Make Christ your own Matthew 21
Pastor Brenton Fiedler Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Toowoomba 13/4/14
What can the church do for me? What difference can Jesus make in my
life? These are the real questions non-believers and seekers genuinely
ask. It is increasingly becoming a real urgent question to those on the
outside of our faith, as they look into our church, and see nothing
relevant or helpful. Perhaps, “What can Jesus do for me?” is the
questions you have asked at one time, or are asking now, looking out at
the world from within the church, and seeing no change, no response to
the gospel.
From the outside, the questions stem from confusion and
misunderstanding as those unfamiliar in faith and religion look for a
simple Jesus, but only see a complex mixture of church tradition and
Christian culture. They look in seeking a simple message of good news
for their life, but there is no good news that does not come with bad
news; come with baggage, with churchliness, church culture and news
that tells them, they must first be ‘Christ like’ before the good news of
Jesus comes to them; that I have to become one of them, before I can
be accepted. There is nothing simply ‘child like’ about faith anymore;
there is nothing basic about basic Christianity anymore. So we can
expect the question, “what can the church do for me?” to become a
louder voice that we must listen to. It is also a question that we are
starting to ask, as our lives get more complicated and busy.
When a simple message comes with so much baggage, that hearers are
burdened down, what do you do? When a simple story becomes so
convoluted and confusing, people miss the point, what do you do? You
get back to basics! You rediscover the core message. You tell the
simple story. You proclaim only the good news. What would it take for
a young man at risk of offending and jail, to leave that life behind and
chose Jesus over drugs? What would it take for a young girl caught up
in prostitution, to sell everything she had earned, to gain the riches of
God’s kingdom? What would it take for sleepy Christians to wake up,
take their cross and follow Jesus? It would take a changed heart; it
would take an intervention, a victory in the heart. Jesus has to be your
king, your Saviour, your victor.
This very thing happened on the road to Jerusalem. Sinners, once
estranged from religion and faith in God, made Jesus their personal
saviour as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Scoundrels,
marginalized, tax collectors, Samaritans, prostitutes, gentiles, all the
types of people Jesus cared for over his ministry; all the people the
religious types despised, all those who were losers in the eyes of the
world, took Palm branches, a symbol of battle victory, and waved them
in defiance, declaring Jesus as their own King, declaring Jesus as their
victor over the devil and the world who had kept them in captivity to sin
and guilt.
The poor took off their cloaks, they gave their most valuable possession
over to Jesus, to be trampled on, to be dirtied and damaged by the
donkey and the crowds. A remarkable act! The poor person’s cloak was
valuable, it was used as security for loans, just like we use our houses,
as recorded in Exodus 22, “If you take your neighbour’s cloak as a
pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering
your neighbour has. What else can they sleep in?” So taking them off,
and laying them on the road, they gave everything they had to Jesus;
they gave out of their poverty, they gave out of their heart; they gave
their life to Jesus; they gave a risky love. The cloaks lined the road to
Jerusalem demonstrating that Jesus had made the poor rich; the poor
made Jesus their treasure. Jesus predicted this would happen, telling
the Pharisees and religious moral types, “Truly I tell you, the tax
collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of
you.”
This was not an entry and procession that was carefully choreographed
and staged, as with other kings and official rulers; there were no
promoters, advisers; no propaganda proceeded his entry, it was the
people who made Jesus their king and victor; it was the people who
spontaneously shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
This was a grassroots movement, not a religious movement; this was a
passionate, heartfelt rejoicing, borne out of the hearts of the people
who made Jesus their own.
Why did this happen? What did they see and experience? Jesus alone.
Gospel alone. Grace alone; nothing else. Nothing obscured Jesus from
the people. This time there were no religious scoffers; there were no
synagogues, no temple taxes to pay, no sacrifices or Temple curtain to
separate them from their God. This was the Christ in his purest. This
was Jesus riding on a donkey, an animal they could afford, and an
animal they could ride; their king come to them on an animal of burden,
of work and daily life. The mule was the average man’s lively hood, an
animal of suffering and hopelessness, and Jesus chose to ride on the
donkey to be in solidarity with the poor and the broken; all people
under the burden and dominion of the devil. He presented the simple
message of salvation, “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on
a donkey.”
Luther writes regarding this simple Christ alone, this back to basic
message of salvation, “Oh, this is a comforting word to a believing
heart, for without Christ, man is subjected to many raging tyrants who
are not kings but murderers, at whose hands he suffers great misery
and fear. These are the devil, the flesh, the world, sin, also the law and
eternal death, by all of which the troubled conscience is burdened, is
under bondage, and lives in anguish. For where there is sin there is no
clear conscience; where there is no clear conscience, there is a life of
uncertainty and an unquenchable fear of death and hell in the presence
of which no real joy can exist in the heart.”
In the presence of Christ, there is joy, as the crowds demonstrated,
there is forgiveness and release from the burden of guilt and shame, as
the mule symbolized; In Christ alone, there is victory from the
unquenchable fear of death, as the palm branches signified; and in
Jesus alone, there are all the riches of grace and mercy, and the
kingdom of God, as the offering of garments demonstrated, fulfilling
what Jesus told, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for
fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold
everything he had and bought it.”
This same Christ comes to you, comes to me; comes to those outside
the faith. He still comes, simple and humble, riding on the mule of the
gospel of free salvation; the gospel that takes the burdens of those who
repent. Jesus still comes to where you are, and as you are; he still
comes to all people in this simple gospel message, “Very truly I tell you,
whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life
and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” The
same simple message of salvation needs to break through all our
churchliness, all our church culture and our self-condemning
expectations that somehow, we have to first be good enough. Basic
Christianity is what we need to hear. Jesus is your victor, your king, and
answers the question, “What can the church do for me?”
Simply Christ alone answers the question, because he has already
ridden on each and every person’s burden of sin, shame and worry, and
ridden it to the cross, nailed it, buried it, and forgiven it. This is the
simple message of Jesus coming to you, riding on the animal of burden,
that people need to hear, and you and I need to hear again and again.
The mule reminds me that I am more sinful and flawed, burdened with
sin than I ever dared to believe. Christ riding the mule to the cross on
Calvary tells me, I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared to
hope. When you grasp this, when you make Christ you victor and
personal king, as the crowds did, then you have Christ as your own, you
have the one who gave himself to you completely.
As Max Lucado said, Jesus’ message is just as powerful as it was then.
“There is a time for risky love. There is a time to pour out your
affections on one you love. And when the time comes—seize it, don’t
miss it.” Amen