A sermon based upon Hebrews 13: 1-3; 8-16
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Passion/Palm Sunday, April, 14 2019
There is an old Jewish story about how one day the Pope decided that all the Jews had to leave Rome.
Naturally there was a big uproar from the Jewish community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate with a member of the Jewish community. If the Jew won, the Jews could stay. If the Pope won, the
Jews would leave.
The Jews realized that they had no choice. They looked around for a champion who could defend their faith, but no one wanted to volunteer.
It was too risky. So they finally picked an old man named
Moishe to represent them.
Being old and poor, he had less to lose, so he agreed. He
asked only for one addition to the debate. Not being used to saying very much, he asked that neither side be allowed to talk. The pope agreed.
The day of the great debate came. Moishe and the Pope
sat opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers.
Moishe looked back at him and raised one finger.
The Pope waved his fingers in a circle around his head.
Moishe pointed to the ground where he sat.
The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine.
Moishe pulled out an apple.
The Pope stood up and said, 'I give up. This man is too
good. The Jews can stay.'
An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope
asking him what happened. The Pope said:
'First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity.
He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that
there was still one God common to both our religions.
Then I waved my finger around me to show him, that God
was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground, showing that God was also right here with us.
I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God
absolves us from our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of original sin. He had an answer for everything. What could I do?'
Meanwhile, the Jewish community had crowded around
Moishe, amazed that this old, almost feeble-minded man had done
what all their scholars had insisted was impossible!
'What happened?' they asked.
'Well,' said Moishe, 'first he said to me that the Jews had
three days to get out of here. I told him that not one of us was leaving. Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of Jews.
I let him know that we were staying right here.'
'And then?' asked a woman. 'I don't know,' said Moishe. 'He took out his lunch and I took out mine.'
That old Jewish tale illustrates the old adage that says: “There are two sides to every story.” In fact, there are two sides to just about everything. Just like every coin has two sides; heads and tails, there can also be two sides to morality; right and wrong, good versus evil, the dark versus the light. “I’ve looked at life from both sides now…” goes a popular folk song.
When you think about it, even round things, like the moon, the sun, or the earth have two sides-- the side in the light, and the dark side. Also squares, rectangles, and octagons---although they can have multiple sides, just like stories, ideas, or morality can become more complicated too. But even will all their extra layers and complications, they can still be reduced to front or back and right side up, or upside down. Maybe you can’t see this when all the angles are exactly the same, but if just slightly change only one of the angles, even a multisided rectangle, a pentagon, or an octagon, will it then also be understood two have two most basic sides---a front and a back, or an up and a down.
Now, I’m not trying to get scientific or silly here. What I am trying to illustrate is that in life and reality there is always more than one dimension of truth or reality. Understanding the truth about the cross of Jesus Christ, has at least two sides, but it can be multi-dimensional too. The cross is that big; big enough for every person and every purpose too.
But this day, on this Passion Sunday (or is it Palm Sunday, this day is two-sided too), I want us to consider the cross from at least two angles, both Jesus’ cross and also our cross. Jesus said clearly in the very first gospel, the gospel of Mark; Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mk. 8:34 NIV),. This cross, also called the disciples cross was not just a cross to wear as a decoration, but also a cross to bear as a cross of vocation and calling to obey the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our Scripture text from Hebrews, we are reminded that just as Jesus suffered to outside the gate of Jerusalem, so that we can be made holy, we too, as Jesus’ followers, are to go outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come (Heb. 13:13-14 NIV. Those are certainly strong, sobering words for us all to consider and take seriously as we approach Holy Week. These words reminds us that there are two sides to the cross: On one side of the cross Jesus suffered, but on the other side, he calls us also to suffer for the truth and to live for God’s truth, even if it hurts.
This other side of the cross is not a popular message in a world that only wants what it wants, when it wants it. But this side of the cross that we die on, has as much saving power, and is has as much to do with God’s saving message as the side Jesus died upon. We acknowledge both sides of the cross when we sing: At the Cross, At the Cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away…. And do you know what it means, when the writer Issac Watts said: I first saw the light? In the very last verse he explains: But drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe... He continues: Here, Lord, I GIVE MYSELF AWAY, ‘Tis all that I can do.’ That line takes us straight to the other side of the cross, but first let’s remind ourselves of this side of the cross.
HE DIED FOR US
When the writer of Hebrews writes: …so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate (Heb. 13:12 NIV), this is the picture of the side of the cross we are all most familiar with. The Apostle Paul put it in its most classic expression in Romans: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8 NIV).
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says even more dramatically: but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, (1 Cor. 1:23 NIV).
Here, we must remember that, the cross was, and still is, considered a bunch of foolishness. Most logically, when you study closely what happen to Jesus; his teachings were rejected, his healing gospel was rejected, and he himself was rejected, as God’s Son. For as John writes, in the most descriptive of all, “He came unto his own, but his own received him not.”
What is most amazing about the New Testament message, is that Peter, Paul, Luke and others, came to see this terrible tragedy and defeat as the purpose and plan of God. As Simon Peter preached at Pentecost: This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross (Acts 2:23 NIV). Here, already see two sides of the cross (Stagg). On one side the cross was ‘a life given’ by God ‘for us’, but on the other side, Jesus’ death was ‘a life taken’ innocently, and cruelly, by people who had their own evil plans.
The question the first disciples came have when Jesus died, which was only resolved through Jesus resurrection, was why did God’s plan allow this senseless suffering and murder of his Son, Jesus Christ? This is already, another side of the cross, where the senseless suffering and death of Jesus because a message of God’s purpose and healing hope, when Jesus’ suffering was then preached as God’s way of human salvation and redemption through the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24;47; Acts 2: 39; 13:38; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14).
But here again, perhaps as much as it was for them, the mystery of the cross continues, as we may wonder to ourselves, again in this Holy Week: How does God forgive our sins, through such a terrible, bloody, dispictable death of Jesus suffering on a cross? While even the greatest scholars of theology can’t fully answer ‘how’ this kind of divine forgiveness was accomplished in Christ’s death, the most reasonable and most biblical answer always has to do with God’s love. The mystery of love, which answers, For God so love the world, that he gave… is the only answer to sin and suffering that can ever make any sense. Again, here, we go right back to what Paul wrote to the Romans: But God demonstrates his love for us… Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us (5:8-9).” This the only way we are ever allowed to fully understand the cross, that Jesus was God’s love in the flesh, submitting to death so that God’s love and forgiveness could be preached and proclaimed. Amazing Pity, Grace unknown, And love beyond degree, Watts wrote. This is the only way Jesus’ suffering and premature death makes any real sense.
When Jesus’ death is about God’s love, not about God’s wrath, not finally about God’s absence, and not finally about God’s judgment, only in this way can we see the side of the cross that Jesus died upon. This is the side which reveals to us, a new possibility; that even in the ugliest suffering and death, there can also be present an undying love that not only suffers senselessly, but Jesus reveals a love can also be selfless and sacrificing. Through Jesus, God offers redemption to us, and for us, through faith in the only kind of love that could ever overcome suffering, sin and senselessness. It is only the kind of love fully demonstrated in Jesus Christ, that can transform any situation of life, because it is a love ‘for us’, that can also transform us.
The power of love is exemplified through the story of a family who was out for a drive on a Sunday afternoon, and they relax at a leisurely pace down the highway. Suddenly, the two children begin to beat their father in the back: “Daddy, Daddy, stop the car! Stop the car! There’s a kitten back there on the side of the road!”
The father says, “So, there’s a kitten on the side of the road. We’re having a drive.”
“But, Daddy, we’ve got to stop and pick it up.”
“No, we don’t.”
“But, Daddy, if we don’t, it will die!”
“Well, then, it will just have to die. We don’t have room for another animal. Our house is a zoo already. No more animals.”
“But Daddy, are you just going to let it die?”
“Be quiet, Kids, let’s just have a pleasant drive.”
“We never thought our father would be so mean and cruel as to let a helpless little kitty die.”
Finally, the mother turns to her husband and says, “Dear, we are going to have to stop.” So, reluctantly, Dad turns the car around, returns to the spot and pulls the car off the road. “You kids stay in the car. I’ll see about it.” He gets out to pick up the little kitten.
The poor creature is just skin and bones, sore-eyed and full of fleas; but when Dad reaches down to pick it up, with its last bit of energy, the little kitten bristles, baring tooth and claw. Ssst! He picks the kitten up by the loose skin of the neck, brings it over to the car and says, “Don’t touch it; it’s probably got leprosy.” Back home they go.
When they get to the house, the children give the kitten several baths, about a gallon of warm milk, and intercede, “Can we let it stay in the house just tonight, please, please, please? Tomorrow we’ll fix a place in the garage.” The father says,
“Sure, take my bedroom; the whole house is already a menagerie.” They fix a comfortable bed, fit for a pharaoh.
Several weeks pass. One day the father walks in, feels something rub against his leg, looks down, and there is the cat. He reaches down toward it. When the cat sees his hand, it doesn’t bare its claws and hiss; instead it arches its back to receive a caress. Is that the same cat? Is it? No, it is NOT the same as that frightened, hurt, hissing kitten on the side of the road. Of course not. And you know as well as I what has made the difference.
(Fred Craddock, “Praying Through Clenched Teeth,” in The Twentieth Century Pulpit, Vol. II, James Cox, Ed., (Nashville, Abingdon, 1981), pp. 51-52)
WE DIE WITH HIM
The ‘difference’ love makes, which points us back to the difference God’s love can make in our lives brings us to the other side of cross of Jesus.
The first letter of Peter points to what this other side of the cross means, when he wrote: He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Pet. 2:24 NIV). Here, Peter points to the same ‘side’ of the cross our text in Hebrews points to, when the writer challenges: Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore (Heb. 13:13 NIV). How can the healing, saving, and the forgiveness of God, also be made real in us, as we bear the disgrace he bore’?
Morgan Guyton, tells about an incident he had one morning while setting up for summer camp. There was a scrawny old white guy passed out on the sidewalk where the children would be playing. He was asked to wake him up and send him on his way. So Morgan went over to him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. ‘He lunged away as if a rattlesnake had bitten him. He started screaming cuss words at me, so I decided I would just turn around and walk away before things got violent.
And then he said it. “Where's your f-mercy, man?” Yes. He said the F-word. And he said mercy, too, the word Jesus often spoke about. Morgan then says then, I froze in my tracks. Here was an angel of the Lord who had just dropped the F-bomb on me. I didn't know what to do, but I thought God was commanding me to do something, so I turned back around and sat down on the sidewalk in front of him.
Then I noticed a black man I'll call Wayne, who was a church volunteer. He greeted the homeless man cheerfully by name and told him he could come back later for some food. The homeless man responded with a tirade in which he said the N-word probably thirty or forty times. My heart was in my throat, Morgan said: I was terrified about what would happen if a black person was called that word to his face. My own racist presumptions made me wonder if Wayne was going to react with violence. But Wayne stayed completely calm. He never raised his voice, and he never stopped smiling.
As Morgan reflected on this incident in the years that followed, he says that he realized this was what God had called me over to witness. Wayne was a perfect embodiment of God's mercy. No matter how many flaming arrows Satan shot at him through that awful word, every single arrow was extinguished in Wayne's shield of mercy. I've come to realize that the mercy Wayne embodied is an antidote, not just for the hate of a racist homeless man, but for a church that loves sacrifice a lot more than mercy. Wayne's beautiful witness became a part of my salvation.
(Guyton, Morgan. How Jesus Saves the World from Us: 12 Antidotes to Toxic Christianity (Kindle Locations 433-438)).
Folks, here is a perfect picture of what Hebrews means, when it calls us to the other side of the cross, going outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore (Heb. 13:13). This is an example of what Peter also meant when he also wrote that If you suffer for what is right, you are blessed (1 Pet. 3:14). And isn’t this what is most missing in our world, right now, as people speak so negatively to each other, are so hateful, are so violent, and so uncivil, and so selfishly motivated by this world? Isn’t the heart of the problem that fewer want to go outside the camp of what they want for themselves and are willing to also bear the disgrace, and bear the a cross, like Jesus bore?
But what if this is the only way of salvation? What if Jesus’ way is really the only way, the only truth, and the only way to life? When Jesus calls us to take up the other side of the cross, which is our side of the cross, Jesus is also calling us to ‘die to ourselves’, and ‘to die to our sins’ and to come and live our life abundantly. It may sound strange how it works, to say that we gain our life by losing it, or that we lose our lives by saving it, but this is exactly what happens, isn’t it?
On the news recently, a video camera in a prison cell showed a young woman writing in the pain of drug withdrawals, throwing-up, and then being forced by guards to clean up her own vomit. The scene was cruel and gruesome; and it all was made most tragic by the fact the girl was not found dead until 5 hours later. She laid there, on camera, struggling, suffering, and then dead. There will probably be a law-suit by the family, which will prove the prison to be negligent. But this does not change how all this started and why she was here? It all started because this young girl, rather than take Christ’s way, to endure, to bear the burden, an allow others to help her bear the burden, chose to ‘self-medicate’ through drugs; so that in her trying to find life, she lost it.
The thief comes to kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and have it fully (abundantly), Jesus said (Jn. 10:10). When Jesus comes and asks us to ‘deny ourselves’ or to ‘die to ourselves’ he is not trying to kill us, forsake, or refuse us, but Jesus is trying to give us a full life. He is trying to save our lives, when he calls us to find our lives by living in and for him.
WE LIVE FOR HIM
Isn’t this what Paul meant, when he announced that he too was ‘crucified with Christ’, and ‘no longer lives’; but now, ‘the life that he lives, he lives by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for him’ (Gal. 2:20).
What Jesus did for Paul, is what Paul says Jesus can also do for us. Jesus does not call us to the bear the cross, bear the disgrace, or to bear the senseless suffering, because Jesus wants to kill us or negate us, but Jesus calls us to bear the disgrace because only by following Jesus on this cross, can God give our life back to us in a this broken world. For only when we ‘crucify the flesh’ can we fully live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:24). This is how God, through the cross of Jesus, calls us, as the song says, ‘to give’ ourselves away, which is ‘all we can do’ (Issac Watts).
On the news, last year there was an interesting report about what it seems that today’s educators are doing by ‘coddling’ students, giving in to their demands, their wants, and their requests, rather than challenging them to live and to learn. One example is what happen two years ago, when students at the University of California at Berkeley demanded the cancellation of speeches by conservative commentators Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter. Shut it down. Shut it down! They shouted, and they did. The same kind of thing happen on a Vermont campus, when controversial speaker political scientists Charles Murray visited, and students demanded that he be stopped and dismissed. No one was supporting these opposing views, but what noticed and feared is that it seems that many educators have invented a intellectual world where students only hear what they want to hear, so they can believe only what they want to believe.
One of the reasons, the way of Jesus, which is the way of the cross, is so important for our world is that without the willingness and desire to ‘bear the burden’ of someone else, even someone’s else’s stupidity; and without opening our heart to listen, even to the opposition or even allowing ourselves to be challenged with other views; is that when we lose the ability to bear the disgrace; that is, to do even the hardest things and to be willing to suffer for the good; if we all refuse to do this, all we have left is a world where we exist only for ourselves, and then, slowly, and sometimes suddenly, love dies. Only by sharing life with Jesus and by taking up his cross, which is now your cross, will you a life that is full and abundant.
In Herb Gardner’s A Thousand Clowns, an uncle tells of what he wants for his nephew: “I just want him to stay with me till I can be sure he won’t turn into a Norman Nothing. I want to be sure he’ll know when he’s chickening out on himself . . . I want him to stay awake and know who the phonies are, I want him to know how to holler and put up an argument. I want a little guts to show before I let him go. I want to be sure he sees all the wild possibilities And I want him to know the subtle, sneaky, important reason he was born a human being and not a chair.” (Be Your Whole Self pp 62—63)
Folks, on this Passion/Palm Sunday, the logic of both sides needs to be clear. We cannot afford to “chicken out” on God or on ourselves. We must know that God loves us and that love forgives, but we must also know that to know love, is to also to become love. When love happens to us; then life happens. And when life happens because we love, even though we may suffer outside the camp too, just like Jesus loved outside the gate; when we bear the other side of the cross in life, and suffer love like this, as we do good to others, so that we, as Hebrews says, ‘offer to God a sacrifice of praise’; when we not only bring glory to him now, we will bring glory, and live in glory forever and ever. This is the glory that comes to those who live on both sides of the cross. Amen.
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