Jesus Journey to the Cross Part 2: Jesus Pushes Toward the Cross Recap and Introduction

Transcription

1 Jesus Journey to the Cross Part 2: Jesus Pushes Toward the Cross Recap and Introduction In his unforgettable introduction of Jesus Christ, the apostle John speaks of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14); and in a lesser known introduction, Simeon prophesies that Jesus is appointed for the fall and rise of many, and for a sign to be opposed, to the end that the thoughts from many hearts will be revealed (Luke 2:34-35). I think that many Christians today have accepted a distant, impersonal, and comfortable gospel in place of the intimate, personal, and therefore often uncomfortable gospel of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God became a man and dwelt among ordinary men and women, and His very presence brings about the fall and rise of many, for their hearts are revealed before Him. As the writer of Hebrews explains, For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:12-13). And for this reason Christ was appointed for a sign to be opposed - the rugged Roman cross where the worst criminals were publicly humiliated and executed. Why would Jesus Christ be so brutally put to death? His short ministry was jam-packed with the sick being healed, demoniacs being cured, the blind being given sight, the lame walking, even the dead were being raised to life. If Jesus is truly God, why would we not immediately fall in love with the kind of God whose heart is this compassionate and loving toward us? Not only this, but why would we ruthlessly beat and kill Him? Why would we insist on Jesus dying the kind of death we would wish to see on the most heartless, cruel, and deranged criminals throughout history and the world? William MacDonald explains that [Jesus ] very presence on earth proved a tremendous rebuke to sin and unholiness, and thus brought out the bitter animosity of the human heart. Jesus did not die because of the wonderful and compassionate deeds which He did. He was murdered because His presence among us threatened us so badly that we had to kill Him. When God became man in Jesus Christ, our hearts were revealed before Him; and we so hated the exposure that we killed its source in the most brutal and cruel way that we knew how. And yet in that very act, the God who loves us, the very one we were putting to death, was at work to bring us back to Himself in spite of and in the midst of our barbaric cruelty and hate. That s the good news of the gospel - Jesus Christ entered into our dark, cruel, twisted, sinful humanity, and it was there that He reconciled us to the Father. So, how did Jesus end up at the cross? Was it a deliberate action on His part, or was He a victim of circumstance? A brief look at Jesus ministry and journey to the cross, I believe, reveals that He knew exactly what He was doing and why. He came for a purpose. From the very beginning, Jesus sets His face toward the cross in order to set us free from sin and draw us back into fellowship with God. But this comes at tremendous cost to Him and, quite frankly, to us as well. The presence of Jesus, Immanuel ( God with us ), comes as light into the darkness; and the darkness hates and reacts violently to its exposure by the light. Through His person and His actions, Jesus presses people to make a decision concerning Him. And the further He goes into His ministry, the harder He presses. The harder He presses, the more hostile the reactions against Him become, until at last He is nailed to the cross.

2 Jesus Pushes Toward the Cross Reading through the various gospel accounts of Jesus, it becomes evident that reactions to Jesus become more extreme the closer He comes to the cross. In the beginning, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in which He identifies with each of us and representatively repents on our behalf before God. The Spirit then descended and remained upon Him and sent Him into the wilderness where He was tempted. When He returns from the wilderness, He does so in the power of the Spirit and then launches into His public ministry (Luke 3:21-22, 4:1-2, 14). As He heals and teaches and calls disciples, there are a variety of reactions to Him. Many love His teaching; others question His authority. The poor and afflicted flock to Him for their healing; others despise His healing work, especially when it involves the Sabbath. Crowds follow Jesus wherever He goes, but He only entrusts Himself to those closest to Him because many are seeking what He offers without seeking Him (Matthew 8:18-22; Mark 10:17-22). As His hour draws closer, Jesus explicitly reveals the hearts of everyone around Him. The more explicit He becomes, the more sin is exposed for what it truly is; and those exposed determine to murder the One exposing them at their deepest level. Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6 and Luke 13:10-17) Throughout the gospels, few things infuriate and expose the religious leaders more than when Jesus heals people on Sabbath days. Stop and think about that. Jesus heals a person from being lame or blind or deformed, and how do the religious leaders react? They re furious! How dare you heal someone on the Sabbath! Now their hearts are exposed. They don t care one bit about the person with an infirmity. Their concern is with outward conformity to laws which they think maintain their national identity. Then Jesus comes along with another agenda, one in which their identity is not in outward laws but in conformity to Jesus Himself. Mark 3:1-6 He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, Get up and come forward! And He said to them, Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill? But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. Remember Simeon s words to Mary: Jesus was appointed for the fall and rise of many to the end that the thoughts from many hearts would be revealed. And therefore, He was also appointed for the cross. Here is the explicit exposure of the heart. The Pharisees were watching Jesus because they wanted to accuse Him. And what were they watching for? They were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath day. Notice the irony of Jesus question, Is it lawful to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill? Jesus, of course, did good and saved a life on the Sabbath. The Pharisees did harm and conspired to kill a life on the Sabbath. No wonder Jesus was so angered by their hardness of heart and their hypocrisy! They

3 couldn t even answer the question! When asked if it was lawful to do good or harm, they gave no answer! That s why an irritated Jesus pretty much says, That s it! Stretch out your hand! healing the man. It s almost as if Jesus is telling the Pharisees, Alright, what are you going to do with that? Their hearts were completely exposed, and they conspire to kill Him. Luke 13:10-17 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your sickness. And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day. But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day? As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious thing being done by Him. Of course his opponents were being humiliated! A woman had just been delivered from a horrible deformity and was glorifying God, and how did the religious leaders respond? They were indignant. They weren t glorifying God because of her deliverance. They didn t care about her. He shouldn t have done this on the Sabbath! How does Jesus respond? There s no better day than the Sabbath on which to be delivered from bondage. The woman and the crowd rejoiced and glorified God. The religious leaders stood there with their hearts completely exposed for everyone to see. And they were rightly humiliated. It s important to realize that Jesus knew exactly what He was doing anytime He did anything. He very well could have healed those people on any other day of the week, but He didn t; He chose the Sabbath. Why? Jesus is deliberately pushing toward the cross. Remember, God became man, the Word became flesh, for one purpose: to reconcile us into fellowship with Himself in and through Jesus Christ. How? By bearing our sin upon Himself and crucifying it on the cross. He had to go to cross - He was appointed for the sign to be opposed - and so He pushed toward it. Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead (Read John 11:45-50, 12:9-11) Perhaps the heaviest push Jesus made toward the cross came when He raised Lazarus from the dead. He had left Judea not too long prior to this because the Jews were seeking to kill Him because of His claims of deity: I and the Father are One (John 10:30). Waiting for two days after hearing the news of Lazarus sickness, Jesus decided to return again to Judea. Even his disciples knew what this would mean. Thomas told his companions, Let us also go, so that we may die with Him (John 11:16). The disciples knew this meant death; and Jesus knew that it would mean His death. But He is pushing toward the cross; and raising Lazarus from the dead is

4 going to bring people to an ultimate decision concerning who He is. We know what happened to Lazarus, but let s look at the exposure of the hearts which Jesus again revealed when He raised Lazarus from the dead: Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. But one of the them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish. (John 11:45-50) Jesus was appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel. Many of the Jews who saw what Jesus had done believed in Him; they put their trust in Him and in His agenda. But others held tightly to the agenda of the Pharisees and went to tell them what Jesus had done. Imagine that conversation! Hey guys, He just brought someone back from the dead. What are we going to do now? And what do they decide? Ironically, Caiaphas calls them ignorant for not seeing that it is necessary for Jesus to die for the people and save the nation! Lazarus was now causing no small stir among the Jews. Publically raising someone from the dead who had been dead for four days forced everyone around to make a decision about Jesus. Was He the Messiah? If so, their agenda had failed, and they must now put their trust in Him. If not, He is an agitator who is going to bring destruction on the Jews by calling down the wrath of Rome. The people had to make a decision about Him. Many believed in Him, but many were being exposed by Him. As the exposure became more extreme, so did the violence in reaction to Him: The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. (John 12:9-11) So now, not only must Jesus die, but they must kill Lazarus as well! This is the exposure of the human heart of which Simeon spoke. In the name of keeping the Law, these religious leaders are blatantly breaking the most obvious ones and doing what Israel has always done to the prophets whom God has sent them. And Jesus calls them out and exposes their hearts on this point. The Parable of the Vine-growers There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the

5 first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to the those vine-growers? They said to Him, He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons. When the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. (Matthew 21:33-41, 45) They knew that He was talking about them! Theses vine-growers beat and killed the slaves sent to them; and when the beloved son is sent, they kill him too. They knew what He was saying. As Thomas Torrance puts it: They knew that he was the Messiah but were willfully ignorant, and were so enraged at the discovery of their innermost intentions to kill Jesus that they deliberately hastened the execution of their crime, doing their wickedest utmost to force the hand of the kingdom to serve their own desires. He had exposed them to themselves, they saw it clearly, but that did not keep them from following through on their wicked plan. They would not put their trust in Him. They would not surrender their agenda and submit to His. He simply did not fit into their nice, comfortable lives. Sometimes He doesn t fit into the way we want our lives to be. Torrance observes: They were ready for a Messiah, in the abstract, but not for such a Messiah as Jesus was in reality. The great stumbling block to them was Christ s threat as Messiah to interpenetrate their very existence in such a way as to cut across their cherished ideas and desires and ambitions. They wanted Christ to subserve the notion of their own religiousness and were furious when he touched them at the point of their religious pride... They were ready for a Messiah in the abstract. And so are we. Like the religious Pharisees, we desire a Messiah who can bring us freedom from oppression and restore peace and stability in our lives. But when that oppression is our prideful sin, especially when it s a religious kind of pride, we have no desire to be liberated from that. I want to keep my agenda and live my life, thank you very much. If you want to offer political and social peace and cast off the oppressive hand of government and social injustices, that s fine. But if you re going to penetrate into my heart, into the very depths of my soul, and expose my pride and sin, then I don t want anything to do with your agenda, salvation, or kingdom. No way. We ll take an abstract Messiah, not the kind of Messiah as Jesus is in reality. The Abstract Messiah vs. Jesus Christ, the Messiah in Reality Andrew Purves talks about the importance and potential danger of abstract nouns. They are great things, he says, except when they become detached from the Lord Jesus Christ. Love, grace, Messiah - abstract nouns. But they have a name. Love has a name. Grace has a name. Messiah has a name. His name is Jesus. What happens when the abstract, what we want it to be, no longer fits the reality? We either cling desperately to the abstract idea, or we must turn to the man Jesus Christ and accept Him as He is.

6 The religious establishment refused to accept the Messiahship of Jesus. He was not the kind of Messiah they wanted. They refused to accept that He is the reality of the kingdom of God. Jesus claimed that the true identity of Israel was to be found in Him. The Pharisees sought for this identity in outward conformity to Sabbath laws, food laws, circumcision, and Temple worship. Jesus redefined all of these. The abstract did not line up with the reality, so the religious establishment plotted to kill Jesus. And they did so, partially, in the name of preserving Israel from the threat of the Romans. But Jesus knew better, and in His unfathomable love, it moved Him to tears. As he came near and saw [Jerusalem], He wept over it, saying, If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. (Luke 19:41-44 NRSV) To their own ruin, they did not understand the salvation of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Their own agenda would result in their destruction. Their kingdom would easily be crushed by Rome. Jesus agenda would result in the preservation of the true Israel. His kingdom would thrive and spread, even amongst the worst Rome could throw at it. Yet all the while, Jesus heart is to save the ones who are resisting Him: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! (Matthew 23:37-38). N.T. Wright offers an interesting perspective on this verse. He suggests, The picture is of a farmyard fire; the hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and when the fire has run its course, there will be found a dead hen scorched and blackened, but with live chicks under her wing. Jesus seems to be indicating his hope that he would take upon himself the judgment that was hanging over the nation and city. That s the Messiah in reality. Conclusion Throughout His life and His ministry, Jesus is bearing our sin upon Himself, and He must take that sin to the cross. He could have lived the quiet life in Nazareth as a carpenter. He probably could have become a great teacher in the local synagogue. But that is not what He came to do. He came to deal with sin in order to reconcile us and bring us back into proper relationship with the Father. Therefore, He had to push toward the cross, because it is there that He will absorb the full force of sin and death. And by absorbing everything it has to throw at Him, He defeats it! Jesus took the sin that would otherwise forever separate me from God and used it to forever bind me to Himself. He suffered the blows, the nails, the ridicule, the mocking, the flogging, the cross...death; and He made them the means of our salvation, of my salvation. But before He endured this excruciating pain and death, He was alone in a garden, struggling. If the cross in a window into the heart of God, the Gethsemane is a window on a different wall looking into the same room. Next week, Lord willing, we will get a glimpse into

7 the heart of God by looking at Jesus in agony before His death. And then enters the glorious resurrected Jesus! Benediction Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)