Title: The Way to Receiving Jesus as Jesus
Contents
The way to welcome Jesus as Jesus
Isaiah 50:4-9, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 21:1-11
There is a saying among pastoral proverbs:
“When you are assigned to a church, be careful of the person who runs out to greet you first.”
When I first heard that as an evangelist, I didn't quite understand it.
Why should you be wary of people who come to greet you?
After that, I came to know the true meaning of the word while serving as a pastor.
Why did I tell you to be careful?
I thought about the time when I came to Ewha Church. Who was the first, the most welcoming, and the most joyful? Looking back, I have never been so welcomed. ‘I think a schoolteacher belonging to Ewha Girls’ High School has arrived’ This level… No one seems to have paid much attention to it. I only remembered the timid wounds I felt at the time, saying, 'Even a brief visitor will not do this.' Thinking about it now, I'm happy. Because there is no one to chase first. Thank you.
Of course, not everyone who came to greet you first was like that.
On Palm Sunday, wouldn't it have been the same with the crowd as they welcomed Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey? Not everyone would have had such a heart, but everyone would have welcomed Jesus as King with their own inflated expectations and desires. He would have spread his cloak on the road, spread tree branches on the floor, and waved branches in his hands as if it was not wasted even if he gave up everything he had.
“Hosanna, Son of David, to him who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest”
Welcoming you with joy, you would have shouted with a louder voice.
However, the voice of the welcome soon turned into a shout of 'Crucify Jesus'. The hand that waved tree branches when welcoming Jesus became the hand that struck the whip on Jesus' back, the hand that drove the nails into Jesus' hands and feet, and the hand that pierced the tip of a spear deep into Jesus' side.
Why? Why did it change that way?
It will also be for the same reason as mentioned above. Because they had their own inflated expectations, expecting a king who would satisfy their desires, but they were disappointed. In reality, Jesus was riding on a donkey when he entered Jerusalem, but it seems that what the Jewish people were waiting for was the return of the king on a white horse. Their eyes were not on Jesus, the suffering servant riding on a donkey, but Jesus on a white horse, who wanted to rule Rome and the people. It seems that people don't necessarily want to know the truth or just facts. We try to accept what we want to see as fact. Jesus is obviously riding into Jerusalem riding a donkey, but people don't care what they want to see, and they are excited about their expectations regardless of Jesus.
Even though Jesus had foretold his death and resurrection three times (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:17-19) before entering Jerusalem, the disciples wrote these words deeply in their hearts. I didn't listen. Maybe you didn't want to accept that fact as a fact, or maybe you didn't even want to think about it. Their desire is completely different from what Jesus said. Because that should never happen! Jesus' suffering and death should not have happened, not for Jesus' sake, but perhaps for themselves. So you probably didn't want to hear it. So I wouldn't want to believe it. Therefore, even just before entering Jerusalem, two disciples secretly came to Jesus and asked them to remember them when Jesus became king and to set him on a high seat (Matthew 20:20-23). The Bible testifies that the rest of the disciples were never different from their hearts (Matthew 20:24).
We are no different from them.
Like them, we want to see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe. We want to enjoy the glory and joy of the resurrection with Jesus, but we do not think that we have to suffer and die with Jesus. Rather than washing my eyes and seeing Jesus as Jesus, I try to see Jesus through the glasses of desire within me.
Jesus gave his life because we were everything. Is Jesus everything to us?
Are we merely tools to satisfy our greed and desires?
Before condemning Judas Iscariot during Lent and Holy Week, before pointing the finger at Pilate's actions, before accusing the crowd who had cried out to crucify Jesus,
I need to see the hidden me who can sell Jesus for my own benefit.
For my own safety, I need to see myself in reality, where I can pretend to be ignorant of Jesus.
You have to look at the shameful me who cried out together to be crucified while hiding in the crowd because it failed to satisfy my expectations and desires.
Nevertheless, the gospel is that Jesus died on the cross for me.
The fact that the Creator who created the heavens and the earth for me, a nothingness, died for me, and that he showed that love, that is the gospel.
But what does the gospel mean to you?
Is it something that fills my needs like the gospel they hoped for when they greeted Jesus, spread their cloaks on the floor, waved tree branches and shouted ‘Hosanna’? Are material blessings, health blessings, children's blessings, and other such blessings the gospel? You must not mistake it for the gospel. It is not the gospel. Nevertheless, nevertheless, nevertheless, he loved me even to death, so that his one and only son was crucified to death, that is the gospel.
The voice that was heard to us through that cross is the gospel.
“You are so precious that I will die for you.”
The gospel is that the only begotten Son of God died on the cross for me.
We must accept that gospel as the gospel.
We must believe the gospel as the gospel, not through theological ideas or any biblical knowledge.
If the gospel became a reality for us, if the death of Jesus Christ on the cross became mine, then that gospel becomes the power to live. And we can confess like this.
“Jesus is enough”
The cross on which I crucified Jesus, but the cross that saves me is right before us.
The cross is an event that shows God's love for us.
This is the place where Jesus proved that we were all He was.
Jesus, who defended us against God on the cross, in spite of betraying Jesus, taking advantage of him, stoning him, despising him, and taking all his clothes by lot, he was everything to him. . We want him to be everything.
As the family of Ewha faces the Holy Week, looking at the cross erected in front of us,
We want to see our wickedness and iniquity that crucified Jesus as well.
And looking at the cross that was set before us,
We want to see the love of God who sent his only begotten son on our behalf.
And looking at that cross set before us,
I pray that you will have a week thinking about the grace of Jesus who has made us all.