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“Life
for Christ”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 12:12-26
“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we are entering into the “Holy Week.”
Today is the Sunday where we are being led and allowed to
envision Christ’s entrance into his glory, in other words, his death
and resurrection. We have
been confessing together that we want to experience Christ’s glory
during this time.
A broad representation of human nature is presented in the Biblical
witness to Palm Sunday. Jesus
has his disciples with him, of whom we are told, “His
disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was
glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of
him and had been done.”
Of course, there is the crowd who cut off palm branches, and came out to
celebrate his entrance into Jerusalem, and the annual festivity of the
Jewish Passover. They, at first cry out “Hosanna!”
“Hosanna” literally translates into “Save, I pray!”
It is an exclamation of praise and at the same time, a prayer for
salvation. They are
excitingly proclaiming, “We praise you Jesus, save us!!!”
And yet, by the end of the week, some of these same people in the
crowd will also be calling out loud, “Crucify him!”
There is this crowd, and then there are the Pharisees, the religious
leaders at that time, talking with one another as they watch this
celebration and praise oriented Palm event, saying, “You
see, you can do nothing. Look,
the world has gone after him.”
Their beliefs and desires are that the people should be offering
their devotion to the religious institution run by the Pharisees, not to
this Jesus. And here they
are frustrated because they see they have lost their goal of having all
the people of faith under their control.
Later, in the week, they will come to the conclusion that the
only way to win the people back will be to execute this Jesus.
Jesus is riding into Jerusalem, on a young donkey, to fulfill a prophecy
of Zechariah, who lived about 500 years before Christ, and who was a
priest and prophet in Israel. It
was unique for a prophet to also be a priest, and most of Zechariah’s
prophecies were about the Messiah.
After Jesus rides into Jerusalem, and crowds praise him and cry out for
salvation; after his own disciples watch this, but do not truly
understand what is going on; and after the Pharisees grumble among
themselves because their own self-serving desires are being talking from
them, then some Greeks, people of a different race and religion of the
Israelites, who have come to be a part of this festivity for whatever
reason, ask to see Jesus.
Let me repeat all these historical and human dimensions.
Crowds of people, who have come to be a part of their
religion’s rituals, are giving praising attention to Jesus because
they have heard of his miracles, especially Jesus bringing back to life,
Lazarus. His closest disciples are there, but do not really get it.
The Pharisees are against Jesus because he is contradicting their
self-serving legal system. And
there are people from another race and country who want to meet Jesus.
So, they do not know him, yet.
There is only one person in this whole story that is really in touch
with the truth that “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified…” He is Jesus.
What does that tell us? We
do not have to necessarily identify ourselves with the various groups of
people represented here, though in honesty we might see certain aspects
of each of them in us. We might praise Jesus sometimes and not at other times; we
might want our religious opinions to be authoritative with others; we
probably do not understand spiritual events totally, even when we feel
close to Christ, and there certainly are times when we need and want to
see Jesus.
One of the main witnesses of this passage is something John has Jesus
saying in another verse, “I am the way, the truth,
and the life.”
No matter where we are in our lives; whatever we may be going through,
celebrating, or suffering, Jesus Christ is the truth of our lives.
Every part of who we are and where we are in our lives is related
to Jesus Christ.
His final words in this passage are so important, “Those who love
their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will
keep it for eternal life. Whoever
serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
This is something we are to believe, an attitude that we are to apply to
our lives, and a way to live. That
is not said in order for us to earn God’s love.
God loves us. God
has forgiven us. In Christ
we have been born again and reconciled with God.
We have a new life in Jesus Christ.
And as we come to see that we are included in the relationship
Jesus has with the Father, where Jesus speaks of losing it, he is
revealing to us that when we have come to see the truth of our life in
his life, then we sacrifice our lives here for the sake of others.
The importance of our lives here and now is not that we get all that we
want to make ourselves happy. Life
is not about us doing everything we can here and now to be happy; life
is about being in Christ’s life with the Father.
And as we know that, then we are ready to make reaching out and
ministering to others, so they can know that too, the most important
passion in our lives.
To hate our life in this world is to know that life is about much more
than what this world is trying to offer us.
We live here and now. But,
the truth of our lives is not defined by our circumstances.
The truth of our lives is defined by who Jesus Christ is, and to
see this and say yes to his life is to experience, here and now, eternal
life.
Let us pray…
Amen
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