John 12 - Part 4

Read John 12

Water to wine.

Remote healing.  Yes, socially distanced healing.

Healed a paralyzed man.

Fed a multitude.

Walked on Water.

Gave a man born blind his sight.

Raised Lazarus from the dead.

He had me at water to wine.  What gives?

Not everyone saw every miracle, but by this point there were thousands upon thousands of first-hand witnesses and testimonies galore.  OBTW—the evidence from that resurrection was still walking around. There was a plan afoot to kill him, but as far as we know, it was never implemented.

Yes, some of these miracles, these mighty acts of God, just happened to occur on the Sabbath.  None of the rule-makers could answer the question if it was permissible to do good on the Sabbath.  Well, they could have answered, but if they answered truthfully, accepting Jesus as the Christ would have to follow.

John tried to add some context and perspective from the Prophet Isaiah.

“Lord, who has believed our message

    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

But still, the question does not answer the blindness of the Pharisees and other religious leaders.  Again, we visit Isaiah.

“He has blinded their eyes

    and hardened their hearts,

so they can neither see with their eyes,

    nor understand with their hearts,

    nor turn—and I would heal them.”

Isaiah spoke these words not so much because of the apostacy of God’s Chosen People but because of the glory of God that would come into this world.  Isaiah was speaking about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus willingly became the sacrifice for our sins, but he would not kill himself.  He would not take his own life.  He gave it freely but someone must be the instrument of execution.  A people blind to the glory of God and a people prone to violence were just the perfect combination and perfect historical timing.

For as much as the religious hierarchy despised the Romans, they made perfect coconspirators to murder.  The Lamb of God would be sacrificed for our sins.  He gave his life freely but somebody had to do the dirty work.  Somebody had to kill him.

For all of the blindness to the cosmic pieces that had fallen into place to shed blood for the forgiveness of sins, some did believe on the Son of Man before he went to the cross.  They didn’t have the backbone to go public.  It seemed that the Sanhedrin and the Romans both knew how to wield fear as a broadsword.

But some believed.

Jesus had taught his followers and those who gathered to hear him teach that they—we—were to put his words into practice, but here he says that failure to do so does not result in condemnation.

Jesus came to save and salvation came in belief.  Don’t discount discipleship but realize that your scorecard is voided and belief is what saves.  You know the words:  Saved by grace through faith so no man may boast.

The invoice for our sin was soon to be nailed to the cross even as Jesus spoke.  He would not do away with the law, but because of the law, that invoice had charges to our account that we never even knew about.  The blood of Jesus would pay everything on that invoice.

I frequently look at my credit card charges online because I can and because I have had to replace my card half a dozen times or more due to fraudulent charges.  That said, I scrutinize every charge.  Sometimes, I come across something that looks strange, then find out that it was in fact my charge.

It’s sort of the same with our transgressions.  We forget some too easily.  We all fall short, but the blood of Jesus took care of those charges.

But what Jesus charges us to do is believe.  We may not get the hang of discipleship right away.  The disciples didn’t even get the hang of discipleship until they received the Spirit. 

Some people never seem to pick up on living in thankful and loving response to God’s grace, but salvation is in belief.

There will come a time when we will also answer for our discipleship.  There will come a time when we will stand in judgment not by the law, for the law has already found us guilty and we received a death sentence.  Jesus paid that debt for us.

It’s not that the law was set aside.  The law found us guilty and the only one ever to fulfill the law stood in our place to take our punishment.  In so doing the unblemished Lamb was offered as an eternal sacrifice for our sins.

We will stand and answer for abiding in the words of our Master.

Did we believe him to be the Son of God?  If we can’t answer this in the affirmative, we will be judged by the law than none of us can fulfill.

But for those who believe, expect to answer this.  How did we live in response to knowing he is God’s one and only Son who died to take away our sins?

Unlike those 2000 years ago, we are not waiting to see what happens next.  It’s happened.  It’s time to believe that in the blood of Jesus our sins are washed away and quit living to be saved, but live fully for Christ because we are saved.

Amen.

His time was near

Read John 12

Let’s start off by saying there might be a chronology issue here.  Chapter 11 references Jesus being anointed in Bethany as if it already occurred.  Chapter 12 mentions the anointing taking place after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.  So, is there confusion here?

No, there is the telling of the story of Jesus by John.  This is not a newspaper story that piecemeals information day by day, but a complete account.  I could look back at my history, ok ancient history, and say that I attended and graduated Mangum High School.  The school sits right across from where I preached a revival, which just happened to be on the Gospel of John.

All the statements are accurate but not chronological.  I graduated when bell-bottom trousers were the fad and The Streak by Ray Stevens was the number 1 song.   I preached in the church across the street—a Cumberland Presbyterian Church—the same year we did Good News 2012 here, whatever year that was.

Now back to John’s gospel.

In telling the story in hindsight, the chronology might not be as important as the identification of the location and cast.  We see the same thing in the gospel accounts where Judas Iscariot is labeled as the one who betrayed Jesus throughout the accounts.  John notes that this would occur later, but it defines him through gospel accounts.

The story doesn’t get told until John has the whole story and then he adds references that help the reader identify with what’s happening sometimes when and sometimes where.

In land navigation, there is a tool known as resection.  This helps you locate where you are by taking back azimuths from at least two known points and then drawing them on a map.  Where the lines intersect is where you are.

Most people will never use this and now with GPS, most people don’t’ know how to do this, but when you spent a lot of time in the middle of nowhere's located throughout the world, it’s a good skill to carry around with you.

It’s also what we see in this first part of John 12.  John is pinpointing location and characters, not chronology.

That established, Jesus was at the home of his three friends, or at another location in Bethany depending upon how you try to reconcile Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts.  Jesus was the guest of honor.  Ya think!

Son of God, the Christ, Messiah, and yes, the very One who raised Lazarus from the dead was the guest of honor.  Of course, Jesus is the guest of honor is a home where people know him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Most of Jerusalem and Israel were looking for a different sort of Messiah.  Those gathered on this special evening knew the Messiah that God had sent.  Perhaps the hosts knew better than his disciples.

Then Mary took a pint of perfume called Nard and poured it on the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.  I’m sure that stopped the casual conversation at the dinner table.

A pint isn’t a lot, unless it’s a pint of perfume.  In this case it was expensive perfume.  It’s the kind that you just dab here and there, unless you are anointing the body of Jesus.

And it was Nard.  OK, that doesn’t mean anything to us today.  Nard came from a flower in the Valerian family.  It was the roots, not the flower that was ground and distilled and used for aromatic and health purposes.  So, Mary was into essential oils and must have used her points to get some really expensive perfume.

Judas noted that it was worth a year’s wages.  He seemed indignant that it was lavished upon Jesus.  Do you know how much food we could have given to the poor?

There is a rabbit trail about Judas here and how he helped himself to the general fund that we won’t venture down very far at this time, but in the example of things not being necessarily chronological in the telling, ask why was he not relieved of his duties as treasurer.  It’s more likely that this detail was added in the telling at some later point.

But Judas is making a point of this nonetheless.  It was a valid statement.  Many poor people could have been fed.

Think to the man born blind.  Jesus used that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Think to Lazarus in the tomb for 4 days.  Jesus could have come earlier but he didn’t.  He took that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Mary took this exact time and place to anoint the body of Jesus for his burial.

But he wasn’t dead yet!

Jump ahead a few chapters.  Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought 75 pounds worth of cloth and spices to wrap the body of Jesus before leaving him in the tomb.  Why was what Mary did necessary?

This anointing prepared Jesus for burial.  He told his followers that the poor would always be among them but they wouldn’t have him for much longer.  His time had come.

His time had come.

Where were the disciples when the body of Jesus was prepared and placed in the tomb?  They were scattered and afraid, gathering only in fear of being found.  This was the only time that the disciples would have to see their Master prepared for burial.  They would be hiding in fear in only a few days.

Jesus told his disciples to leave her alone.  She is doing the exact thing that has been appointed to her.  There was timing with the woman at the well.  There was timing with the man blind since birth.  There was timing with Lazarus.

There was timing in Mary pouring very expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and wiping it with her hair.  Mary surely had the best smelling hair in Bethany for all of Passover week.

What was the timing?  The time for the Unblemished Lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the world was at hand.

His time was at hand.  Here’s a couple more things from this pericope.  Let’s deal with the statement that you will always have the poor among you. 

Is Jesus directing that there will always be poor people?  It this a predestined condition?

On the contrary, God wanted no poor among this Chosen People.  All they need do was abide in his law and directives. The poor are one symptom of these people’s disobedience.

They tell us that we still live in a broken world.  We are charged to help the least of these among us, but so long as the world lives by sin, we will have no shortage of people who need help.

The next item is about destroying evidence.  Lazarus was getting more than 15 minutes of fame.  He was the star attraction in Bethany.  Many had seen him in the tomb.  Many had seen him resurrected by Jesus.  Many more were coming to see him and subsequently believe in Jesus because of this miracle.

If you walk on water, there is no evidence.  Nothing got posted to Facebook or YouTube.  But when you raise a man from the dead, that evidence is before you every day.

The man blind from birth that Jesus healed was also evidence, but evidently it didn’t meet the threshold that required his death.  The religious leaders would just try to discredit this miracle, but a dead man who now lives was another story.

The religious leaders had already decided to kill Jesus and were trying to figure out how to do this and make it look legitimate.  Now they decided they needed to destroy the evidence of his most recent miracle—Lazarus.

We don’t know if this happened.  Non-biblical sources indicate that Lazarus and his sisters might have moved to Europe.  But at this point in the gospel, Lazarus was a liability to those who would kill Jesus.  The religious leaders needed to tie up some loose ends.

To wrap up:

Jesus has been prepared for burial

The poor are an ongoing sign of the world’s brokenness.

The plot to kill Jesus now included a plan to get rid of loose ends.

There is much more to come.

Amen.

The World Turned Right-Side Up for a Moment

Read John 12:12-19

If you have been reading the first chapter of John but not following my messages and updates this week, you might be wondering, “How did he get to chapter 12?”

It’s Palm Sunday, and next week you will get a message of Resurrection.  Those were always headed your way, but this year both will come from John’s gospel.

I just don’t want some of you to think you missed the boat in this alternate format.

As you might have surmised, things have been a little different lately.  I finally picked up my car from Altus.  Yes, this is the car that I hit a building with.  It’s all fixed now.

While I was in Altus, I went to pick up my medicine at the base pharmacy.  I have crossed international borders and entered secure classified facilities with less screening.  One airman took my temperature with a phaser.  It must have been set to mild stun because they let me pass.

They didn’t require me to wear a mask.  I had one in my coat pocket just in case.  I was going to go to the commissary while I waited for the pharmacy to fill my scripts, but it was closed to all but active duty personnel and those who lived on base or worked on base.

So, it was off to the Altus Walmart.  At least I would save a trip to Elk City sometime later.  Altus was more fun that the Walmart I’m used to.  The parking lot was full. You could enter only on the market side.  Shopping carts had been laid on their sides and connected with crime scene tape to make a channeled and theoretically controlled entrance.

Next week they might go Disney on us and put up signs that say, 1 hour from this point.

There were still a bazillion people there, about a third of them masked.  If anyone ever wanted to rob a train or a bank, now would be the time.  A couple people were walking around with face shields.  The Walmart music was from the Dark Side of the Moon album. 

Some of you know that I like both Star Trek and Star Wars.  I didn’t feel obliged to have to choose between the two.  You also might know, that I don’t collect any paraphernalia from either, but I would have loved to have owned a Darth Vader mask to wear in Walmart that day.

And there were plenty of new employees, most of them guarding the entrance with Lysol and hand sanitizer.

As I entered, I reached to grab a shopping cart, and the Walmart employee at the other end of about 45 carts yells, “Those haven’t been sanitized.”  I can see the two jugs of Round Up set aside to spray the carts and, on a shelf, up above them, a can of Lysol and some wipes.

I sprayed and wiped and said, I’m doing the self-service check-in.  I don’t like the self-service check out, but save 10 minutes checking in, that’s another matter.  I think the guy was in shock, but he felt obliged to warn me that you’re shopping at your own risk. 

I was not up for the conversation that would have begun with, “I’ve lived most of my life at my own risk.”  You should be proud of me though; I still had the can of Lysol in my hand but did not do the underarm deodorant thing.  It crossed my mind, but there were enough stressed out people already.

Of course, nothing in the Altus Walmart is in the same place as the Elk City Walmart, so it was Game on!  I think I hit 95% of the items on my list.  That’s not bad considering sometimes you don’t know if you are looking in the wrong place or if it used to be on that 20 yards of empty shelves.

The two paper towel limit is strictly enforced.  Be warned.

So I get my cart full of stuff and head to the checkout.  It’s a full cart.  Realize that when we go to Altus to shop at the commissary, we make a list for a month, so I had a full cart.

Also realize that Walmart must have had 50 extra employees working all over the store, except the checkout registers.  There are three registers open.  All of the self-service ones are open and there’s a unsocially-distanced mob over there, but there are only three regular registers open and lines at each one.

I had one of those obscure thoughts that one way to spread out the people would be to open more registers.  Just when I thought I was going from satire to cynicism as I viewed the Shakespearean tragedy play out as a comedy all around me, an associate came up to me and said, would you like to go to register 4.  We will open it as soon as we wipe down the belt.

What a blessing.  Let the surreal come to an end!

The kid at the register came and wiped the belt and then said, that’s all I can do, I have come out too long.  I guess there was some sort of invisible shield around the register.  So, I put my groceries on the wet, but clean belt that would move them to the cashier.  After the belt had moved a couple feet the part of the belt that had been underneath was now on top. 

I don’t think the cashier quite knew if I was serious or not when I asked if I should wait for the clean part of the belt to come around again.  I think he was wondering, why did hey send this guy to me?

I got my stuff and headed out to the car.  It cost much more than I expected but we had groceries in case everyone was truly locked down, which is an impossibility if you want to continue to have electricity, water, gas, gasoline, and even food, to include feeding hungry people who can’t afford to go to Walmart. 

But I am thankful that Walmart and other places are open and doing their best with procedures that we hope will reduce the effects of the contagion.  I am thankful that our logistical systems are functioning, and most shelves are replenished.  I am thankful that so many people are taking reasonable precautions.

I love proactive but won’t do panicked and one day we are all going to have some stories to tell our grandkids.  We can tell them how the world we knew got turned upside down, at least for a while.

Jesus came into a world that was upside down, wrong-side out, and pretty much living contrary to the ways of God.  Even the religious hierarchy didn’t know which way was up. 

As Jesus went around the countryside, he amazed people with miracles, challenging teachings, and the fact that he spoke with authority.

Not everything he said was easy to understand.  Sometimes he used figurative language such as hyperbole, simile, and extended metaphors.  The disciples often had to have the parables explained.  Their minds were still governed by the models of the world in so many ways.

He used concepts such as being born again and even the teachers of Israel couldn’t grasp what he was saying.  When your world is upside-down, the one living right-side-up seems to be out of place, out of sync, out of touch.

But for a moment, surely less than an hour, the world or at least a piece of it, was turned right-side up.  Jesus rode into the Jerusalem during Passover week.  He had been anointed while in Bethany and was coming into the city as foretold by the prophet, on the colt of a donkey.

Only a short time before, he had raised Lazarus from the dead.  People were excited.  Yes, some were plotting to kill him as well, but this hour belonged to the people who saw and tasted and knew hope for the moment.  They cried out:

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the King of Israel.

In that moment, the blind spoke.  What?  The Pharisees who were surely oblivious to who was coming into town, were talking about how this guy was a wrench in the works.  He was messing up their normal, but they spoke truth as well.  They did not realize it, but they did.

Look how the whole world has gone after him.

They did not realize what they just said which essentially was:

Look, for this time, the world has been righted.  For now, we are right-side up.  In the moment, things are right and harmonious and full of joy.

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the King of Israel.

In that moment, the hearts of the people sought after the Lord.  We know there is more to the story that unfolded over the next few and very full days. 

We know that cries of Hosanna will turn to Crucify Him.  We know that blood must be shed for the forgiveness of sin.  We know there is much that Jesus has to teach his followers in these last days before his death and resurrection. 

Looking forward from this point, he will really turn their world upside down when he washes their feet.  There is so much more.

But for now, the world is right.  The people seek Jesus.  The whole world has come after him.

That’s our commission now, to bring the whole world to come after him.  This time, it’s more than shouting Hosanna.  It’s leading people to the salvation and Lordship of Christ Jesus and cries of Hallelujah as they realize their freedom from sin and death.

Hosanna.  Hosanna in the highest.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

It was for this very reason...

Read John 12:20-36

What a bummer for the Greeks who missed Jesus—let me go Maxwell Smart on you—missed him by that much.  People had come to see Jesus for about 3 years.  Not all were Jews.  In fact, many who were not Jews actually had better eyes to see than those from God’s Chosen people.

But these Greek men wanted to see Jesus and when Phillip and Andrew told Jesus that even the Greeks want to see you, Jesus told them they had bad timing.  What bad timing.

For earlier in John’s gospel we see Jesus say that his time had not yet come.  My hour has not yet come.  One of these instances involves Jesus talking with his mother at a wedding where the wine had run out.

But in this 12^th chapter, Jesus said that his hour had come.  It’s time. Things of cosmic consequence would happen in a few square miles of our own planet.  The most important thing in all of creation since creation was about to unfold its final steps.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  That did not mean that there would be a coronation ceremony in the temple.  Red carpets would not be rolled out.  Musicians would not be assembled as when Solomon dedicated the original temple.  People were not digging in their closets looking for their tux or best dress and hoping they still fit.

This was something different.  Jesus said that a seed is only a single seed until it falls to the ground.  It’s life as a seed is over.  It is more.  It becomes a plant and grows and produces many seeds.  Jesus spoke in figurative language.  In just a few more chapters, he would tell his disciples that he wouldn’t do that anymore.

He told his disciples that if they loved this life so much that it was everything to them, they would miss out on real life.  They were not ready for eternal life. 

But if they really were his followers, they were about to go to the show.  They were being called up to the major league.  Things were about to change for the glory that would come at this time did not involve a royal crown but a crown of thorns.

The glory that Jesus spoke of would lead him to a brutal death on a Roman cross.  The glory that was about to unfold would be the reconciliation of creation with the Creator and it would come in the blood of Jesus.

OBTW—it was totally undeserved on our part.  The glory that was about to unfold was the unfathomable love of God that would put sinners in right standing with him through the blood of he who had no sin.

And if you think that Jesus had a God Switch that he could just flip and forego the pain, think again.  He could have called the whole thing off and legions of angels would have come to his rescue.  But to be the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, he would die a real, very human, very painful—even agonizing death.

And Jesus knew it. 

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”

This was going to be the real deal.  Whips and thorny crowns and hateful cries from the very people he came to save.  “Crucify him!”

Not only would Jesus endure the pain—the physical pain—of being nailed to the cross and then lifted up so that every breath was labored; he would carry the sin of the world upon his shoulders.  He who had no sin became sin for us. 

The death sentence that was rightly ours was carried out on him.  The wrath that accompanied the justice required to account for the sin of the world was poured out on that place called The Skull, Golgotha.  We call it Calvary.  That’s got a nice, friendly sound to it.

But what took place in those finals hours was anything but nice and friendly.  As Jesus looked ahead to this death that awaited him, he said:  It was for this very reason that I came.  Father, glorify your name.

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

Jesus would be glorified in his death and resurrection and so too would his Father. 

There are several chapters between these words and the cross.  Jesus had much to teach his disciples in these few hours, but the hour had come.  His hour had come.

This morning we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord.  There would have been no resurrection without a crucifixion.  And there would have been no crucifixion without Jesus acceptance that he had come into this world for this very reason. 

His blood would do for us what we could never do ourselves.  No amount of sacrifices would ever get us to where we are now.  We are right with God. 

We can be the people that he created us to be now and forever.  Sin and death have no say in our eternity.  We celebrate the resurrection of the Lord today and every day.

We say, “He is risen.”

We reply, “He is risen, indeed!”

We celebrate the resurrection.   I charge us this day and every day to also bring glory to God whom we know so well through his Son.  Let us affirm these words:

JESUS IS LORD!

Amen.

Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion

Read John 12:12-19

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

I may or may not have told you this, but I can read minds.  Some of you are already thinking, “I bet he wants us to say that at the end of his two-hour sermon.”

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  There might just be a time for that.  There is a time for everything…

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

     a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

     a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

     a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

     a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

     a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

And there was a time for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem and be hailed as King.  There was a time for the people to cry out to him to save them.  Hosanna!  Hosanna in the highest!

Blessings and petitions from his own people who lined the road into Jerusalem defined that day.  It was as scripture had defined the moment.  Jesus road on the colt of a donkey.  He was given the royal treatment.

If you read the account in Luke’s gospel, the religious leaders thought that everyone was getting a little carried away.  They tried to rebuke Jesus for his disciples—and we are talking about more than the 12—as they were just taking this whole trip into town into town stuff to the extremes.

How did Jesus respond?  If I tell them to be quiet, then the very rocks on the side of the road will cry out in acclamation of what is happening here.  

Because what was happening here had been foretold by Zechariah. 

The religious leaders should have known exactly what was happening, but they suffered from the blindness of the Pharisees.   God’s own people had suffered under terrible leadership for too long. 

God had given the law to Moses so that the people could live good lives.  If they did what the law commanded, they would be in debt to no one and could freely forgive the debts of others.  The law provided a good model and obedience would leave the people in good standing.

Here is a big one.  If the people would live as God commanded, there would be no poor in the land.  Think about it.  If you live as the law commands, you will be blessed, God’s storehouse will be full, you will do no harm to your neighbor, and nobody will be poor.  That last part defies every economic model that we know today.  Someone always gets the short end of the stick.

The problem was that the people could not live by the law.  They tried and failed.  Tried harder and failed.  Didn’t try very hard at all and failed.  They just could not bring their rebellious human nature into obedience to holy God.

So the people missed out on many blessings, were conquered several times, and seemed to have poor people everywhere.  When Jesus came, he told these people who should have no poor among them that the poor would always be with them.  Had something changed?  No, the law offered possibilities—potential if you will—and Jesus spoke of the state of the people who could never live up to the law.

God’s own people were a mess, but their King had come.  He came riding on the foal of a donkey.  There was hope that as God had required his people to cancel debts, that their own debts to God might be cancelled.

There are some words here that we sometimes read past as we get excited with Hosanna, and blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and your King is coming seated on the colt of a donkey.  What words?

Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion.

The Daughter of Zion verbiage was used several times in the Old Testament.  Zion is Jerusalem and the daughter is God’s people.  More than that, they are people in need of salvation.

The message that is ubiquitous in God’s word is do not be afraid. 

Oh you 12 tribes that have made a mess of things, do not be afraid.  The Daughter of Zion cries out Hosanna meaning save us and that salvation that you cry aloud for rides before you on a little donkey.

Do not be afraid.  Things were going according to plan.  God’s own people probably didn’t like the plan that was unfolding before them, but it contains the very thing they desired so much—salvation.

Had the crowd known that Jesus had already been anointed for his burial, they might not have cheered so vigorously.  Had they known that Jesus would breathe his last on a Roman cross in just a few days, it might have put a damper on things.  Had the people know what was required by the plan of God, they might have opted out or protested or posted angry emojis.  For this is not the way they would have put together a plan of salvation, but that plan was at work nonetheless.

We look back two millennia with fantastic hindsight.  We see how those pieces fit together, but how about now?  How about in our time?  What do we see?

Some have eyes to see blessings, lots of blessings.  A home, heat and air, running water, indoor plumbing, and food not just in abundant quantities but in unbelievable variety.  Those are some blessings.

Throw on top of that a vehicle or two per family.  The fact that Jesus walked everywhere, except for one trip into town on a donkey, has not held us back.  What a blessing the automobile is—wow!

But we also know trouble.  Discord, violence, global war—of which our nation is involved almost everywhere, and the never-ending threat of nuclear war—it only takes one crazy man to set that disaster into motion—that has hung over us for 7 decades now mark the tribulation of our modern lives. 

We know hatred and vitriol and fatal automobile accidents.  This can be a mean world.

We would like the world to get in step with God, and one day it will, but it appears that such a day is not in our immediate future.  And so, that leaves us to cry out to God to save us.  In the middle of this crazy world where blessings and blasphemies both grow like the wheat and the weeds, we ask God to save us from this insanity.

And we should hear God’s answer, for he has answered us.  He tells us not to be afraid.  He tells us to take courage.  God has not abandoned his plan for us.  He told us in advance that we would have trouble in this world.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Take heart, take courage, do not be afraid are God’s consistent messages to his Chosen People and now to us. 

In the week ahead, I want you not only to think about the kids and the palms and Jesus riding into town on a young donkey; but think of how much God loves us in the passion that would take Jesus all the way to the cross.  I want you to realize that God’s plan unfolded just as prescribed in that first century.

I want you to know that in the insanity and discord and vitriol of this modern world, he still has good plans for us.

He has already saved us from sin and death having any say in our eternity and he will never abandon us, even in our darkest hour.  He has not orphaned us in this world that has forsaken him.

He has answered our cries for help and sends us into this dark world with hope.  He sends us out as his light.  He sends us out with good news for a fallen world.

And as we go, do not be afraid, take heart, and take courage.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Amen.