Scripture: John 14:1-14
How many of us have been asked a question such as this: “If you could talk to any one in the world from any period of time, whom would you want to talk to?” It is a wonderful what if question, as most what if questions are. What if that happened instead of this? The problem with the, “what if,” question is that you can speculate all you want but it will never change. There would be countless people that I would want to speak with. There are theologians that I would like to talk to just to understand how or why they have come to their conclusions when the extent of church history prior to them looked at things totally different. I would love to talk to the disciples, to hear of their experiences, I would love to talk with Jesus face to face. I would like even like to have a conversation with people that are presently living, the president, maybe even the pope. One answer to that question that I bet most of us have not given is to talk with our future great grandchildren, because it would be very interesting to know how the choices I have made today affects them in the future. The problem is that I cannot travel through space and time, and I do not know anyone famous, so it is highly unlikely that I will have an opportunity to speak to anyone like that, but there is a way to get to know someone that we do not have personal access to. I can get to know the saints of history by reading accounts of their lives or reading their writings. I can listen to their stories through the mouths of their descendants or even their students. There are biographies, interviews, speeches, scholars and many other avenues where we can begin to develop an understanding of who or what people are about. With all the books and interviews an issue remains, without personal contact with an individual can we really know who they are, or are we only seeing them through the eyes of someone else.
If you were to read a couple of biographies of a famous historical figure you would quickly find that the image of the person created by the author reflects what they want us to know about that particular person. The authors have a slant; they are interpreting the person’s life through their own eyes.
In today’s reading of scripture Jesus is speaking to the disciples just prior to His trial and execution. He is telling them how terrible things will be in the near future, that even His most outspoken supporter will deny that he even knows Him three times before the dawning of the next day. But He urges them to stay strong. Not to let their hearts be troubled.
If I were just told that I was going to be an absolute failure it would be very difficult for me to not be worried about the near future. If I were going to take a job and as I was beginning the training the boss were to tell me you are going mess up completely how could be excited about my future security?
But Jesus does not just leave them hanging. He reminds them that they believe in God. They know the history of their people and how God had taken them up out of Egypt, how He had given them the promised land, and how even after they had turned away from Him, He had brought them back to the land. They believed in God. They knew that God was their God. In a short little statement Jesus is reminding them that Israel failed God, and that they too will fall short, but that they should continue to believe. “You have and still believe that God did and does mighty works,” Jesus is telling them, “believe also in Me.”
As I have studied this passage over the past week this first verse really stuck with me. This is really the entire gospel wrapped up in one verse, because what do we know about God? Like all personalities everything we know about God or think we know about God has been transmitted to us through a cultural context, and through the interpretations of people throughout history. It is often difficult to admit that maybe our understanding of faith may not be exactly correct. But in this one verse Jesus has basically summed up the entire Gospel. If you believe in God, believe in Jesus too.
This is a bold statement really. We may not understand just how bold this statement is because we are reading it after 2000 years of interpretation through people totally devoted to Jesus, but on that particular day in that moment, to most people of Israel Jesus was not seen as God, but as a prophet. I am not saying that the 2000 years of interpretation is erroneous, I am only saying that because of the progression through history and the continuous study and practice of faith we can sometimes forget that a statement such as this was very risky. In that culture you did not even say the name of God because mankind was not worthy of it. If one were to speak that name they were seen as using His name in vain, and being sinful. But Jesus was not only speaking of God in a very relational sense, but also saying that He was equal.
You believe in God, believe also in Me. What do we know about God? For thousands of years the Jewish people have believed in God. They have an understanding of God, how He responds to humanity and what is required of mankind to find favor with God. Jesus through his ministry challenges this understanding of God in many ways. If we were to just read the Sermon on the Mount we see challenge after challenge. Jesus would say, “You have heard it said…” fill in the blank, “but I say…” What he was getting at is that after thousands of years of study and practice even the chosen race still knew very little about God. To be honest how could they understand God? How is it possible to build an understanding of a being that is so beyond our comprehension? So they would study, they would examine the books of law and history of their people, they would come to conclusions, and they would develop around those conclusions a practical lifestyle of righteousness. They believed in God, but did they know God?
This is the very definition of Theology, or the study of God. It is a constant study, examination, and formation of theories about God. But depending on the information we begin the study with we can come out with a concept of God that could be completely wrong. In many ways theology is a dry pursuit, it is as if we are looking at scripture like it were a frog in biology class. Many of us have pretty much the same response, we are afraid to touch it, so we simply accept the word of others and assume they have done things correctly. But at least in biology we can see what it is we are studying. When it comes to theology we have just the abstract. So it is very easy to get tied up in areas, bogged down and stuck into thinking in certain ways. We see God as judge, creator, king, and it becomes very difficult to see God as something outside our ways of thinking.
This is where the various reformations of faith have occurred. Someone challenged the traditional understandings of God and after much debate and persecution we moved forward and gained a different perspective on God. Jesus was the beginning of a reformation of the Jewish faith, but it went far beyond just a simple reformation.
Jesus says, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen him.” To know God we must look at the revelations God has given us. Jesus is the most complete revelation of God to humanity. Jesus came down from heaven to be born of Mary, he lived among us to teach and show us what life with God truly was. Throughout the Gospels Jesus continuously challenges the traditional understanding of God and shows us something more complete. If you see Jesus you see God. Jesus is the Word of God; Jesus is the Light of God. These concepts are very important; if we move away from these we skew our understanding of God. We again get focused on one aspect and make a claim about God that may not be complete. And we can begin to move away from God.
The prophets of the Old Testament warned Israel of these things. Often the faithful would get so wrapped up in certain concepts, mainly the law, that they forgot something else, like mercy. Or maybe they focused so much on mercy and grace that they forgot that God is a jealous God. What Jesus did is he showed us life with God. A balanced perfect life with God, the perfect balance between worship, prayer, and service. If we want to know God we should first look at Jesus.
This changes things up for the faithful. What do we see Jesus doing and teaching in the gospels? How does Jesus respond in situations? How do we respond? Even when Jesus is telling the disciples they are going to fail he does not let them dwell there. Yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but God is saying do not let your hearts be troubled…Believe.
This concept of belief is one that is very deep. It moves beyond just thinking or having knowledge that something is true and goes into trust, and then it moves from trust to entrust. To believe is not just in the head, but it is in the heart. It then flows out of the heart and spills over to others. I bring up those three concepts because they are very important. Faith begins with an acknowledgement in our minds, I believe because I see. Then there is one step more to the idea, “I will believe even if I do not see,” this is trust. The concept of entrust is a bit more difficult. To entrust is to let go of control and allow something that is important to us be controlled by someone else. When we place money in a bank or invest it in a market of some sort, we are entrusting our money, our wealth to someone else. This third step of belief or faith is the area that we have trouble, because it is here that we risk losing ourselves completely.
This concept of entrusting completely is what moves Christianity away from other religions, even away from the Jewish faith. Anyone can have belief in the knowledge part of faith. Universities are filled with knowledge, and they release out into the world people with knowledge. But there can be professors of faith that have not moved beyond knowledge. With trust we have to start walking, our knowledge begins to have action with it. With trust we begin to see things like discipline, if you pray you will have an answer. If you do certain rituals you will find favor. This is where most religions stop, because this is where we as humans still have control in faith. But entrust is a concept that many rarely see. To entrust, one must have knowledge and discipline but they also have to release and risk. Peter had knowledge; he had followed Jesus for three years and listened to the teachings. He had trust, he followed Jesus wherever he went, he participated in the disciplines that Jesus taught, and he even went out to minister in Jesus’ name. But when the time came to risk, Peter, the rock, would deny Jesus three times in one night. Peter, the rock, could not yet entrust his life in Jesus. Jesus said to him and the others, “do not let your heart be troubled…believe.” He is saying start it over, go back to knowledge, go back to the disciplines, and then take that step again to entrust. It is a cycle, every day we must not only believe with our mind, and trust that God will provide, but also entrust every aspect of our lives in Jesus. And when we fail Jesus says to us believe.
But what exactly do we believe in? There are countless theologies out there. Many of us believe that there are basically two major camps of theology, but that is a gross under estimation. Each of these theologies fail in some way, because every theory of theology is at best man’s attempts to explain God. Many begin with creation and then try to systematically explain everything else. Some may being with humanity, others science, some philosophy. But where is Christ? Jesus must be in the center of theology because it is in him that we see the Father. It is through Jesus that we can see the loving God even when the plagues are hitting Egypt. It is through Jesus that we can understand the Acts of the Apostles. It is through Jesus that we can begin to understand our own humanity and how we should react to those around us that have a different understanding of life. Jesus is central. It is Jesus that brought God to mankind, it is Jesus that lifts mankind to God, it is through Jesus that the Spirit of God flows and it is in Jesus that we can entrust our lives to the Spirit of God today. It is Jesus, in whom the Old Testament was fulfilled and Jesus our future is held. The Christian life is well beyond religion, because it is entrusting our life and our hope in something we have little or now control, it is giving all we have mind, body and spirit to Jesus. It is placing our entire life into the hands of Jesus with the hope that we will have a dwelling with God.
As we enter into a time of open worship, and communion with God I encourage each of us to consider just where we stand on that spectrum of belief. I also want us to ask ourselves a “what if” question, what if we were to fully entrust our meeting, and our lives and the lives of those around us into the hands of Jesus.
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
One of the worst feelings I have ever felt is not knowing where the path I am on is going to lead. When we are children we seem to have dreams that reach to the stars and year-by-year the dreams seem to become less broad and more confined. Each year the dreams begin to look more reasonable and less fantastic. Occasionally something happens that gives us a chance to dream again, but often we get stuck in a rut of responsibility. I know many of you have felt this at some point in your life, at times the dreams are taken away because of the infamous glass ceiling, other times we just simply stop dreaming because it is easier to settle.
I want us to remember our dreams for a moment. The dreams that caused us to reach out in our lives, the dreams that caused us to fall in love and to have children, I want us to remember the dreams that each of us have had but have possibly pushed to the back of our minds because they were not practical. I also want us to remember just what caused us to leave those dreams behind in the first place.
I know it seems to be a weird exercise. It may possibly cause us to become a bit uncomfortable. I want us to consider this because dreams are important, often those dreams we once had were movements of the Sprit of God directing us to walk farther down the road. It becomes uncomfortable for us to consider these unrealized dreams because it causes us to consider for a moment that we may have been grieving the Spirit of God.
This is just the sort of feeling that I imagine these two disciples of Jesus were having. They were people with dreams and ideas about their future. But all of a sudden the dreams they had evaporated before their eyes. They saw in the man, Jesus, the freedom of Israel. They had become His disciples and were with the others in the upper room mourning the loss of their friend. They had seen Jesus hung on the tree, they had witnessed Him being buried and they had seen the stone rolled before the entrance to seal off the living from the dead. They had heard the testimony of the Mary who excitedly claimed that Jesus was not in the tomb. They had listened the breathless statement from John and Peter as they confirmed that the tomb was empty.
The tomb was empty. For them at that moment that fact that we hold so dear to our hearts was the symbol of lost dreams. So they began to walk home. There was nothing left for them. There was no body to mourn, nothing. They pursued a dream and everything they thought they were pursuing suddenly fell out from under their feet. So they walked.
The translators say that Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem but the problem is that the actual location is not known for sure. Some of the ancient manuscripts actually allude to the possibility that the town could be as close as seven but as far as thirty miles away. I do not mention this to dispute the accuracy of the translation but show us that this was a long walk that would take the majority of a day. A walk long enough to think and to begin processing things, a trip that would allow them to talk through some of the events and try to make some sense out of it. They walked and talked to each other. They walked and considered what they would do now that they had spent the past few years pursuing something that seemingly ended up empty.
While they were walking, talking, and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”
These disciples seemingly lost it all, and they were blessed with a gift of not recognizing Jesus right away. Yes I say they were blessed with a gift of not recognizing Jesus. I say this for a reason; by not being able to recognize Jesus right away they were able to speak freely as broken humans like most of us. They were able to shed off all the masks of who or what they were supposed to be and were able to be real. They were able to speak about the events, not having any answers and not having to make any defense for what they beloved, and could just speak openly and freely about what they hoped for and what they had lost. And Jesus walked with them and listened as they told Him the story of the mighty prophet in word and deed that they had followed and how now they are confused because the tomb was empty.
They were blessed with a gift. There as they walked along that road they were able to speak clearly their dreams and how their dreams became foggy and clouded. They were able to express the pain they felt as the chief priest handed their friend over to the authorities to have him executed, they could honestly express how they failed their messiah as they stood not knowing what to do next, and then tell Jesus why they were walking back to Emmaus. They were kept from recognizing Jesus so that they could freely express their hearts, so that they could confess how they too have grieved the Spirit and have lost a portion of their faith. They spoke openly and freely because as far as they could tell Jesus was just another traveler that did not know what was going on and it did not really matter.
Jesus listened and walked with them. Jesus could have revealed Himself immediately but instead He listened. That is a gift. You see Jesus walks with us on our journeys even though we may not recognize that He is there. Even when we cannot see past the clouds that hem us in, He is walking with us. He does not expect us to have every answer to every theological nuance, he just wants to listen and walk with us.
They did not know Jesus at that moment, yet there He was. This speaks volumes. As we as a culture enter into a new era of history, an era that many call post modern or post Christian, this speaks directly to our condition. We in this Meeting and others throughout the church have had dreams and ideas of what the church should be and do yet all around us we see the world seemingly slip away out from under our feet. We are those disciples walking to Emmaus unable to see that Jesus is walking with us and about to reveal something amazing soon. Jesus is walking with us listening to our pleas and prayers waiting for us to calm ourselves so we can listen.
There is a second view that we can take. We are entering into a new era and maybe we are walking because the church we thought we were getting into has turned out to be something totally different than we hoped. We are walking away from faith because we just do not see any hope in it any more. Maybe we have turned our back on God even because we placed all of our hope in Him, and He seemingly let our hearts get hurt. So we are walking venting our frustrations out to the air, screaming our pain to the darkness of the night yet even there Jesus is walking right there by us letting us speak and waiting till we calm ourselves so he can reveal something amazing soon.
This new age of history is frightening because we really do not know what will come of it. Where will the church be? And where will we as believers be? Will we fade away into obscurity? Or is there something else around the bend? We are the disciples walking to Emmaus. But we are also bearers of the Light of Christ. For those that do not have faith we bear the Light for them to see, but to be able to speak to them we first have to walk along the road with them, meet them where they are at and just keep walking as long as it takes. Not arguing or defending a position but listening, hearing them pour out their souls so that after a while they are able to calm down and let God reveal something to them.
Jesus walked with them and let them talk. They spoke of the rise and fall of their prophet and their dreams, and then there is an opening for Him to speak. He opened the scriptures up to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets; He interpreted to them the things spoken about Him in scriptures. He explained to them in a way they could understand. Starting from the beginning and building from there. He did not just jump in and begin to debate, but listened first. This tells us a great deal about Loving God, Embracing the Holy Sprit, and Living the Love of Christ with others. It speaks about prayer, worship and ministry. Before we are able to pray and hear clearly from Christ we first have to remove the distractions. Jesus let the disciples vent before he spoke. We too need to be real getting our concerns out of our minds and off of our chests so we can then relax and listen to the Word of the Lord. This also speaks to us about ministry, to be able to encourage others in their faith we need to allow them to speak first, listen to them and only after we listen can we begin to speak.
As they neared the village the two disciples invited Jesus to stay with them. They invited Him to their homes allowing the conversation to continue. They had walked a great distance with this man they had had a very deep conversation and yet their eyes were still closed, but when Jesus broke the bread and blessed it they knew that something amazing happened before their eyes. They had seen the risen Lord, the dream they once had had died but now it was resurrected into something new.
I began today speaking of broken dreams, or dreams that various aspects of life caused to become unobtainable. These men lost their dreams but the power of the resurrected Jesus caused those dreams to take on a new form. Something changed on that walk down the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was on that journey that they began to realize that their dreams were not God’s dreams, that in their zealous faith they had skewed the truth of the Gospel to make it fit into their own personal ideologies, but God revealed to them the truth along that path.
Our wisdom can only take us so far, eventually we have to let go of our dreams so that God can convert them into something greater. The dream they had was a restored Israel, but God converted that dream to be even greater, not only Israel but also the entire world and universe. This is where I want us to examine our dreams and our ideologies. I want us to be honest with ourselves and be willing to admit that we in our dreaming and in our unachieved dreams have allowed ourselves to take control of things and have not allowed God to work through us. I want us to examine these things, speak them out to God and get them off of our chests but after that let us listen to the still small voice of the Lord our ever-present teacher and guide. Let us let Jesus Himself open up before us the amazing possibilities that He has been preparing us for. And let us in this time of Open Worship journey down that path with Jesus.
Scripture: Matthew 27:11-54
Today we celebrate with thousands if not millions of people the crowning of a king. A king who we believe was sent to us from God, who was going to restore order and peace to the nations. Today is Palm Sunday.
Over the years I wonder if we really understand what this day really represents? We like millions before and around us claim that Jesus is king. We sing Praise to God, “Hosanna. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Hosanna, such a strange word. A word that means save, rescue, help, or “save, I pray.” It is a cry of mercy of those that are found in the midst of a deep dilemma. Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This was the cry of people that were caught in the midst of cultural, political, and religious bondage and they we crying PLEASE SAVE US!
Today we use this term almost flippantly. We sing in our hymns and choruses of praise, but do we really think about what is being said? We say it as if it is the rallying cry or the slogan of a dynamic king but in reality it is a cry for help, an urgent desire to know the truth and to be set free.
The depth of the words we use can loose their meaning on us. Terms like awesome were once used only to describe seemingly miraculous events that were beyond description and could only be attributed to divine intervention. Today its use is so common that my tie could be awesome… And my tie is not nearly a miraculous event that can only be attributed to divine intervention, it is something common, anyone and everyone has access to one similar if they go to their local department store. Hosanna is one such word. We raise our hands and cry hosanna as we sing… well some people do but not us necessarily, but when we use it we are not really screaming for salvation. We use it like many other words in worship; its deep meaning has almost been completely lost through the generations.
I begin here because I want us to really picture the struggle of this festive and turbulent time, this day we call Palm Sunday. There were many that wanted Jesus to be their king, as he rode into the City of David on the donkey so long ago. In the midst of their struggle, their strong desire to be free from the exploitation of their overlords they were crying out Save us, and lead us to God. Then there were others there that had become accustom to the overlords and the status quo. They used their positions to manipulate and control, though being very faithful to the traditions of their Fathers, but using it for personal advantage in their present life. The faith and the law became empty. Those that could afford the status gained favor and those that could not could only move up in status if they exhibited some extraordinary gift: a gift of leadership, a beautiful voice, maybe even if they had some special understanding of finance and they systems of trade. Both sides were looking for a king but both sides were seeing very different pictures of what that king would actually look like. One was the source of salvation, freedom, and dignity. The other saw one who would unite and empower the leaders to rule and control the nation completely.
These two views bring us to the passion we read about today, two groups with two very different views of a singular figure looking through lenses of their interpretations to determine where they would stand. This tension was not only on the outside the circle of disciple of Jesus, but ran deeply in the interactions of those closest to Jesus. When we consider the names and occupations of the twelve men we know as the disciple or apostles we see stories emerge Matthew or Levi was a tax collector, a man whose namesake was the tribe of Israel devoted to service to the Lord but was living a life sold out to the ones that were oppressing the chosen people. We have Simon the Zealot; we may assume they added the Zealot to differentiate between Simon Peter and the other Simon but Zealot is a term that had meaning and would not be used for a person without a purpose. Simon was a freedom fighter, one that would give his life for the cause of Israel and would do anything to advance the faith and nation. Then there is Judas Iscariot, the demon of the gospel narratives. Some would venture to say that Judas was also an extreme Zealot likening the term Iscariot to the men of the dagger, meaning that Judas may have been a member of an ultra secret fighting force of Israel, a band of assassins. We do not know this for sure, but it does give some insight into how or why he did the things he did.
Men of different background within and without Jesus’ inner circle with projecting their desires onto who or what Jesus should be. Yet a week after this seemingly jubilant time Jesus is found not on a throne but mocked before the world standing at the judgment seat. How quickly the crowds moved from crying out for salvation to crying out for blood, yet how far are we from these people?
Jesus, standing before the governor is asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replies, “You say so.” Have you thought about that short conversation? Have you really considered what Jesus was really saying? You say so. Meaning, for him to be standing before this man, this man in some fashion had to make a judgment either way. This man, Pilate, would either have to say yes he is the king or say no he is not. The answer to this question had very different ramifications. One leads to death as a rebel the other would lead to freedom. Pilate refused to make a judgment. This is not the history of this particular man. Pilate was not an indecisive man, in fact history shows that this man would nail someone to a tree for a cross less, Jesus even makes a reference about the bloodiness of Pilate when he speaks of the Galileans whose blood was mixed with the blood of the sacrifices. Pilate was quick to make Judgment. But there was something different about Jesus.
Jesus was a very popular and radical figure. He had a following that could at any moment turn to rebellion, Rome definitely would have had their eyes on this man, because any large group of people meeting together would have attracted the attention of any tyrannical leader. Pilate knew what Jesus taught, he was probably behind some of the questions that Jesus was asked, because the Sadducees were in many instances puppets of the Romans. Jesus posed a threat but the greater threat was not in the man himself but in what would happen if he took a side in the issue.
Pilate comes up with a crafty plan, he had made a custom of pardoning someone during the festival, so he brings before the people Jesus, and Jesus Barabbas. This is an interesting trial. Jesus or Joshua means literally means God Saves, or God is our deliverance or salvation. Both men presented before the people had this name. Both men stood before them as icons of the hope that the people of God had in their future, an image of who their faith and trust truly hung. Barabbas is a compound name, Bar means of, and Abbas, or abba means father. So Barabbas means of a father, or a man’s way. We have before the people a trial or a crossroad. Standing before them they must chose do we want to move forward in this new teaching of Jesus or do we want to fall back into the comfort of the faith of our fathers. Do we move forward in the light of God, or do we keep doing what we have always done. Do we choose the kingdoms of men or the Kingdom of God? This choice would determine not only the future of the nation but is a testimony in who or what their faith lays.
The crowd chose the zealot, bandit, freedom fighter Barabbas over Jesus. They chose to continue the struggle and fight between the cultures of Rome and Judea over a new path. They chose war over peace. Jesus was not anti Rome, and Pilate knew this. Jesus was not worried about the political aspects of the world, but was focused on the personal relationships between God and man. In other Gospels Jesus answers Pilates question my kingdom is not of this world. Which was ok with Pilate because in that statement Jesus was saying I could careless about the government, but what is important is how we treat the people around us. But the people chose Barabbas.
Jesus came teaching a rhythm of life, a rhythm of Worship, Prayer, and Service. He taught this rhythm to his disciples, a rhythm goes beyond national boarders, cultures, and races. It did not matter if the faithful to this lifestyle were Jewish, Samaritan, or even a Gentile, Jesus taught the rhythm and served all people. The healing he provided went to the people of Israel and also to the Roman official, Jesus sat at the table with Pharisees and touched the lepers. It did not matter who you were if you cried Hosanna Jesus was willing to serve.
But the people chose Barabbas, and in that choice they chose tradition over obedience. The soldiers dressed Jesus up and mocked him. Giving him a robe of scarlet and crown of thrones and a reed as scepter. They bowed down to him hailing him as king, but just the hails were nothing more than empty words filled with hate. They hung him on a cross and the people also mocked him. “He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.”
How often do we join in that chorus, mocking Jesus instead of crying out Hosanna? How often do we cry out for Barabbas instead of becoming a blessing for those around us? I ask these questions in all seriousness because often we can get so tied up in our theology and apologetics that we forget to listen to the cries of hosanna around us. We see the person struggling with a substance abuse problem and we judge before we offer help, we talk badly about the scared teenager who chose an abortion instead of encouraging her to embrace a testimony of respect for all life, or maybe we reject completely a person who has a view different world than our own. When we cry Barabbas or hold firm to tradition, we often fail to participate in the very ministry that Jesus has been urging and inspiring us to take up.
I am not saying that theology is bad. I love theology. I will read theology as eagerly as I can read the latest mystery novel. But theology should be moving us to action. Theology is one of those deep aspects of prayer and embracing the Spirit of God, as we study theology or study God we should be moved into something greater. Our prayers and interactions with God should draw us closer to the one we worship and to those He loves.
The mockers stood before Jesus on the cross, and listened to Him scream out to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” It is similar to the pleas that Jesus gives in the Revelation recorded by John and sent to the seven churches. So many left their first love, so many left the cries of Hosanna, and instead began to cry Barabbas.
Why have you forsaken me? Where do you find our help, where do we find salvation, where is our hope? Is it in the heritage we gain from our fathers or is it in the revelation of God? Jesus is the full and true revelation of God, He is the Word made flesh to dwell among us. Jesus left the glory of heaven, was made into the likeness of man, and born of Mary. He grew in knowledge of the Lord as He learned just like each of us how to read, how to interact with others, and how to work all the care of our parents. He took on the full experience of humanity, he knows our struggles and our pains, and He knows our temptations, and the spiritual and emotional strength that is required to overcome those temptations. He had friends and lost friends, he experienced rejections and wept when a loved one died. He came down to earth to restore the relationship between God and Mankind. In His divinity He brings God to man, and in His humanity he lifts us up to God.
Today we are left with a choice, the choice is one that has faced every person in all of history, and it is the choices that Pilate gave the people of Judea that day. Which will you choose? Who will you choose to be your salvation, Jesus or Barabbas? One led the people of Judea into the Jewish wars and the destruction of all that they held dear. The other leads us to the cross. One leads us to the failing kingdoms of men here today and gone tomorrow, while the other leads us to the hope of a new restored life that will last into eternity. One mocks while the other restores, one is a path of darkness and destruction while the other is a path to light. One is a rhythm of continuous cycles of selfishness, exploitation, and manipulation, while the other is a rhythm that bring us to become a people loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.
As we enter into this time of open worship and holy expectancy I want us each to imagine ourselves standing there with the crowd before Pilate, looking up toward the judgment seat. Who will we choose? Which lifestyle will we choose? Will we chose a life that brings hope or despair? Will we choose Barabbas or Christ?