Sermon manuscript:
When we use the word “peace” we often think of calmness,
tranquility, the lack of fighting. There are different ways to achieve such a
condition. For example, a graveyard is quite peaceful in its own way. Even
though there are many people in close proximity, there is little fighting. There
is also little love, little joy, but there is a kind of stillness and calmness.
Another way calmness can be achieved is through the
establishment of such severe law and order that everyone becomes too scared to
step out of line. Totalitarian governments come up with punishments and displays
of power that intimidate the people they rule over. Almost all of the great
empires of history have used these tactics.
The Roman government, for example, once crushed a slave
revolt and sent a powerful message afterwards. They crucified 6,000 captured slaves
along the Appian Way. For 120 miles one person after another hung there dead on
crosses. The message was clear: Don’t mess with those in power. It worked. People
were frightened. There was a kind of peace.
This is one way you could understand the events of Holy Week
that we have entered into today with Palm Sunday. The Jewish leaders wanted a
kind of peace. Jesus had been disturbing their peace. So they solved a problem.
Jesus had been getting too popular. He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Upon
entering Jerusalem he went to the temple and made quite a scene. He flipped
over tables and let animals loose. The Jewish leaders wanted to know who had
given him such authority.
Jesus was obviously out of control. He needed to be dealt
with. The usual measures of getting dirt on someone wouldn’t work with him. Nor
could they turn the people against him. The people loved him more than they
loved the Jewish leaders. There was only one sensible course to take, and they
took it. They arrested him in the middle of the night. They immediately convicted
him in their kangaroo court. They applied pressure to Pontius Pilate. By the
time the people of Jerusalem were hardly finished with their breakfast Jesus
was already nailed to the cross! It was already too late. Efficiency like that
would make any dictator tip his beret with respect.
For some of us, though, this kind of thing really makes our
blood boil. It was so unjust! The leaders were supposed to be the best of the
people, but in fact they were the worst. They were vain. They were vindictive.
They were cowards. They purposely engaged Jesus in an unfair fight. They didn’t
dispute with him in the open. It was all arranged behind closed doors. Their
dirty deeds were done with the cover of darkness. Some of us might like to take
our clubs and swords and give them a taste of their own medicine.
This might have been how Peter felt. We’ve been studying
Peter in our Adult Bible Study. When the Jewish leaders came to arrest Jesus in
the middle of the night, Peter took out his sword and cut off the right ear of
the high priest’s servant. I can’t help it: a part of me says, “Hurray for
Peter!” At least one of those scoundrels felt a little pain! But that sets me
at odds with Jesus himself.
Perhaps you remember how Jesus rebuked Peter. He told him to
put away his sword. He said, “Shall I not drink the cup
the Father has given me to drink?” He also said, “All who take the sword shall perish by the sword.”
Indeed, that is how it goes. History tells this story over
and over. The story goes like this: The oppressors oppress until those they
oppresse rise up and take away their power. But without fail, those who were
formerly oppressed, when it’s their turn, also oppress whomever they can take
advantage of. They, then, become the target until one day a knife is found
sticking out of their backs. The situation is always unstable because hatred is
just below the surface. Power is maintained only with the utmost vigilance.
Knowing that they hate you, you must strike first, before they strike you. It’s
kill or be killed. “Whoever takes the sword, perishes
by the sword.”
The best peace to be hoped for is the peace of the
graveyard. If all goes well you eliminate your opponents before they eliminate
you. Then you live happily ever after. That was the Jewish leaders’ theory of
peace, and they dealt with Jesus accordingly.
However, this theory did not originate with them. It is much
older. It goes back all the way to the gray mists of the earliest recorded
history. The first human being born in the natural way was named Cain. He had a
brother named Abel. One day Cain became annoyed with his brother Abel. Abel was
disturbing his peace. So Cain bashed his head in, and reestablished the peace.
Problem solved. No more Abel; no more annoyance. He lived happily ever after… Except
he didn’t. Maybe you remember the story. He thought that he would live happily
ever after, but in fact he was haunted for the rest of his life by the dirty
deeds he did in secret. This is some kind of peace, but it leaves much to be
desired.
Is there another kind of peace? Most do not believe so.
Jesus says, “Broad is the gate and easy is the way that
leads to destruction, and many enter thereby. Narrow is the gate and hard is
the way that leads to eternal life, and few there are who find it.” Most
people believe what simply comes naturally to all of us: We will be better off
if we are in control. We will be richer if we take what someone else has. We
will be happier if we eliminate those who annoy us. Kill or be killed. This
world is made up of winners and losers. See to it that you are like the Jewish
leaders, who obviously won, instead of like Jesus, who obviously lost.
But did he? That is the question! This is why the
resurrection is so important. If Jesus rose from the dead, then he was right
and his ways are best. If he did not rise from the dead, then the Jewish
leaders were right. The message would be: Let no scruples get in the way of
your ambitions. If Abel didn’t want to get killed, he should have killed Cain
before Cain killed him. If Jesus didn’t want to get arrested and killed, he
should have dismissed Judas long ago, armed his supporters, and stormed the
chief priest’s palace. The strategy is not hard to understand. Do whatever is
beneficial to you, and don’t do whatever might be beneficial to others.
What is hard to understand and to learn is Jesus’s peace. To
learn Jesus’s peace you have to change your mind, which is what the word
“repent” means. You have to think so differently that the Bible speaks of this
change as being born again, or that we must be crucified with Christ and raised
with him. So much must change that it is beyond our powers. Faith is a miracle
worked by the Holy Spirit. But what comes at the end is worth it. What comes at
the end is peace.
Jesus spoke about this peace in those chapters in John that
we talked about during our midweek series. Jesus said, “In me you have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart:
I have overcome the world.” Again, Jesus said, “Peace
I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Those
are words of quiet confidence. Although he knows that is death is but hours
away, he is not like a drowning rat, desperate to survive. Jesus said, “You trust in God. Trust also in me.”
Trust in Jesus because his resurrection happened. The
resurrection and judgment that is coming at the end of this world is real too. This
is what all those who live only for their own ambitions deliberately ignore. The
resurrection is coming! When that happens, those who appeared to have won will
lose. Those who appeared to have lost will win. “The
first shall be last, and the last shall be first. There is nothing that is secret
that won’t be revealed, and there is nothing that is hidden that won’t be
exposed.” These are clear teachings of Jesus.
Now if you are like me, then you probably have your own
dirty deeds done in darkness, the exposure of which would bring about intense embarrassment
or perhaps even fear. To you I say, “Do not be afraid so long as your peace is
in Jesus.” Your peace in Jesus will be stronger than your sins. Jesus’s
righteousness speaks louder than our failings.
But don’t go on thinking that your dirty deeds of darkness
will get you ahead in life. They won’t. They harm you; they don’t bless you.
Even if you managed to gain the whole world by unrighteousness, the time would
come when you would regret it—even if you somehow managed to make it into
heaven. Change your mind; change your ways. Light, truth, life, and all other
good things come from Jesus. Repent and believe the good news that Jesus has
overcome the world, and his peace will reign forever and ever!
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