Title: The inevitable cross (Matthew 21:6-9)
Contents
The inevitable cross (Matthew 21:6-9)
This text records the scene when Jesus entered Jerusalem as king. When Jesus entered Jerusalem as king, he rode on a donkey and marched through the crowd holding palm branches and shouting hosanna hosanna. It was a big cheer. However, just one week after entering as king, Jesus began to suffer tremendously.
Jesus, who had entered as the glorious king, carried the cross, could not bear the heaviness, and collapsed, leading to the event of death, where he poured out all his water and blood from the cross. The glory of coming as a king in the crowd disappeared in an instant, and what was left was being whipped and carrying the cross. This is really hard to understand. How did Jesus, who had entered the glorious King, have to suffer and die on the cross? can not understand. Even for us today, it is really difficult to understand.
Perhaps the plan of the parade of glory, where people holding palm trees was welcomed by people, was wrong, or was it a hasty act? Did Jesus overdo it? We must meditate deeply on the text to get answers. This process from glory to the cross is not a failure. There is nothing wrong with planning. Here is the true answer in the Bible, and this is the true form of the cross. While witnessing the death of the late missionary Taehwan Cho, who was martyred in Manila, Philippines last week, I came to know again what the true meaning of the cross is.
1. Is the cross looking at you? Is it the cross you are carrying?
Many people think of the cross as being used for religious formality. Or, since the symbol of Christianity is the cross, there are people who think of the cross as an element that must be hung and that the cross must not be omitted in worship. It is also said that a person who does this is a person of faith.
But no. Are you looking at the cross? Or is it the cross you are carrying? It is not a decorative cross. Since Jesus entered Jerusalem as a glorious king and ended in suffering on the cross in less than a week, do we think that even the glory of Christ has failed? no. The cross being carried is not the end of the parade of glory, but the true glory when we go to the cross, that is, Golgotha.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you do not forget that it is the cross you are carrying, not the cross you are looking at. I still remember A gospel singer gave me a brief message while praising, and it became an unforgettable story for me. He was singing praises at church when he suddenly said: “If you just look at the cross in front of you, that cross is only a plus. However, even if it is heavy or difficult, if I take this cross off and carry it on my shoulder and start walking, when I put it down on the ground later, the cross will be multiplied. On that multiplied cross, miracles will happen and explode and conquer all things.”
I don't know how strong the challenge was. Ladies and gentlemen, as we worship in this comfort today, the cross must not become a cross that is merely viewed with the many beauty and religious formalities that symbolize Christianity. It's really just an addition. When the looking cross becomes the carrying cross, the cross will be multiplied.
Jesus said that if anyone would come after me, he would deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. I want to hear the voice of the Lord today. “Let your life become the cross you are carrying, not the cross you look at.”
Our worship is not the worship we see. Worship is true worship. So is love. True love is not just receiving, but true love when giving. Why did Jesus have to enter Jerusalem in his glory and then end it with a cross? It's simple. Because the Lord is Lord. A servant or a slave has no such sense of responsibility.
the bible says We are like sheep who do not know where to go. He said he was going his own way and wandering. To say that I went my own way here means that I went according to my own taste. But the Lord, the Lord of our life, had to bear the cross. Because he was the master, he gave his body as a sacrifice. Believe that the cross you are carrying is the cross of glory.
What do you think of faith? Isn't faith merely regarded as a so-called religious act that enjoys the holiness, quiet, and nobility as those who look at the cross? I think that doing so is like a formal believer. But that's not what the Lord showed us. The Lord was not a cross to look at. Jesus was the cross to carry. By his wounds we are healed. It is the cross that I carry so that people other than myself can be healed, others can find laughter, and others can see hope through the burden of the cross.
A long time ago, I introduced an article published in a booklet of a Korean-American church in the United States. Should I call it a sequel now? At that time, Jisoo's father worked for a Korean conglomerate and worked for the US branch. One summer, when Jisoo was two years old, she came to Korea and became infected with a malicious virus and seriously injured her brain. I became disabled and had to sleep in a special bed even when I was sleeping. It was a cross for Jisoo's father, who was doing well at the time. However, he testified that he came to know the heart of God through the index and was born again by faith. However, his family recently returned to Korea. this is the sequel Now that Korea's medical system is better than that of the US, he decided to take care of Jisoo in Korea.
The index still hasn't improved. The 16-year-old Jisoo knows nothing. If you don't take care of it a little, you're out of breath However, whenever Mom and Dad hug Jisoo, they immediately stop crying and regain their calm. As I read the article and saw how he loved, hugged, and embraced his daughter, who had become a disabled child who knew nothing, I thought that the family was not a cross just looking at it, but a family that had won the glory of the cross that was being carried.
There are times when you too meet people you want to avoid and things you want to avoid. However, we believe that if we look at the cross, we cannot bear it, but if we take it up, it is not a failure, but rather the glorious victory of Calvary that is completed. If you just look at it, you can't handle it, but if you are determined to lose, your power will appear, you will become a glory, and it will become a miracle. Believe that if you, too, decide to carry it in your family, life, and social life, it will not be a cross of failure but a cross of glory.
2. Is it a cross to avoid? Is the cross facing you?
We want to avoid carrying the cross as much as possible. There are many times when we just have to face it and try to avoid it. Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. The toil and heavy burden here is the cross of the Lord. But you and I are in that cross. Look at John 1:29, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here I am in the sins of the world. To be precise, my sins are contained. That is the cross of death that the Lord must bear. This is the Lord's intention. “I have to lose, who will lose?” It was a cross that no one could bear and only He had to face.
Suddenly I have this thought again. Why did he go to Jerusalem with the body of glory that it would end on the cross like that, listening to the hosanna hosanna hymn? Why did you enter the palace with the honor of hearing the people's hosanna cheers? Here in the New Testament, hosanna into Greek is a translation of the Old Testament Aramaic, and we often know hosanna as a song of glory, but in fact it is not. Hosan means “Save me. He alone can save me.”
Therefore, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the hosanna is a hymn to save me. That is, the Lord did not escape the cross and entered as King with great glory. It is true that the cross appears differently for modern Christians living today. Some people think of the cross as a tool of appreciation, a tool of meditation, and a tool of longing. In addition, we are thinking of crosses in various ways, such as the cross of salvation, the cross of forgiveness, the cross of love, and the cross of victory.
However, each cross love is different and there are preferred themes, but the cross that the Lord likes is not that, but a cross that cannot be avoided. This is the best cross for us too. The cross that does not avoid is the best cross. In that cross there is forgiveness, love, victory, thanksgiving, and glory. I hope you do not become those who avoid the cross.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have this kind of subconscious subconscious desire. Can't we live other than now? Is there no other way to live? But nothing else. easy