3/27/13 King of the Comebacks

Audio Adrenaline -King of the Comebacks

 This past Sunday started what we often call Holy week. So what is Holy week? Holy week starts with what is often known as Palm Sunday. If you were at church this week you would have seen the kids carrying the palms around the church. Do you know why we do that?

Matthew21:1-9

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”^[a]

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna^[b] to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[c]

“Hosanna^[d] in the highest heaven!”

You can see that the palms are representing the branches that people cut down from the trees. We also sang Hosanna to go along with what the people were shouting.  This is one of the few places in the Bible where a large group accepts Jesus as the Son of God while he is still alive.  The irony of that large group is that a lot of those people praising him on Sunday had turned on him by Friday.

The next day that is historically celebrated is Maundy Thursday.  Thursday is the day that Jesus and the Disciples had “The Last Supper.” This started with Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples. Jesus knew that his time on Earth was close to an end but he wanted to continue teaching the Disciples. Why do you think Jesus washed the Disciples feet, a job that would typically be done by a servant? Jesus tells the Disciples in John 13:13-17

¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus made sure to emphasize this to the Disciples because he wanted to remind them to be humble.  He didn’t want them to start acting like the older religious leaders.

A lot of other things occurred during “The Last Supper” including Jesus predicting Judas’ betrayal and the first communion where Jesus said told them that His body was being broken for them.  So why do we call it Maundy Thursday? Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means commandment. In John 13:34-35 Jesus gives this new commandment.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

After they left the supper Jesus went to pray. During this time Judas returned with the crowd that was going to take Jesus. Jesus is arrested and taken to the High Priest. This would be the start to a very long day, Good Friday.

Good Friday is the day that Jews took Jesus to the governor to have him killed.  Pilate, the governor didn’t see any reason to kill him, but instead turned him back over to the Jews. The Jews shouted they wanted to crucify him. They didn’t just crucify him though, they basically tortured him, along with the Roman soldiers, all day long. After that they nailed him to the cross and waited there to watch him die. 

It seems strange that we would call this day “Good Friday.”  It sounds like an awful day to me, but you have to look a little further into it. Jesus was aware of what he was doing. Before Jesus, people were sacrificing animals, specifically lambs, trying to ask forgiveness for their sin.  Jesus took his place as The Perfect Lamb, to die for our sins. When we look at Good Friday we should view it as very good for us. This is the day that allows our sins to be forgiven by God. When Jesus took our sins to Hell he opened the connection between us and God.  For us to really understand that this day was “good” we have to know what happened on the following Sunday.

Easter Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. “The King of the Comebacks” proved that everything he told people was true when the stone was rolled away from the tomb and He was not inside. The tomb couldn’t hold him in. He was not governed by death, but instead had defeated it to return to Heaven. Easter is what lets us know that we have a Heaven to go to because of Jesus’ comeback from death and Hell.