For the Palm
Sunday Procession: Luke 19:28-40
Processional Hymn:
All Glory Laud and Honour
Isaiah 50:4-9 Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 23:1-49
Triumphal
Following
The statement of
Mahatma Gandhi, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are
not like your Christ.” is well known and often quoted to point out how far we
fall short of exhibiting the Person of the one we profess to follow. But we
forget that there have been many followers of Jesus that have had a very close
walk with their Lord and have lived lives very much like His. Just think of the
origin of the name “Christian” – it was first used in Antioch in the 1st
Century to describe people who resembled the one they proclaimed. They were so
much like Him that the unbelievers mockingly called them “little Christs” or
Christ-ians.
But what was it
that they saw and heard? A dear friend of ours recently said that for much of
his Christian life he had thought that being like Jesus only referred to his personal
spiritual life…but that recently he realised that being like Jesus was also
doing what Jesus did publicly in every day life…walking like Jesus
walked…loving like Jesus loved. This realization revolutionised the way he
lives out his Christian witness today.
I thought about
this when I read the readings for today. Especially the reading from Isaiah:
“The sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled
or turned away. I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those
who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.
Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have
set my face like a stone, DETERMINED TO DO HIS WILL. And I know that I will not
be put to shame.”
Jesus was
determined to do the will of God regardless of the cost of such obedience.
This is echoed in
Philippians where we read that “He gave up His divine privileges; He took the
humble position of a slave and was born as a human being (even though He was
God!). (Then) When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience
to God and died a criminal’s death on the cross.”
It is the will of
God to save the world from sin and Satan…it is not His will that anyone be
consigned to eternal damnation (2 Peter 3:9)…He loves the world and wants to
reconcile it to Himself…but the only way He could do this was if the penalty
for sin…for disobedience…for rebellion…was paid in full and that penalty was
death. But such a payment could only be done by a human being without sin…and
as sin was passed on from parent to child since our forebears disobeyed God’s
command in the garden, no human was sinless and therefore no human could make
the payment as they bore the punishment themselves.
Until Jesus was
born of a virgin through the power of the Holy Spirit…He was the first human
being since Adam and Eve to enter this world without sin…and so He could pay
the penalty by dying a sinless death for the sinful.
That was the will
of the Father and Jesus loved the Father so much that He was willing to pay it.
Unlike Adam and Eve, He would be obedient even if it cost Him everything. Hear
His agonising words in another garden: “Father, if You are willing, please take
this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.”
And so He became obedient even unto death on the cross…
But there is far more
to Jesus than His obedient substitutional death and His subsequent resurrection!
In fact His entire life was one of obedience because He wanted to reveal to
people the character and nature of God…that God was not distant but near and
truly interested in every aspect of our lives, even knowing something as
insignificant as the number of hairs on my head!
Jesus entered into
people’s lives right where they were…in the market places, in the fields, in
the towns and villages, in the fishing boats, and in their homes. He was not
removed from them…He did not expect them to come to Him, but rather He went to
them, showing them that He valued them enough to share Himself with them. With
Jesus there was no aloofness, or shunning, or distance. He saw the image of God
in everyone and treated them with love and respect and He saw the preciousness
of each one through the eyes of the Father…
As such Jesus embodied
the Great Commandment. He loved God with His whole being – to such an extant
that He never said or did anything unless He had seen or heard it from the
Father. He never elevated Himself in the eyes of others – no, rather He pointed
them to the Father…modelling for us the way we ought to live in humility
regardless of our status or socio-economic standing.
He also loved His
neighbours…all His neighbours…not just those of His own tribe and language. He
loved them enough to give His life for theirs. He forgave even those who spat
on Him, beat, Him, reviled Him, accused Him falsely, humiliated Him, mocked
Him, and murdered Him. Even as He hung on that awful cross in agony, He was
concerned for those who watched Him as well as those dying alongside Him. He
comforted the one who confessed Him as Lord with the words we all will hear
when we stand on the threshold of eternity: “I assure you, today you will be
with Me in paradise.”
In His obedience Jesus
also modelled true humanity…we were created to live in harmony with our
Creator, but together with our forebears we rebel and struggle against His will
as we are self-centred not God centred or other-person-centred. Jesus lived a life of complete and utter
obedience to the will of the Father and thereby revealed to us the kind of life
we ought to live if we are to be fully human.
But perhaps the
most outstanding quality of Jesus’ life was that He demonstrated intentionality…He
knew Who He was and where He was going and what He was doing. In every action
He exhibited intentionality…every word, every look, every touch, every meeting,
every visitation…all was done intentionally. As I have said before, Jesus only
ever did what He saw the Father do and only ever spoke what He heard the Father
say. He waited on the Father in prayerful dependence. He followed the lead of
the Holy Spirit in Him. He knew the Word and embodied it. His every word and
deed was aimed at exalting the Father in the eyes of those around Him. Every
relationship was purposeful…
Following Jesus
embraces this manner of life…because following Jesus…truly following Jesus
means we are to walk as He walked…obey as He obeyed…behave as He behaved…live
as He lived…love as He loved…intentionally. No, this will not be easy…we too
will be expected to die to our own will and wishes…but in submitting to the
will of the Father we will find our true humanity and true fulfilment.
So, as you come to
participate in the feast that portrays the character of God so perfectly, ask
the Holy Spirit to help you to follow Jesus as He triumphed over sin and Satan
through His humble obedience to God…even to the breaking of His body and the
shedding of His blood…for the life of the world.
© Johannes W H van
der Bijl 2019-04-10