As we read those Bible verses
tonight, some of you may have wondered why we’re going to Jesus on the cross
already. Aren’t we jumping the gun a little? That’s more the topic
for Good Friday. We first have to go through the Last Supper and Jesus in
the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus being arrested and put on trial and all
that.
Well, we will talk about Jesus on
the cross on Good Friday, and we will talk about at least some of those other
things in the services to come, too. But as we complete our sermon
series, “Jesus in HD”, looking at fully human and fully divine Jesus, we’re
going to look at the reality of Jesus, the fully divine Son of God, being
nailed to a cross to die.
Think of the things that were done
to Jesus. He had already been beaten once, the day before. Now,
they place a crown of thorns on his head. Do you ever think about how
much that would hurt? I mean, you know how sharp thorns can be.
Think about having a whole bunch of them put on your head. And I
doubt they were gently placed on Jesus’ head, either. They were probably
smacked down on Jesus’ head and pressed in to cause as much pain as possible.
And then, of course, they beat him some more.
And all the time they’re doing this,
they’re mocking Jesus, making fun of him in every way possible. They put
a robe on him that was purple, the color reserved for royalty. They
pretended to worship him. Then they spat on him.
I mean, think of it. You would
not treat a dog this way. In fact, forget a dog, you would not even treat
a rat this way. Even if you wanted to kill a rat, you would not torture
it first. They did not just want to kill Jesus. They wanted to make
him suffer. They wanted to make him suffer physically, they wanted to
make him suffer emotionally, they wanted to make him suffer psychologically,
they wanted to make Jesus suffer in every possible way.
It even continued on the cross.
People walked by and insulted Jesus. They said, “He saved others,
but he can’t save himself.” They said, “So! You who are going to
destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross!”
And of course, the irony of the
thing, the thing that probably made this even harder for Jesus to take, is that
he could’ve done exactly what these people were telling him to do. He
could’ve come down from the cross. He could’ve saved himself. After
all, he was the fully divine Son of God. Jesus did not have to allow
these people to do this to him. He could’ve put a stop to it at any
point.
There are lots of amazing things
about the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but this one has to be right
up near the top. That Jesus endured all this suffering when he did not
have to. That Jesus allowed all these things to be done to him, refusing
to use the power he had to stop it.
Have you ever thought about what
would’ve happened if Jesus had not resisted using his power? Suppose,
when Jesus was on the cross, he finally decided he’d had enough of this.
Suppose he’d said, “I’ll show you! I’ll show you all!” And
suppose he’d have come down from the cross and stood among them, all healed,
with not even the slightest bruise or scar.
What would’ve happened, of course,
is that Satan would’ve won. Because that was exactly the sort of thing
Satan had tempted Jesus to do in the desert. If Jesus had come down from
the cross, he would’ve turned his back on God the Father. He would’ve
gone away from God’s plan for salvation. He would’ve substituted some
different plan, a plan that would not have been created by the completely holy
God. And that plan would not have worked. We would not be saved
from the consequences of our sins.
Somehow, Jesus found the strength to
resist. Somehow, Jesus found the courage to go through with it.
Somehow, Jesus managed to follow the plan and the path that God the
Father had laid out for him.
As Christians, we talk all the time
about how we’re followers of Jesus. That’s pretty much the definition of
a Christian, after all. And yet, somehow, we sometimes have the idea that
if we’re followers of Jesus, that’s supposed to make everything go well for us
on earth. We feel like, if we’re followers of Jesus, we’re supposed to
live long and happy lives, we’re supposed to have good relationships, we’re
supposed to have success in our careers, and we’re supposed to have a decent
amount of material goods. And any time we don’t get that, and more
besides, we think, “Hey. What’s going on here? I’m following Jesus.
Why am I not being rewarded for that?”
But none of that stuff is what
following Jesus means. If Jesus had any material goods, we’re not told
about them in the Bible. His career, while he was on earth, was not all
that successful. Some people followed him, some did not, and pretty much
all of them abandoned him at the end. We could say the same of his
relationships with people. He had some people who cared about him, but he
had a lot of people who hated him. In fact, one of this own inner circle
turned on him and brought him down. We don’t know how happy Jesus may
have been while he was on earth, but his life was certainly not a long one.
While we don’t know for sure, tradition says he died at age thirty-three.
Even if that’s not exact, we know it’s pretty close.
Now, I’m not saying that following
Jesus means that we cannot have material goods, or that it means we cannot have
successful careers, or that we cannot have good relationships. Following
Jesus does not mean we cannot live a long and happy life. What I’m saying
is that none of that stuff is guaranteed to us just because we follow Jesus.
We may get that stuff on earth, or we may not. We may get it at
some points of our lives and not at others. God may choose to give us
some or all of that, or God may not. But none of it is what following
Jesus means.
Following Jesus means being willing
to do what Jesus did. Jesus went out to all the people who needed help,
who needed hope, who needed healing, who needed love. Jesus gave them
that help. Jesus gave them that hope. Jesus gave them that healing.
Jesus gave them that love. And if we claim to be followers of
Jesus, that’s what we need to do, too. We need to give people help, and
hope, and healing, and love, in whatever ways we can.
And following Jesus means being
willing to go where Jesus went. Jesus went to the cross. Jesus
allowed all these things to happen to him, even though he could’ve stopped it.
Jesus allowed himself to be treated worse than a rat, allowed himself to
be tortured and made fun of and beaten and killed, because that was what was
necessary for God’s plan to work.
God will probably not ask most of us
what God asked of Jesus. Maybe God will not ask that of any of us.
God might, though. There are people being killed for their
Christian faith all around the world.
But even if we are not asked to give our lives, God will ask us to
do things that are not easy. God will ask us to stand up for our faith
even when it’s not easy. God will, sometimes, ask us to be willing to
risk people making fun of us for our faith. God will, sometimes, ask us
to be willing to risk our jobs because of our faith. God will, sometimes,
ask us to risk losing friends because of our faith. There are all kinds
of things we may be asked to do if we truly follow Jesus.
And we need to be willing to do them. We need to be willing
to do all of them. While God will probably not ask of us what God asked
of Jesus, God could do that. If we truly want to be followers of Jesus,
we need to be willing follow Jesus all the way. Even if that way leads to
a cross.
That’s easy for me to stand up here and say. Could I do it?
I don’t know. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to know,
unless and until we’re placed in that situation. I’m not sure that Jesus
himself knew whether he could do it until the time came. After all,
that’s part of what that prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was about.
Jesus resisted the temptation to use his divine power. Jesus
was willing to do what he did not have to do. Jesus followed the plan of
God the Father. Jesus followed that plan all the way to the cross.
If we are truly followers of Jesus, we need to be willing to
follow Jesus to the cross. As we enter the final days of Lent, let’s
think about that.
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