From Sorrow to Joy. From Joy to Sorrow.
Listen here.
For Jesus and the disciples, and the thousands of pilgrims
coming into Jerusalem with them; this is Passover. This is the great
celebration of God’s salvation. Perhaps you remember what Passover was all
about; about 3500 years ago – about 1500 years before Jesus - the Israelites
had been enslaved in Egypt. They were slaves for a couple hundred years, and
God rescued them from that slavery with miraculous plagues against the
Egyptians. The last of those plagues was the death of the first born – when God
killed every first born son in every house in Egypt that was not marked on its
doorposts with blood for a sacrificial lamb. The Israelites believed God’s
Word, and marked their doors, and they were released from slavery.
God commanded Israel to celebrate this event every year; to
remember that they were slaves, and that he had freed them “with a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm” as he performed miracles signs and wonders. They left
the sorrow of slavery and celebrated the joy of God’s salvation.
So Passover was a time of celebration. This is part of what
is happening as Jesus enters Jerusalem. The people are excited because they are
there to celebrate and to worship. And they’ve heard about Jesus – and there is
a questing hanging over the crowd; is this the messiah? It was a joyful time in
Jerusalem, and people returned to worship at the Temple and to remember God’s
mighty salvation.
But for Jesus, there is more going on here, isn’t there?
Israel had gone from sorrow to joy, but he is going from joy to sorrow. He
knows what is ahead. He has entered the week of his death by crucifixion. He is
the firstborn son who will die so God’s people can be free. He is the Passover lamb
whose blood marks God’s people to save them from sin and death. This is the
ultimate example of what Paul said in our second reading, that Jesus, “emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant” and “he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point to death, even death on a cross.”
That, friends, is what is ahead of us this week. Jesus goes
from this joyful moment to betrayal, denial, suffering, sorrow, and death; and
he does it all to rescue us from our own slavery – a slavery to sin which lead
to the sorrow of death. He does all this to move us from sorrow to joy in his
salvation.
Take time this week to remember what Jesus did for you.
Remember what it cost him to free you from slavery. Read it in Matthew 26-27 –
as well as in the other gospels. You can meditate on it on my blog – there will
be links on Facebook and on the church website. There are also some hard
copies. You can come to worship Thursday and Friday – 7 p.m. for special
worship services. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you fresh appreciation
of what Jesus suffered for you and new understanding of why he suffered for you.
And there are many other things you could do – check out the library rack,
listen to one of Bach’s Passions, and more. Don’t skip the sorrow that fills
this week, meditate on it and see there God’s love and salvation for you.
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