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
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
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