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Sermon for Sunday, March 16, 2008
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Palm/Pasion Sunday
Texts: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14- 27:66
Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator and from Christ Jesus, the One who lived for others.
In our Bible study this past Wednesday we were talking about Jesus’ road to the cross, and wondered if he knew what was going to happen, if he knew that the road he walked led to the cross. In our conversation, we talked about how Jesus had his face set “like flint” toward Jerusalem. We talked about how he moved with such intention toward the cross which would be the salvation of the world. He most likely knew that his death would be the outcome of his living. We wondered why he rode a donkey into Jerusalem on that day so long ago, knowing he would die. We wondered why he didn’t just avoid it altogether, but one of the women gathered there said, “Well, that would have been entirely out of character.”
In the Passion reading we heard today, we heard about the character of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who refused to be deterred from his purpose, from his mission from God to bless and love this whole world. Nothing could stop him from living so fully in love with our world and it’s people, even when those people abused and beat and killed him, even when those people whom he loved abandoned him. Jesus lived his life so thoroughly in character that, in his living and through his dying, he redeemed our world.
Jesus, from the beginning of his life, through his ministry, was purely, solely about saving this world, about blessing and loving this whole world. His way was never deterred, could not be deterred, not by the devil, not by fickle followers, not by religious authorities, not by the rule of the Roman Empire, not even by the greatest power of our world - death. Nothing could keep Jesus from his purpose which was to bless and save the world.
There were those who confronted Jesus, jeered him and taunted him. They all had something in common; they were concerned with what he could do for himself or whether he could save himself. They tempted Jesus to come off the cross, to save himself. “He saved others, but he can’t save himself.” But the truth of the matter is, if Jesus would have saved himself, he could not have saved anyone else. He could not have saved his beloved and lost disciples, he could not have saved us, he could not have saved the world. In this, we see not Jesus’ weakness or lack of divinity, but rather his strength and the depth of his character, the breadth of his love.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - one of the most important people of our Lutheran story - wrote a journal while he was in prison. He wrote this: “The experience of a transformation of all human life is given in the fact that ‘Jesus was there only for others.’” This was his character. Jesus was there for others. Throughout his entire life, as he became human, as he healed and taught and lived, in his passion and death, at the cross, in his resurrection, Jesus was there for others, fully existing not for his own sake, but for the sake of this world.
This is where the power of Jesus strikes us as astonishing, isn’t it? It is seemingly incomprehensible in our world that is so turned inward, that cares so much for #1. Jesus lives out his divine nature, as it says in Philippians, in “emptying himself, humbling himself.” Jesus is Jesus because of the way he lives only for others, giving himself away, living - and therefore dying - entirely for others.
This means, that Jesus’ life and death and resurrection were not for his own sake, but for the sake of this world. In all things, Jesus is there, only for others. The power of this living for others is that we are a part of those “others” for whom Jesus lived and died and lives again. Jesus lived for our sake. Jesus lived and died for you and me. All this, all that Jesus did, was for us, for you, and for all this world.
Jesus lived entirely for others, and we – as the ones saved, redeemed, made whole by this life-giving way – are called to follow him, to seek to live for others, to be a congregation who lives for others, to be people who live for others. We can live for others because we have been given life, eternal and life abundant, from the One who lived for others, for us. We can follow Jesus to the cross because we have been given forgiveness, from the One who lived for others, for us. We can give ourselves away, without fear, because we have been loved with a love that will not let us go, from the One who lived for others, for us, for you and for me.
We, and all the world, have been transformed by Jesus, because Jesus, always in character, cannot, even now, be deterred from his mission to bless and love and save this world. Jesus exists only and entirely for others. We experience this as Jesus gives himself, yet again for us, in this bread and wine. Jesus, always true to character, continues to live for others through us as we become the body of Christ.
On the cross of our salvation and our hope, Jesus gave his life to save each one of us and all the world. He was one who lived for others. It is this One, Jesus, who lived only for others, in whom we put our trust. We can trust Jesus, for the cross of Christ shows us that his death - and life - were for us. Jesus, the One who lived only for others, is NEVER “out of character!”
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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