PALM SUNDAY Intro – LUKE 19:35-40
A GOSPEL OF GRACE LUKE 19:41-8; 22:39-46
“SUCH PASSION!”
Our readings today take us from loud hosannas to impending trauma, from jubilant celebration to the beginning of Jesus’ passion – that is, of his suffering and death by crucifixion.
But there's another kind of passion that Luke draws our attention to here as well. It's a passion that's been evident before, that's at the very heart of Jesus’ ministry but takes on a raw urgency in the final days and hours of his earthly ministry. It's Jesus’ passion for prayer in pursuit of God's will.
Why is that, do you suppose? Why did Jesus teach so much about it, tell stories illustrating the importance of it, and slip away himself so often to do it? Why would the Son of God find it so vital to pray to God the Father? What was the point if they were one? And why is it that so many of us who claim his name as our own..., find ourselves so uncomfortable doing it, especially with others?
I'd suggest that part of the reason we're so uncomfortable is because we don't understand it or are self-conscious. The prayers of children draw attention to that, often in some rather amusing ways.
A six-year-old girl was overheard praying one day: “Dear God, do you get your angels to do all the work? Mommy says we are her angels - and we have to do everything!”
Another child prayed: “Dear God, thank you for my baby brother....but I asked for a puppy.”
“Dear God, I went to this wedding, and they were kissing right there in church. Is that ok?”
“God, I heard the moon was made of cheese. Tonight half of it was missing. Explain please!” “God, are you actually invisible or is that just a trick?” One boy wondered why his grandma prayed for their dog who'd just died. “G-ma,what’s God gonna do with a dead dog? What's the point?”
So what is the point; why is prayer so vital? Three things stand out during Jesus’ final days. Three reasons we so desperately need to pray. First, we pray in order to connect, or reconnect.
When Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple notice that he did not call it a house of worship but a house of prayer. The Jews believed that though the Creator was everywhere, he was uniquely and powerfully present in the temple. In fact, the inner sanctum of the temple was called the holy of holies – a place filled with the very presence of God. It was there in the temple that God’s people gathered to pray and connect and reconnect with God. No wonder Jesus got so upset that the entreway, the only place non-Jews were allowed, was filled with the noise of people making money!
“My temple is to be a house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” (Luke 19:46)
Jesus was grieved, literally cried, at how disconnected people had become. How must he feel today? Author, Phillip Yancey, observes: “Unlike past generations, many are unsure about God and an invisible world. Even so, we feel the longings for something more. Truth is a society that denies the supernatural usually ends up elevating the natural to supernatural status.” (Phillip Yancey)
I read of experiments in which male butterflies were enticed with a painted cardboard replica larger and more colorful than the females of their species. Excited, the male butterfly hit on the card-board replica over and over again while nearby the real, living female butterfly opened and closed her wings in vain. C.S. Lewis uses the phrase, ‘sweet poison of the false infinite’ to describe this same tendency in the human species. We allow substitutes to fill the vacuum of our disenchanted world.
-2-
Alone of all the beasts, the human animal has the freedom to choose a profound, intimate connection with the infinite and yet, instead, we swallow the sweet poison, opting for substitutes over the true God. And nearby, all so close, the real, living butterfly...opens and closes its wings, waiting.
In reference to his writing The Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis said his books came to life as a result of his awakening to the reality of another world. He sensed in our longings not just rumors but ‘advance echoes’ of that world. At the end of the first book Lucy’s longs to return, and asks if she will. “Oh, I expect so, but it'll probably happen when you're not looking for it. All the same... best to keep your eyes open.”
With that, we hear a lion roar, and we wait for her to return, and us with her!
Jesus was profoundly aware of ‘advance echoes’, and with each mention of the Kingdom...he was pointing to it! His eyes were always open! As he instructed his followers: “Heal the sick and tell them, 'The Kingdom of God is near you now!'” Throughout his life he pointed to that kingdom, a world that was both future and now, a world that breaks into the present as we connect with the Author of life thru the Lion of Judah. In prayer we make contact, touching the heart of God...and He ours!
(Luke 10:9)
The second insight Jesus’ passion offers on prayer is that of overcoming the enemy’s attacks. In the garden the enemy is on the prowl so Jesus tells his disciples: “Pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.” (Luke 22:40) But while Jesus prayed, they slept, and giving in to temptation, they abandoned Jesus in his darkest hour. Peter even went on to deny that he ever knew Jesus.
How sad it is that Jesus’ followers, past and present, do not tap in to the power God so eagerly offers those who face temptation. As the apostle Paul, full of the Spirit, wrote years later: “When you are tempted, God will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) The power to overcome each and every temptation is readily available. All we have to do is ask...
I love how Frank Capra dramatized this in It's A Wonderful Life. George Bailey prays as he is tempted to give in to despair and God responds by sending the angel Clarence to provide a way out, first by distracting him, by jumping into the river..., and then by showing him the value of his life.
So we pray to connect, other times to overcome temptation, but also, like Jesus, we're to pray, listening for God's nudges and how best to move forward in sync with His will or plan for our lives. To be honest, the idea of listening when I pray is a fairly foreign concept for me. I've always thought of prayer as my asking for this, informing God of that, filling him in on He could be doing a better job. I recall dating a girl in college whose family was very devout. While visiting them once, right after we'd had a fight, her mother asked if I was religious. Before I could respond, her daughter said: “Oh, yes, he’s very religious. He thinks he’s God's right hand man!”
Through the godly mentoring of other Christ followers, particularly through books I've read and impact of taking Alpha, I've learned how vital it is that I don't do all the talking when I'm praying. It's like using a CB radio. If you do all the talking you'll never get to know the person on the other end.
Kneeling in the Garden Jesus begins to pray. Fear has seized hold of him. He’s so anxious that Luke tells us he is sweating big drops of blood. He knows what the Father is asking of him and he’s hoping that there may yet be another way. But in spite of the fact that he's not really feeling it, he prays a prayer of submission, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) And then Luke adds this amazing detail: “Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.” (Luke 22:43)
-3-
And how do you suppose that angel accomplished that? The pictures I've seen always seem to imply that this angel fellow showed up and put his hand on his back and gave him a back rub or some-thing. Maybe he did maybe he didn't but it seems far more likely that the angel strengthened him by talking to him. Like any of us facing a really hard decision or a fear-packed moment what Jesus needed most was to hear affirming and encouraging words from someone He trusted most, and because he had invested so much of himself in prayer, there was noone he trusted more than his Heavenly Father.
So there in the garden he listens. He submits. He reconnects. He knows his Father’s heart and banks on the loving promises whispered in his ear. He submits to God’s plan and finds strength to move forward. It was a pivotal moment in human history. Think what might have been if he had chosen an easier path. What if he hadn’t submitted? What if he’d bolted with his friends?
But he did not bolt! Instead he prayed, and he listened, and he was strengthened. He was reminded that in the end he’d come up on top with Satan under toe, which is God’s heart for each and every one of us. The world can give us a few knocks and bruises to be sure, but in the end, if we put our trust in Jesus, we too will wind up on top – crushing Satan under our feet! As Paul confidently put it: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet, for the grace of Jesus is with you!”
(Romans 16:20)
At the heart of the Christian faith is the perspective as conveyed throughout the New Testament - the belief that two worlds coexist on planet Earth, constantly interacting and sometimes colliding, with human beings playing a central role in that drama. Early Christians recognized the struggle at hand and gave their allegiance to an invisible kingdom and her King who set his face against the spiritual powers of this dark world. During holy week these forces squared off as never before!
Jesus passion for people put a face on that conquest. Facing Jerusalem he broke down and cried. He was mindful of the willful resistance to God’s reign that was evident in the city’s long history of rejecting and killing God’s servants. And before the week would be over, they would reject God’s ultimate servant, his one and only son. Jesus wept because they just didn’t get it... His words before the high council reflect his heart ache yet again, while simutaneously illuminating the tremendous stakes at hand: “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God's right hand!” (Luke 22:67-79)
Earlier in this series we saw how Jesus trained and sent out the 12 and then the 72 to further his conquest over the spiritual powers of this dark world. They prayed for hurting people, cast out demons all the while announcing the arrival of God’s kingdom. All their actions took place in the visible world which they could touch, smell and see. Jesus saw that those actions in the visible world were having a startling impact on the invisible world: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven!” (Luke 10:18)
Our mission as Jesus outlined it is to reconnect and help others to reconnect as well, to seek God's help in overcoming any and every temptaion that threatens to throw us off track and to listen for his whispering and nudges in how we can help His “will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. If that is to happen then we must submit to His will. As that happens healings will occur, physical and inner hunger will be appeased, and souls will reconnect with the source of life – starting with yours & mine.
In the inspired words of author, Frederick Buechner:
“If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, ‘Mind your own business’, and Jesus says, ‘There is no such thing as your own busi-ness.’ The world says, ‘Follow your heart, seek success, eat, drink and be merry’, and Jesus says...,
-4-
‘Pick up your cross and follow me.’ The world says, ‘Drive carefully – the life you save may be your own' – and Jesus says, ‘Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it'. The world says, ‘Buy it, take it or claim it’, and Jesus says, ‘Live generously! Give it away’. The world says, “Demand justice’, and Jesus says, ‘Give grace’.
In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is delusional. But it is only the foolishness of the cross, the topsy-turvy vision of Christ’s expanding supernatural kingdom that can save this self-consumed, self-destructive world. To that end, be quick with grace and “fools for Christ sake”! (Frederick Buechner)
Jesus had such passion! What if we had some of that passion as well – starting with his passion for prayer, for a deep connection with God, seeking his help to overcome temptation, and in submission to his will - a supernatural strength to do that which the world deems crazy – to love with abandon and to follow Jesus lead as he transforms the world one human heart at a time!
Lord, fill us with your passion! “Not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)