And
Jesus answered them, saying,
The
hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily,
verily, I say unto you,
Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it
abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
He
that loveth his life shall lose it;
and
he that hateth his life in this world
shall
keep it unto life eternal.
If
any man serve me, let him follow me;
and
where I am, there shall also my servant be:
if
any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
With Palm Sunday we begin
again the Church’s high feast days of Holy Week which culminate in Easter Sunday. While Jesus’ path to Calvary began with the
promise of redemption and salvation which God gave to Adam and Eve after our
race’s Fall into sin, the final steps begin here less than a week before His betrayal
and crucifixion. He came into Jerusalem in
fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, accompanied by crowds of people who sang
His praises, not least of which were for the resurrection of Lazarus who
accompanied Him. Even the Greeks who had
come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover wanted to see and talk with Jesus,
and the rulers of the Temple found themselves powerless to stop what was
coming. The hour had come—a time echoed
in Law and Gospel down through the ages and made present in the Incarnate Word
as Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem.
Of course, not everyone
was pleased with this hour that had come.
Religious and political leaders had their own concerns, plots, and
schemes, none of which required a Messiah.
There was money to be made, deals to be struck, and masses to be manipulated. There was power to seize and to maintain, there
was ceremony and pomp and pageantry to present, and there were thousands of visitors
to fleece. Passover in Jerusalem was a
time of great performance for the religious and political leaders, as they
cemented their control over the faithful.
Their system was lucrative, and they enjoyed their power, turning the
House of God into a corrupt house of merchandizing and trade. Jesus’ presence among the people threatened
to lift the veil of darkness from the people’s eyes that they might see their
leaders for the frauds they had become, and that their relationship with their
saving God might be restored. The Light
was with them for a little while longer, as Jesus’ Word pierced their darkness,
broke their chains of slavery to sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil,
and revealed the clownish machinations of their faithless leaders who presented
themselves as the wisest and most pious among them. Here, at the center of the world’s history
where thousands of years of prophecy and promise came barreling toward
confrontation with the corrupt systems of fallen man at every level of society,
the denizens of hell and their corrupt disciples schemed for a way to get rid
of Jesus, and preserve their gaudy façade of piety as they crushed all people
into spiritual slavery.
Then, as now, Jesus’
coming is not stopped by the wicked intentions of darkened souls. Then, as now, the corrupt ruling class of political
and religious leaders, hell bent on maintaining a system of manipulation,
control, and slavery, cannot withstand the presence of the Incarnate Word. Then, as now, those who abide in darkness
fear the Light because their deeds are evil, and their judgment is that they
loved darkness in spite of the Light which had come to set them free. Then, as now, Jesus moves inexorably to the Cross
which will cost Him everything, so that mankind might live forever, forgiven
and free. Then, as now, no plot or
scheming of dark forces infesting every level of the world’s ruling classes can
stop the coming of Easter, and with it, the proclamation of the lifegiving
Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Jesus’ Words of grace and
mercy echo down to us today with the same saving power they held when first He
uttered them. His kernel of wheat, once
laid in the cold earth as dead and buried, rose again that He might dwell in
the company of all those who abide in His eternal life by faith in Him. Jesus offers no schemes, no manipulations, no
angling for power or political control; He makes no Faustian deals of quid pro
quo to fool the witless into servitude; He creates no system of economics where
His grace might be bought or sold in ecclesiastical treasuries. Rather, Jesus gives His life as a ransom for
many, that all who would repent and believe in Him might not perish, but have
eternal life. He has not come into the
world to judge the world, but to save it, for His Word alone will judge the
living and the dead on the Last Day.
This is how we understand
that to follow Jesus, is to follow Him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to walk
with Him through Good Friday, and to emerge with Him on Easter morning. Here we find the truth of His injunction that
to love a sinful life in this world is to court eternal condemnation and a living
death in hell forever, but to love the eternal life He gives despite the rigors
and sacrifices of life in this corrupt world, is to have a blessed and eternal
life in His gracious Kingdom unto ages of ages.
This is the Gospel which no tyrant or heretic or apostate can quell, and
which presses forward into every time and place to shatter the gates of hell,
bringing light and life and freedom to all who will receive it. Come, let us walk with Jesus in His Hour of sacrifice
and victory, which secures for us and for all generations the free gift of
eternal life which can never be taken away.
Hear Him as He calls to you through this Holy Week, that we might together
sing His praises on an Easter morning whose dawning day of grace knows no
end. Amen.
