Saved!

[Below you'll find the text of yesterday's Palm Sunday sermon as well as live stream video of both worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

John 12:12-19

When it comes to disasters, natural or humanly-made, it has been an eventful week.

Tornadoes and high winds ripped through many parts of the country, including our own area, leaving some dead and many homes damaged or destroyed.

A mass shooting at a Nashville school resulted in six people being murdered, including three children.

Putin’s war on Ukraine rages on.

We gather on this Palm Sunday morning, palm fronds before us, and call out to Jesus, “Hosanna!,” which means, “Save us!”

Our cry is understandable. We need to be saved.

But the problem is that all too often, our reading of what we need to be saved from is fixed on the symptoms, rather than on the deeper issue from which all of us need to be saved.

The real issue–the deeper problem–from which we need saving is stated by the apostle John in a verse where he describes two things Christian disciples know. “We know,” John writes, “that we are children of God [that is, we have been claimed by Christ in Baptism and we have been brought to faith by the proclamation of the Gospel Word about Jesus and so, know that we are are children of God], and [we know] that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)

That second statement–”the whole world [or the whole cosmos] is under the control of the evil one,” the devil, may surprise some people.

Of course, the God we meet in Jesus Christ is in ultimate control of the universe. Even when Jesus went to the cross, He was in control of the moment and circumstances by which that would happen.

Of course, God created the cosmos and has died and risen to take it back and set it free of sin and death.

Of course, evil has already been defeated by Jesus Christ.

But until the day when the risen and ascended Jesus returns, the devil and the sin into which he lured our first parents (and lures us) and into which you and I are born, will have the upper hand in this fallen creation. This is why in his hymn, A Mighty Fortress, reminds us that on earth, the devil has no equal and that Jesus Christ has come to be our Champion Who fights for us and saves us from the devil.

Nonetheless, this world is now under the devil’s control. This is why the devil was able to offer Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” if Jesus would bow down and worship the devil. (Matthew 4:8-9)

Right now, this world and we ourselves are born in bondage to sin, incapable of freeing ourselves. Even baptized believers in Jesus Christ will continue to wrestle with the sinfulness that fills us and is around us until the day we die to this world.

This is the deeper problem from which all of us need to be saved. Human beings, first created in the image of God, have been decimated, our identities, personalities, and desires completely infected and controlled by, sin and the death to which it inevitably leads. That includes you and me. All of us.

If we are going to be saved from our real problem of sin and death, the half measures you and I might try will never do the job.

We may find ways to mitigate or lessen the impact of inclement weather.

We may find the proper formulation of public policies and private actions that decrease the numbers of gun killings in our country.

We may find a way to get Putin out of Ukraine.

I pray that all of these things will happen.

And the human race actually has a decent track record when it comes to solving what I would call secondary problems like these. Polio and COVID-19 were conquered. Hilter, Mussolini, and Tojo were defeated. In little more than one-hundred years, human beings have learned to fly, light up cities, farm with incredible efficiency, and even land on the moon.

But even when God answers our prayers for protection from the weather, safety for our kids, and Putin’s removal from Ukraine, as I believe will happen, the fundamental human problem will not have been solved. No human effort ever could solve our basic human problem.

The day after these issues and others like them are resolved, the ratio of human birth to death will still be 1:1.

New outbreaks of chaos will occur.

And we will continue to run up against the intractable reality of sin and death.

All our human efforts toward saving ourselves amount to little more than putting lipstick on a pig or spraying Febreeze in a garbage dump! The pig will still be a pig and garbage will still stink.

Our continuing impulse will be to worship ourselves or things in the creation–money, power, comfort, success, sex–rather than to worship God Himself. We’ll still want to break free of any accountability to God, parents, spouses, families, friends, church, government, community, country. We’ll still dislike others who rub us the wrong way to the point of murder, whether in fact, speech, or thought. We’ll still commit adultery, whether physically or in our minds. We’ll tear others down, still covet what others have.

Our biggest problem is us.

My biggest problem is me.

Your biggest problem is you.

The crowd that greets Jesus on the first Palm Sunday five days before His crucifixion seems not to have any notion that what they most need saving from is their own sin and the death it brings.

Many know about, some actually saw, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Most know of the miracles Jesus has performed.

They sense Jesus is some sort of conquering king.

Maybe, they figure, Jesus can save them from paying taxes to the Romans, from poverty, from the authority of foreign overlords.

These kinds of things are all they have in mind–it’s often all we have in mind–when shouting, “Hosanna! Jesus, save us!”

It’s no surprise then, that many of those celebrating in today’s Gospel lesson will, in a few days, disappointed that Jesus hasn’t “saved” them as they want to be saved, call for Jesus’ crucifixion.

Just like the Palm Sunday crowd, we want a king who will do exactly what we want him (or her) to do for us and not be critical of the sins we like doing.

We want kings who will save us from what we think we need saving from and leave our favorite sins alone.

We want kings who don’t call us to go to the cross with Him so that we can be saved from our old selves, so that our old selves can die on Jesus’ cross, allowing the new self to rise.

But Jesus will not be a king on our terms.

He won’t save us from little things and leave us dead in our sin, separated from God forever.

So, Jesus comes to you again this morning.

He comes to you in His Word and in the bread and in the wine.

He comes to save you.

He invades this sanctuary the way He once invaded Jerusalem, the King of all kings, come to claim all that has been lost to Him through sin.

He comes to save you from condemnation for your sin.

He comes to save you from your love of sin.

He comes to save you from death and the dominion of the devil.

He will say shortly after the events recorded in our Gospel lesson today: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)

The devil and sin and death have no power over those who, by the power and at the prompting of the Gospel Word about Jesus delivered to us by the Holy Spirit, turn from sin and turn to Christ, the Saving One!

As we cry our Hosannas to Jesus today, He takes all our sins upon Himself. He walks in here among us as He once walked into Jerusalem and He takes all your sins–all our sins–on Himself.

And then He goes to the cross, taking the cross we deserve and the death we deserve so that sin and death have no power over us any longer!

Sin and death have no power over you at all! Not even just a little bit! Jesus Christ died and rose to make you righteous, free of sin, clean. And when Jesus says you are clean, you are clean, fit for life with God now and for all eternity!

Jesus saves us from ourselves, moving us from the darkness and futility that marks our path on even the best and healthiest and most joyful days in this world this world can offer. And He promises that we will be with Him in the perfection of the new heaven and the new earth!

Friends, Jesus hears your cries of Hosanna–”Lord, save me!”–even when you yourself don’t fully understand what it is you need to be saved from.

Because of what He did for you on the cross, when He said, “It is finished,” I can tell you, as He commissioned His whole Church to proclaim, “Your sins are forgiven.” (John 7:48)

Your old self has been crucified and is being crucified each day as you walk with Jesus.

All your sins are forgiven, conquered by Jesus on the cross, His victory confirmed by His resurrection.

Jesus has come to us once more today to answer your prayers to be saved.

He assures you that you are saved.

You are forgiven.

You are His.

As you take refuge in Him, know that you are saved now and eternally.

Amen

Who is Jesus for Us?

[Below you'll find live stream videos for both the traditional and modern worship services of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio as well as the text of the message. Have a blessed Holy Week!]





John 12:12-19

People love to make Jesus over into their preferred image of Him. For example, an evangelical celebrity not long ago said that, despite what Jesus tells us as His disciples, turning one’s cheek to an enemy is un-Christian. (He actually said that!)

Efforts to change Jesus into a co-conspirator in our favorite sins or to reduce Him to a buddy we can control are nothing new. The Gospel of John tells us that after Jesus had miraculously fed a crowd of more than five-thousand people, the crowd wanted to turn Him into an earthly king accountable to their desires. So, Jesus went off to a mountain by Himself. (John 6:15) Jesus will not be the king the world wants. He will only be the king we need.

Today is Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday before His suffering, crucifixion, death, and, ultimately, resurrection.

The events of this day press this question on us: Who is Jesus for us?

It’s the most important question we will ever be asked, the very question Jesus posed to His first disciples when He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”

On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was hailed by crowds. Because of that, there was a surface air of celebration. But Jesus was surrounded either by people who saw Him either as a buddy king to be used for their own ends or as a threat by those who, by their knowledge of Old Testament Scripture, had a sneaking suspicion of Who Jesus really was (and is) and so, wanted to get rid of Him.

According to John in today’s gospel lesson, John 12:12-19, there were two streams of crowds flowing into Jerusalem that day. There was the throng that had come there, as Jews did every year from throughout the Mediterranean basin, for the Passover. There was also a crowd that had followed Jesus from nearby Bethany, where, just a few days before, He had raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.

This confluence of people shows us how they see Jesus by their words and actions. They hail Jesus with words from Psalm 118. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” (John 12:13)

These words may seem innocent or innocuous to us. But, “Hosanna,” meaning Save, and the rest of what the crowds say had a specific meaning for the Jewish people. Historically, the words were cried out to Jewish kings who had won military victories. Palm branches too were waved during such celebrations of battles and wars won.

The message of the crowds was clear: “We’ll follow You, Jesus, as long as You do our bidding. So, re-establish the Kingdom of Israel by force. Lead us in a military battle to overthrow both Pilate and Herod. And then, give us what we want–the booty of war–as Your loyal followers.” They were itching for a fight and all they needed was for Jesus to give the orders.

But the crowds were to be disappointed. Jesus makes it clear that He hasn’t come to Jerusalem to lead an insurrection or win a military victory. John says that “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it.” (John 12:16) When Jesus did this, you can be certain that there were groans of disappointment from some in the crowd.

In telling us about this, John cites words from Old Testament prophecy, Zechariah 9:9: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” Through the prophet Zechariah, who lived in the sixth century BC, God had announced that He was going to send the Savior Messiah to make all things right between God and the universe He had created.

But this Messiah would be no warrior king!

Warrior kings may temporarily change the borders of nations in this temporary universe.

But those kinds of kings can’t change people born as enemies of God into God’s friends.

Nor can they give mortal human beings everlasting life.

Nor can they make us citizens of a new and eternal kingdom in which every tear will be dried, every need will be met, every relationship healed, and every vestige of the filth of our sin will be removed from us.

The world’s conqueror-kings cannot give sinners the gracious covering of God’s own righteousness.

Only Jesus can do that.

Horses were instruments of war in the ancient world, the means by which armies killed and conquered. This is why in those days, the Jewish people, so often the victims of conquering armies, hated horses. Donkeys, on the other hand, did the work of peace. Zechariah’s prophecy said that the Messiah would not conquer humanity’s common enemies of sin, death, and darkness by violence, war, or the exercise of political power.

The Messiah would instead, humbly bring the Kingdom of God to all who believe in Him not by making war, but by the death He died for our sin on a cross and by the resurrection with which God the Father rewarded Jesus’ righteousness. Centuries before, through the prophet Isaiah, God had revealed that this would be how the Christ would conquer the reign of sin, death, and darkness over us. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray,  each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him [on Jesus, the Messiah] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Then, after offering up His sinless life to take the punishment for our sinful natures we deserve, out of His great love for all, Jesus the Messiah would give forgiveness and eternal citizenship in the Kingdom of God to all who believe in Him.

The crowds in Jerusalem for the Passover had no interest in the Kingdom of God or in eternal life.

They wanted vengeance on the Romans and the Herodians, control of their country, and prosperity. Many, like the Zealots or maybe Judas Iscariot, still joined in shouting for Jesus after their disappointment in seeing Jesus on a lowly donkey, thinking they could use Him for their purposes.

But some in Jerusalem knew that Jesus couldn’t be used. The Pharisees look at the Palm Sunday spectacle and say to each other disgustedly, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:19) The Pharisees know that Jesus is, as John the Baptizer called Him, “the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) They get it that Jesus is God the Son, the Word made flesh. And for them, as would become true for Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, and the selfish crowds, Jesus was not a Messiah to be welcomed, worshiped, and trusted, but a threat, a threat to their way of life.

Even today, Jesus threatens us. He threatens our desire to be our own gods and our ambition to have lives focused on ourselves, our appetites, our interests, and our preferences.

The world turned against Jesus during that first Holy Week. Good Friday and Easter Sunday proved the world wrong for having done so.

Because of the death on a cross Jesus humbly faced and endured, Philippians 2:9-11 tells us “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

This then, is Who Jesus really is: God, Savior, King, Redeemer, Who humbly bore the cross you and I deserve so that we might eternally share in His resurrection victory.

So, we come back to the question of Palm Sunday: “Who is Jesus for you?”

Jesus never sat on an earthly throne, was never serenaded by bands playing Hail to the Chief, never won a war or an Oscar or a Grammy or a Nobel Prize. But through His humble submission to death for us, He won eternity for us.

Will you daily welcome Jesus as your only Lord, your God, your King, Messiah, and Savior? Jesus tells us elsewhere: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Follow the King, Jesus, to everlasting life with God. Amen

Tonight's Weeknight Study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 12

The King Who Saves Us From Ourselves

Today, Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, also commemorated as the Sunday of the Passion. (Passion describes a love so great that the one who loves is willing to die for the loved one. In Christ's Passion, He sacrificed Himself on the cross so that we can live with God, now and forever.)

Below is today's online worship from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. After that, you'll find the prepared text of the message for the day.

God bless you!



Matthew 21:1-11
A friend of ours was dying. She’d had a long battle with cancer and as I visited her in the hospital ICU, she said nothing most of the time. I thought for a while that she was unconscious. But it became clear that she knew I was there and that the morphine was doing little to ease her pain. At one point, she reacted to what was clearly a brutal stab of pain. “What can I do?” I asked her. “It just hurts so much,” was all she could say.

Within twenty-four hours, she had passed from this life and, knowing her faith in Christ, into the Savior’s loving arms. 

But, as often happens in the face of such tragedy, everyone who knew my friend--her family, her co-workers, her friends--were left with questions. 

What about all the prayers offered for her healing in Jesus’ name? 

What about her friendship, virtues, talents, and wisdom now lost to us? 

Had God abandoned her? 

Had God abandoned us?

Was God impotent in the face of life’s deadly realities?

We ask questions like these often, especially today when, in the words of the old hymn, “despair engulfs earth’s frame.” Because of the coronavirus, many are more conscious today than they ever have been of the ongoing, daily primal battle between life and death, darkness and light, despair and hope. 

In one form or another, the cry of the whole human race, shouted out to God by those who know Him through Jesus and by others who have no faith at all, is the same: “Save us! Help us! Deliver us from this evil! ”

We come today to Palm Sunday, also known as the Sunday of the Passion. The day commemorates both Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem days before His crucifixion and His passion when He would offer His sinless life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

On that first Palm Sunday, the crowds in Jerusalem, unaware that by this time, Jesus has already predicted three times that He would be arrested, beaten, crucified, die, and rise from the dead, do know of the reports that Jesus has performed miracles and given people the hope that, at long last, this is the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed King, Who would set all things right, and meet their deepest needs. 

As Jesus arrives, the crowds set branches down in His path, creating an ad hoc roadway of welcome. And, in a day when most people owned only one cloak, they lay their cloaks down before Him. 

Jesus enters the city in the way that Zechariah had prophesied the Messiah would arrive in Jerusalem six centuries earlier: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)

God’s people had suffered much. 

And much of their suffering was self-inflicted, just as ours can be. 

They had worshiped false gods like worldly success and power. 

They had treated others unjustly, ignoring God’s command that they treat the immigrants among them with hospitality and love, developing ferocious prejudices against Samaritans and all Gentiles. 

They exhibited religious snobbery, forgetting that they were not chosen by God to be His people as a light to the nations because they were better than anyone else, but simply because of God’s His grace, His charity.

But they had also suffered at the hands of other peoples and nations. They still were suffering at the hands of other peoples and nations. 

They had been enslaved, conquered, forced to become refugees. 

They had been robbed, exploited, pushed around, misused.

No wonder then, that as they see Jesus on what we now call Palm Sunday, they shout, “Hosanna [meaning, “Save us! Deliver us!”] to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Here, at last, the people think, is the Messiah. Now, we needn’t suffer anymore. Now, the Romans can be sent packing. Now, God will use this Messiah to punch all our enemies in the nose and give us all that we want. Their despair, they believe, will at long last give way to hope.

But they are, of course, about to be disappointed, the way that you and I can be disappointed by God when He doesn’t do what we think He should. 

Jesus hasn’t come to Jerusalem to conquer what the people see as their biggest problems. 

Had Jesus done as the Palm Sunday crowds wanted, they all would have been free of the Romans, free of the dominion of other peoples, able to live in the land that God had given them. 

But had Jesus chosen that course, they (and we) still would be slaves without hope: Slaves to sin. Slaves to death. Slaves to the darkness of eternal separation from God.

The crowd, like us much of the time, is playing a short game. They want benefits that, at best, can only last a lifetime. They want money, independence, good health, and times of ease now and they don’t want to change anything about themselves or submit to a Messiah Who they view as a kind of cosmic ATM, to get what they want. 

They don’t want the Messiah to be their Lord, a Messiah who insists that the way to healing and wholeness is for us to die to ourselves and our sins so that we can embrace the life that only God can give to us, the life that God only offers us through this Messiah Jesus.

Jesus, by contrast, is playing the long game. He wants to bring us into the kingdom of God forever. 

The Kingdom of God is the realm in which believers in Jesus Christ live even in this imperfect world. 

It's the kingdom He gives to believers, in which we know that we are forgiven of our sin and that we are right with God for our faith in Jesus. 

It's a kingdom that will only be brought to perfection when we, like Him, are raised by God the Father from the dead. 

Friends, I have seen the kingdom of God, the hope of life with God most in places that most people might deem unlikely: in hospital ICUs, in funeral homes, in jails and prisons where men rightly paying society for their crimes nonetheless were filled with the light of eternity because of their repentance and their belief in Jesus. 

In desperate moments, those who latch onto Jesus know what they really need. 

Not money. 

Not ease. 

Not power. 

They know they need what we need: Jesus. 

Just Jesus. 

Our real enemies are sin, death, and darkness. It’s these things Jesus goes to Jerusalem to conquer by His crucifixion and resurrection. And He does it for you and me!

The crowds in Jerusalem are largely uninterested in what Jesus offers to us: new life set free from ourselves, freedom to live with God forever. 

This same disinterest exists today, even among some Christians. 

As the gospel writer John says of Jesus and the reaction of the human race that He, God the Son, made: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:11-12)

The good news of Palm Sunday is that Jesus refuses to cave in to the expectations of the world. 

He does the will of God the Father. 

He pays the price for our sin. 

He invites us into the kingdom of God for eternity. 

In this kingdom, Christians live even when our lives aren’t comfortable. 

Even when things don’t go as we hope. 

Even when we have to walk away from sins we so desperately want to commit. 

Even when our prayers aren’t answered as we want.

Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of coronavirus and death.

What Jesus goes on to do on Good Friday and Easter Sunday is our assurance that, no matter what happens to us in this life, God will meet the greatest needs we all have in Jesus. 

He will forgive our sins. 

He will give us the resurrection. 

He will turn our despair into hope. 

He will turn our mourning into laughter that never ends. 

Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]