SCRIPTURE: 31:9-16
TEXT: 9Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. THEME: Jesus’ love for us leads to the passion. INTRODUCTION Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, before the passover, was a wonderful event. The love he has for all culminates in this act of passion and triumph. What greater time to be in Jerusalem, the City of God, than when God’s might over the ruler of the Super Power Egypt, is commemorated? Once an enslaved people, God, through Moses navigates their rescue with a series of plagues and a final feat that strikes dear to the heart of all. An evil Hope was snuffed out, while hope in God was spurred on. Being more trouble than they are worth, Pharaoh releases Israel in a mass exodus out of Egypt. This liberating love that God has for Israel is displayed in Jesus’ life and ministry. Passionate for people and their lives, he enters Jerusalem as a sign on their door post, to signal death to passover. The shouts of ‘Hosanna’ are strangely appropriate, but in a different way from what the crowd was thinking. SCRIPTURE The Psalm that is the text for this sermon, is credited to King David. It is a lament of love, that has brought him to this place of suffering. This Psalm is a description of someone who loves: I am in distress, my eyes waste with grief, my soul wastes with grief, my body wastes with grief, and then there is sorrow. My life is spent in sorrow. My years are spent with sighing. My strength fails me because of misery. My bones waste away. This is not unusual, as we all have had this experience in our lives, especially when our desires for the very best for someone else are thwarted, fail, or are unappreciated. When we have loved and lost, When we have opened ourselves up with a caring beyond ourselves and things didn’t happen in the way we expect. We are scorned by our adversaries, scorned by our enemies, scorned by those who hold grudges against us, scorned by those who hold a different opinion, scorned by those whose goals are for greed and not humanity. We are a horror to our neighbors, We are an object of dread to those we approach. We have worn out our welcome and the patience of those we know. This is how we feel. This is how we feel we make others feel, when we are around. This is how we feel we are perceived. This is what makes us feel like we are pariahs. We become ignored, discounted, forgotten, marginalized, overlooked, unheard and invisible. We feel useless, like a broken vessel. Rubbish. We are so down on ourselves. We feel that others are conspiring against us. We are paranoid as our world seems to be closing in on us. We call upon God to be gracious to us. We call upon the passionate love of God when there is nothing more that we can do. We call upon God and rest in whatever God has in store for us. We trust that whatever may happen God will journey with us. We trust God will Deliver us, just as God has done with our ancestors of faith and delivered them from enslavement, God will deliver us from those entanglements of dismay, from those looming distresses and from our fears of impending disaster. God will Shine love on us. We will see the signs of God’s activity in our lives. These signs will remind us of promises small and great. That God is real and pulling for us now. That our relationship with God is beloved, that we are children of God, heirs, and saved. In the setting of the Holy Week of Jesus’ life. We cannot help but look upon this week of passion. Jesus could have escaped, but choose to teach, minister, fellowship, celebrate, pray, love us and suffer this love for us to his end on the cross. The path of suffering, understanding and compassion is displayed in Jesus’ last few days. All of this adds to the depth, value, and sacrifice of God’s heart for us. APPLICATION The Passionate Love, God has for us, is an anchor in our despair. When has God held us in the mists of despair and kept us afloat? The Passover is the celebration of God’s victory over Egypt. An inaugural supper sets the stage for the release of God’s faithful, with blood on the door post as a sign for the spirit of death to ‘Passover’. The commemoration of this event, is a dangerous time in the life of Pilate’s political career. How he handles this event, with the radical rabbi Jesus, and the crowds he incites, will show Rome what kind of stuff he was made of. Which may lead to an appointment closer to Rome. So, he has a parade and processes into Jerusalem. Jesus in Jerusalem at Passover could be just what King Herod needed, to boost his political aspirations. If Pilate slips up with his handling of this volatile situation, Herod could be next in line to take over. It is not out of the question for the King of Judea to be the Roman Governor of this area too. So, Herod has his own parade into Jerusalem. It’s good for him to be here waiting in the wings just in case. Jesus could jeopardize the sweet deal the High Priest Caiaphas has negotiated with the Roman Empire that allows them to run the temple with a certain amount of liberties, just as long as they Keep their people in line. Be careful, don’t rock the boat, there is a fine balance of liberty and oppression that they walk. If all goes well Rome will not need to be concern with this little remote region on their eastern border. But Jesus’ ministry of love, threatens them all, as his humble procession enters Jerusalem with waving palms and shouts of ‘Hosanna’. Caiaphas tried to silents their noise, but Jesus’ crowd is too excited. The events of this week will converge into a stormy end. The palm waving crowds will turn into an ugly mob yelling for death instead of salvation, filled with despair instead of hope, and having distain for Jesus instead of seeing the glory of God transfiguring. But this does not diminish Jesus’ passionate love for us all. Rather, like the psalmist, Jesus’ love holds despair, grief, misery and abandonment and takes them to the presence of God, asking for grace and trusting in whatever the events of this week maybe. Jesus will live love, knowing God is with him. CONCLUSION Movies like the “King of Kings” “The Robe”, “Jesus of Nazareth”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “the Passion of Christ”, “The Thorn”, show the paradox of a loving God who sacrifices the beloved Son as a payment of our sins so we can live. Influenced by the theological theories of their day. In these movies the only way we have to understand Christ’s self-sacrificing ways is by our throwing all of our sins upon Jesus like a scapegoat and having him die in our place. But more true to our daily lives of love, are the noble sacrifice we make for others, just because we love them and are willing to do what we can so that they can live a better life. The love portrayed in Psalm 31 is the cause of distress. God sees us as good, and capable of living a better life, so comes to our world in the flesh to show us a better way to live. Love that sacrifices in order to bring blessing. In the end is a supper, like that of the Passover which culminates in a live lived liberated from the fear of death, that trusts in God, and God’s steadfast love that suffers on the cross. There are those who want greatness, at the exclusion and expense of others, while Jesus’ love desires greatness for all, with no exceptions, and is willing to suffer to accomplish it.
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