3-28-10 Easter: Friday
As a congregation we haven’t ever had a Good Friday message. We always move from Palm Sunday to Easter, so today, I’d like us to imagine that it’s Good Friday. In order to make this more powerful, I need your help.
I am going to read off a series of questions and if you answer any of those questions with a yes, I’d like you to stand up. Nothing will be asked or required of you, except that you vote by standing up. This is a safe place. We value each of you and would never do anything to diminish your value, your significance. If you can answer any of the following questions with “Yes” then please stand up. We’ll start off with a couple of easy ones to help you get the feel of it.
- If you’re a human being please stand up?
- If you brush your teeth, please stand up?
- If you have ever felt rejected, betrayed, or abandoned please stand up?
- If you’ve ever felt like you had a friend, but then they did something and it hurt really bad, and you felt betrayed, rejected or abandoned by that friend then please stand up?
- If you’ve ever had a parent who you thought they were going to be there for you, but you were mistaken, because they weren’t, then please stand up?
- If you’ve ever had a spouse who you tried to love with all your heart, but at some point you felt like they rejected you, betrayed you, or abandoned you.
- If you’ve ever felt like a brother or a sister rejected, betrayed, or abandoned you when you needed them, then please stand up?
- If you’ve ever felt like you were betrayed, rejected or abandoned by a church or by a religious leader, please stand up.
- If you’ve ever felt betrayed by our government or a political party, the please stand up?
- Please stand up if you’ve ever felt alone or isolated and at that time it felt like nobody cared?
Thank you for your help.
If we are human and if we are honest, we have all been rejected, betrayed, and abandoned by others, often times by those whom we love the most. Rejection and betrayal are powerful evils that leave deep hurt in our soul. How should we respond to such powerful evil, because as unfortunate as it is, it’s likely that we’re going to feel betrayed again? How shall we respond to such powerful hurt? What is the right response to these feelings? Why is Good Friday so good? How does what happened 2000 years ago deeply affect the way we live our lives today?
I liked to begin by asking the question, “How did Jesus respond to rejection” and “How did Jesus respond to betrayal?” In order to understand these truths, let’s look at the Easter story and the events that lead up to it. Paul’s description of the Easter story begins this way:
1 Corinthians 11:23 (NIV)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he (Jesus) was betrayed . . .”
Jesus, the Son of God was betrayed. He was rejected, abandoned, deserted, left. This day of Jesus’ betrayal was incredibly dark, evil – contrary to God’s will. I would suggest Jesus faced more darkness and more evil in a 24-hour period than any other human being faced, and it all began around a table. Jesus was eating the Passover meal among close friends. It should have been a festive time, but it wasn’t. Something heavy was on Jesus’ mind. The scriptures tell it like this:
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” Jesus knew this before he sat down. He was eating with his betrayer. Each of the disciples were very sad and began to say to Jesus one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?” Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. . . Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.” Matthew 26:20-25 (NIV).
Jesus had spent three years of his life with Judas. They had lived life together. They spent innumerable hours together. They had walked everywhere together. They had talked for hours on end. They had eaten most every meal together. These two men were friends. What went wrong?
Jesus knows that Judas loves money more than he loves him. He has always had an obsession for money. Jesus knows that greed is Judas’ God. He knows that for a sack of silver that Judas has agreed to betray him, and yet Jesus still loves him. He still eats with him. He doesn’t speak harshly against him. There is no fight. No real conflict. Just Jesus’ words, Yes it is you.
Here’s the question? Would you eat with the same person who’s betrayal would lead to your death? Would you? And if not, then why did Jesus? Why wasn’t he angry, belligerent, in a fighting mood? Is Jesus afraid of Judas? That scene ends and a new one begins.
After dinner, Jesus and his disciples went out to the Mount of Olives.
There, Jesus said to his disciples, “You will all fall away for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today–yes, tonight–before the rooster crows twice you, yourself will disown me three times.” But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same. Mark 14:26-31 (NIV)
Peter said, Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. These are strong words, but as it turns out they were just mere words. After the religious leaders had Jesus arrested, Peter, standing in the courtyard denied not knowing Jesus three times, stating “I never knew the man.” Can you imagine how much that must of hurt Jesus? The hurt would be like your spouse or your parent or your best friend saying they never knew you. Can you imagine how much that hurt Jesus?
Have you ever thought about God being rejected, betrayed, and abandoned? We might be able to understand Judas betraying Jesus, because he’s hardly ever mentioned in the Bible in a positive way. I can maybe understand Judas’ betrayal and rejection, but Peter, he was the one who was always mentioned first, in every account. He was the super disciple. I believe Peter was closest to Jesus. He is the one in which Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom. If Judas was probably the farthest disciple from Jesus, then Peter was the closest, and yet Peter said “I don’t even know the man. Can you imagine how that betrayal and that rejection must have hurt Jesus?
The rest of the disciples agreed with Peter that they would die with Jesus rather than betray him, but as it turned out Peter and John were the only ones close at hand during the hearing and the trial. The other disciples were not even around. They were not mentioned. They saw what was going on with Jesus and they vamoosed.
Jesus had poured three years of his life into these guys and they had all forsaken him betrayed him, left him alone. They had watched him do amazing miracles and they knew that he was, by his own admission on equal footing with God and yet they betrayed him. It was indeed a dark day for Jesus, because his closest disciples and his closest friends, the ones whom he spent the most time with ultimately betrayed him. Each of them said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you, but they did. It was a dark day for Jesus, but it got darker.
Jesus was a Jew and he was a Rabbi. Rabbis were considered to be the wisest of all the people in Israel. They were the most highly regarded and highly honored of all the people. Jesus was a leader of the religious community of Israel and regarded by many as the greatest Rabbi in the history of Israel because of the vast number of miracles that he performed, along with his unprecedented teaching with authority, but in the end, even the religious community betrayed Jesus on this dark day. The scriptures say:
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin, that is the majority of the religious leaders, were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Why were they doing that? It was because there were vast number of people listening to Jesus’ teaching and the vast crowds who followed him and disregarded them. They liked him best and they hated him for it. This passage continues, Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Mark 14:55-56 (NIV)
Jesus is rejected and betrayed by Judas and Peter and the rest of the disciples, then he was even betrayed and rejected by the religious community, but it did not stop there.
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. ” With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Luke 23:13-21 (NIV)
After some time, Pilate caved under the pressure of the crowd and handed Jesus over to be crucified. Jesus was the Son of God and he came preaching a message of love, but Judas and Peter and the rest of the disciples betrayed him. He was rejected by friends, family, coworkers and even the government.
At every level of relational interaction, Jesus was rejected, betrayed, and abandoned in a 12 hour period, and it was for all those people that had rejected and abandoned him that he choose to give his life in love. Jesus chose to die for those who betrayed him so they might have experience relational wholeness.
Jesus never spoke a harsh word against any of those who betrayed him. And here’s the thing that’s really difficult. Jesus not only calls us to not judge or condemn those who reject, abandon, or betray us, but instead we are called to love those very people, just as he did.
As we move into how this all fits into our lives I want to state that today’s teaching is some of the most difficult teaching in the Bible, and yet, in the same breath I might add, it’s may be the most important. It’s important because all of Jesus’ teaching is at stake in this message today. If you and I don’t fully understand what Jesus is doing and the message that he is modeling in the events leading up to the cross, then we miss who Jesus is and we miss the transformational power that he can have tremendous impact on our lives. In my opinion, there is not a stronger illustration for who Jesus is and what he stands for, than this message today. In order to bring illuminate what Jesus is doing, let’s begin with a question.
Does anyone here know the Golden Rule? Yes, Do to others as you would have them do to you. How many of you believe that these are words that we should live by? Ok, a great majority. Does anyone know the context in which Jesus taught the Golden Rule? Let’s take a look at that.
Jesus said, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Do you see where this is going? This teaching is already a difficult teaching to live out. Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them,
What??? Love your enemies??? Love those who persecute you, taunt you, betray you, reject you, and leave you all alone in the darkest of times. Love those people, Jesus??? Really??? Why would I do that? That seems crazy! Certainly unnatural! And not just love your enemy, but also
lend to them (your enemy) without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High,
In other words, you’ll be just like a chip off the old block. You’ll be like God.
Because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:31-37
This is what Jesus did! He not only taught this, this is how he lived his life.
Have you ever been betrayed? Can you think of a time when you were betrayed, persecuted, rejected, or abandoned? Who was the person that did that to you? I know it’s painful, but go back to that day for a moment; go back to that hurt for a moment. What did that feel like? What did you want to do to that person when they did those things to you? What would you have done to that person if you knew that you could get away with it and that nobody would ever know? Dare I say that murder might have been on your mind and mine a couple of times? I know it has been in mind before. If I could just have a baseball bat when they walk down that dark alley!!! If I could just sit outside with a sniper’s riffle, I could put a bullet right in each kneecap for starters.
Jesus calls us to love our enemies, to love the person who betrays us. WHY???? Why would Jesus ask us to do something that seems so totally against every emotion and every inclination that we have in that moment? What’s at stake if we were to follow through with our actions? What’s at stake if we act out of the way we feel? What’s at stake if I don’t get mad, I just get even? And then, what’s at stake if we act the way Jesus commands us? What’s at stake if we seek to love our enemy? What’s at stake if we don’t fight or run, but instead we seek to forgive and love them?
When ever you’re reading your Bible and you get stumped on how you should go forward, go back to the greatest commandments. What did Jesus say were the greatest commandments in the entire Bible? They were to:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor, and sometimes that neighbor is your enemy, as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
Jesus and his kingdom is all about love. Heaven is all about love. Love is the greatest and most powerful gift that God has given us. We’ve said that the result of everyone loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and if everyone loved their neighbor at their self, if everyone did that, then heaven would come to earth. If we followed these two commandments, then Heaven would come to earth. Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, for up there to come down here, for heaven to invade earth, and the scriptures are crammed full of the ways that we are to be and act in order to make that happen.
But in the moment when we are betrayed, we are most likely going to act in ways that completely contrary to that. When we are persecuted, betrayed, rejected, or abandoned we tent to act out of fear rather than out of love. When we feel threatened we become fearful, and we will most often go into a fight or flight mode, a self preservation mode – we will fight or we will run, but that is because we are empty of God’s love, that is because we are filled full of sin, filled full of fear. We are empty of God and his love. The scriptures tell us that:
Perfect love casts out fear. . . the one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
We are only able to sit at a table with our enemies when we have no fear, when we have only love for them.
We’ve said that if all of us would do that (pointing toward banner of greatest commandments), then we would all experience that (pointing toward a banner, Heaven on Earth), but if we act out, if we get angry and all bent out of shape, if we act out of fear and either fight or flea, then where does that take us? When we fight or flee we propagate evil. When we love our enemy as our self, we open the door for reconciliation and restoration to happen.
Now, even though I sometimes take the high road and I choose to love instead of fighting or fleeing, and nothing good seems to come out of it. The people that hurt me are still acting like jerks, and I sometimes think to myself, why did I bother loving that person.
But here’s the reason why, sometimes when I respond in love to someone who has hurt me, the relationship is restored, and sometimes it’s even stronger than it was before the betrayal, rejection or abandonment. Jesus’ relationship with Judas failed, though it was no fault of his own. His relationship with Peter and some of the other disciples moved to new highs.
Jesus died so that all of us could be forgiven of our sin, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus died so that we would be filled with his love and his presence. Jesus died so that the fear inside us could be displaced with love, so that we could not act in a preservation mode of fighting or fleeing from messed up broken relationships, but instead that we could work at healing and restoring our broken messed up relationships with him and with each other. Jesus died so that we could experience great relationships with God and each other, despite the fact that we live in a broken world where there is a lot of evil and a lot of hurting.
When we fight or isolate ourselves from our betrayers, we join the enemy in propagating hell. When we seek to engage our betrayer in love, as Jesus did, then we seek to propagate heaven.
Judas never received Jesus love and ended up dying before their relationship could be restored. Peter and the other disciples asked for forgiveness and their relationship with Jesus strengthened because Jesus continued to love them. Love opens the door to restored relationship, but hate, anger, and fear shut the door to restored relationship and only propagates more evil. It only propagates more broken relationships.
Now, let me back up a bit, because some of you have been deeply wounded by those that have betrayed you, rejected you or abandoned you. Loving someone is not always the same as trusting someone. Loving someone does not mean that you have to put yourself in harms way. Loving someone who is abusive, is not putting yourself in a place where they can continue to abuse you or your children. Love should be freely given to all, but trust is earned. We are called to love people who have hurt us and forgive them for their actions, but we should only trust them when there is history that warrants that trust.
The main symbol of Good Friday and of the Christian faith is the cross. The cross is significant because of its double meaning. It is a symbol both of the greatest rejection, brutality, betrayal, abandonment and the cruelty of all time, and yet at the same time, it is a symbol of the greatest love forgiveness, and work of restoration that has ever been know to this world. The cross is dualistic in the sense that it all started with horrific evil that created huge seismic crevices between God and us and between our neighbor and us. However, on that same cross Jesus’ sacrifice of love gave us the opportunity to have, through the love of the Father, the forgiveness of Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, abundant, grace filled, good relationships. The cross was meant to be a form of hell, but because of Jesus’ love, it became a symbol of heaven.
God calls you and I to love more than we’ve been hurt, because in this way, Good triumphs over Evil.
Communion
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