Today I want to have a conversation with you. Let’s not call this preaching... or even teaching. Let’s call this reflection. Pausing to examine. If ever there was a week when one should stop and consider his faith - it’s during holy week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.
Every week I publish my sermon notes so that you may read them for yourselves. For my parishioners, this could be a good review from the weekend before. And it gives you a chance to see what I intended to say! For other pastors and ministers, feel free to borrow and use any of this material. I'd love for God to be glorified by you incorporating these notes into your own worship.
When The Cheering Stops: 5 Questions for Holy Week
Scripture: John 12:17-43
Introduction: What is Palm Sunday? It has nothing to do with our palms. It’s called Palm Sunday because this is the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The crowds cheered him on. There was lots of talk about a Messiah coming. The Scriptures predicted that the Messiah would come riding into the city on the back of a donkey... and here was Jesus doing that very thing. And the people were cheering.
Not only that, but the word was spreading quickly that just a day or two before Jesus had raised a man from the dead. And we’re not talking about just had a heart attack and his heart stopped and Jesus performed CPR. We’re talking 4 days dead, lying in a tomb, rotting away, decomposing, larvae food, odorous, like “cover your nose,” “can’t breathe,” kind of stinking dead. Worm food dead. Jesus didn’t even touch him. Just stood outside the tomb and called his name. And the dead man got up and walked outside. Here was someone with power over death. And the people were cheering.
Yet between Sunday and Friday, this same crowd would stop cheering and start jeering. Given the choice between Jesus and a known murderer, they chose the murderer and cried for Jesus to be crucified. The easy thing for us to do 2,000 years after the fact is to become judgmental. It would be easy to believe that we would never allow our cheers for Jesus to turn into jeers against him. I want to challenge you on that presumption. I want you to consider 5 questions about your FAITH...
5 Questions for Holy Week - Does my F.A.I.T.H...
F ___FIGHT___ the “next big thing” syndrome?
"The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign." John 12:17-18 ESV
John’s gospel is pretty clear. “The reason why the crowd... he had done this sign.” So what would be his next act? Within a day the word had gone out. People were excited. Death was now defeated. Maybe Jesus would raise someone else from the dead. Some people probably were skeptical. “I got to see this for myself.” Would Jesus raise someone else from the dead? This still would be top news today! You better believe that if someone raised people from the dead, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and every newspaper in the country would have their correspondents showing up. In other words, we are no different. We’d be wondering what the “next big thing” would be too.
Illustration - Today the leading mobile phone manufacturers are fighting this same battle. They haven’t raised anyone from the dead, but in the last 5 years they’ve done some pretty miraculous things with telephony. Most of us hold in our hands computing power that was unheard of just a few decades ago. NASA sent men to the moon with less computing power than you use to download your apps! And yet, very quickly, people are wondering “What’s the next big thing?”
The next big thing NEVER is enough to satisfy or sustain faith. If your faith is dependent on God always showing up to do a big thing, you’ll be disappointed. Notice the commentary that John provides in v. 37:
“Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.” John 12:37 ESV
Do you have a faith that is dependent on the “next big thing?” This week consider if you faith is an emotional one, dependent on your experience of God and His miracles in your life. Outward signs are never enough.
A ___ACCEPT___ the unexpected and disappointing?
We think we have Jesus all figured out. We even have bracelets we sometimes wear that have the initials WWJD - What would Jesus do? As if we would actually know. The one thing we might be able to agree on is that the historical Jesus we read about in the gospels didn’t always seem to live up to the WWJD expectations. Notice this story in John 12...
"Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus." John 12:20-22 ESV
If you’re wearing the WWJD, then you KNOW what Jesus is going to do, right? He’s going to go to those Greek-speaking people, put his arms around them, welcome them into the family of the church. He’ll bless them. Maybe he’ll share the plan of salvation with them. Maybe he’ll say, “Come follow me.” Certainly we’ll all celebrate because the church is growing. It’s expanding. Now includes the Greeks too!
The only problem is that Jesus does none of that. Check out verse 23. Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified...” And he starts teaching about kernels of wheat dying! But what about those Greek dudes? Talk about being left hanging!
Here’s why this is so important. God doesn’t always respond the way we think He should. Our most important relationships in life go sour... and we wonder “Where is God?” Or maybe the person we love more than anyone in the world suffers... maybe even dies... And we prayed! And where is God? Sometimes God does the miraculous. But sometimes He doesn’t.
It’s one kind of faith to be a Christ follower when he does the expected and the miraculous. But it’s another level of faith altogether to remain faithful during those unexpected and disappointing times of life.
I ___INCLUDE___ the hard lessons?
Some of Jesus’ toughest teachings came during this week. We all like the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the peacemakers!” But what about this...?
"Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:25 ESV
If you think you have this all figured out, will you come see me and explain it to me? Stop and think about it. If I love my life, I lose it. If I hate my life in this world I keep it. For eternity. What if I love my life so much that I want to keep it for eternity... so I hate my life now in this world, because I love my life so much? But wait... If I love my life so much that I make sacrifices now - well is that hating my life or loving my life? And exactly how does this fit in with “Love your neighbor as yourself?” Do I love my neighbor? Or hate him?
I’m not trying to be deliberately confusing. What I am saying is that some of Jesus’ teachings are not easy lessons. Some of them are downright hard lessons. Love your enemies? Give your best coat away? Turn the other cheek? Bless those who curse you? Let’s not try to make this Kindergarten Sunday School. Real faith embraces the hard lessons.
T ___TRUST___ when Jesus doesn’t reveal himself?
"When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them." John 12:36b ESV
Perhaps Jesus needed to get away and get close to His Heavenly Father. Perhaps he was just tired and maybe even a little frustrated by all that was going on around him. We don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus left and Jesus hid himself away. I don’t know all the reasons why, but I do know this: there are times when it feels like Jesus hides himself away from me.
What do you do when Jesus doesn’t reveal himself? When you don’t feel his presence? When your prayers aren’t answered? Do your cheers turn to jeers? Or do you decide to have faith anyway? That’s called trust.
Five different times in Scripture we hear these words from God: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Never. Do we believe it? Do we trust it? No matter what? Sometimes our faith actually grows more by our trusting in Christ even when he doesn’t reveal himself!
H ___HOLD___ when it costs me?
Sometimes our faith comes easy. We receive good blessings of relationship with God and men, we experience lots of help and benefit from being a part of the church. But what about when my faith costs me? Will my faith hold then? We read that some of the people in Jesus’ day actually “believed in him” but they didn’t let anyone know...
"Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." John 12:42-43 ESV
Real faith defies the cost. It holds. Real faith becomes the priority over and above what other people think about me because of my faith. My relationship with God is more important to me than any other relationship in my life.
Conclusion: So what about the GOOD NEWS? That’s what the gospel means. Today’s teaching doesn’t seem like good news. To fight the next big thing syndrome, accept the unexpected and disappointing, include the hard lessons, trust when Jesus doesn’t reveal himself, or hold when it costs me... well all that doesn’t sound like fun. It sounds more sacrificial.
And that’s the point of asking these 5 questions during this week between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday. If we are not honest with ourselves and our own selfishness, our own humanness, then it is possible that our cheers could also turn into jeers when the going gets tough and our faith is hard to come by.
Remember, the story doesn’t end with Friday. Hang in there ‘cause Sunday’s coming! Jesus dying on the cross is not the end of the story. It’s not even the beginning. The resurrection of Jesus is what it’s all about! That’s where our faith finds its foundation. Because Jesus is alive, I know my story won’t end with my death either. And that is good news.
But let’s be honest about this Christian faith. We love to celebrate. We love to sing. We love to be on the winning side. To remain faithful between Sundays requires effort and work on my part. AND it requires me (and you) to fully depend upon God for His strength - even when we don’t see Him or know He’s there. We believe Him when He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This week is your chance to ask yourself some hard questions. If you do this, your celebration on Resurrection Sunday next week will be even sweeter. Let’s pray.
