his Father’s house, thrown away like a broken, useless piece of rock to die in an abandoned stone quarry, nailed to a wooden cross built just to torture him to death under the blazing sun, becomes, if possible, even more shattering. But if it is more shattering, it is also, hard as it is to conceive it this way, even more glorious. Because the actual, ultimate reality which we must see in this terrible, terrible spectacle is the fact of the stone which the builders rejected turning out to be the cornerstone of God’s eternal salvation and kingdom. “The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous [that means “miraculous”!] in our eyes.” You see, the psalmist isn’t saying, “We think it’s really swell”; he’s prophetically saying, “we recognize this is actually a miracle” – no one could have pulled something like this off except God Almighty. And in the final event, Jesus’ rejection by the world was so final, so absolute that no one but God Almighty could have made that terrible, lonely cross into the triumph of atonement and everlasting glory.
Remember, Psalm 118 is a psalm of salvation. It’s about God’s stupendous miracle of salvation. And precisely this terrible death – the Lamb’s death outside the city – is the actual thing itself, really happening before the world’s eyes. Here on the cross, and here preaching in the temple, and here riding into Jerusalem, is the Rejected Stone whom the Father is making the Cornerstone of His true temple, of the spiritual house He will dwell in, His living temple the Church.
And that is how this man, Jesus, the Lamb, did what the people cried out for him to do, “Hoshiyana – Save! Save!” That is how he accomplished his only desire: to complete his Father’s will.
When Jesus entered the city, many people asked, “Who is this?” (verse 11). He came in the name of the Lord, but they asked what his name was. One day, though, no one will ever need to ask his name (Philippians 2:9-11)... “for the Father has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name (vv. 10-11).
We began in the book of Isaiah, and we will finish there also, with Isaiah 65:17-19 (read).
On the day when the true king, Jesus Christ, appears, there will be rejoicing in the new Jerusalem and the Son of David will sit on the throne of God, and "we will be glad and rejoice" in what He has done.
Read Isaiah 63:1-6, then Matthew 21:1-5, then Philippians 2:6-8
Even in his humility, Jesus’ greatness shone. It shone through his love, through the truth that he spoke, through the power that he demonstrated. Jesus healed people of their sicknesses. Most of all, he healed them of the sickness of heart, which comes from sin. He healed them from anger and envy, from fear and hatred. He showed them that the most important liberation is not political liberation, or economic liberation, but liberation of the heart. He brought them the fresh, clean water which is called new life. Many tasted this water, and they sensed the great power which brought them this new life.
And so, when Jesus rode into the city they shouted “Hosanna!” “Hosanna” means “Save!” In Hebrew it sounds like “hoshiyana”. Actually, the root of this word is the same as the root of Jesus’ Hebrew name Yeshua. And we know why Jesus received his name: because the angel told Joseph, “You will call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”. And so it comes about that the crowds now cry out to the Savior, “Save! Save!” And they call him Son of David. That shows how great their hope was for a Messiah, a son of David who would establish the true kingdom of God. Just as the prophet Zechariah prophesied, their king really was coming to them. The prophecy was fulfilled on that day.
The people greeted Jesus not only as Son of David, but also with the words of Psalm 118. In Psalm 118:26, it says, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” In Hebrew it sounds like, “Baruch ha-ba b’shem Yahveh.” Let’s look at that passage, starting at verse 25; we’ll read verses 25 to 29 (read).
These verses speak of joy; they speak of salvation. They speak of God’s mercy. They praise God who is our light. But they speak also of sacrifice (v. 27). Without sacrifice for sin there is no forgiveness because the debt of sin must be paid. Interestingly, in this psalm where it talks about joy and light and thanksgiving and mercy, it talks also about sacrifice. This is inescapable, because we live in a fallen, sinful world. And when we look again at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what do we see? Immediately after he came into the city, where did he go? Into the temple. He went to the place of sacrifice. The Lamb of God came into the city with one purpose: to present himself to the Father as the perfect redeeming sacrifice. The crowds who shouted for Jesus didn’t know that. When they shouted joyfully “Save! Save!”, they didn’t know he was really going to do it, or how. But Jesus knew, and was ready.
And yet, the Lamb of God did not die in this temple. All the lambs which the people offered in sacrifice had to die in the temple. But not God’s lamb. Jesus was rejected by the priests. The true Lamb was sent to die outside the walls of the holy city. Jesus knew about this, too. The day after his triumphal entry, Jesus was again in the temple, the temple he had cleansed, just as he came to cleanse our hearts, and he saw the chief priests and elders and... (read Matthew 21:42). Jesus quoted psalm 118, the very same psalm the people quoted when they shouted the day before, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The same psalm that talks about the Messiah’s glory speaks also about his rejection and suffering. Jesus was the only one there who saw the whole picture, the glorious and the terrible sides.
It is most probable that the place where they crucified Jesus was an abandoned stone quarry, a place where there was no more stone of good quality. Jesus literally died in the place where the builders rejected the stones. And dying there, Jesus became like one of the stones rejected by the builders. And who were the builders, the supposed constructors of the nation, the chosen people? They were the priests and elders, the Pharisees and scribes, the ones who claimed the authority and had to answer for it. They should have recognized the nation’s cornerstone, Jesus Christ, when he appeared, and welcomed him as Savior of the world. But they rejected him and sent him to the cross, to die outside of the city where all the other rejected stones lay, in an old, worthless quarry.
It is quite possible, too, that when Jesus worked as a young man, he didn’t work with wood but with stone. The word in the Bible that we translate as “carpenter” could just as easily refer to a stonemason, and given the lay of the land in Nazareth, it seems to make more sense. If so, then the spectacle of Jesus, who humbly worked in his youth with stone under the blazing sun, building walls and homes, now cast outside the walls of Jerusalem and his Father’s house, thrown away like a broken, useless piece of rock to die in an abandoned stone quarry, nailed to a wooden cross built just to torture him to death under the blazing sun, becomes, if possible, even more shattering. But if it is more shattering, it is also, hard as it is to conceive it this way, even more glorious. Because the actual, ultimate reality which we must see in this terrible, terrible spectacle is the fact of the stone which the builders rejected turning out to be the cornerstone of God’s eternal salvation and kingdom. “The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous [that means “miraculous”!] in our eyes.” You see, the psalmist isn’t saying, “We think it’s really swell”; he’s prophetically saying, “we recognize this is actually a miracle” – no one could have pulled something like this off except God Almighty. And in the final event, Jesus’ rejection by the world was so final, so absolute that no one but God Almighty could have made that terrible, lonely cross into the triumph of atonement and everlasting glory.
Remember, Psalm 118 is a psalm of salvation. It’s about God’s stupendous miracle of salvation. And precisely this terrible death – the Lamb’s death outside the city – is the actual thing itself, really happening before the world’s eyes. Here on the cross, and here preaching in the temple, and here riding into Jerusalem, is the Rejected Stone whom the Father is making the Cornerstone of His true temple, of the spiritual house He will dwell in, His living temple the Church.
And that is how this man, Jesus, the Lamb, did what the people cried out for him to do, “Hoshiyana – Save! Save!” That is how he accomplished his only desire: to complete his Father’s will.
When Jesus entered the city, many people asked, “Who is this?” (verse 11). He came in the name of the Lord, but they asked what his name was. One day, though, no one will ever need to ask his name (Philippians 2:9-11)... “for the Father has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name (vv. 10-11).
We began in the book of Isaiah, and we will finish there also, with Isaiah 65:17-19 (read).
On the day when the true king, Jesus Christ, appears, there will be rejoicing in the new Jerusalem and the Son of David will sit on the throne of God, and "we will be glad and rejoice" in what He has done.
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