A, Palm Passion Sunday - Matthew 21:9-16 "Hosanna! Save us, we pray!"

Matthew 21:9–16 (ESV) And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

Palm Sunday gets its name from the fronds people cut from palms to line the road into Jerusalem at Jesus’ triumphal entry.  Those who had cloaks lay them on the road in homage, but others used palms, in the same way we might “make do” if we didn’t have the “red carpet” to roll out in honour of someone we recognise as royalty.

The people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  This was the expectation of victory and peace from a king who rode in on a  donkey as recorded in Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9 ESV)

The expectation of the crowds harks back to the “glory days of Israel” with David as its king. When King David returned to Jerusalem after battle—victorious—the city welcomed him shouting, “Hosanna!” “You have caused us to be saved, we pray!”

Hosanna is an exclamation of adoration for being saved or delivered!  It was also a war cry for success as David and the congregation proclaimed in the temple, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray (Hebrew: hoshi’ah na), O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.” (Psalm 118:23–26 ESV)

The crowd anticipated that Jesus would become their Messiah, their King, by entering Jerusalem, the Praetorium, the official residence of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, and throw him out to seize power and save Israel.  But instead of entering the Roman ruler’s residence, Jesus enters the temple and overturns the self-justification in which Israel had turned, away from God’s mercy.  They missed the mark, believing their ritual sacrifice would atone for their sin so they could carry on by themselves without faith in God’s merciful presence.

Just as they had used the law to justify themselves apart from faith in God and his mercy, they sought to use Jesus in the same way, to glorify themselves as a nation autonomous from God.  But they didn’t realise that the Messiah who was to be raised up as king was God’s own Son, sent to be faithful unto death, even death on a cross.  He was singled out to be alone on the cross, so Israel could worship with God in peace, so we too might never be left alone in our helplessness!

Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 ESV) Here Jesus is mirroring the cry of anyone who has ever stood alone before God, with all expectations exhausted, completely spent, with nothing more that can be done.  The ego stripped of all pride, the idols of expectation proven worthless.  Jesus became the epitome of humanity, exposed in the rawness of one’s true helplessness.

For Jesus this was the abandonment of God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had put off his divinity as God’s Son and hung nailed to the cross as the bare helpless epitome of human wretchedness.  He hung there uncovering the truth of your reality—humanity’s reality.  In our sinfulness we try to hide the reality of this wretchedness and loneliness behind our pride and pleasures. 

Now Jesus has become the scapegoat, the stone the builders rejected! Yet, because of this, he is the capstone of humanity’s salvation—your salvation—when God’s help is sought!

When we as God’s children come to the point that seems like we’ve been totally abandoned, it’s not God who has abandoned us!  Rather, it’s the realisation of my false beliefs in my feelings, my abilities, and my understanding that has caused us to seek abandonment from God! Allowed to feel completely helpless, thoroughly wretched in our human state, we cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  

Although it feels horrible, it’s actually a blessed state of realisation, returning to God as the only answer to our helplessness!  That we need to be “Holy Spirit filled” rather than “human spirited” or full of ourselves.  We are blessedly helpless, and we need to be continually grafted into God, we need God to reconnect his umbilical cord of mercy that we thought we could do without and so often seek to sever.

And this is exactly what God the Father allowed to occur to his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, Son of David, the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.

The irony of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the Passion of Jesus Christ is that on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem the crowds welcomed him. Yet, even by the end of the day, the end of Holy week, all had turned away from “the Messiah” people wanted Jesus to be.  In much the same way we do the same welcoming him with our expectations, but our humanity gets offended when its idolatry is exposed. 

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem led to his triumphal entry into the grave, hell, and resurrection from the dead, raised up as the Messiah God knew you and I needed!  God allows us to arrive at that seemingly hellish dead-end place and cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The irony continues for us in that when we hit rock bottom, Christ has been lower—for you, for me—for all.  God reverses the tables for those who cry out to him for help.  When the epitome of our humanity is revealed as sin, we too seek the Son of David, pleading to God for “hosanna in the highest”—“help in the highest”—when we realise we’re the lowest.  In our sin we confess, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV) “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5 ESV)

Jesus became sin, though he was without sin.  He became nothing, helpless, and through his nothingness and helplessness our help is “Hosanna in the highest”! Salvation in the highest! We no longer live as those who think we can help ourselves. We are blessedly helpless and therefore helped by the Holy Spirit to repentantly live knowing our help is in the Lord who made heaven and earth. 

We pray, “Save us Lord!” when the going seems good and when it’s bad, knowing that despite our deceptively good or bad feelings, we are never alone!  For those in Jesus Christ we have a holy helper in our helplessness. 

Jesus saves us from ourselves and our human predicament when the Holy Spirit shows us our blessed helplessness. Sometimes God needs to overturn the tables of our expectations that have become religious idols standing in the way of our salvation.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit has to stop us from  resurrecting our humanity to the place of God and robbing him who has recreated our bodies to be his holy temples through our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  

If out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies God has prepared praise, he can help you when you realise your helplessness in yourself. As children of God the Holy Spirit moves you to suckle on his word, so our hosannas are thanksgiving prayers for what God has done, our hosannas are daily prayers for God’s guidance now, and our hosannas are prayers of deliverance through death into salvation, victory, and eternal life.  Amen.

Palm Sunday – Hosanna! Save us, we pray!

Sermon Summary:

Palm Sunday begins with crowds joyfully welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, laying cloaks and palm branches before Him as one would honour a king. Their cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, echoed Israel’s ancient longing for deliverance and victory, recalling David’s triumphs and the prophetic promise of a humble, saving king riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

Yet the people misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ kingship. They expected a political liberator who would overthrow Roman power. Instead of marching to the Praetorium to confront Pilate, Jesus went to the temple to confront something far deeper: Israel’s misplaced trust in ritual, self-justification, and religious autonomy. He overturned tables not only of commerce but of false confidence.

Jesus exposes the human tendency to use God—even the Messiah—to reinforce our own agendas. But the Messiah God sends is not the Messiah we try to fashion. Jesus is the Son who becomes the suffering servant, faithful unto death, even death on a cross. His cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, reveals the depth of His identification with human helplessness. He enters the absolute loneliness of sin’s consequence so that no one who cries out to God is ever truly abandoned.

In this divine irony, the triumphal entry leads not to a throne but to the grave, hell, and resurrection. Jesus becomes the rejected stone who becomes the capstone of salvation. He becomes sin so that sinners may become children of God.

The sermon invites us to recognise our own “Palm Sunday expectations”—the ways we want God to serve our plans. God often overturns these expectations so that we may discover our blessed helplessness, the place where true hosanna arises: “Save us, Lord!” This helplessness is not despair but the Spirit’s work, drawing us back to dependence on God’s mercy.

If God can prepare praise from the mouths of infants, He can certainly sustain his children when they realise they cannot sustain themselves. Our hosannas become prayers of thanksgiving, guidance, and deliverance—cries of faith from those who know their help is in the name of the Lord.

Reflection Questions for Personal or Group Use

1. What expectations do you bring to Jesus?

Where might you be tempted to shape him into the Messiah you want rather than the Messiah God has sent?

2. When have you experienced God overturning your “tables”?

How has God disrupted your plans, assumptions, or religious habits in order to draw you back to His mercy?

3. What does “blessed helplessness” mean in your own life?

Can you identify moments when reaching the end of yourself became the beginning of deeper faith?

4. How do you respond when God feels absent?

What does Jesus being forsaken by God on the cross reveal about God’s work in healing your spiritual isolation and salvation?

5. How does Jesus’ journey—from triumphal entry to cross to resurrection—reshape your understanding of salvation?

What does it mean that Jesus became “the stone the builders rejected” for your sake? What is the capstone of your kingdom building?

6. What does it look like to live daily with a “Hosanna in the highest” posture?

How might your prayer life change if you embraced dependence on God rather than self-reliance?

B, Palm-Passion Sunday - Phillipians 2:8-10 "Hard to be Humble"

Philippians 2:8–10 (ESV) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

To be humble is possibly the hardest thing for us to be or do!  Even those appearing to be humble usually only appear to be humble.  Most will tout, they feel humbled, when they’re praised by peers.  One could argue that feeling is not one of being humbled, in the true sense of the word.  Rather, one feels honoured because they’re actually being exalted! 

However, when one is truly humbled by their peers, they’re not exalted, they’re made low!  The situation knocks them, one is put in his or her place, they’re made to feel low, lower than what they once felt.  When one is truly humbled, rather than claim they’re honoured, they complain they’re hard-done-by, or humiliated!    

True humility calls for the death of self.  When it comes to humility like this, you and I, always look for another way.  Why is being truly humble so hard?  Why is the death of self so difficult that we continually search for other options?  It’s hard to be humble!

In 1980, Mac Davis wrote a song.  Some of you might know its chorus, “Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way.  I can't wait to look in the mirror; cause I get better looking each day.  To know me is to love me; I must be a hell of a man.  Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doing the best that I can.”

I imagine most will resonate with this song’s chorus, more than Philippians chapter two verse eight.  “Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  When death came to Christ, he was truly humble.  With his divinity put aside, out of sight, he took the low way of the cross. 

To be humble like Jesus, is strange and foreign to us.  To be humble as Mac Davis sings, or more precisely, to not be humble, is so much easier.

We resonate with this song more because of its self-contradicting comedy, the lyrics are haughty and proud while claiming to be humble.  But whether or not we find the lyrics amusing, they expose something not so funny.  So serious is the truth of what they uncover, the remedy comes only through the humility of Jesus Christ.

Like the song, our human humility actually is a humiliation of our humanity, and this leads to death.  The belief we are perfect, or more perfect than the next fellow, is buried within each of us.  When we look in the mirror, perhaps we don’t think we get better looking each day!   Those of us who don’t, still look in the mirror, compare, and picture ourselves better than someone else!  

Like the song, those that don’t love me are those that obviously don’t know me!  “I must be a hell of a man!”  Well actually, there’s probably more truth here than the writer of the song intends.  O Lord, it’s not hard to be haughty, at this we all seek to outdo each other!

Even when we’re humiliated by others, we ironically still seek to be haughty.  “Woe is me!  Nobody is as bad off as me”, might be the gripe made!  I’m more worse off than all others worse off!  This is a paradoxical exaltation of one’s lowliness! 

Then there’s also the rejection of humility by stating, “ I’m okay, others have it worse off than me!”  We’ve all been in this situation, and heard these words come from our mouths.

Such is the haughtiness of our humanity.  Humility and holiness are easily confused with humiliation of others and haughtiness!  It takes Jesus Christ to sort it out for us on the cross.  Before the cross, and our baptism into it, as enemies of God!  As well as after the cross, and our baptismal lives carrying our cross, as the Holy Spirit works to recreate us as God’s holy children in Jesus Christ.

Do you remember the Warner Brothers cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn?  He’s the loud-mouthed rooster who’s anything but humble!  In his struggle to become the “top dog” on the farm he’s in a constant feud with the dog.  Once when he was outdone by the dog he says one of his familiar sayings, “That dog, I say that dog is lower than a snake full of buckshot.”

This saying is similar to an Australian expression, “They’re lower than a snake’s belly!” On the scale of things, you really cannot get much lower than the belly of a snake.  Both we and Foghorn Leghorn, make this statement from a haughty height.  Yet in reality, although we wouldn’t get down in the dirt and look a snake in the eye, we’re already there, humiliating ourselves in the dirt by the height of our human haughtiness.

Two weeks ago, we heard Jesus tell Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5–6 ESV)

Being born of the Spirit is our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection!  Jesus goes on to compare himself to the bronze serpent in the Old Testament, saying, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  (John 3:14 ESV)

As much as you or I wouldn’t get down in the dirt to look a snake in the eye, none of us would willingly allow ourselves to be humbled and lifted up with the shame and lowliness, of a snake’s belly, or a snake full of buckshot.  

It’s at about this point, we realise we have hoodwinked ourselves, between our unwillingness to truly be humble, and our desire to be haughty.  So, without any humour in our haughty humus, we cry out to God, “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble.”  The best we can do is not good enough!  I am a worm of a man; I am lower than a snake’s belly!  And yet, this low, I find myself ungrounded, debased, and like dirt, infested with weeds.

One of Job’s friends who wrongly takes the haughty position in judgement over Job, wrongly misuses God’s truth, saying, “How then can man be in the right before God?  How can he who is born of woman be pure? …how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”  (Job 25:4, 6 ESV)

Jesus is greater than any friend of Job!  He, the Son of Man, gets down with the afflicted, humiliated by our own affliction, by our own foolish deeds.  As the Psalmist wrote, inspired by the pre-incarnate Son of God, “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads.” (Psalm 22:6–7 ESV)

Jesus becomes that worm, that maggot, lower than a snake’s belly!  Yet, he is lifted up and displayed like a snake, in affliction for all who are afflicted with sin.  The Sinless One, is lifted up afflicted and debased with our sin!  Where we find it too slippery to sort out our true humility from our haughtiness, he came down into the slithering cesspool of our sin, became sin, without sin, and was lifted up for forgiveness of sin.

We, like those on Palm Sunday, may very well have invited Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of hosannah!  Yet, as we will sing to Jesus shortly, “We made your crown with thorns from deep inside us, hammered your hands with nails no-one supplied us.  We need no help to stage a crucifixion; it’s our affliction.”

How quickly the heights of our hosannahs are reduced to the reality of our human haughtiness in the face of the cross.  Although we did not need help to stage a crucifixion, Jesus now bears your affliction! 

We killed him, yet he needed to be killed for us.  His death was unjustifiable!  Our killing him, is the height of human haughtiness, that condemns us. 

But the paradox of the passion is this; his death justifies us!  He humbled himself in the face of human haughtiness, and this now saves you and me from our haughtiness. 

As you’re led to a deeper knowledge of your haughtiness, see the purity of him, who humbled himself and took the heaviness of your haughty sin.  See the weight of your sin on him!  Let the Holy Spirit produce in you the true humility to carry your cross.   Just as he went through the hardship and humility of the cross,  be led to glorify him in your relationships of forgiveness with one another.  Amen.

B, Ash Wednesday - Genesis 3:14-19 "You are Dust, and to Dust you shall Return"

Genesis 3:14–19 (ESV) “The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’  To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’  And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’”

Air, water, and fire, return all things back to natural elements.  From the moment we create things on this earth, they are returning to what they once were.  The houses people have built since time began have returned, and are returning, to the earth, through exposure to air, water, or fire. 

The goods we place in our homes will also return to primary elements.  Some quickly, some slowly, but nevertheless they are returning.  Even plastics, glass, and porcelain return having been produced with fire, return with the help of fire and pressure over time!

All metals eventually revert to their mineral compounds through the process of corrosion and rust, so that they become dust once again.  Having this in mind we travel in vehicles not putting too much trust in our means of transport.  A very sobering thought to contemplate when we’re at thirty-eight thousand feet, looking at a metal wing, slowly returning to the ore of the earth, keeping us aloft.   Or, sailing on a metal ship, in a salty brine knowing that eventually rust, must make metal, into mush!

It’s not just things we create, that are reduced to rust, dust, a mushy mash, or blackened ash.  All things given to us in this creation will die and return to he who created it with his Word.  

Following a garden and kitchen waste recycling truck yesterday, it became obvious to the nose that air and water were working on returning things, we live on in creation, back into compost and dirt.  Another sobering thought occurred to me, as I drove behind that truck, that I too, in the fullness of God’s time, will be returned from flesh, blood, and bone, back into air, water, and dust.

In a short time, you will receive the mark of the cross on the forehead with ash and hear the words, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” 

These words are the words of God to Adam, who having listened to Eve and Satan disguised as a serpent, did not heed God’s call not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

As a result, not only does Adam return to dust; Eve does too!   All animals that carry the breath of life from God, return to the earth.  All of creation groans as a result of humanity’s pleasure.  And so, all the things in which we seek pleasure, are being tested by air, water, and fire.

The ash we receive on the forehead reminds us of this!  The ash used is the ash of palm fronds.  Traditionally the palm branches used on Palm Sunday, are returned to ash with air and fire, to use on Ash Wednesday.  The Ash adheres to the moisture on the skin of the forehead.  Moisture that is continually leaving the body, which one day will work with air to make us compostable material in the earth.  If not, some will return to ash and dust through cremation’s fire.  Either way, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week.  The ash of the Sunday palm branch not only leads us to remember our mortality, but that of the man Jesus Christ.  He is the New Adam!  The immortal Son of God born into his own creation as a mortal, the Son of Man. 

From Ash Wednesday we look forward to Holy Week, to see what Jesus put aside as the Son of God, and what he endured as the Son of Man.  We see our pleasures, in the face of Adam and Eve’s pleasure, in gaining a knowledge of good and evil.  And we realise the suffering we endure as a result of treasuring the pleasures of what we seek and know, more than the pleasure of knowing God and being known by God.

But we also look to Holy Week and see Jesus’ good pleasure in being led to the cross amid the pain and suffering promised to Adam and Eve from their original sin, and all the sins that followed.  Right the way to today to the deceptions of your pleasures within, and all those around you tempting you because you are without!

We look to Jesus’ death, burial, and descent into hell.  Where, having been pierced by the sword on the cross, water and blood flowed from his flesh!  Where, in the grave, air did not take effect on Jesus’ flesh.   And, where in hell, fire was not fatal for the Son of Man, the Son of God.

We look to Easter Sunday, to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, trusting that it is the Father’s, the Son’s, and the Holy Spirit’s good pleasure, to work their holiness for you in the events of Holy Week, and Easter.

We also look forward from Ash Wednesday to the day of our death, to our burial or cremation.  Hearing the fulfilment of God’s word, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”!   And we remember our sin!  The sins we have done, and the sins from which we struggle to be undone.  We see our being, in need of renewal and resurrection, our mortality in need of immortality!

God calls us to look beneath the temporary decaying clothing God gave Adam and Eve to cover their sinfulness, saying, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”  (Joel 2:12–13 ESV)

During Lent some find it healthy to forgo some of the pleasures of this life to focus on the pleasures of God and what was done to save us from the decay caused by our pleasures.  This is a rendering of one’s heart, through fasting, hearing God’s word, and meditating on it. 

Going without in the forty days of Lent, leads one to be tested, and having been tested, produces repentance, as one quickly sees in our failures, Jesus’ being tested for forty days without sin.

Ash Wednesday calls us to see Jesus raised from the dead, victorious over sin, death, and the devil.  In Jesus we see flesh without failure, without fatigue, and our flesh in the future.  We see our mortality made immortal through Jesus’ pleasure to fulfil our Father’s will!

On Ash Wednesday we see the only way is Jesus’ way.  In him the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to pleasure’s temptation of good and evil.   This leads us to turn back to God our Father in repentance and thanksgiving. 

Ash Wednesday helps us to remember and return to the Lord our God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

In Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, our Father in heaven promises to relent and repent over all your evils!  Amen.

C, Palm Sunday - Luke 19:37–40, "Within One Short Week"

Luke 19:37–40 (ESV) As Jesus was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,  saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

The crowd on Palm Sunday welcomed Jesus with great gusto, as he rode that donkey towards Jerusalem.  This was the new King David, whom they hoped would ride into the capital, overpower the Romans, and route the fake King of the Jews, King Herod.

But as Jesus nears Jerusalem, he weeps for it, the City of David, named “Yara Shalom”.  A city named, as a place flowing with peace.  Jesus knew that as in the past, in coming days there would be no peace, he would be tossed out of the city as rubbish, like unwanted excrement the Son of God would be thrown out as useless.  No!  There was to be no peace, safety, or friendship to be found in this place named “flowing peace” – Jerusalem!

Ever since the kingdom of Israel split into Judah and Israel, prophets had been killed for calling Jerusalem and Samaria back to God and his peace.  Time after time messengers had come, calling kings, priests, and the Levites back to God.  What reward did they receive but hatred, stoning, and death!

Things had not changed much.  Herod the Great wanted to kill the baby Jesus, and now his son Herod Antipas, was seeking to do the same. 

Earlier in Jesus’ ministry some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”  And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.  Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”  (Luke 13:31–35 ESV)

Now the Father was sending his very own Son, who knew Jerusalem and all Israel wanted a king unlike him.  They did not want a king of flowing peace, instead they wanted a piece of a king who would do what they wanted.  They wanted a politician, a zealot, a popular man making magical moves to heal, restore and protect their gods of greed and want.

And so, we see this man of Galilee enter the city with great expectation, that he was going to confront the Romans and challenge their authority.

But surprisingly, he doesn’t!  Instead, he enters the house of God, the temple in Jerusalem, and challenges the worship practises of those who also secretly saw him as a threat to their security and authority.  And so, with great suspicion they interrogate him, saying, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” (Luke 20:2 ESV)

This looks little like a king coming to assume his kingship in a city flowing with peace.  Jesus knew and we now know by the end of this week the only thing to flow would be Jesus’ blood as it flowed from his head, his hands, his feet, his back, and from the spear wound in his side.

Within one week all would seemingly fall to pieces.  Peace would not flow; things would change.  Support would be withdrawn.  The crowd would turn on him.  His disciples would scatter!   The Son of Abba, our Father, would be swapped with a different son of a father, Barabbas the criminal!  Discipleship at the cross broke down and was shown to be pathetic and useless!  In the face of death denial reigned.  Jesus was abandoned, all love ran away and evil surged in.  The tide was out, and Jesus was left high and dry.  Dead on the cross.

Within one short week, what had happened?  On Palm Sunday, the stones would have cried out if the disciples kept quiet!  On Good Friday Peter did not dare associate himself with Jesus, lest he be numbered as one of the Galileans with him, and be stoned like many prophets had before.  And then sealed behind a large stone in death, the Lord lays buried in a tomb.

But it was Steadfast Love laying in that tomb.  The King of Kings lay in the vault of death.  Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, took humanity through a tide change.  It was the lowest of low tides, but the tide of love had changed forever.

You see, at the beginning of the week, the love of the people was a veiled love.  The crowd was there, the emotion was there, the hype was there, the support seemed to be there, but the love that was there was self-love.   The love that was there, was a love that veiled everyone’s evil within.

Within one short week, from Sunday to Friday the tide of love, ebbed and was found wanting.   What was exposed at that low was the loveless evil of humanity.  The emotion and hype of the mob ebbed and exposed fear and hatred.  Politicians and priests were exposed as people pleasers.  And the closest supports sought self-preservation over steadfast sentry duty supporting the Saviour.

Nevertheless, steadfast love lay hidden behind stone.  From there he would descend into hell and shine the steadfast love of God in the darkness of death.  There, the dead will always know what they refused.   There, Jesus exposed their rejection of steadfast love from God, and salvation from the evil of sin within, so God would count them without sin.

Within one short week the tide would turn, God silenced the love of man, and from the grave the love of God was raised.  The stones that would have cried out if the disciples could not have praised God on Palm Sunday, saw the stone rolled away and the steadfast love of God raised and revealed in all glory.

What kind of a King are you seeking this Easter? 

What type of people is this King of Kings looking for?

Our Father is looking for sinners?  Those who believe, their love is a cover for evil, their love is sin!  The Risen King is resolutely looking for those who seek steadfast love, to cover their evil, with the robes of his righteousness.  Jesus Christ is looking for those who need his steadfast love – this week, next week, and every week of their lives, so they might live in the hope of their resurrection to eternal life. 

Jesus Christ is seeking those who need forgiveness, who need change, who know they are nailed to a cross of eternal death and need him and his holiness to be exchanged with their weakness.  These are our deadly, hopeless, and evil ways, which were brought to light, forgiven, and covered within one holy week.  Amen.

Blessed are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Let us not cover up our sin; but confess it, receive forgiveness, and believe what God has covered.  Let us be surrounded by shouts of deliverance and pray (Palm 32), “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38)  Amen.

B, Palm/Passion Sunday - Philippians 2:5-11 "Seven Days of Holy Week"

On Palm Sunday Jesus was glorified by the crowd but just five days later they screamed for his crucifixion.  What happened in this week changed the course of humanity forever. 

On the surface it looks like chaos and a complete miscarriage of justice, but those who received the Holy Spirit and believed the resurrection testify to the crowd,

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—  this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.  God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:22–24 ESV)

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart. (Acts 2:36–37a ESV)

Now we who have been baptised and received the Holy Spirit submit to God’s Word, dwelling on it as we carry our crosses on the road to eternity with Jesus.  But what can we take away from this Lenten season, from this Palm Passion Sunday and our Saviour’s death on Good Friday?

Yes we know the eighth day is coming! The day of Jesus’ resurrection!  And we know in trusting God and his word we will be raised too.  But how can we reflect on these seven days of Holy Week, and every seven day week in which we live until our final week here is replaced and we’re resurrected into the eternal eighth day of God’s heavenly reality?

It is very easy for us to hear of the events of Jesus’ passion and ponder that we are people like the Palm Sunday crowd, and that maybe so!  But what was the motive of the crowd on Palm Sunday, especially after Jesus enters the temple and upturns the tables when they hoped for him to overturn the Roman government and throw them out of Jerusalem.  Had Jesus wronged them? 

Maybe Jesus is not living up to your expectations!  Perhaps he is not giving you what you want, seemingly wronging you, letting you suffer like a slave rather than letting you kickback like a king.

Saint Paul tells us, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11ESV)

Here we are told we’re given the gift of this mind amongst ourselves from Jesus himself.  Jesus did not see himself as God.  He emptied himself!  He became a servant!  A slave! He was truly they Son of Man, the servant of man!  Even though Jesus is not only the Messiah, the Anointed King, he is the Son of God.  But he humbled himself to be the Servant Son or Slave of Man.  In short he became nothing.

But in the horror of being made nothing he has made us something.  He has made us someone before God!  Unfortunately, more often than not, we take this someone to be something other than the humble creature servant kings and children of God, and once again take our being liked by God, recreated in the likeness of God, and seek to usurp him by being like God.

Jesus knew we would continue to struggle in this old creation of seven days.  This is why he lay down his life for us, and why he sent the Holy Spirit to guide us in his Word through this life until he ends the old seven day creation once and for all and carries us into the eighth day of his eternal kingdom at our resurrection.

So Jesus gave us a prayer in which the Holy Spirit helps us to pray and we can use its petitions this week to reflect on our sinful condition and why Jesus had to die for me, you and all people.  This prayer is the Lord’s Prayer and it can help those who believe to look deeply into the loving heart of God and our hearts that need this steadfast, constant, merciful and generous love.

In fact this pray and its seven petitions is a perfect mirror of reflection on the seven days of Holy Week, and for that matter any seven day week made holy for those who believe as they wait for the kingdom, power and glory to be made manifest for them at their resurrection.  Ironically, each petition reflects the actions of the crowd as they descend from Palm Sunday’s “Hosanna” to “Crucify him” on Good Friday.

In Luther’s explanation of the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven”, he writes, “Here God encourages us to believe that he is truly our Father and we are his children”.  In other words, this prayer is a recognisation of our restored creatureliness in the presence of God.  We receive the gift of Jesus’ kingship and it’s a kingship of servanthood.  We live in a relationship with God similar to that of God and Adam before the fall, but now after the fall we live it in the reality of sin, death, and evil.  We pray to our Father in heaven, in the hope of our restoration through the perfect creaturely New Adam, Jesus Christ.

Let’s now look at the seven days of Holy Week and see how they sit with the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

Sunday’s petition, Hallowed by your name.  It appears the crowd were hallowing God’s name with shouts of Hosanna!  But were they hallowing it to glorify God or were they worshipping what they wanted Jesus to be for them.  Here we can reflect on our motivation and confess that we so often seek to use God for our own benefit.  This is using God to justify our own godliness.  A godliness that is not sacrificial like Jesus. A godliness that sits in judgement over God and his Word rather than one that sits in submission and servanthood!  

Monday, Your kingdom come.  As we go off and pick up the regular beat of the week, have you taken God with you?  In other words, are you still the creaturely servant God has called you to be?  Or have you put God back in his Sunday box and picked up pursuing your kingdom?  Are you 100% for God as Jesus was?  Are you carrying your cross or are you tempted to put off the cross to keep face with the world?  God’s kingdom comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to turn over the tables of our human spirit so we believe that God’s kingdom has come in baptism, is coming despite the crosses we bear, and will come at the resurrection.  Let us confess Jesus in the kingdom of this world through our confession of sin and Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins.

Tuesday, Your will be done on earth as in heaven.  What is God’s will for you?  Firstly, it is his will to forgive us our sins, for we know not what we do.  He doesn’t just forgive us for what we do, he forgives us for who we are.  In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39 ESV)  God’s will is to forgive sin.  This is the steadfast love of God for we who struggle with a steadfast natures of sin. 

And God’s will for us on earth is to be the new Adams and the new Eves as fulfilled in Jesus.  As kings and servants in the kingdom of God on earth we forgive as God has forgiven us.

Wednesday, Give us this day our daily bread.  Hear God gives us a petition of prayer showing us the reality of our need.  As creatures we ask for all we need.  The going is tough so we are reminded to turn to God just as Jesus did.  We pray, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let this food to us be blessed.”  But there is a second more important part that points us to Maundy Thursday which the church can pray, “blessed be God who is our bread may the world be clothed and fed!” 

Thursday, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  The first three petitions encourage us to look to God in his holiness and love, now after the fourth, we can reflect on why he has to be gracious with us. 

Our creatureliness is fallen but our sin is covered by Jesus’ body and blood, given and she for forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  If we change this petition to first person it reads, “forgive me my sin as I forgive those who sin against me.”  This is the only active part of the Lord’s Prayer attributed to us, to me, all other actions are attributed to God. 

Our lives in Christ are a calling to forgive others as Jesus forgives us.  But notice how the petition is worded in reverse. We ask God to forgive us the same way we forgive others.  How do you forgive others?  If you are anything like me you will be made humble by just how gracious God is despite our ongoing struggle to forgive others.  The cross we bear in forgiving others requires the death of our pride and all that our human nature and spirit trusts other than God.

Friday, Lead us not into temptation.  Good Friday is the day of the great exchange.  Crucify him, Crucify him. God crucifies your kingdom and gives you his when you were baptised into his death and resurrection.  When you are tempted to not believe God’s work in your baptism, see that God did not send his only Son to his cross for nothing.  His blood covers you sin, don’t be tempted you are now no longer in need of forgiveness as if you now no longer need his crucifixion. 

Our temptation is also to crucify others with our accusations. This is a temptation back into the kingdom of darkness.  We now live in the kingdom of light and it’s a kingdom of forgiveness. Do not be tempted to toss away and crucify God’s eternal kingdom.

Saturday, But deliver us from evil.  This is the final and seventh petition.  On Holy Saturday Jesus showed his sinlessness to those in hell.  Now that Jesus has been crucified his death crucifies all unholiness. You are delivered from evil into holiness. 

But just as Jesus remembered the Sabbath and made it holy with his perfect sinless rest in the grave and descent into hell we are called to ponder the holiness we have received in baptism. No longer are we commanded "be holy for the Lord is holy" as a work with which to busy ourselves. Rather our being is holy because the Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus. 

We can now do the work of bringing our evil into the light through confession of sin, which might seem to be the wrong thing to do but it pleases God because it shows trust in the good work Jesus did at the cross and the good work the Holy Spirit continues us to do by bring us to Jesus every day in repentance.

As you go from here into this week walk the Holy Week with Jesus. Walk with Jesus to the cross and in carrying your cross know it is Jesus who truly bears your load of sin and death, and it is he who carries you through to the resurrection.

Our Father in heaven, the kingdom, and the power and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen. 

A, Palm Passion Sunday – Philippians 2:8 “Understudy”

UNDERSTUDY
A sermon on Philippians 2:8
PALM PASSION SUNDAY (Year A) 17/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Being an understudy would have to be one of the most difficult jobs. The stage actor gets all the accolades while the understudy remains in the limelight. The work load is the same though! The understudy must know all the same lines to stand in and keep the show running in the event the actor, for whatever reason, cannot be on stage.

The actor gets their name up in lights outside on the Broadway billboards yet the understudy hangs in the shadows ready, yet never knowing if he or she will get the opportunity to let their talents shine.

Nevertheless, the understudy is an important job. Theatre companies need understudies as an insurance policy for their shows. The actors out front might be responsible for drawing the crowds, but the understudy, stands by as a "fill in" so even if the crowd are disappointed by the absence of one actor, they might still have opportunity to see all the other name actors fill their parts next to the "fill in" understudy.

During the Lenten season we have heard and spoken a phrase over and over again. "Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." It's part of what is known as the Christ hymn from Philippians chapter two.

We hear it again here: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Pauls calls us to have this mind, which indeed we already have because Christ lives in us. However, this mind or attitude of Jesus so often gets squashed from within because we like to be the ones who have out names recognised — up in lights like an actor.

But the attitude of Jesus is like that of a faithful understudy. He is the archetypal servant of society, humbly listening to God, seeking his will in his word, throughout his ministry right to the point of death.

Jesus Christ deserved to have his name up in lights — the Son of God, Co-Creator of all things with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But he put that all aside and became the Son of Man; a servant who was killed by the very folk he sought to served.

Our attitude so often runs contrary to the attitude of Jesus. The very things Jesus did, when we contemplate attempting them, seem second rate. No one seeks to be the understudy.

How often do we hear about the glitz and glamour of an understudy? But this is exactly where we're called to focus our efforts and attitudes. So how do we do this when it's so different to our way of thinking?

It's not so much about how we do it, but rather in enduring in Christ, returning to hear his Word of life over and over again, the mindset of Jesus grows within. This growth is cultured by the Holy Spirit so that over time we come to realise Christ has been our understudy the whole time and all the glitz and glamour we sought in the past, perishes with the past.

Alternatively, those who try to live in the glory of this fickle glitz and glamour end up washed up like so many Hollywood types these days.

A world away from seeking glory for one's self is Christ's attitude. This attitude is obedience. It allows us to remain faithful to God. It's not about doing anything in particular. Rather it's about letting God undergird us with his will, his way, and his word. He insures a safety net of salvation for us by giving us Christ as the understudy. Jesus Christ obediently listened to the Father, and now continually listens for when we lose our way, forgetting the lines of holiness we're called to before the Father.

His obedience as the understudy meant no glitz and glamour, rather it meant the opposite. He humbled himself and became your understudy, to the point of death… even death on a cross.

There an old saying, "being hung out to dry". And Jesus was literally hung out to dry; he was hung on the cross to die.

In the ancient world being hung out for all to see was a horrendous way to be killed. Slowly dying, choking on your own body, suffocating yourself to death, usually outside the town gate where everyone passed by and hurled insults at you as you slowly suffered and died.

Scripture tells us that any one hung on a tree is cursed (Deut 21:23). The Assyrians barbarically sharpened sticks like pencils and impaled people on them to die for all to see. So death on a cross or a tree is a blight on any person guilty of the punishment. We don't have crucifixion for punishment these days, but if we did, what kinds of crimes would deserve this type of cursed death? Only the worst, for sure!

So Jesus, your understudy, knew he was going to receive not only death, but death deserved by those who have committed the most abhorrent crimes. And he did it obediently, all the way, despite his innocence. There's just no way we could ever do what he did.

But we don't have to! He has done it; all we're called to do is believe it.

Trust Jesus as your faithful understudy, who saves your reputation before the Father in heaven.

In believing, you'll never expect whom you will be used to serve as an understudy as you focus on faithfully following the will of him who obediently, faithfully, undergirds you as your understudy, until the glorious day of your resurrection into the realm of eternal bliss. Amen.

B, Palm Sunday - Mark 11:1-11, Philippians 2:8 "It's not April Foolishness"

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Is it too good to be true?

There's a study that suggests if women and children eat chocolate for breakfast, weight problems usually associated with eating the sweet at other times of the day will be avoided. It's believed the bodies of children and women digest differently in the morning. In fact, when eating chocolate at this early time of day, for a prolonged period, the study candidates actually lost weight! Perhaps it's too good to be true!

In 1976 it was reported that the planet Pluto passed behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that counteracted and lessened the Earth's own gravity. If people jumped in the air at the exact moment this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. Apparently when 9:47 AM arrived, radio stations received hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even testified that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room. Too good to be true? Hmmmm!

Did you know that stretching nylon stockings over a plasma television makes the picture standing out in front of the screen in three dimensions! It's as if the people on the tele were actually standing in your lounge room. This effect was first discovered back in the black & white days when stretching the stockings over the TV screen would make instant colour TV. The nylon in the pantyhose chemically reacts to the light a television produces causing the amazing results. Wow! It sounds too good to be true?

There are also rumours that local footy clubs are in a bidding war to import Frenchman Lirpa Loof into Australia. He was born with the amazing ability to kick a ball further than anyone else in the world. Lirpa no longer plays soccer because every time he kicks the ball it flies right out of the stadium. His ability comes from his legs having similar qualities and strength to that of a frog and it's hoped that the man's talent can be taken advantage of on our larger football grounds! He'd be able to kick goals the full length of the ground. Too good to be true?

What's even more amazing is all these things were discovered or occurred throughout history on the same day - the first day of the fourth month. Yes, it is too good to be true, because the day is "April Fools Day"!

The first of April rolls around year after year and time and time again pranks of various size and effect are administered on family, friends, and work colleagues with various degrees of success. Those who have not noticed the date of the day can be sucked into the gag. The more gullible the recipient the greater the laugh others have at their expense.

It's not really known how April the first, came to be known as April Fools Day. One view is that the day came about after the Gregorian calendar was changed to the Julian calendar. May Day was recognised as the start of summer or the spring planting season. An April fool was one who did this prematurely after the calendar had changed.

Then again, in the eighteenth century people believed that the day was connected with Noah at the time of the flood's ebb when he released a raven too early. He did this on the first day of the month in the Hebrew calendar which coincides with April the first.

Unfortunately many believe the gospel is too good to be true. One might think Jesus Christ - both Son of God and Son of Man, the cross, his death, his resurrection - the Word of God offering forgiveness and peace with no strings attached, is just too good to be true. And therefore, it's believed one has to either add to or water down God's grace to make it a little more convincing. Or, on the other hand, one might be temped to discard the gospel as a laughable foolish faith to sustain those who have nothing better to do with their time.

We human beings with our understanding and nature find it very difficult to understand the being of God, his nature, and his ways. The crowds on Palm Sunday thought they knew exactly what Jesus was doing as he walked into Jerusalem. They cried "Hosanna" as the man rode a donkey into the city, reminding them of a bygone era when Israel was strong under David their almighty king. But Jesus' exercise of almighty power came in an unexpected way, in that he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8)

Imagine the fickle crowd, seeking Jesus as the new King David, believing he would march into Jerusalem and dethrone the Romans as they cried "hosanna", "save us, we pray". But rather witnesses saw him confront what Judaism had become and then take his throne on the cross in death.

It sounds like the greatest hoax of all time; definitely too good to be true! How can Jesus be God if he can bleed and die in the most disgraceful way on a cursed cross? How can a king reign when he's dead? And so on Good Friday the broken body of Jesus became a laughing stock, to the Romans who saw Jesus as a fool, and to the Jews who saw in Jesus' death something too good to be true.

But as Jesus entered Jerusalem, hidden in his motives and actions, was a way that seemed too good to be true, but in fact is the only way that's too good not to be true. Jesus confronted what Judaism had become and overturned their corrupted means of righteousness. He faithfully took hold of the law and kept it, and in doing so, set a benchmark that nobody could match.

In Luke's Gospel we hear Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he marched into the city. The crowd whipped into a frenzy calling out for victory - "hosanna" "save us, we pray". To which Jesus tears and actions said, "Amen, let it be so", as he went to the cross to give victory to all people, saving them from their sins, once and for all freeing them from the condemnation of the law.

Do you wonder if it's all too good to be true? Maybe you want to discard the Word of God like a trite April Fools Day prank! Or perhaps you believe you need to bolster what God did with good deeds in the hope you might get the victory you're praying for. Possibly proving to God you're no April fool!

However, Jesus' death and resurrection is no prank! Discarding him or being caught in deeds of self-righteousness, treats him as a fool, and shows that we as humans are naive and gullible. If left to our own senses we are doomed.

But God is faithful. As we remember his walk to the cross this Good Friday and see that it really should be you and me nailed there, God calls us to peace in the knowledge that the day of his crucifixion was too good a Friday not to be true.

Thankyou Lord for cleansing us and making us holy with your Word, your Word is truth, Amen.

A, Palm/Passion Sunday - Romans 6:3-11 "From the Cradle to the Cross"

In Advent the wreath candles are lit. Four candles brightly burning as symbols of the blessing we receive from the Advent King, our Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed gift of hope, peace, joy, and love has come because the Christ child has come. At Advent we celebrate his coming into the world to be with us. To be born into the same flesh as us, and experience life as we experience it with all of its struggles, humiliations, and good times. Our King has brought in an era of hope, peace, joy, and love, and because he brings these things and gives them to us, we are truly blessed.

But we are not blessed just because he came as a baby. The Christmas cradle in which Jesus was laid, wrapped in swaddling cloths, does nothing for anyone if the story ends there. And we also must realise who this baby is, and what he gave up to be born into flesh, and where being born into flesh physically placed this baby.

We can ask ourselves two questions, “How is this baby in a manger our blessed hope, peace, joy and love?” And, “Why do we need to have someone bring us these blessed gifts?”

The second question first. The question of why! Why do we need an Advent King and why do we need these gifts? If there is one thing the Lenten season, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday does, it is make us critically aware of death and sin; and more specifically our sin and our death. At Ash Wednesday services we hear the words, “From dust you have come and to dust you shall return.” These words remind us of the words spoken at a funeral as the coffin is lowered into the ground and the body is laid to rest – earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. This is often a very emotional time; the reality hits home that this is the end; we will not see the person again in this life time. Death is something very real and one day our bodies will all make a similar journey.

Jesus Christ born as a human being was born into the same flesh as us. Sin was the environment into which he was born, just as we are all born into a sinful world so too was the Christ child. There was no special treatment from humanity for the Son of God. In fact he had to be born into this world of sin, he was appointed to save us because we are not capable of doing it. His conception and incarnation was an act of God, bringing God the Son into the body of a person – Mary. No woman has the power to conceive and give birth to God let alone determine any child’s identity before conception and birth. This act of God was the plan of God the Father, incarnating God the Son, through the work of God the Holy Spirit – into your reality and my reality too.

And what a reality it was: God the Son born to a mother in transit on a donkey, born not in hospitable surroundings, but at the back of an inn at Bethlehem. All inns in those days were the haunts of harlots and highway men, all respectable Jewish people stayed in homes at the invitation of the local Jews. So the Son of God was born into the humiliating reality of sinful humanity, giving up all the privileges God’s Son might expect for himself.

We’re so glad he was born into our reality; he knows what it is to go through suffering and struggles in this world. But many others are being born all the time into this same reality and are we glad about their advent into a world of sin, in the same way we celebrate Christ’s advent. Does any body else have their birthdays celebrated in the same way or by as many people as Jesus’ birthday? No! We celebrate Christ’s birthday because of his death day!

This reality brings us to the second question, “How is this baby in a manger our blessed hope, peace, joy and love?” In fact we already have the answer. We celebrate Jesus’ birthday—our hope, peace, joy, and love—because of his death. We are blessed with these four gifts of advent because of the cross. The Christmas cradle is viewed in light of the Calvary cross; our hope, peace, joy, and love come at the expense of Christ suffering on the cross. At the cross we find the crossroads of all reality. At the cross we are given hope, peace, joy, and love in the face of our hopelessness, chaos, wretchedness and lovelessness. At the cross Christ takes hopelessness, chaos, wretchedness, and lovelessness on himself an in doing so gives us the blessings of his holy life in the reality of a fallen world. So Jesus Christ is our hope, peace, joy, and love, but the question still remains, “How”? It is done for us, but how do we get Christ into our lives to take the wretchedness, hopelessness, chaos, and lovelessness away?

Paul tells us in Romans 6: Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:3-11)

This passage of scripture reminds us again of funerals and death. In fact the first half of this text is proclaimed right at the beginning of every Lutheran funeral service. St Paul brings us to the cross roads of the Calvary cross by reminding us of our baptism. Although we know that while in the midst of life we are in death, the crossroads of Calvary switch it around – in the midst of death we are in life. Baptism is the key, we are placed on a new path at the crossroads of Calvary! We live in the midst of hopelessness with hope, in the midst of chaos with peace, in the midst of wretchedness with joy, and in the midst of lovelessness with love, because Christ’s death on the Calvary cross is the death of death. And when death is dead we are in life; eternal life with the one who was raised from the dead.

Let’s now march to the cross with hope, peace, joy, and love, and lay all our lovelessness, wretchedness, chaos, and hopelessness at the foot of the cross having been blessed with Christ’s victory over death, blessed by his holy presence, and blessed by the assurance of our resurrection and eternal life. Amen.