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Isaiah 53:1-12 Luke 19:28-40 Luke 23:1-54
Isaiah 53:1-12 Luke 19:28-40 Luke 23:1-54
Who is God and who are we? On this Palm Sunday I am here to tell you that God is faithful and we are rebellious. God is dependable and we are fickle. God is perfect and we are deeply flawed. Every year at this time especially we celebrate what Jesus did for each and every one of us to close the gap between the creator and the created; to give us a way back to the heart of God.
One way we know the character of God is that he reveals himself in the consistency of his word. The prophet Zechariah wrote (Zechariah 9:9) 500 years before the death of Christ that he would be hailed as the King and ride into town "on a colt the foal of a donkey." The eyewitness account in Luke 19:28-34 tells two of his disciples to, "Go to the village and as soon as you enter you'll find a colt tethered, one that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it. Tell the owner that The Master needs him." Think about this. If you saw someone get into your car and start to drive off, wouldn't you say, "Hey, that's my car. Stop trying to steal my car!" When the owner heard that "The Master" needed his colt, the owner was apparently at peace. We can guess that he had heard of Jesus and was glad to loan his sweet, never-ridden-before colt for what could turn out to be a special occasion.
The prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before the death of Christ that we would be, "healed by his stripes." Prisoners were not necessarily whipped but we learn in Luke 23:16 that Pilate was hoping to release Jesus so he told his soldiers to whip him. The whipping left Jesus with stripes of slashed skin. Isaiah predicted Jesus would be, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was oppressed and brought as a lamb to the slaughter yet he opened not his mouth. He made his grave with the rich in his death. He made intercession for those who rebelled."
Read Isaiah 53:1-12 then read Luke 23:1-54. The eyewitness account matches up with the 700 year-old prophesy. You see that the people demanded Jesus be killed--rejecting him for no proven crime. The soldiers made fun of him, striped him, beat him nearly to death before he had to drag the tool of his execution through the streets to be spit on and yelled at by the same people who a few days before had cheered him. We are fickle, we are rebellious. When we don't get our way we get angry. The ones who cheered Jesus wanted him to over throw the Roman government, remember? Isaiah predicted that a wealthy man bury Jesus in his own tomb and again, 700 years later, this turns into fact.
Who is God? The word of God tells us God can be trusted. It was written over a span between 1,400 and 1,800 years by over 40 writers over 40 generations and it stands as a consistent whole. Who are we? We are rebellious. Even with the Word of God in our hands, we rebel, get angry, act out of our own selfish ideas about what we should be getting out of life and how things are supposed to be.
Let's go back to what is called, The Triumphal Entry. Luke 28:40 tells us that Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt. The people recognize him as the one who had been healing and preaching peace. They threw down their coats and palm leaves to make a royal path and they shouted, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord." The crowd was wild with enthusiasm and the Pharisees told Jesus to get his followers under control. Jesus said back to them, "If they kept quiet, the stones would cry out."
A few days ago I got a call from a woman who told me she was having problems and feeling sad. I told her to go for a walk. I said, look up at the enormous blue sky, the trees, the bright green leaves and notice the flowers. Breathe the fresh air then think about the fact that these are all of God's gifts to you. As the hymn says, "All nature sings and round me rings the music of the sphere." God is good and God wants us happy! She called me back and said that her walk was the medicine that she needed. Jesus said, even the stones cry out in praise of our creator.
We know that the religious Jews turned the Jesus followers into the ones who demanded his execution. This was a big problem for the Roman government. Pilate listened to the Jewish leaders' complaint and could not justify any punishment for Jesus so he passed Jesus up to his boss, Herod. Herod couldn't understand the complaint either so he sent Jesus back to Pilate. Thinking he could use an annual custom of freeing a prisoner as the way to let Jesus go free, Pilate let the people chose between a man who had committed murder and Jesus who had not broken any law. It was as if we were given the choice between Charles Manson and Billy Graham. Both the murderer Barabbas and the preacher Jesus were high visibility guys. Everyone knew their stories so Pilate was sure the people would vote to release Jesus.
Heresy is rebellion against the common belief. So Jesus was accused of being the rebel while Barabbas had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder. Sedition is plotting to overthrown the government! The Jews then considered Jesus' preaching a new way to serve God was more serious than throwing over the Romans.
When the Jews demanded that Jesus be crucified, what was Barabbas thinking? He could not believe his luck. He could not conceive of it, it was too good to be true. He had led a rebellion, killed someone and now he was going to walk free. The prophets said that Jesus would stand quietly and take the blame for being the heretic, the rebel. Jesus would not argue his case, his heart would break with love for the unlovely and he would go to his death perfectly innocent, the perfect lamb of God. Jesus took the punishment meant for Barabbas.
Who are we then? We are Barabbas. What should we be saying today and every day? We should be saying, "Thank you, Jesus. You stood in my place. I am the rebel, I am Barabbas. I cannot believe my luck! This is too good to be true. I am Barabbas. Thank you for my freedom, thank you for your promises, thank you for my resurrection to come. I am Barabbas. You rescued me from the jaws of death. I am Barabbas."
One way we know the character of God is that he reveals himself in the consistency of his word. The prophet Zechariah wrote (Zechariah 9:9) 500 years before the death of Christ that he would be hailed as the King and ride into town "on a colt the foal of a donkey." The eyewitness account in Luke 19:28-34 tells two of his disciples to, "Go to the village and as soon as you enter you'll find a colt tethered, one that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it. Tell the owner that The Master needs him." Think about this. If you saw someone get into your car and start to drive off, wouldn't you say, "Hey, that's my car. Stop trying to steal my car!" When the owner heard that "The Master" needed his colt, the owner was apparently at peace. We can guess that he had heard of Jesus and was glad to loan his sweet, never-ridden-before colt for what could turn out to be a special occasion.
The prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before the death of Christ that we would be, "healed by his stripes." Prisoners were not necessarily whipped but we learn in Luke 23:16 that Pilate was hoping to release Jesus so he told his soldiers to whip him. The whipping left Jesus with stripes of slashed skin. Isaiah predicted Jesus would be, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was oppressed and brought as a lamb to the slaughter yet he opened not his mouth. He made his grave with the rich in his death. He made intercession for those who rebelled."
Read Isaiah 53:1-12 then read Luke 23:1-54. The eyewitness account matches up with the 700 year-old prophesy. You see that the people demanded Jesus be killed--rejecting him for no proven crime. The soldiers made fun of him, striped him, beat him nearly to death before he had to drag the tool of his execution through the streets to be spit on and yelled at by the same people who a few days before had cheered him. We are fickle, we are rebellious. When we don't get our way we get angry. The ones who cheered Jesus wanted him to over throw the Roman government, remember? Isaiah predicted that a wealthy man bury Jesus in his own tomb and again, 700 years later, this turns into fact.
Who is God? The word of God tells us God can be trusted. It was written over a span between 1,400 and 1,800 years by over 40 writers over 40 generations and it stands as a consistent whole. Who are we? We are rebellious. Even with the Word of God in our hands, we rebel, get angry, act out of our own selfish ideas about what we should be getting out of life and how things are supposed to be.
Let's go back to what is called, The Triumphal Entry. Luke 28:40 tells us that Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt. The people recognize him as the one who had been healing and preaching peace. They threw down their coats and palm leaves to make a royal path and they shouted, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord." The crowd was wild with enthusiasm and the Pharisees told Jesus to get his followers under control. Jesus said back to them, "If they kept quiet, the stones would cry out."
A few days ago I got a call from a woman who told me she was having problems and feeling sad. I told her to go for a walk. I said, look up at the enormous blue sky, the trees, the bright green leaves and notice the flowers. Breathe the fresh air then think about the fact that these are all of God's gifts to you. As the hymn says, "All nature sings and round me rings the music of the sphere." God is good and God wants us happy! She called me back and said that her walk was the medicine that she needed. Jesus said, even the stones cry out in praise of our creator.
We know that the religious Jews turned the Jesus followers into the ones who demanded his execution. This was a big problem for the Roman government. Pilate listened to the Jewish leaders' complaint and could not justify any punishment for Jesus so he passed Jesus up to his boss, Herod. Herod couldn't understand the complaint either so he sent Jesus back to Pilate. Thinking he could use an annual custom of freeing a prisoner as the way to let Jesus go free, Pilate let the people chose between a man who had committed murder and Jesus who had not broken any law. It was as if we were given the choice between Charles Manson and Billy Graham. Both the murderer Barabbas and the preacher Jesus were high visibility guys. Everyone knew their stories so Pilate was sure the people would vote to release Jesus.
Heresy is rebellion against the common belief. So Jesus was accused of being the rebel while Barabbas had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder. Sedition is plotting to overthrown the government! The Jews then considered Jesus' preaching a new way to serve God was more serious than throwing over the Romans.
When the Jews demanded that Jesus be crucified, what was Barabbas thinking? He could not believe his luck. He could not conceive of it, it was too good to be true. He had led a rebellion, killed someone and now he was going to walk free. The prophets said that Jesus would stand quietly and take the blame for being the heretic, the rebel. Jesus would not argue his case, his heart would break with love for the unlovely and he would go to his death perfectly innocent, the perfect lamb of God. Jesus took the punishment meant for Barabbas.
Who are we then? We are Barabbas. What should we be saying today and every day? We should be saying, "Thank you, Jesus. You stood in my place. I am the rebel, I am Barabbas. I cannot believe my luck! This is too good to be true. I am Barabbas. Thank you for my freedom, thank you for your promises, thank you for my resurrection to come. I am Barabbas. You rescued me from the jaws of death. I am Barabbas."
