Sermon for Lent One – Sunday March 6, 2022
Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Luke 18:31-34
31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.**

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,
Who was committed to finishing,
The Work of our Salvation to the end,
Dear Fellow Redeemed in His Precious Blood –

“What shall I Do then with Jesus who is called Christ?”

It’s a question that is attributed to Pontius Pilate, Roman Governor of Judea. He asked it of the assembled mob. He gave them two options and asked them to make a decision. He gave them the choice between a hardened criminal, a rebel, whose activities had no doubt brought repercussions upon them.... or a rather pathetic looking, beaten and bloodied teacher from Nazareth in Galilee.

For Pontius Pilate the answer was obvious, even simple – let the beaten Jesus go and send the criminal to “skull hill.” Moreover, when seeing them in the flesh, side by side, who would choose to release a murderer and condemn a man who already had been beaten to a pulp? Pontius Pilate had not considered the hatred of the Religious Leaders for Jesus of Nazareth. They did the unthinkable. They chose Barabbas.

“What shall I Do then with Jesus who is called Christ?”

In a manner of speaking, this was also a question that confronted Jesus’ disciples during the three years that they followed Him as His students.

 When Jesus stepped out of the boat onto the land between Gadara and Gergesa a place where wild demon-possessed men lived...they had to ask themselves: “Am I going to get out of the boat and follow Him...or stay put?”

 When they heard that John the Baptist’s head had been awarded to Herod’s step-daughter they had to ask themselves: “Am I willing to suffer the same fate for following Jesus?”

 When Jesus invited Peter to walk to Him on the water, the grizzled fisherman had to ask himself: “Do I trust Jesus enough to get out of the boat?”

This was a question that Jesus’ disciples had to ask of themselves from day to day. Am I going to do what Jesus asks of me or am I going to turn back to my old life and go my own way?

In a sense, this is also a question we will ask ourselves as we follow Jesus. Am I willing to go with him to death? Am I willing to watch and pray for help to face temptation as He asks me? Am I ready to confess His name before the world...or will self-preservation lead me to deny Him? When pressed, will I condemn Him or stand with Him? Will I go from this place seeking to glorify Him...or myself?

On the Sundays in Lent, we will take this question as our theme:

“What shall I Do then with Jesus who is called Christ?”

We will follow Him and Listen to Him. We will see how we have failed and sinned and mourn our sin and seek God’s Forgiveness. We will also see His Triumph...and being assured of our forgiveness, rejoice. May God the Holy Spirit bless us during this Lenten Season. Amen.

+++++++

If a friend came to you this afternoon and said:
“I’m going to Ukraine, to the city of Kyiv, to fight and to die alongside the people of that country.”

Would you join him? Would you hop a plane for the Ukraine knowing that it meant almost certain death?

All boasting and gravitas aside, I doubt that any of us would go to Ukraine. It’s not that we don’t feel compassion for the people of that country. We just don’t have any personal stake, no personal interest so great that would make us willing to go there and die.

I can’t help but wonder how Jesus’ disciples reacted when He took them aside on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem and said to them (for at least the third time):
...we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

Did any of them consider turning around? Did any of them think in their hearts, “Wait, I didn’t sign up for this.”

When Jesus said, “We are going up to Jerusalem and everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished” did they leap for joy inwardly?

After all, the popular expectation among the Jews of Jesus’ day was that the Messiah would arise like King David and lead the nation to prominence again as a world power...that’s why men like Barabbas gained followers! After years of being trampled on by Gentile world powers (like the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman empires) they expected the Messiah to lead them in triumph against them. They would become powerful again and mock them and treat them with scorn and rise up to trample them.

But after Jesus said, “We are going up to Jerusalem and everything written about the Son of Man... will be accomplished...” He also clarified that their fulfillment would not include the glory so many expected, but shame and suffering!

This wasn’t the first time that Jesus had foretold His suffering, death and resurrection. It was at least the third time.

1) After Peter’s confession that He was the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus had told them (Luke 9:22):

“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

2) When they were in Galilee, He told them again (Matthew 17:22-23, Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:43-45):
“The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

This time Jesus was more specific than before and He revealed something that must have been especially troubling to His Disciples. On the other occasions, Jesus said that the Elders of the Jews, the Chief Priests and the Scribes would reject Him. He said that He would be delivered into the hands of men to be killed.

This time Jesus said it was about to happen in Jerusalem (not generally, on some future day).

Moreover, Jesus told them that He would be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles (unbelievers) and that they would mock him, treat him outrageously, and even spit upon Him. He would be killed – not by his countrymen – but by the unclean, by the Gentiles. They would scourge Him and kill Him.

This was a truly shocking revelation! Many of the Jews expected the Messiah, the Christ would lead them in triumph OVER the Gentiles; yet here Jesus told them that He would be handed over to THEM, mocked, treated outrageously, spit upon, scourged and killed.

What’s more, Jesus said that the prophets had written that this would happen to Him! If they had only known the Scriptures this would not have come as a surprise.

David -- Long beforehand, King David himself, their mental image of a Messiah, had pictured the suffering and death of the Promised Savior, even hinting at His death by means of crucifixion, saying (Psalm 22:16-18):

“For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Isaiah – The Prophet Isaiah had also described the rejection and suffering of the Promised Savior, saying (Isaiah 53:7-9):

“ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”

So, are we surprised to read:

34 But they understood none of these things.
This saying was hidden from them,
and they did not grasp what was said.**

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand Jesus plain words. They had been told again and again that He would suffer, die and rise again from the dead.

What they couldn’t wrap their minds around...was that He would be killed by the Gentiles. How could their great deliverer, their Messiah be defeated by the very people they thought He would vanquish? How in the world could the Scriptures of the Prophets - which they had heard since childhood - foretell such a terrible thing? Is it any wonder that they hid behind locked doors after Jesus’ death and concluded that they had been wrong in thinking He was the Messiah?

It took the Savior Himself to enlighten them, one at a time, after the Resurrection – beginning with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. It was after they finished explaining their disappointment with Jesus’ death that He expressed His disappointment with their inability to learn from the Scriptures, saying (Luke 24:25-27):

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

What’s even more sad is that we look down our noses their lack of understanding...when we have the same scriptures and understand them even less! We, like so many Christians, are satisfied to have a basic 5th Grade knowledge of what Christ has done rather than make every effort to graduate with a full knowledge of the Truth! We arrogantly imagine that we know the scriptures and look down our noses at those we think know less!
We prove our childishness by boasting in ourselves or what our families do for the church. We have done nothing when compared to Christ...and have nothing of which to boast.

We prove that we don’t know the scriptures by living like we can obtain God’s favor by going through the motions. All of this when our God invites us to fill our hearts with His Word and make every effort to understand the depth of His Love.

Whenever we conclude we know the truth, we ought to review what the Holy Spirit directed Paul to write to the Christians in Ephesus among whom he taught for years (Ephesians 3:14-19):

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him. Jesus knew the weakness of His disciples then and now. He never once ‘went through the motions’ or ‘boasted in Himself’ but humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on the Cross. He was willing to do this in order to atone for our sins of pride and boastfulness, for the times we have gone through the motions and played the hypocrite.

Jesus from the cross declared it complete, accomplished, finished – using a form of the same word. He did it for all of us of pure grace and love.

“What shall I Do then with Jesus who is called Christ?”

Shall I go with Him to Jerusalem...knowing that He will be mocked, treated shamefully, spit upon, scourged and killed? Self-preservation says...stay home...or the same thing might happen to you. We will follow Jesus to the cross and grave...and then will rejoice in His glorious resurrection. We will follow because he does this for us. May He also embolden us to tell others the Good News of His amazing love.
Amen.