First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

The sight was so overwhelming that John fell down on his face like a dead man. But Jesus, in his tender mercy, put his right hand on John’s head, and spoke the words we hear God and angels say to trembling humanity throughout the Bible, “Fear not.” In other words, don’t be afraid, John. It’s me, your Jesus. I have not come to destroy you. But to give you a glimpse of my glory and power so that you may have confidence to face a hostile world.

You can dismiss Jesus. You can ignore him. You can try to say he didn’t say what he said. You can try to wave away this talk of resurrection as the fantasies of fools. But you will see him. You will see him whom you pierced. And it will cut you to the heart to know you got it wrong about Jesus. Of course, that truth does not allow believers to be smug. They too will look on him whom they pierced. Oh, yes, we love Jesus, and we will thrill to the sight of Christ Jesus in all his glory when he returns. But the more we gaze at the wounds, the more we will see how deep they are. How painful they were. How horrifying was the price he paid for us. He is the reality we must confront. For he will confront us, each of us, with his reality.

Believers are not exempt from trials. They will come. They will show up at unexpected times. But if we've been listening to the words of Jesus, and doing what Jesus requires of us, guess what? When the storms blow, we will be able to stand because we built our lives upon the rock of Christ.

Jonah knew the truth, “You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” He just had to get on the right side of that truth. He had to move from anger and envy to worship and gratitude. How do you get out of yourself? Get into the LORD I AM. Sounds so simple. But it’s really hard! 

The moment we turn to him, he turns to us. We don’t need to be ignorant of this. He is the God of second chances. The Lord is gracious, slow to anger, full of steadfast love and mercy. Here’s news beyond hope for those blindly groping for God. Not only is he real, but he is also your heavenly Father who loves you and wants to restore you, forgive you and fill you with his eternal life. Believe him.  

Jesus would bring a salvation beyond Jonah’s imagining. Jonah got rescued by a fish. The Son of God came and went three days and nights not only into the belly of a beast but into death and hell itself. Three days and nights he left this world. Then returned victorious to save the whole cosmos. Jonah spoke beyond his life to the truth of this story: salvation belongs to the LORD! What we most need belongs to God alone. But he freely shares with those who turn to him with their whole hearts. 

The invitations are still out. It is not too late. When the king enters the hall, how will he find us? The classic hymn “On Christ the Solid Rock,” contains the lines, “O may I then be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.” Christ Jesus has a graceful robe of rightness and wholeness and peace to give us. He wants us at the feast. So for heaven’s sake, put your clothes on!

We celebrate today how a mother’s love is faithful, often hidden, persistent and ever hopeful. Good mothers reflect to all of us these qualities in our Lord. Our God seeking the lost coin of our humanity, got down on hands and knees to come find us. He laid aside his glory and took up the confines of flesh. He offered himself utterly, even to the last drop of blood on the cross.

We turn to the Word first and always on ourselves. Then, and only, then, out of our brokenness, out of the mercy we have received, out of our gratitude to God, do we dare to speak to others as God leads. In this way, we live within this text, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Psalm 110 directs us to a mighty king who brings peace, a priest who offers bread and wine and blessing. He already exists and yet is coming. He will share rule with the I AM himself. Remind you of anyone? This swirls our minds. But we need to realize the depth of the person of Jesus. To know him rightly, we need to see how Jesus alone pulls all the threads of Scripture together. He is our savior. He is our Lord. He is also our priest who offered the perfect sacrifice to God: himself on the cross. He also continues in the role of priest, connecting God and humanity.

Sin isn’t a spiritual parking ticket, or a little too much dessert after a nice meal. Sin is adultery. It is a betrayal of our love, and a profoundly hurtful act. It’s saying we can be engaged to two fiancés at once, that the bloodshed, the life given up on our behalf is a laughable, somewhat provincial gift, and we’re trading it for the latest trending fashion to come across our phone. I’ve seen it happen to friends, parishioners, and fellow pastors. It seems so exciting and exotic for a moment, maybe awhile. But it leads to a “mouthful of gravel.”

These terrible pains, these days of falling into dark wells, get used by our gracious Father to create resurrection hope in us. They are not punishments. Our Father does not delight in them with some perverse pleasure in our suffering. But he has provided a way that they need not destroy us. In fact, our broken hearts can open a path to becoming compassionate people. Uniting what has been done to us to the cross of Jesus, we can find freedom so fresh it feels like resurrection. He makes us new, drawing us up from all the thousand ways of death. He restores us from the pit.

Jesus is the cornerstone on which our new lives can be built. Jesus is also the rock of truth against which we can wreck our lives. This is true if you’ve never been a Christian, someone joined to Christ. You can continue on your own, and never solve guilt, never solve loneliness, never solve death. Or, you can cry out to Jesus, “Lord, save! Hosanna” and discover that he answers all those questions. This is true if you’ve been a Christian forever, but you’re holding back parts of your life. Thats exhausting and futile. Peace lies just the other side of crying out, “Lord, save. Hosanna!”

Jesus understands fully our experiences of betrayals great and small. He knows the pain more deeply than anyone has ever felt. We can draw on the times we have been betrayed to connect to Jesus. To tell him we know a bit about what he was feeling. We can sorrow with him. We can tell him we would like to stay with him when others desert him. We share a bond of emotions with Jesus in his betrayal. But we don’t only use that bond for our comfort. We use it to offer Jesus devotion. To offer him love. To yearn to give him some care, some relief, some hope.