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WEEKLY
Volume 3 Number 45
5 April 2009
Christ’s Passion
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the
Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Apr 5, 09)
Text:
Matt 26:36-50
Today is Palm Sunday, the day when our
Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, humbly and triumphantly rode an
ass (a donkey) into Jerusalem to fulfill the Scripture, saying, “Tell
ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and
sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matt 21:5; cf.
Zec 9:9). And “a very great multitude spread their garments in the
way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the
way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried,
saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matt 21:8-9). However,
soon after that when Jesus came near and beheld the city of Jerusalem,
He wept over it, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are
hid from thine eyes… For the days shall come upon thee, … and they shall
not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42-44). And this started the
Passion Week of our Lord Jesus Christ, or His sufferings, His
crucifixion and His death during His last days on earth. Why did the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Creator, have to suffer that
shameful and cruel death on the cross? That is because of His sinful and
condemned creatures or mankind, including you and me, but sadly,
nowadays many do not care about His love and His sufferings for them but
just enjoy their lives and keep themselves busy with their work and
pleasure activities without any thought of their Saviour Jesus Christ!
The Lord Jesus, the omniscient God,
foreknew that He would be rejected, hated, persecuted and killed by His
wicked creatures, even by His people (Luke 9:22, 22:1-2; etc.) but
because of His love He still pressed on and did not walk back or run
away from His Father’s will, but submissively obeyed His Father until
death, “even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:8). May the Lord
graciously keep us mindful of Him and His sufferings for us in this
Passion Week, and may His love constrain us to love Him and live for
Him, not only for one week but for all the days of our lives.
A Glance at Jesus Christ’s Passion
Week
According to the Jews, a new day
starts from sunset to sunset: the first watch (6:00 pm – 9:00 pm); the
second watch (9:00 pm – 12:00 am), the third watch (12:00 am – 3:00
am), the fourth watch (3:00 am – 6:00 am) (Luke 12:38; Matt 14:25); and
then the first hour (7:00 am) and ends at the twelfth hour (6:00 pm)
(Matt 20:1-16). Let us have a glance at some of Jesus’ activities and
sufferings in His Passion Week:
On Sunday,
Jesus Christ humbly and meekly rode a donkey into Jerusalem (Matt
21:1-11), but He wept over Jerusalem for her future destruction because
the people did not know His visit (Luke 19:41-44). Do not you and I know
that He has visited us when He let us hear of Him and His love and His
Word?
On Monday,
He cleansed the temple because He could not stand seeing it full of
worldliness, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all
them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto
them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but
ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matt 21:12-13; cf. Mark 11:15-18;
Luke 19:45-48). Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, “What?
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19),
what does our Lord Jesus see in our hearts? Is it a house of prayer? Do
we keep a close and constant fellowship with Him all the time and
wherever we are?
On Tuesday,
Jesus was busy the whole day with His teachings (the parables of the two
sons in Matt 21:28-32 and of the wicked farmers in Matt 21:33-46, of the
wedding dinner in Matt 22:1-14), His answers to the Jews (about Caesar’s
taxes in Matt 22:15-22; about the resurrection in Matt 22:23-33; about
the greatest commandment (Matt 22:34-40); His question to the Pharisees
(Matt 22:41-46); His rebuke to the hypocrites (the Pharisees, scribes,
lawyers) in Matthew 23; and His predictions and prophecies of the last
days in Matthew 24; and His more teachings about the kingdom of heaven
(the ten virgins, the talents, and the judgment) in Matthew 25. Do you
and I remember His teachings and warnings?
On Wednesday,
Jesus was anointed by Mary of Bethany (Matt 26:6-13) and was betrayed by
Judas Iscariot (Matt 26:14-16). Mary did not spare her precious and
expensive jar of ointment and broke it to anoint Jesus’ head and feet
and wiped His feet with her hair, while Judas Iscariot sold Jesus for 30
pieces of silver! While Jesus Christ did not spare His life for you and
me, do not you and I spare our lives for Him?
On Thursday,
Jesus had the final Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper (Matt
26:17-29). He humbly washed His disciples’ feet and identified the
betrayer (John 13:1-35), predicted Peter’s denial (Matt 26:31-35) and
taught His disciples in the upper room: Jesus – the Way, the Truth and
the Life to the Father (John 14), Jesus – the true Vine (John 15), the
ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 14, 15 and 16), Jesus’ prayer for His
disciples and for those who would receive their messages (John 17).
On Friday,
Jesus earnestly prayed to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane and
submitted to His Father’s will, “O my Father, if this cup may not
pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (Matt
26:36-46). He was betrayed and arrested (Matt 26:47-56). He was tried
before the high priest Annas (John 18:12-14; 19-24), before the high
priest Caiaphas (John 18:25-27), before the Sanhedrin (Matt 26:59-68),
before the Roman governor Pilate (John 18:28-38), before Herod Antipas
(Luke 23:6-12), before Pilate again (Matt 27:15-26). Jesus was mocked
and scourged by the soldiers (Matt 27:26-30). Jesus carried His cross
and collapsed, and Simon a Cyrenian, carried the cross for Jesus to a
place called Calvary or Golgotha in Hebrew (Luke 23:26-33).
Jesus was crucified at the third hour
(9:00 am) and was mocked and reviled (Mark 15:24-32). Then Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”
(Luke 23:34). One of the thieves repented and asked Jesus to remember
him, and Jesus said to him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt
thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:47). At the cross, Jesus
saw his mother Mary and his beloved disciple John, and He said to Mary,
“Woman, behold thy son!” to John, “Behold thy
mother!” (John 19:26-27). From the sixth hour until the
ninth hour (12:00 pm -3 pm) there was darkness over the whole land and
at the ninth hour (3:00 pm) Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:33-37), and after
that, Jesus said, “I thirst” (John 19:27) and then
“It is finished” (John 19:30) and “Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit” and gave up His spirit (Luke 23:46). And
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and
the earth quaked (Matt 27:51). Dear friends, Jesus’ death has opened a
living way for you and me to come near to the holy God, “Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;” (Heb 10:19-20). Yes,
Jesus is the only Way for you and me to the Father (John 14:6). Praise
the Lord!
Then, seeing that Jesus was dead
already, the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs, and one of the soldiers
pierced Jesus’ side, and ”forthwith came there out blood and water”
to fulfil the Scripture (John 19:31-37). After that Joseph of Arimathaea,
a disciples of Jesus Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews, boldly
asked Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body for burial; and getting
Pilate’s approval, Joseph took Jesus’ body for burial and Nicodemus also
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes to embalm Jesus’ body according to
the manner of the Jews and put Jesus in Joseph’s new tomb, which he had
hewn out in the rock and laid Jesus there. A stone was rolled unto the
door of the tomb (John 19:38-42; Mark 15:43-46).
What Do We Learn from Jesus’
Sufferings?
Our Lord Jesus came into this sinful
world to suffer many things even the shameful death on the cross for
sinners including you and me, saying, “The Son of man must suffer many
things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and
be slain, and be raised the third day” (Luke 9:22). Then, what are
Christ’s sufferings so that we may follow His steps?
Be despised and rejected:
Although Jesus was the holy God and the Creator, “He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid
as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not”
(Isa 53:3). Even His own people did not receive nor accept Him (Luke
4:24; John 1:11). May the Lord help us not to be hurt or offended when
we are despised or rejected.
Be hated, persecuted, blasphemed and
evil spoken of:
Although Jesus lived a perfect life, gentle, meek, good, holy and
righteous, as well as He preached the truth and His Father’s Word and
served His Father faithfully and obediently according to His Father’s
will, the Jews persecuted Him and sought to kill Him (John 5:16, 18;
7:7), and spoke evil of Jesus, “he deceiveth the people” (John
7:12), and “This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub
the prince of the devils” (Matt 12:24), and “this man is a
sinner” and “He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?”
(John 9:24; 10:20). May the Lord help us not to be hurt or offended when
we are hated, evil spoken of or persecuted.
Be betrayed, forsaken and
denied: Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of His
disciples, which made Him “troubled in spirit” (John 13:21). He
was forsaken by His disciples when they fled for life (Mark 14:50) and
was denied by Peter, one of His very close disciples (John 18:17,
25-27). May the Lord help us not to be hurt or offended when we are
betrayed, forsaken or denied.
Be exceeding sorrowful unto
death: Jesus’ “soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death”
in the garden of Gethsemane with the great suffering in view ahead of
Him (Mark 14:34). May the Lord help us not to give up our faith and hope
even in our great suffering or sorrow.
Be tortured, smitten and crucified:
The wicked people falsely accused Jesus, spat on His face, smote Him,
put a crown of thorns on His head (Matt 26:67; 27:12, 29, 30, 41),
crucified Him with the two thieves and derided Him (Matt 27:35, 38; Luke
23:35). May the Lord keep us faithful unto Him and His Word even unto
death.
Be misjudged and thought to be
punished by God:
The religious leaders mocked Him, saying, “He trust in God; let him
deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God”
(Matt 27:43). Actually, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted” (Isa 53:4). May the Lord help us not to be hurt or
offended when we are misjudged in our afflictions and trials in life.
Be burdened with the sins of all
mankind: Jesus
bare our sins as well as “the sins of the whole world” in His own
body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2), and it seems that His holy
Father turned His face from His dearly beloved Son at the moment when
all the wickedness, sins, unrighteousness, iniquities, and
transgressions of human beings were upon the Lord Jesus, who cried
“My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).
Dear friends, you and I can never
fully understand how great and deep Christ’s sufferings were. That is
not because of His faults, but because of your sins and my sins:
“Christ also suffered for us” (1 Peter 2:21; 4:1). It is because of
Christ’s love and of our salvation that He has suffered for us. May His
love constrain us to willingly be “partakers of Christ’s sufferings”
(1 Peter 4:13).
Conclusion
Dear friends, what are you and I
planning to do this week? No matter what we do and where we go, let us
remember our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that He
was willing to humble Himself and obeyed His Father unto death to redeem
us from our sins and open a way for us to come near to our God the
Father. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer, we
must mean that He has purchased us with His own blood, and that we are
not our own any more but are His, and that we must use our lives for Him
and for His glory. His command is in the present tense, “this do in
remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24), which denotes, “Keep on doing
this in remembrance of Me.” Our Lord wants you and me to remember Him
always, especially His love and sufferings for us so that we may be
constrained by His love to follow Him and suffer for Him until the end.
May the Lord graciously help you and me. Amen.
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