4/1/12 - Palm Sunday - Zech. 9:9-10

HOW COULD WE NOT BE HAPPY?

Happiness

            Are you happy today?  Not just OK and not simply surviving and not only above average, but are you truly happy?  Are you thrilled to be alive?  Are you filled with joy to be who you are?  Are you excited to see what the Lord has in store for you?  Are you ecstatic to be doing what you are doing? 

            I would imagine that your answer to those questions would depend on the day, wouldn’t it?  Because some days you might actually be happy, but on other days you aren’t.  Sometimes you are filled with joy and excitement, but many times you are far from it.  On occasion you might describe yourself as thrilled and ecstatic, but usually you’d probably describe yourself as just “alright” because as far as you’re concerned things could be a whole lot better in different areas of your life.  True, pure happiness seems to be difficult for us to grasp sometimes.  Because things happen to us in this life that aren’t so good and they end up tainting our entire attitude and mindset.  And so we might end up being angry one day or depressed or upset or miserable or empty.  Which means that we definitely aren’t happy or excited or ecstatic at those moments - and it sometimes takes a while to turn things around.

            But what about now?  Are you at least happy right now as you sit in church on a Sunday morning celebrating the festival of Palm Sunday?  When I was asking some of you as you walked in the doors earlier today how you were, I heard a lot of people say “fine,” “ “alright,” “I’m here,” I heard one “pretty good…”  And I know that those are just automatic responses to an almost generic question, but then again I didn’t hear anyone say, “Great!”  Wonderful!”  “Amazing!”  “Couldn’t be better!” either.  And I didn’t see too many people with an extra sparkle in their eyes this morning or a flush in their cheeks or a skip in their step.  It was pretty much like any normal Sunday morning that I can remember: some tired eyes, some sleepy looks, some nonchalant expressions...  But this is Palm Sunday!  The Sunday of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem!  The palm branches!  The robes!  The singing!  The celebration!  This isn’t just any normal day!  This isn’t even any normal Sunday!  This is Palm Sunday!  Why shouldn’t we be happy on a day like today!  Maybe this will help: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”  How was that?  Did that help a little bit?  Are you at least a little happier than you were before?  Because I’m sure it thrilled those Old Testament Israelites during the time of Zechariah who heard these words for the first time.

Rejoicing over the King

            Zechariah lived some 500 years before Jesus came to this earth.  He served the people as they came back from exile, having spent 70 years in a foreign land because of their sins.  Persia was ruling at the time and although the Israelites were given a little bit of freedom once again by King Cyrus/Darius, they were still not an independent nation.  And so they didn’t have a king.  They had leaders and high priests selected from their own people, but the title of “king” hadn’t been given out to one of their own for the last seven decades.  They were a conquered nation, a group of people who owed taxes and tribute to another kingdom, a small part of the massive Persian Empire subject to the whims and wishes of an emperor who could do to them whatever he wanted whenever he wanted for whatever reason. 

            It is in this fragile and unstable political environment that the prophet Zechariah lived.  And the Lord through this prophet encouraged an attitude for his people completely different than what they were probably feeling at the time: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  Their King was supposedly coming - their King with a capital “K”.  A King who would be righteous - unlike many of the kings they had been troubled with in the past.  A King who would be delivered from his enemies - unlike the last few kings who had lost the throne of Judah to the Babylonians.  A King who was humble; a King who would ride on a donkey.  This King would be unlike any king they had ever seen before.  And of course the Lord is going to encourage them, “Rejoice greatly!  Don’t worry about what is happening around you!  Shout!  Pay no attention to who is ruling over you!  See, your King comes to you!”  And I hope they did rejoice and shout and celebrate.  Because to have the prediction of a King coming to them at that time in that situation would have been something special!  With that prophecy planted in their hearts they could go about their lives in peace and safety, knowing that this King was coming, that the chariots and war-horses would be taken away, and that he would proclaim peace not only to them but to every nation on earth.  I would hope that they took this prophecy to heart because with it in mind they would never have a reason to be scared or nervous or unhappy again.

We aren't Always Happy

            Do we have any reason to be unhappy?  And I’m serious about that.  Do you have any reason to be unhappy in this life?  Because we have this same prophecy from Zechariah that those Old Testament Israelites received.  Along with dozens and dozens of other prophecies about Christ throughout the Old Testament.  And not only that, we have the fulfillment of those prophecies in the pages of the New Testament.  Our King is not only coming, he has already come!  We have seen how Jesus carried out these very words!  He was the King who sat on the donkey as his disciples threw down palm branches and the children sang and the crowds shouted at the top of their lungs, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  This prophecy in Zechariah is not just a vague future prediction for us.  This is a fact that has already happened.  The King has come!  The King has conquered!  And he has proclaimed peace to the nations!  And it’s easy to see that this morning with the palm branches up front and the bulletins in your hands and the Palm Sunday hymns ringing in your ears.  But why do we seem to forget all of this when we go out there?

            And maybe it’s not so much that we actually forget what Jesus did on Palm Sunday, it’s probably more that it just doesn’t always affect us like it should.  Because when we have to deal with a situation at work or when we have some problems at home or when we are struggling with things out of our control, Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem is the farthest thing from our minds, isn’t it?  And everything looks bad and everything seems sour and nothing seems to be turning out right.  And we’re not happy, we’re not in a good mood, we’re not excited.  We’re wound up and flustered and bitter. 

            But are God’s promises really that fickle?  Does the promise of your King only apply to your life when you are feeling good?  Is the promise of the King only worth thinking about when you have no problems in your life at all?  Is the promise of a King only for you on Palm Sunday?  Of course not.  God’s promises never change.  His prophecies never vary.  He is always the King!  He is always righteous!  He is always proclaiming peace to the nations!  There is no reason why you shouldn’t always apply that to every moment of your life!  Because you not only know that your King came to you on Palm Sunday, you know what your King came to do.  

How Could We Not Be Happy?

            You are fully aware of what happens after this story, aren’t you?  You know that Jesus would spend a few days in and around Jerusalem, but then on Thursday evening he would go into an upstairs room with his disciples to give them the very first Lord’s Supper.  You know he would then walk out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before meeting Judas and the mob.  You know that he would be taken before the high priest and then in front of Pilate.  You know that he would be physically abused and sentenced to an execution.  You know that he would hang on a cross for hours before bleeding to death.  You know his body would be taken down and wrapped up and buried.  You know that he would lay there while everyone else stayed at home for the Sabbath.  You know that one week from today a few women would go to the tomb with a handful of spices only to find out that he was no longer there.  You know what your King came to do.  You know what your King came to accomplish.  You know the rest of the story.  Jesus isn’t just a King riding on a donkey into Jerusalem today; he is your Savior riding into the city of his death. 

            It’s Palm Sunday this morning.  It’s Palm Sunday!  “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  He comes to die.  He comes to rise.  He comes to reign.  This is the start of the greatest week of the entire year!  From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday - it does not get any better than this!  How could we not be happy right now?  How could we not be excited and thrilled and ecstatic?  How could we not be happy for the rest of our lives?  Because, honestly, what trouble in this life can possibly dampen the thrill that this week brings?  What problem in this life can possibly overwhelm the joy we will experience these next seven days?  What setback in this life can possibly be big enough to snuff out the pure happiness we have in our Palm Sunday King, our crucified King, our risen King?  “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  And he comes to save.  How could we not be happy about that? 

            Amen.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  - 1 Tim. 1:17

3/14,21,28/12 - Midweek Lent - Zech. 9:16-17

WERE WE WORTH IT?

Barbed Wire

            I have multiple scars on my forehead from many different times in my life.  One of them came on the Fourth of July.  I was five years old at the time and we were living in Oklahoma.  We were at someone else’s house who lived out in the country and as the adults were setting off fireworks all of the kids were eagerly watching.  One of our favorite kinds of fireworks every year was one that exploded high in the air and sent out 3 or 4 little parachutes.  There were plastic paratroopers attached to them to bring them back down to the ground, but the excitement for us kids was to try and catch them before they landed.  And so when one of these parachute fireworks was lit that evening, we all got ready to scatter in whatever direction we saw one of the parachutes coming down.  After it exploded in the air I took off through the high grass away from the house as the wind carried the parachute I was chasing farther away.  Suddenly I found myself on my back staring up straight into the sky with blood running down my face.  As I had been looking up into the sky following the parachute, I hadn’t been watching where I was going and had been clotheslined across my forehead with a barb-wired fence.  I ran back screaming to my parents and although it ended up looking a lot worse than it actually was, I still remember the mass amounts of blood that puncture would sent streaming down my face.

A Crown of Thorns

            If you have ever had a cut or a gash anywhere on your head, you know how much a head wound can bleed.  It just doesn’t seem to stop no matter how small the cut may be.  And so you can probably imagine what Jesus’ face looked like soon after that thorn-woven crown was pressed into skull.  He probably didn’t look as stoic or unaffected as many of the paintings depict Christ during the last few hours of his life.  His face was probably covered in blood as it spilled down onto his clothes.  Not to mention that the soldiers had also beaten him over the head with a wooden staff when he was wearing that infamous crown.  And the Jewish leaders had repeatedly punched him in the face earlier that morning.  And the mob that arrested Jesus was probably non-too-gentle with their prisoner as they led him out of the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus couldn’t have looked very appealing by the time he made it to the cross on that Friday afternoon.  It must have been a sad spectacle for Jesus’ mother, his disciples, and all of his followers who happened to see him that day.  He certainly didn’t look like he had on the Mount of Transfiguration or like he had when he miraculously calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee or like he had when he gently welcomed the little children into his arms.  After the beatings and the scourgings and the crown of thorns, Jesus undoubtedly looked like a man on the verge of death.

            But the blood and gore isn’t really the point of this entire scene; notice that Scripture never dwells on the awful details of that day.  Instead, the whole point of Jesus suffering the way he did and how unpleasant he would have looked at that moment is the reason why God himself would go through all of that in the first place.  The prophet Zechariah tells us why.  This man of God explains the reason why Jesus would wear that crown of thorns and would be willing to be disfigured in such an awful way by those who hated him.  And here it is: “The LORD their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people.  And they will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.”  It was all for our salvation.  Jesus bled and was beaten and was bruised and was battered so that we could be saved.  The perfect God became ugly to make us beautiful.  The glorious God became despised and rejected and caked in his own blood so that we would be found radiant in the Father’s eyes.  He wore that crown of thorns so that we could sparkle like jewels in the heavenly crown that he would put on again after his resurrection.  That’s the point.  That’s what this story is all about.

Were We Worth It?

            But were we worth it?  Were we worth the thorns and the blood and the pain?  And that’s a legitimate question because usually when you buy something in this world you evaluate your purchase after a period of time and decide whether it was worth it or not.  Did it live up to your expectations?  Did it provide you with what it was supposed to provide?  Did it last longer than you initially thought it would?  Does it measure up to similar things you have bought in the past?  Was the product worth the price you had to pay? 

            Are we worth the price Jesus had to pay?  From my perspective: not a chance!  There is no way that I am worth what Jesus paid for me!  He has not gotten a fair return on his investment considering the way I have lived this life!  I have not shone with the brilliance he had washed me in at my baptism; I have not always reflected his glory for others to see; I have not sparkled like the precious gemstone of his crown that he made me to be through his blood.  I have made myself into a tarnished stone, a scuffed and scratched and ugly stone.  Not something that the Lord would want to show off in his crown, not something the he should be proud of in any way!  In know that I was not worth the thorns and the blood and the pain and the scars.  I know that I’m not worth the price he had to pay for me.  Are you?

Jesus Thought We Were Worth It

            Jesus thought so.  Jesus thought every one of us was worth it; and he still does.  Because Jesus put up with all of those thorns and the blood and the pain and the scars not so that he could gain something from it personally.  He just did it for you.  He didn’t do it to be paid back; he didn’t do it to be popular; he didn’t do it so that somewhere down the line you might do him a favor or two!  Jesus went through it all knowing that he would get nothing in return.  He knew what kind of person you were going to be, after all.  He knew about the self-inflicted scuffs and scrapes and scratches that you would be responsible for from the day you were born until the day of your death.  He wasn’t expecting you to do amazing things.  He was fully expecting that he would have to clean you and wash you and polish you until you were like a sparkling jewel in his crown - and he went into it knowing that he would have to continue to do that throughout your life.  And because of this constant love and care and patience and forgiveness of Christ, you are saved.  And that’s why you were worth it.  As far as Jesus is concerned, you were worth every thorn and every drop of blood and every ounce of pain and every lasting scar.  Because through them you are saved.  And there’s nothing else that our Lord has ever wanted.

            It’s almost unbelievable that despite our sinfulness, despite our scrapes and cuts and gashes and scars, we are sitting here this evening as precious jewels in the crown of our Lord - sparkling as Christians in a dark, dark world, shimmering in the blood with which we were washed.  And our God does think of us that highly; he does consider us that valuable.  He wore a crown of thorns for us, after all.  He went through an unimaginable amount of pain.  He spilled a lot of blood.  He went down to hell itself.  He took on death face to face.  He has the scars to prove it.  And you were worth it.  To Jesus you were worth everything.