Your Legacy, Your Choice

So here we are, April.  For those who have been a part of the Cornerstone family for more than a year then you know what April means. 

For those of you who have been with us for less than a year you might think that April is simply the month that falls between March and May.  And while that is true, at Cornerstone April has been traditionally, at least since 2002, the month that Denn talks about money.

And you might think that is a bit strange, so let me give you some history and background as to why that occurs.

First of all, it occurs in April because this is the end of the church year for Wesleyan Churches.  Why April?  I have no idea, but it is what it is.

Prior to 2002 Cornerstone handled our budget and finances like most churches do.  Before the new church year, the local board would sit down and draw up a budget for the new year.  But there was really very little rationale for the budget.  The best that we would hope for was we’d take last year’s budget and say “We hope to grow this year, so let’s increase the budget by 10%” But that very seldom took into account if we had made the budget the previous year or not.

It’s like writing a personal budget without taking into account your income.  Assuming the money will just appear.  The problem in churches is when the money doesn’t just appear then the pastor is instructed to preach on money. And because the pastor only preaches on money when there is a problem it comes across as scolding or nagging.  And most people learn from childhood to mentally turn down the volume of nagging and scolding. 

So in 2002, the leadership at Cornerstone decided that instead of having the pastor preach on money when things are tight, and then it comes off as desperation, we would take the month of April, each year, to teach the theology of giving, how we make our money and how we use our money.  

First we called it Stewardship Emphasis month but some where along the line it became know as simply “Money Month” 

And then on the last Sunday of April, step up cards will be distributed to folks who call Cornerstone their church home to respond and provide an estimate of what they believe they will be able to give in the upcoming year.  In affect you get to have a say in the budget and say “This is the type of church I would like to have this year.”

And then we take the cards, add them up and that becomes our budget for the year.  Not a nickel more.  And to stress the reality of that concept, the first time we did that at Cornerstone I lost a third of my salary and had to take outside employment for the next couple of years.

I think I handle the mechanics of it well; we try not to embarrass anyone or put anyone on the spot. If you don’t want to participate that is fine, although we encourage everyone to take part.   And we don’t come knocking on your door if you aren’t able to give what you thought you’d be able to, we hope you will after all we have based our budget on those figures.  And we provide you with updates throughout the year about where we are in relation to what was committed and where you are personally in relation to your commitment

 The scripture that was read earlier is one of many instances in the bible when Christians were taught about and reminded of their giving habits.  You see it’s not just Denn who talks about money.

In this case Paul is writing to the Corinthian church and he’s dealing with a collection that was being received for the believers in Jerusalem who were in the midst of persecution for their faith.  And Paul is commending the Corinthian Church and he reaches back into the Old Testament for the proper words and he quotes Psalm 112:9 where David is talking about the righteous people who served God.   Psalm 112:9  They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honour.

What Paul is speaking of and alluding to here transcends money and giving because he’s speaking of the legacy that the Corinthians Church is leaving, in particular I want to focus on the sentence that says “Their good deeds will be remembered forever”. 

This month our theme is “Your Legacy, Your Choice”   and we really need to begin by defining what we mean by legacy.  Collin’s English Dictionary defines Legacy this way:

Legacy:

1.         a gift by will, especially of money or personal property

2.         something handed down or received from an ancestor or predecessor

Sometimes people will leave a legacy of money to an organization when they pass away.  When Angela and I had our wills prepared we stipulated that 10% of our estate was to be given to the church where we were actively worshipping at the time of our death.   That would be a legacy, probably not a really large legacy but a legacy never the less. 

And for the purpose of my messages I want to combine those definitions and look at what we hand down because of our giving.   Paul told the Corinthians that they would be remembered forever for their good deeds, for having giving freely and generously. 

And so he begins by telling the church 2 Corinthians 9:6  Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.

The first thing we need to note is that 1) Everybody Leaves a Legacy Nobody lives a life without making some type of mark on the world, for good or for bad. 

Four Hundred years ago John Donne wrote “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”  Everyone will leave a legacy.

Paul says that some farmers plant a few seeds and some plant generously, but the reality is that they all plant something.

We might think that we don’t do much, and while your name might be forgotten the future will be written by what you do while you are here.  It might be a discovery made by your great great great grand-child.  But that is part of your legacy. 

Maybe you’ve heard it called the Butterfly effect or the fancy name is “The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.”  But whatever you call it, it simply means that the smallest action can have an incredible result.  For good or for bad. 

Sometimes I don’t think we give enough thought to the impact that decisions that we make in our ordinary lives will have on tomorrow.

It was Bill Gates who wrote “Legacy is a stupid thing! I don't want a legacy.”  And maybe he was thinking of Windows ME or maybe the quote that is often attributed to him, where he supposedly said “640K of memory should be enough for anybody.”  He denies saying that, but I probably would as well. 

But Bill Gates will leave a legacy, whether he wants to or not, because of Bill Gates and Microsoft the world looks different than it would have or could have if a different operating system had of risen to the top of the pile.    And that doesn’t even take into account the Gates Foundation and the tens of billions of dollars that have been spent on health and education in developing countries around the world.

But how about this, in 1968 Bill Gates parents moved their Precocious son from public school to the prestigious Lakeside Academy a private school for the elite families of Seattle.  That same year the “Mother’s Club” at the school did a rummage sale.  There was much discussion of what to do with the considerable proceeds from the sale and finally it was suggested that the money be spent on a computer terminal for the students.  The computer terminal was placed in a little room in the basement of the school and Gates practically lived in that room from that day on.  In 1968 when most university didn’t have a computer for their students a grade eight student by the name of Bill Gates was learning programing. 

So whose legacy is it?  Bill Gates’ or the lady who spearheaded the rummage sale, or the mother who pushed to buy the computer? 

So, Everybody Leaves a Legacy

Let’s go back to Paul’s letter:  2 Corinthians 9:7  You must each decide in your heart how much to give.

When Paul tells his readers that they will each decide how much they will give, he is talking about money, but to limit it to dollars is an injustice to his writings.  Because 2) You Will Leave a Legacy by how you spend your life

Every one of us makes choices that will have an impact on our own lives.  I beat that drum all the time.  It goes way back to our childhood.  We choose whether we will work hard in school or not.  I was always content to be in the top third of the bottom half of my class, that was a choice I made.  We choose who our friends will be, we choose what activities we will be involved in.  And those choices that seem so inconsequential in our youth begin to form and shape us and ultimate the legacy we will leave. 

At some point we decide if we are going to go to university or not, which school we will attend, which courses we will take.  And when we graduate we choose what company we go to work for, who we date and then we choose who we will marry.  And maybe you are thinking, I didn’t choose to get married, I had to get married.  Well that probably goes back to another choice you made.   Those are all choices that we make, and they all affect the life we will live and the legacy we will leave. 

And we are free to choose to do whatever we want to do in life, but we have to understand that all choices have consequences.  Sometimes, good consequences, sometimes bad consequences, but consequences never the less.   It was French writer Albert Camus who wrote “Life is a sum of all your choices.”

And it’s not about accepting the blame it about accepting the responsibly for your choices, both good and bad.  Because this is the secret, once you realize that the choices you made yesterday have shaped today then you realize that the choices you make today will shape tomorrow.

Your tomorrow is your legacy.  You understand that you are only here because of a choice that someone made however long ago.  To illustrate, one day awhile ago my son and I were having a conversation and he said “Sometimes I wish you had of stayed fishing with your father, because I would have grown up on a fishing boat.”   Good thinking Steve, but then I reminded him, “If I had of stayed fishing with your grandfather then I would never have gone to bible college where I met your mother, and while my son might be fishing with me today, that son wouldn’t have been you.”

And so wise choices will lead to one legacy and less than wise choices will lead to another legacy. 

There is a familiar verse in the book of Numbers, some of you will know it from the King James or Authorized version of the bible, Numbers 14:18 KJV The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

But have you ever asked yourself, “What does it mean ‘visiting the inquity of the fathers upon the children.’”?

For some people the answer is found in the New International Version where it says Numbers 14:18 NIV  'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'   And they see God with a big stick punishing subsequent generations for sins committed in the past. 

Seriously, God is going to punish me for what my Great-grandfather did?  Most days I don’t think I deserve punishment for what I’ve done.

Now listen to the New Living Translation,  Numbers 14:18  ‘The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’

Let’s read that again ‘He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’  We may not be punished for the actions of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, but often times we are who we are because of choices they made. 

Where they chose to live.  How much value they placed on education and their views or morality.  All of those things colour our lives.  But we get to choose the colour.  Will you live the consequences of your parent’s actions or will you learn from your parent’s actions?

Don’t let the past become an excuse for the present, “Well I am who I am because that’s how I was raised” or “I can’t do much because I’m from. . .” or  “That’s what my parents were like, so I guess that’s why I’m like this.”  In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes  “We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.”

Regardless of the legacy that you were left determine in your heart that you will leave a better legacy. 

Christ didn’t just come so we would have eternal life, he came to give us a different life while we are here, he told his followers in  John 10:10  The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

The devil wants to steal and destroy your legacy, but Christ’s plan is for you to have a rich and satisfying life.  Whatever your background, whatever your heritage, whatever you are struggling with there have been people from there who have chosen to rise above it and leave a mark and leave a legacy and so can you.  

But here is the great thing, Eleanor Roosevelt said “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”  Which means that the choices we make today will determine who we are tomorrow. 

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

3.  You Will Leave a Legacy by How You Spend Your Money  You knew it had to come to this eventually right?  After all it is April.  But cheer up, we won’t be here long this morning.

So, let’s start up front by saying God and the Bible have nothing against money.

Through the scriptures we find folks who were wealthy in their culture.  The Bible provides us with all kinds of directions of how we view money, how we get money and what we do with the money after we have it. 

Jesus warns us of the danger of what can happen when we get our priorities about money twisted around, but there is no glory is being poor. 

Contrary to popular opinion Jesus did not say “Money is the root of all evil.”  What you might be thinking of is the warning that Paul gave Timothy in 1 Timothy but Paul didn’t warn Timothy about money, instead he warned him about priorities.    1 Timothy 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.  And you don’t have to be rich to love money and crave money, and unfortunately too many people have traded away eternity for a handful of dust.

But listen up, this is important.  We will all choose to spend our money somewhere.  Angela and I tithe.  That is, we give 10% of what we make to the local church.  We believe that is a biblical concept.  And I’m not bragging I’m simply stating the reality.

And we are not the only folks at Cornerstone who have made that decision, thankfully, or there would be no Cornerstone.

And there are times that I have heard folks say, “I don’t know how you can afford to do that”

And I understand what they mean, because when I hear the price of beer and booze I think “I don’t know how people can afford to drink.”  When I see the price of cigarettes I think, “I don’t know how people can afford to smoke.”    

When I stand in line at a convenience story and watch people buying lottery tickets by the handful I think “I don’t know how people can afford to gamble.” 

And there have been times I have thought “I don’t know how people can afford to drive that car or live in that house or have their kids in organized sports.”  And trust me I’m not being judgemental, just curious. 

But the reality is that we all choose where we will spend our money. And we spend our money on what we perceive to be valuable.

Very early in the bible we read about sacrifice.  It is the story of Cain and Abel the sons of Adam and Eve, the first folks recorded in the bible.  The story is told in Genesis, that’s the first book of the bible, where we read how Abel was murdered by his older brother.  The back story to the murder is told in Genesis 4:3-5  When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD.  Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.  

We’ve been through this before.  Cain offered “some of his crops” and Abel offered “the best of the first born lambs.”    And what does that mean?  Well in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament we read Hebrews 11:4  It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

Abel still speaks to us as an example of his faith, because he stepped out and gave his very best.

Each person who comes to Cornerstone makes a decision in what they will give, God won’t force you and Denn won’t force you.  It is a choice that you will make by yourself.  And you will decide if you will give some to God or if you are going to give the best to God. 

And all we ask is that over the next few weeks as we look at stewardship and legacies that you will commit yourself to asking God what that will look like in your life.    

 

Making a Messiah, Easter Sunday

Jesus was guilty!  That’s right on that Good Friday so many years ago Christ was declared guilty.  He had fought the good fight but he had lost.  In the eyes of the world, in the eyes of His followers and in the eyes of his enemies Jesus Christ the carpenter from Nazareth had been proven to be guilty.

Everything he said about being God, everything he had said about his Kingdom, everything He had said about His power.  Every statement He ever uttered, every promise He ever made, everything had been shown to be a lie because Jesus was guilty, guilty of claiming that he was God when apparently he wasn’t.

If Jesus had lived it would have been different, but he died and because he died everyone knew he was guilty, as guilty as sin.

The Jewish Leaders Testified to His Guilt.  It was Jesus who was marching out of step, not them.  He was a liberal, trouble making activist.  I mean, think about it, things had been happening the same way in Israel for thousands of years.  What right did this young upstart preacher have to come in and try to change things all around?

He wasn’t a Rabbi, he wasn’t a Levite, he wasn’t a scribe or a Pharisee.  He was just a carpenter, he was a newcomer to Jerusalem, he was only thirty three years old and he was wrong.

So why should they change?  After all it was the Sadducees who were the lawmakers, not Jesus.  He just didn’t understand how things were done.  What right did he have to tell them as he did in  Matthew 22:29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.”  Well they had shown him, because they were right and he on the other hand was wrong.

How dare he call them vipers, how dare he call them fools, how dare he call them hypocrites.  Who did he think he was anyway?  And then he had the utter gall to claim to be the equal to Jehovah God.  In their Eyes he was guilty as guilty as sin.

Pilate Testified to His Guilt  And he was right because he was smart.  Pilate knew what he was doing, he was every inch a politician.  He saw trouble coming and he already had too much trouble in Jerusalem.  There Jews were on the brink of revolt.  Perhaps it had happened when he had put the images of Caesar on the flag standards in direct defiance of the Jewish law.  Maybe he was guilty that time, or perhaps it was when he financed the municipal water supply with money he had seized from the temple treasury, he may have been guilty that time too.

I mean Pilate had enough trouble; he didn’t need all the problems that this young Nazarene carpenter represented.  Pilate had the authority of the Roman Empire behind him; at the snap of his fingers he could have levelled Jerusalem.  And this young peasant had the nerve to stand in front of him and say  John 19:11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Oh yeah, right, well Pilate proved him wrong.



Pilate feared the trouble that the Jews could raise with his superiors but then again there were his superstitions about this one who called himself God.



What should he do, please the Jews or set this harmless preacher free?  So he crucified him, but hey it worked out for the best. In Pilates eyes Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.



Barabbas Testified to His Guilt  According to custom each year at the Passover celebration the Roman Governor would set one prisoner free.  And so Pilate asked the crowd, “Should I release Jesus the Christ or Barabbas the murderer?”  It would have been so easy for Pilate to have released Christ if the Crowd had of asked him to.  But no, the crowd yelled, “Free Barabbas, crucify Jesus, free Barabbas, crucify Jesus.” And he so he did.



So you see Barabbas was declared innocent and Jesus was declared guilty.



But who was this Barabbas?  Well his name was probably Bar Rabbis which in the Greek means Son of the Rabbi. I’m sure some people are thinking; typical preacher’s kid right?  Maybe his dad was one of the leaders who called for the death of Jesus.  We do know that Barabbas was one of the Zealots, those who wanted to rid Israel of Rome.  And the Zealots didn’t care what it took, murder, robbery, terrorism.



Now tradition tells us that Barabbas was not this man’s first name.  Remember our old buddy Peter?  Sometimes in the gospels he is referred to  Simon Bar Jonah, or Simon the Son of Jonah.  Tradition has it that Barabbas had a very common first name, a name that he shared with many other Jews, one that he even shared with a young carpenter from Nazareth.  You see tradition tells us that the Zealot’s complete name was Jesus Bar Rabbis.



Two Jesus’, one who preached love, and one who preached hate, one who preached peace and one who preached war, one who preached forgiveness and one who preached vengeance.  Two Jesus, as different as day and night.  And one walked away a free man and one died on a cross.  And because Barabbas walked free in his eyes Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.



The Roman Guards Testified to His Guilt   These men represented the power of Rome; they were impartial and interested only in doing their job.  They had probably been brought in from Caesarea Philippi to help keep the peace in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration. They didn’t know who Jesus was and if they had of known they wouldn’t have cared.



If Pilate declared that he was a criminal and deserved to be crucified, than as far as they were concerned he was a criminal and deserved to be crucified.  And so they split his clothing amongst them and nailed Jesus to the cross.  Because as far as they were concerned Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.



His Disciples Testified to His Guilt  Was there any real reason for all of them to die?  Self preservation is nothing to be trifled with.  God himself put that survival instinct in each one of us.  I mean think about it, if Jesus was wrong now, then he must have been wrong all along.  Maybe he really didn’t know what he was talking about. Turn the other cheek indeed and look where it had gotten Jesus.



Perhaps Barabbas needed some followers, now there was a winner.  They’d have to talk to him on Tuesday after everything had settled down over the holidays.  The meek will inherit the earth.  Sure, all it had gotten Jesus was a cross and a borrowed grave.



The disciples were right when they choose to lay low for awhile.  What would they have accomplished by taking a stand?  Whey should they all have to die.  If Jesus had of shown them he was innocent by calling down an army of angels, well that would have been a horse of a different colour. 



But it was all in vain, Jesus wasn’t God and they were just fishermen.  The disciples were right and because they hadn’t stood up to defend the one they called Lord and friend they were proclaiming for all to hear that they thought Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.



Popular Opinion Testified to His Guilt  On Palm Sunday the crowd had sang hosanna and waved palm branches and if a Roman or a Jew had of laid a hand on Jesus, there would have been a riot.  Oh they were right about Jesus on Sunday, but then on Friday they shouted “Crucify Him, Crucify Jesus.”



Just like today, how many people praise his name and sing Hosanna on Sunday but on Monday they live for themselves and take his name in vain?  Popular opinion had proclaimed Christ a king and now it was proclaiming him a Criminal.  And popular opinion was right and Jesus was wrong.  He was crucified because popular opinion decided that Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.



Good Friday ends on a very final note.  Jesus was gone, dead, buried and silenced forever.  Everything that Jesus had said, everything that Jesus had taught, everything that Jesus had done was gone and would be forgotten, because Jesus was wrong.



For two days Jesus was wrong.  By every measure that is used by the world Jesus was wrong. Dead wrong because on Friday Jesus had died.  Jesus clashed with all the selfish distorted values and morals of a fallen society and he died because nobody can fight a monster that big and win.



He took on the sins of the world, the collective evil from creation onward and from all outward appearances he had failed.



And that was the plan. 



On Palm Sunday we looked at how the day Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem had a dark side.  It was that day during the celebration that the Jewish leaders decided that Jesus had to die.  They were afraid of what it would mean if the people were to embrace this radical young leader.



Afraid of what it would mean to their authority and afraid of how the Romans would react.  For them there was only one solution.  And they were willing to do whatever had to be done to make it happen.



For Judas it was the day he decided that things with Jesus weren’t going the way he wanted them to go.  And we’ll never know for sure if Judas was looking for Jesus’ death or if he was just trying to give him a push to force his hand.  But the results were the same.  They led to the cross.



And on Good Friday a flawed arrest led to several flawed trials.  Trials where the rules and regulations set in place to ensure justice were flaunted, ignored and broken all for one end, so Jesus would be found guilty and to guarantee that Jesus would die.



And while the verdict on Friday was guilty, was that the reality?



If we go back to the story we read in Matthew 27:3-4  When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders.  “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.”

Judas Testified to His Innocence   Judas had spent three years with Jesus, he had seen the miracles, he had eaten the fish and loaves by shore of galilee.  He had heard Jesus preach on love and grace and forgiveness. 

And regardless of what he had done in the garden, Judas knew that Jesus was innocent.

On Friday we discovered that while the religious leaders were the one who demanded that Jesus must die they didn’t have the authority to have him executed, so they turned to Rome.  Jesus was sent to the Roman governor, Pilate for sentencing, and while the result was that Jesus was crucified, it was a flawed verdict delivered under pressure because Pilate wasn’t really convinced of Jesus’ guilt.  We read in  Luke 23:14  (Pilate) announced his verdict. “You brought this man to me, accusing him of leading a revolt. I have examined him thoroughly on this point in your presence and find him innocent.

Pilate Testified to His Innocence  

Pilate may have given in to the pressure of Caiaphas and his cohorts but he knew in his heart that Jesus was innocent.  And we read this little act of defiance in John 19:19-22  And Pilate posted a sign over him that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.  Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”  Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”   

But it wasn’t just Pilate, you’ll remember from the story of Good Friday that Pilate had sent Jesus to the puppet king Herod so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the religious leaders and their demands.  And Herod examined Jesus and sent him back to Pilate with his findings.  We read in Luke 23:15  Pilate said “Herod came to the same conclusion and sent him back to us. Nothing this man has done calls for the death penalty.”

And so Herod Testified to His Innocence  Herod, who had killed John the Baptist at the insistence of his wife, Herod who’s father had had the infants of Bethlehem slaughtered in an attempt to kill the new born Jesus.  Even Herod knew that Jesus had done nothing to deserve to die.  

But despite the fact that Pilate and Herod knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges, they allowed him to be mocked and beaten and ultimately crucified.  Pilate may have declared himself innocent of Jesus death, but without Pilate’s consent Jesus would not have been killed that day. 

And as Jesus hung on the cross, between two thieves we read this account.  Luke 23:39-41  One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”  But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”

The Thief Testified to His Innocence Legend has named the thief Dismas. 

Maybe Dismas had been in the crowd and heard Jesus preach, or maybe a loved one had been healed by Jesus.  We’ll never know.  We don’t know what brought Dimas to his conclusion, but the one thing he was sure of was that Jesus was innocent and Dismas wasn’t.   

And when Jesus did die, and his body was being removed from the cross, we see this closing scene from Luke’s account:   Luke 23:47  When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.”   

His Executioner Testified to His Innocence I’m sure this man had seen plenty of people declare their innocence or the innocence of loved ones.  He had a job to do and he had simply done his job, but at the end of the day he realized that some of the blood that he had shed that day had been innocent blood. 

And so the trial and death of Jesus was a travesty and a crime.  But that is the biggest failing of capital punishment, it is so hard to undo.

And so it really didn’t matter if Jesus was a guilty man or an innocent man, at the end of the day on Friday his enemies had won, because he was a dead man.  They had been right and he had been wrong. 

But the story doesn’t end with the crucifixion, that was Friday but this is Sunday. Stand with me for the reading from God’s word.  Scripture Reading



Matthew 28:1-10

The Miracle of Easter is that The Empty Tomb Testified to His Innocence

On the third day when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to prepare their master with the spices donated by Nicodemus instead of finding Jesus they found Angels. 

But wait if Jesus was guilty and dead then how come he wasn’t still in the grave?  If Jesus was wrong if he wasn’t the messiah he claimed to be, then where was he? 

For two days the world proclaimed itself right.  For two days they had declared that Jesus was guilty of falsely claiming to be God, but on the third day and for eternity Jesus Christ was proclaimed to be innocent, and proven to be God.  Jesus was right and the rest of them were wrong.

If Jesus had of remained in the ground he would have been just as wrong as Mohammed, Confucius and Buddha.  If Jesus had of remained dead he would have remained dead wrong.  Just another misguided prophet who thought he was right. 

And because Jesus of Nazareth was right on Easter day, fifty days later on the day of Pentecost those first 120 Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit and Christianity was proven right.

On Good Friday, Christianity heard the bells of Hell peal out the death toll of Jesus Christ and the movement he founded.  On Good Friday Simon Peter cowered under the gaze of a little servant girl.  On Good Friday the believers were of many accord, each one interested only in their own welfare, each Christian concerned only with their own salvation.

But Christianity didn’t lose because Jesus Christ didn’t lose.  And because Christianity didn’t lose good won’t lose.  There are times that it looks like Christianity is beaten but time and time again we struggle back to the surface and emerge victorious.  Oh our doctrine may fail us and our leaders may disappoint us but Christianity will not be kept down.  And as we look around at the evil in this old world sometimes it appears that Satan has the upper hand, sometimes it would appear that Satan is victorious.  We see abortion, hunger, war and deceitfulness.  We see illness, pain and suffering.  We see scandals from inside and outside the church.

And as the world looks on it chants; “Jesus was guilty, Jesus lost, Jesus was guilty and Jesus lost.” 

But we have only to look beyond Friday when it appeared that Jesus was guilty, to Sunday when Jesus Christ rose triumphantly from the grave throwing off the shackles of death and proclaiming himself right for eternity.

Jesus was innocent, he was innocent on Palm Sunday, he was innocent on Good Friday, He was innocent on Easter Sunday.  Because he not only claimed to be God, he was God.  And because of that He will remain right as will his church. 

Because Jesus Christ did not lose we will not lose.  In winning the victory over death on Calvary’s mount so many years ago Jesus won the victory for us.  When Jesus won over death, he offered us the power to win over death.

Now Jesus did not win on the cross so we could have the Easter Bunny, and Jesus did not win on the cross so we could have chocolate eggs, and Jesus did not win on the cross so we could have a long weekend in the spring. 

Jesus Christ won on Calvary for one reason and one reason only, and that was to give you and I the opportunity to have eternal life.  I would suspect that if you gave Jesus a list of things he would like to have been doing over the Easter weekend that dying on a cross would have been somewhere near the bottom of the list.

But Christ died on the cross so you wouldn’t have to and he rose again to demonstrate that he was even in control of death.   

Making a Messiah, Good Friday

It had been a full week, it had started with the crowds on the streets of Jerusalem and now here they were, just the thirteen of them in a private room celebrating the Passover. 

And only two people in that room knew where the night would lead.

Jesus, because he was. . . Jesus.  And Judas because he had put the wheels into motion, the day before, when he had agreed to betray his friend for thirty pieces of silver. 

And Jesus knew that he had been betrayed, and yet in this amazing display of grace he still invites Judas to celebrate with them.

And that is the invitation that continues to be extended by Jesus, even knowing all that we will do, and all the ways that we will betray his love and name he still says, come. 

Communion Celebration

Last week we celebrated Palm Sunday and we looked at the dark side of the celebration and how it was after Jesus had entered into Jerusalem riding on a donkey while the crowds praised him and waved palm branches that the religious authorities felt that they had no option but to take matters into their own hands.  It was at the point that they decided, that Jesus must die.

And that decision has led us to this point only five days later.

It was a perfect set up, it had to be this way.  During the day Jesus was surrounded by crowds of sympathetic people who had come to hear him preach.  People whose lives had been impacted by Jesus.  Perhaps they had been healed by him, or maybe because of his teaching on forgiveness they had seen a relationship restored, or perhaps they had been part of the multitude he had fed by the shores of Galilee.  Regardless of the how and why, those who gathered around him during the day would pose a considerable problem for the authorities, and so they came for him under the cover of night.  

But even then they were taking no chances.  And so to arrest the man who had spoken so much of love, forgiveness and grace a crowd was sent.  Three of the gospels simply identify them as a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs, however John gets more specific and tells us in John 18:2-3  Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.  The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

I don’t know if they expected Christ to fight or run, but either way they came prepared, what they didn’t prepare for was for him to simply surrender.  And Jesus asked them in Luke 22:52-53  Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?  Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”

And in that one statement Jesus was letting them know that he knew.

You see even though the night arrest made for good strategy and good theatre it was the beginning of the flawed prosecution of Jesus. And Jesus knew what they knew and that was if they couldn’t prove a case against him then they would fabricate a case against him.

And it started with the reality that The Arrest Was Flawed Historical we are told that there were two problems with the arrest, the first was that it was performed at night.  There were all kinds of guidelines and regulations in place for the Jewish judicial process and one was that neither arrests or trials were to conducted at night. 

Two thousand years ago in Israel justice was under the authority of the Sanhedrin, they were the supreme religious authority at the time, and functioned kind of like a supreme court.   And there would have been no discussion about the separation of religion and state then.  While Israel may have been under Roman rule they still considered themselves a Theocracy. 

In Canada we enjoy a Democracy and that word can be traced back to two Greek words:  “Demos” meaning “People” and “Kratia”  meaning “Power”.  2000 years ago Israel was a Theocracy.  “Kratia” still meant “Power” but “Theos” meant “God”.  And so in manners of religious and civil law you had a religious court, the Sanhedrin, comprised of members of the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Priest Hood.  The Grand Sanhedrin had 71 members and was only convened for matters of national security and then you had a cabinet of 23 that was probably the group that conspired against Christ.

And they functioned, just like courts everywhere, under restrains.  And one those constrains was that justice would be performed in the daylight hours.   And there was a symbolism wrapped up in that, justice was all about being transparent and was about light being shone into the darkness and that justice should be able to bear up to the scrutiny that would come on it in the light of day.

But here they are with their torches seeking him out after dark. The arrest of Jesus happened somewhere between 1 and 2 o’clock in the morning.  And that was wrong.

The other issue is he was arrested on the information of Judas and under the law of the day someone who was a criminal associate could not provide the evidence needed for an arrest in a capital case, because of the conflict of interest.  They would be as guilty as the accused.

And yet the story here revolves around the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, one of his closest associates.  And when the crowd came to arrest him, Judas steps forward embrace Christ and kisses him.  And that was done to ensure that in the darkness of the night, lit only with flickering torches that no mistake would be made, that the right man would be arrested.  Because the one thing that those who conspired to end Jesus’ ministry agreed on was “Jesus must die.”

Music

But it wasn’t only the arrest that was flawed, The Trials Were Flawed.  And notice that I said trails, not trial. 

What happened after the arrest of Jesus would have been considered a travesty by today’s legal standards. From his arrest, to his interrogation, to his conviction to his sentence things were done differently than we would do them today.

And that is to be expected, we often watch as historical figures are judged by today’s standards, and very seldom do they fare well.  And so we can’t expect that a trial held in an occupied country 2000 years ago should be held to the same standards as the same trial would be today in Canada.  But we would expect that it would be held to the standards of that day and time.

In 1948 British Judge Frank Powell wrote a book called “The Trial of Jesus Christ”  and it looks at the trial of Jesus in light of the historical standards of the day, that is the way that a capital case was supposed to be tried under Jewish law.  And what he discovered was that there was nothing fair about the trial of Jesus and very little was done properly in the trial of Christ.

Around the same time American Lawyer David Breed wrote “The Trial of Christ” and found a number of errors that under Jewish and Roman Law would have been considered serious breaches.  Today they would be considered reversible errors, and would be the basis of a new trial.  And not just one or two, Breed identifies 17 different issues that contravened the trial laws of that time.  

From his first appearance in front of Annas we see that nobody is really interested in justice, they are interesting in ridding themselves of Jesus.  John 18:13  First they took him to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time.

Annas had no legal standing in the Jewish community.  He had been the High Priest but now he was retired and he was the father in law of the man who was now High Priest, Caiaphas.  So why would Jesus have first been taken into the home of this man?

I would suspect it goes back to an event that happened earlier in the week, when Jesus cleansed the temple courts. You might recall how Jesus had come into the courts and saw the money changers and vendors who were taking advantage of the pilgrims who had come for the Passover celebration. 

The story is told in Mark 11:15-17  When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.  He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Well here is an interesting tidbit from history, the man who was in charge of what happened in the temple courts, the man who profited from the extortion, was none other than Annas.  The temple courtyards were even referred to by the Jews of the day as “The Bazaars of Annas.”  Hmmmm. 

And so Annas demanded the names of Jesus’ followers and what he had been teaching them.  When Jesus didn’t give the answers that Annas was looking for, he was beaten.  And in turn Jesus responds by saying John 18:23  Jesus replied, “If I said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I’m speaking the truth, why are you beating me?”

And so it was at that point that Annas had Jesus bound like a criminal and sent to his Son-in-law, Caiaphas.  You remember Caiaphas. 

We read about him last week, in the Gospel of John in reference to Jesus, Caiaphas told his colleagues  John 11:50  “You don’t realize that it’s better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.”

And two days later we read this account Matthew 26:3-4  At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest,  plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him.  So the next person that who is involved in Jesus’ trial has already stated publically his intention to have Jesus killed.  I’m thinking that Caiaphas might have had a little bit of a problem being unbiased.

I think Caiaphas knew the truth about Jesus, because we read in Matthew 26:59-61  Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus, so they could put him to death.  But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone’s testimony. Finally, two men came forward who declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

 Understand that under Jewish law a capital trial could only happen during the daytime, they are still under the cover of dark. And criminal cases weren’t permitted to be held during the religious celebrations and the Passover celebrations had started the day before.  The trial had to be held in the meeting place of the Sanhedrin, but they were meeting in the home of Caiaphas.  At least two witnesses had to be examined separately, yet here the witnesses were examined together after being coached to twist the words of Christ. 

And under Jewish law, only a not guilty verdict could be delivered the same day as the trial.  When the verdict was guilty at least one night had to go by before sentencing, so the tribunal would have time to reflect and perhaps consider mercy, and Jesus’ trail was finished in hours.

These were the Sanhedrin’s own rules and in their rush to be rid of Jesus they, were prepared to make a mockery of a legal system that was admired in their day.

The charges that Caiaphas and his cronies finally settled on was the charge of blasphemy.  That Jesus had claimed to be God.

The problem for them was that 300 years earlier they might have had the authority to have Jesus executed, but not under Roman law.

And so we pick up the story in John 18:28  Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover.  Well at least they were conscientious about that.

The problem was that blasphemy was a religious charge and Pilate couldn’t have cared less.  And so we read in Luke 23:2  They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.”

So the charge has changed from blasphemy to treason.  And when Pilate said that he didn’t see any evidence of that they up the ante and tell him Luke 23:5  Then they became insistent. “But he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes—all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”   Riots?  Seriously?  Riots?   

But it was here that Pilate saw an out, he didn’t want to execute the carpenter but he didn’t want to alienate the religious leaders.  And he responds Luke 23:6-7  “Oh, is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked.  When they said that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.  The old pass the buck trick.

This was the same Herod who had John the Baptist killed, it was his father who had tried to kill Jesus when he was a new born.  We are told that Herod had heard about Jesus and wanted to meet him and see him perform a miracle.  Comedians often tell how annoying it is when they meet someone and are asked to say something funny, and magicians say that they are often asked to perform a trick for people.  Very seldom does the preacher get to eat in a group without being the person who is asked to say grace. 

And so in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Super Star” Herod sings
So You are the Christ
You're the great Jesus Christ
Prove to me that You're divine
Change my water into wine

That's all You need do
And I'll know it's all true
C'mon King of the Jews

But we are told that Jesus doesn’t even grace Herod with an answer, and so Herod puts a purple robe on Christ and sends him back to Pilate.  Saying that he just found Jesus annoying.

So what is Pilate to do?  He has the religious leaders and the mob they had incited demanding that Jesus be executed, but he can find no evidence to support a case against Jesus and neither can Herod.   His wife has shown up in the middle of everything, telling him about a dream she had about Jesus and how Pilate should release him.

And Pilate tries, he tells the crowd that as a gesture of good will because it’s the Passover he will release one prisoner.  And he stands Jesus up next to a known murderer named Barabbas and offers the crowd their choice of who should go free, he figured it was a no brainer.  And the mob egged on by the authorities yelled, “Free Barabbas, crucify Jesus.”

Things are getting out of control and so Pilate has Jesus flogged with a steel tipped whip, but even that doesn’t satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd.

 And finally in frustration Pilate turns to the crowd and says:  “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”

“The responsibility is yours, what will you do with this innocent man?” he asked.

Making a Messiah, Palm Sunday

For most of us the lead up to Easter begins with Palm Sunday, in case you missed it that’s today. 

But really the stage was set before the celebration of the triumphant entry.

Most of you know that I am a Jesus Christ Super Star nerd and in the past I’ve shown the Palm Sunday clip from the 2000 production of Superstar and for me it just sums up what the day must have been like, it captures the excitement and joy of that day.  From the excitement of the crowd to the animosity of the religious leaders and the torment of Judas. 

And I didn’t start with that clip but I will be finishing this message with the song that leads into the Palm Sunday scene.  This time from the 40^th anniversary production tour.  The tour travelled across the UK and Australia and was viewed by over 320,000 people. 

The recording was performed live in Birmingham in 2013.  And while some might argue on the orthodoxy of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s view of the events leading up to the Holy Week I would argue that the scene that we will close with truly captures the emotions of that event as recorded in John’s account that was read earlier.  But that will be later in the service.

Ultimately what happened both leading up to and the events that happened on the actual day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey set the stage for what would happen less than a week later. 

It seemed that everything in Jesus ministry led up to this point. And it would be a turning point for many.  This was a veritable “Come to Jesus moment.”

So how could the celebration that happened on “Palm Sunday” lead to the horrors that would happen five days later?   

Our theme for Holy Week is Making a Messiah, and we are focusing on the fact that what happened on Good Friday was a travesty of justice and we don’t have to look very deep into the story to discover that Jesus was set up and framed by the authorities.  And Palm Sunday was where and when the stage was set. 

For Jesus This was Something That was Planned You have to understand this wasn’t something that just happened, you know the stars aligned and Jesus just happened to be in the right place at just the right time, or one of the other excuses we use to explain away divine appointments, this was how it was supposed to go down.

John’s account of what happened on Palm Sunday is very typical of John’s Gospel, he sees the big picture but doesn’t delve into the minutia of the event.  So in John 12:14 we read John 12:14  Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it . . . and we are tempted to think that it was just that simple, “Oh look a donkey, let’s use that.” 

But if we look into the other gospels we see the preparation that went into the event, in Luke’s account we read,  Luke 19:29-31  As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead.  “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

Now we might be tempted to add a whole range of mystical application here, that maybe this was a miracle or a step of faith on Jesus behalf, you know, just do and it will happen.  Chances are that Jesus knew the man and had arranged in advance for the donkey to be there.  The words “The Lord needs it” were probably a password so the man would know that he was giving the donkey to the right people.  I mean he’d feel kind of silly had the two disciples shown up and he had to tell them, “I gave the donkey to two other guys who were here about an hour ago.” 

We know that Jesus had friends in Bethany, that’s where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived and so it’s not that far of a reach to see that Jesus had already put steps in place for his entrance to Jerusalem. 

Which would lead me to suspect that if it were alright for Jesus to do preparation and not always wait until the last minute and then call on God in panic that there might be a lesson there for us as well.

And Luke gives us a few details about the colt that they brought back for Christ to ride.  We are told that it was the colt of a donkey and that it had never been ridden before.  

Now that may not mean a whole lot to you and me but to the people of Jerusalem it meant a great deal, and just in case they missed it John reaches back into the Old Testament and pulls out a reference from the prophet Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt.

Jesus knew that the religious leaders were out to get him and yet instead of slinking into the city under the cover of darkness he rides triumphantly in a manner that is bound to reveal him as messiah.  William Barclay who wrote the Daily Study Bible Commentaries made this statement “It is a breath-taking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding into a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him. It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus.”

It is so easy to simply view Palm Sunday as an inconsequential event that led up to the main story, Easter.  But the Easter story hinged on what happened the week before when Jesus rode into town on the back of a donkey.

What happened that day sealed Jesus’ fate. 

For the faithful This Was Something That was Anticipated Jesus had been talking of his Kingdom almost from day one and His followers had been anticipating the coming of his kingdom almost from day one.  I don’t think that the twelve gave up their former lives simply based on a future of following Jesus around from town to town relying on the charity of others to survive.

They were expecting things to change, and they were clinging to promises such as Luke 18:29-30  “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God,  will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”  

And while there had always been crowds they had come to hear him teach and then they left.

But now they were looking to the future and talking about it, John tells us in John 11:55-56  It was now almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, and many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the purification ceremony before Passover began.  They kept looking for Jesus, but as they stood around in the Temple, they said to each other, “What do you think? He won’t come for Passover, will he?”  

And so this day was different, this time they weren’t greeting Jesus simply as a teacher, or as a Rabbi instead they saw him as the one who would deliver them Luke 19:36-38  As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him.  When they reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.  “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

We don’t know who all were there, but I would suspect that along with the twelve that probably Mary, Martha and Lazarus were there, no doubt Mary Magdalene, maybe Zacheaus, Simon the leper and others whose lives and bodies Jesus had touched.

For many that day Jesus was not just an abstract or an ideal he had changed their lives and they were there to express their thanks and their adoration to him.  Psalm 135:1 was a reality to them and they were going to follow those words that said Psalm 135:1  Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD! Praise him, you who serve the LORD,

I don’t think that I’d be far off in saying that most of you folks fall into that last category; Jesus is a real part of your lives.  You’ve made a decision to follow him and through His power and His grace your sins have been forgiven.  And when you come on Sunday mornings your praise is genuine.

But it wasn’t just the faithful who were there, and while we don’t know how many people were present that day the accounts seem to imply that it was a large crowd who came out to welcome him.  We are told in John’s account,  John 12:12-13  The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches and went down the road to meet him.

  And For the Crowd This Was Something that was Interesting  Call them what you like, the undecided or seekers they heard the noise and wanted to find out what it was all about.  They probably got caught up in the excitement and began to sing and shout and wave palm branches but they still weren’t a hundred percent convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. 

Perhaps they hadn’t heard him speak, or maybe they didn’t know anyone whose life had been changed or who had been healed.  So they were there for themselves to find out what all the fuss was about.

Most of us don’t come to know Jesus as Lord the first time we hear the message, as a matter of fact most of us don’t come the first half dozen times we hear the message.  It often takes time and multiple hearings before we come to the place that we are ready to surrender our lives to him.  For some it is fairly quick for others it takes a little longer.  The secret is that you remain open to God and to his message.

Jeremiah 29:11-14  For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,” says the LORD.

We do know that less then two months later, after Jesus had been crucified, after Jesus had risen from the dead, after Jesus had taught for another forty days and ascended into heaven, after the Holy Spirit fell upon the small group of believers in Jerusalem and after Peter preached on the streets of Jerusalem, perhaps to many who had been there on Palm Sunday that this is recorded in  Acts 2:41  Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.   They went from merely being interested to becoming convinced, and that is a step we all need to take.

And so if you are here today, but you have never made a decision to follow Christ continue to seek him, but here is a warning, don’t take too long.  Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 6:2  For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.

Why today?  Because you don’t know what might happen tomorrow.  And friends listen up you say “I’m almost convinced.”  90% found is still lost.  I would hate to think that any one of you might slip into eternity, by the way that’s just a pastoral way of saying kick the bucket, without having the assurance of your salvation.

For Judas This was Something That Was a Game Changer I would suspect that we wouldn’t have to look very far in the crowd that day in order to find Judas Iscariot.  You remember Judas don’t you?  He was one of the twelve and the treasurer of the group.  Ultimately he would be remembered through history as the one who would betray Christ to the authorities. 

Now at this point Judas had not even talked to the high priest about a deal. It would be another three or four days before Judas would go to the chief priests and ask what they would be willing to pay if he would betray his friend.  But do you really think that the turning point came after the triumphant entry?  Do you think that half a week could make a man turn from being a committed follower of Jesus Christ into the one who would turn his friend and teacher over to be executed? 

Whatever it was that had turned Judas heart had happened before that last week, oh something might have been said or done to trigger the incident but the wheels were already in motion.  On the day that Jesus rode into town being proclaimed Messiah Judas already knew that he had lost the first love that he had for Christ. 

Judas’ true nature is revealed in a story told by John in his gospel.  Jesus has already entered into Bethany, and is attending a dinner given in his honour.  His three friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus are all there.  Martha is doing what Martha is always doing, preparing the food and serving it to all the guests, Lazarus is being a typical man in this situation and is doing nothing.  Understand ladies, Lazarus isn’t deliberately doing nothing, he just looks around and doesn’t see anything to do.   And besides that, he had recently been dead, that’s gotta count for something.

The third sibling, Mary comes into the room with a container of perfume which she proceeds to pour over the feet of Christ and then she wipes it off with her hair. A little bizarre but I’m sure that in that cultural and historical setting it must have been acceptable because no one jumps up and says “Wow that was kind of strange.”  But someone does object, this is what we read in  John 12:4-6  But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said,  “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”  Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.

And so it would appear that while Judas had all the outward trappings of one of the disciples that in here, where it counts, there had never been a transformation.  Oh people looked at him and said “There is a follower of Christ, one of his disciples, he is a Christian.” 

But Judas and God knew that was a lie.  When he shouted hosanna that day he didn’t mean it, he did it because it was expected of him.  And on that day, he decided that he was backing the wrong horse, that if he was going to accomplish every thing that he dreamed of than things would have to change.

And it was only four days later that we read, Matthew 26:14-16  Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests  and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.  From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

But even with all of those players the story wasn’t complete.  What set everything in motion toward what we now call Good Friday is revealed in John 11:57  Meanwhile, the leading priests and Pharisees had publicly ordered that anyone seeing Jesus must report it immediately so they could arrest him.   For The Authorities This was Something That was Feared 

 They weren’t shouting, they weren’t singing or waving palm branches or laying their coats down.  They weren’t in the least bit interested in being identified with Christ, I mean you have to give them credit, at least they were honest about it, they weren’t pretending.  They had their minds made up; they weren’t going to believe in him, no matter what. 

It didn’t matter how many miracles they witnessed, how many times they saw lives changed, they had already made a decision to not follow Christ, and we’ll never know what it was that kept them away, pride, sin or the fear of losing control but it was something.

Not all of the religious leaders where like that, in the Gospels we read about men like Nicodemus the Pharisee and Jairus the ruler of the Synagogue.  But the majority of them, if they had a favourite hymn it would be “I will not be moved.”  If they were in the crowd that day, they were standing with their arms crossed and frowning. 

I don’t know what it was that kept the authorities from believing that Jesus was the Messiah, or maybe they just didn’t want to believe that Jesus was the Messiah because that wouldn’t fit in with their plans.    I think they were like the atheist that George Orwell described in Animal Farm when he wrote He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).

It is interesting to note that by the time the religious leaders got to this point they weren’t denying his miracles or trying to explain them away anymore. So overwhelming was the evidence for the miracles that had been performed that his enemies simply accepted them as fact.

The only question that remained for them was what to do with Jesus.  And if they had any doubts about their decision, those doubts were swept away by the outpouring of support they witnessed on Palm Sunday for Jesus, because it was at that point we read in  John 12:19  Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”  Which brought them to the only decision that they felt they could make . . . and that was Jesus would have to die.