The plan for redemption (for Good Frday)

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay, 29 March 2024 (Good Friday)

 Good Friday

Why is it called Good Friday? Surely it was a disaster.

Jesus has been betrayed, by a close friend

The religious leaders were against him, they are afraid of him.

The crowd were against Him, or were turned against him

Jesus has been arrested

His friends have deserted Him (Peter denied him)

Jesus has been interrogated, tortured and sentenced to death.

Only a weak Roman leader even tried to help, but could do nothing

Jesus had been crucified – His friends just stood and watched.

During that excruciating death, He says even God had left him.

Plan

But,

It’s all part of the plan for our redemption. That plan covers the entirety of human history as recorded in the Bible. Beginning with Adam and Eve, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the kings, Elijah and the prophets, the exile and return, all the way to John the Baptist and Jesus the messiah. There are at least 300 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament, and there are some more promises that Jesus makes himself that get fulfilled in our reading from John’s gospel. As we look at the promises and prophecies we heard today, we will see that there is a level of control and planning which demonstrates that Jesus is in control of events the whole way through.

18:8-9

In verses 8 and 9 at His arrest

⁸ Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” ⁹ This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

That promise was made in John 6:39, it is part of the passage where he says ‘I am the bread of life’. It protects His disciples from becoming involved in His crucifixion and ensures they are not pursued by the authorities – even if Peter deserved to be.

18: 31b-32

In verses 31b and 32 the Jewish leaders have decided that Jesus must die for His claim to be the son of God. They are not allowed to execute people, so have to ask their Roman masters to do it. Pilate doesn’t see the need, but they are determined.

^31b “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. ³² This took place to fulfil what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

Matthew 20:19 tells us that Jesus will be executed by the gentiles. Matthew 26:2 tells us that His death will be by Crucifixion. John 3:14 alludes to the same thing, reminding his readers that as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the son of Man must be lifted up.

19:24

In Chapter 19 verse 24, talking about how Jesus’s clothes would be shared out, it says:

²⁴ “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.”

The prophecy comes from Psalm 22:18, just a little further on from the reading we had earlier:

They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

This prophecy, in particular, shows the detail in the plan that God has. Nothing has been left to chance, every tiny detail is planned out. It is revealed years in advance to people who have little hope of fully understanding it, but who record it, knowing that it comes from God and is therefore important.

19:28-29

Even when He is minutes from death, Jesus is still aware enough to make sure that the prophecies are fulfilled, verses 28 and 29:

²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

The scripture that Jesus is quoting is Psalm 69:21

They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

The psalmist uses it as a metaphor for the bitter scorn he received from the enemies around him when he needed comfort. He is pleading for God to come to him. He probably didn’t realise that it was a prophecy, but here it is fulfilled by Jesus, who is being treated in much the same way.

19:36-37

Even after Jesus’s death the actions of his executioners still fulfil prophecies. It is time for the executions to be completed as the Sabbath is coming. Normally those being crucified would be left to die a slow and painful death, but now their legs are broken to speed up the process, so the bodies can be removed before the Sabbath. Jesus is already dead, so to be sure of that, he is simply stabbed with a spear. As there is no blood, it is proof of death. Verse 36 says

³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

The passover lamb must be eaten without breaking its bones according to Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12. Jesus has become the passover lamb for the whole world, sacrificed to save us from destruction.

Zechariah 12:10 tells us

“I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

This prophecy, perhaps more than any of the others, sets the tone for Good Friday. The day in our year when we mourn for the loss of Jesus, our saviour. When we grieve bitterly for him, and the things he had to go through to achieve our redemption.

The plan

So, we look upon the plan and see that God has saved us from eternal separation, from death and hell. We look at the details from the beginning of time, everything is worked out in minute detail. The purpose of the plan is to provide us with a way back to God.

It has worked, but there has been an enormous cost – God has given up His son for us. That is why it is a Good Friday, because the plan has worked – we are saved.

Even so, or perhaps because of that, we should be in mourning for our loss, a loss that can be attributed to each of us and would be exactly the same even if you or I was the only individual that needed saving.

Amen.

Jesus starting a revolution?

Preached 24 March 2024 at Christ Church, Billericay

Reading Psalm 118:1-2+19-29; Mark 11:1-11

Revolution

I think we need a revolution. With climate change out of control and almost nothing being done about it, with the enormous over overconsumption we have – it is said we need one and a half earths just to keep our lifestyle going sustainably. That’s without allowing for any improvement in anyone’s lifestyle or prospects. With our current system, no-one is going to succeed in cutting everybody back to use two thirds of the resources that they are using today. If it was suggested – would you vote for them, the vast majority wouldn’t.

Who is the leader

Who would you choose as the revolutionary leader – Ernesto "Che" Guevara, or perhaps Wolfie Smith – “Power to the people!”. Maybe you’d prefer someone less violent (although I don’t remember Wolfie every harming anyone but himself!). Someone like Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps? There are plenty of others you could choose to get behind, but all the ones that come to my mind are dead, I can’t think of any leader today that I believe can deliver what we need.

Galileans

The Galileans, wanted a revolution, too – their revolution was the removal of the Roman occupying force that had run their county for years. They knew who they wanted as their leader, too. They were very clear about it – they had seen what He could do, they knew He would make a great king. They’d almost tried once before, but John 6:15 tells us that Jesus was aware of their intentions:

Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

It was not the right time then – He had a lot more work to do before He was going to be willing to accept that title.

King Now?

Now though, in our reading today, things have moved on. Now, the time is right for Jesus to show more openly His true nature.

Passover

It’s Passover, people from all around are heading to Jerusalem for the festival. Everyone within about 20 miles was expected to attend, but many more visited Jerusalem at this time. One estimate I read suggested as many as two and a half million may have been on their way, or already in the vicinity.

To give an idea of how many that is, the population of Essex was only one and a half million in the 2021 census. That’s a lot of people.

Staying outside the City

Most of them would stay outside the city, in the surrounding villages. That is what Jesus and the Galileans were doing, they stayed around Bethany and Bethphage. Those villages are on the Mount of Olives, about 2 miles from the city. It was the place these Galileans stayed every time they came from Galilee for a festival, probably three times a year. So, most of them will be very familiar with their surroundings and probably familiar with each other too.

Time to go public?

Jesus is ready to go public in a bigger way than He has before. Mark’s gospel is full of instructions not to tell what Jesus has done. Now things are changing as Jesus comes to the end of His mission.

Now, He needs to be seen, He needs to do something that will get the attention of the majority of visitors, they may not see it, but they will definitely hear about it.

Zechariah 9:9

So, the procession is planned, Jesus has even found a donkey, so that He can ride into Jerusalem. He is going to fulfil an old prophecy, it’s found in Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!

Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and victorious,

lowly and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Normally, the conquering hero comes on a large white stallion, adorned with various decoration to make it look even grander than it is, he sits above everyone and is easily visible.

But this prophecy has the hero on a donkey, he will be only slightly higher up than those around him, who are walking. The prophecy is as much about the kingdom that the king brings as it is about the ideal, Davidic king that heads it up. The kingdom and the king conform to the divine standard of morality and ethics, particularly as revealed in the Mosaic legislation.

As importantly as it being what God wants, it is what the people want – well those that are travelling with, or around Jesus anyway.

Getting the Donkey

So the donkey is arranged and Jesus sends a couple of unnamed disciples to get it. They are given some words to say, so that if challenged, they can still get the donkey without causing a problem. If you thought passwords were new, welcome to the 1^st century, where they have been in use for some time.

Colt

It’s a colt, a foal that has never been ridden, That’s a sign of purity, an animal that is suitable for offering to God.

Procession into Jerusalem

Now the procession starts, and immediately the crowd are laying their coats on the ground for the donkey to walk across. They cut branches from the fields and lay them on the road too. (They don’t have to be palm branches, only John mentions palm branches, so, any branches will do.)

This is reminiscent of the welcome given to Jehu when he became king (2 Kings 9:13) and the celebration when Simon Maccabees threw the foreign occupiers out of Jerusalem. Both actions are symbolic of welcoming a new king.

The procession proceeds with shouts of

“Hosanna!”

and

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

and

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

Their revolution is underway!

These shouts are taken from Psalm 118, that was our Old Testament reading this morning. The psalm was used as liturgy in the temple worship, and would have been very well known to all the visitors in Jerusalem.

This was not the time it was usually sung though, so the crowd following Jesus, and cheering and praising God, would have caused quite a disturbance.

Effects of the procession

Word would have spread quickly through the crowd that something unusual was happening, so soon almost everyone around would know about it. That would include the religious leaders, who were no doubt well aware of who Jesus was. They would now be nervous about his intentions. After all, if he creates trouble now, with all these people around, and the Roman overlords feel like they are losing control, all sorts of bad things could happen.

In the temple

Once in Jerusalem, Jesus heads for the temple. He is not concerned about the effects his procession and the celebration that has happened outside has had, He was clearly there to be noticed. Arriving at the temple fairly late in the day, Jesus just looks around at everything and then returns to Bethany.

What was the point of going to the temple?

What was He looking around for in the temple?

If we read what happens next, we might get some idea. The next day, he enters the temple and begins to disrupt the trade that is taking place. He would not allow the normal temple trade to continue. That definitely got the attention of the religious leaders. So, we can assume that He took a good look around to see if the temple was functioning as it should and decide that it was not. So, was planning what He would do the following day.

Palm Sunday

We have re-enacted the Palm Sunday procession today. We have done it symbolically, inside the church building. We do it to help us remember who Jesus was when he was alive on earth. It is difficult for us to really understand what a king is like. King Charles does not have any real power, that exists in our parliament.

Palm Sunday raises the question for us about whether we are simple following a ceremony, or whether we are prepared as followers of Jesus to welcome him as our true King.

Are we really prepared for a revolution, not perhaps causing trouble on the streets, although it may come to that, but personally, in our own attitudes?

Are we ready to put our possessions at his disposal, to obey his orders even when they puzzle us? Are we ready to go out of our way to honour him? What are our equivalents of cloaks to spread on the road before him, and branches to wave to make his coming into a real festival? To draw attention to His presence with us.

Or have we so domesticated and trivialised our devotion to Jesus himself that we look on him simply as someone to help us through when our lives get tough, someone to provide us with comforting religious experiences?

“Hosanna!”

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

let’s shout that together again now:

“Hosanna!”

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

Amen

 Recording :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a4oPPlgVKE from about 17:30–31:40

References

https://www.preaching.com/sermons/a-question-in-the-crowd-who-is-this/

https://www.preaching.com/sermons/palm-sunday-hosanna-or-crucify-him-its-your-choice-mark-111-10/

https://mark.bible/mark-12-37https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/27617/when-do-those-who-think-the-70-weeks-of-daniel-9-refer-to-years-think-the-weeks

https://www.preaching.com/sermons/the-day-jesus-turned-palms-into-nails/

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-palms-of-hope-robert-leroe-sermon-on-easter-palm-sunday-77371

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/triumphal-entry-a-misnomer-for-palm-sunday-paul-clemente-sermon-on-triumphant-entry-255140

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Smith

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021/report?compare=E10000012

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colt

 

Two Mothers and mother church

Preached 10 March 2024 @ Christ Church, Billericay

A Mother's Day reflection on how the church is like a mother.

Reading 1 Sam 1v20-28; Luke 2v33-35

Introduction

Today is Mothering Sunday, now perhaps better known as Mother's Day, to help us celebrate the day, and mothers, we have two readings about two very different mothers – Hannah in the 1 Samuel reading and Mary in the reading from Luke. We will be looking at each of these women and their story later. First, though, I will look a little at the history and intent of Mothering Sunday.

Lent 4

The fourth Sunday of Lent, the halfway point, is also known as Laetare Sunday, which means rejoice and provides some refreshment from the austere festival that is Lent. After the reformation, it came to be a time when Christians returned to their mother churches. That is the church where they were brought up, or possibly the local cathedral. Returning to the church where you were brought up, inevitably meant that you would visit and stay with your parents. People didn’t move around as much as they do now, and there weren’t so many places to stay. This tradition meant that domestic servants would be given the day off to visit their mothers. So, the day slowly turned into Mother's Day. In the mid-20th century, the American celebration of Mother's Day and the reduced attendance at church, further changed the emphasis towards mothers and away from the church.

Flowers

Today we will be distributing daffodils to all the ladies in, or connected to, the congregation. That’s been part of the Christ church tradition for a long time. The traditional flower that was picked by returning grown up children for their mothers was violets.

Bride of Christ

The church is known as the bride of Christ in many places in the New Testament, and we have already seen that the Church is known as a mother. This indicates that the feminine qualities of God are to be demonstrated in the church. The Hebrew word meaning love, and affection, "Ahava" is a feminine noun.

Compare Hannah and Mary

Now, let's have a look at our two mothers to see how they compare. I’ll start with Hannah.

Hannah – background

Hannah was desperate for a child. She lived in a polygamous relationship, and was the favourite wife. But she didn’t have a child, in a time when a childless woman was considered a failure, not even a real woman. The other wife constantly reminded Hannah of her failing to irritate her. One year, when the family made their annual pilgrimage to sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh, Hannah was praying fervently for a son. Eli, the priest there, thought that she was drunk. In that prayer, she made a vow:

saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

The Lord answered her prayer. Now she has to honour the vow. She named him Samuel, the name sounds like “God heard”. When the child is between two and three years old, they take him to Shiloh to worship the Lord, and leave him with Eli the priest.

Samuel given to Eli

Now Hannah has given up her son to be brought up by the priest, who accused he of drunkenness. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that would have been for her.

She does not give him up and never see him again. Her love for him continues as best it can. Each year, when they travel to Shiloh, she takes new robes that she has made for him.

Hannah’s Prayer

At the start of the next chapter, we read Hannah’s prayer – her response to receiving the son she so badly craved, and leaving him with the priest. It is pure praise to God.

Mary

In some ways, Mary is at the opposite end of the spectrum to Hannah. When we meet Mary, she is betrothed to Joseph, she is very young, and although she may be thinking about having children, her main focus is on the wedding – which may have been up to a year away.

She has an encounter with an angel, and is told that the Holy Spirit will give her a baby. That whole experience sounds frightening enough, but Mary doesn’t seem that disturbed by any of it.

Instead, she sings a song of praise to God, which has a number of parallels to Hannah’s prayer.

Eighth Day

Now it is the eighth day, and they are in the temple to make a sacrifice for the safe delivery of the child. The law says that “Every firstborn male must be consecrated to the Lord” and that is what they are doing. They are interrupted by Simeon, who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Christ. Simeon recognizes the baby Jesus as the fulfilment of that promise.

We read that the child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. This is what Simeon said:

Luke 2 ^29-32 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

After blessing them, there is a sting in the tail from Simeon:

“This child is destined to cause the falling s and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

This must have concerned Mary and Joseph, but particularly Mary, as it was addressed to her. What will that mean for her life and her son’s life?

We know that Jesus the Christ died on the cross for our sins, but perhaps you don’t remember that Mary continued to look after Jesus as best she could.

Mary’s difficult time

In Matthew 12^46-50, she and her other sons try to talk to Jesus, only for him to deny his family and use the incident to teach the crowd about God. That must have hurt her.

She will be at the crucifixion too. You never stop being a parent, however old your children are. There, Jesus will make sure Mary is cared for after His death, so however apart they may be at this point, Jesus has done what he must do as the oldest son.

In our reading today, she only has the dimmest glimpse of all these things that are to come. From here onwards, she will be a good mother for the young Jesus until he leaves to follow the ministry He was born for.

Two mothers

We’ve looked briefly at two mothers, on this Mother's Day. Each had a difficult time with their child, mainly due to the circumstances they found themselves in. As parents, we all have our own difficulties with our children, at various times. As children, I expect we were sometimes the cause of difficulties for our parents, particularly our mothers.

Mother’s qualities

The key quality that these two mothers have demonstrated is their worship of the Lord, and their focus on Him. It has clearly helped them through the difficulties they experienced. We would expect the Bible to focus in on that aspect of their personalities. I wondered what other personality traits make a good mother.

To be sure I got some thoughts other than my own, I asked an AI to write 3 haiku’s, this is what I got back:

(1) Gentle hands that hold,
Warm embrace that chases fear,
Love's unwavering light.

(2) Strength that knows no bound,
Guiding light through darkest times,
Roots that hold us true.

(3) Laughter fills the air,
Patience for each tear that falls,
Belief in what we'll be.

Nothing about worshipping God, which is not a surprise to me, as these Large Language Models and very biassed currently.

Spend a little time thinking about your own mother, or the person who filled that role in your life. Do they have all these qualities and more? – I hope so.

Mother church

Putting these ideas together, we can get a good idea of how we should behave as mother church. Particularly, how we should treat others who are younger and less secure in the faith than we are.

Not all mothers are good all the time. We heard of the sad case of a mother accused of murdering her child in the news this week.

Safeguarding

To help to be sure that we, as church, don’t ‘go bad’, we have procedures and training in place – we call it safeguarding. It is a framework of behaviours to keep us on the straight and narrow. In the Bible it is call “love” and it covers all the qualities we have mentioned and more. It would make an interesting Bible Study one day – perhaps if you have a quiet afternoon you could find references for all these qualities. I’m not going to do it now, because I’m coming to the end of the sermon.

Conclusion

We’ve looked at the role the church plays in the world and seen that it is considered to be the mother of the children of God. We’ve seen how our two mothers Hannah and Mary never gave up on looking after their children, even in the most difficult circumstances. That is what mothers do even to this day. That is also what the church is required to do, for all its children.

Amen.

 

References

TBA

 

Preached on-line here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13pyNn99D6A, starting at 25:00.