Good Shepherd Sermon: 4/13/25 Palm Sunday Luke 23. 1-49
“God’s Back”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, the Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, thru the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen
A number of years ago, while pastor at Bethany Village, I conducted a Lenten study on the “Body of Christ.” We began at the head, highlighted by the beginning of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem in Luke 9, where he “set his face to Jerusalem.” We studied his faithful loving heart, followed by a session when his tender, healing hands were featured. Then, we followed the feet of the Lord as he walked thru the gentile areas of Tyre and Sidon in the northwest, down to the region of Galilee, where so much ministry and healing occurred, down to his raising of Lazarus in Bethany, his post-resurrection walk to Emmaus, and to his final destination – the cross at Golgotha, the hill of the skull.
The final study was the back of Jesus. Hands down, this was the most painful of the five weeks – literally and figuratively. Jesus gave his back for us. Every whip mark, every piece of skin that flew off his back from the scourging, and every painful step he took…was for us. Never once throughout his incredible ministry journey did God in Christ, ever turn his back on the people with whom, and, for whom he ministered. And, dear friends, that includes us.
Not once has God ever turned his back on us. In hospital waiting rooms, birthday parties, the almost out-of-body experience of hearing a devastating diagnosis, weddings, births, or watching a loved one draw their final, shallow breath, God has never turned God’s back.
As disciples, God’s back is what we have chosen to follow, correct? As disciples, we follow the Lord’s back, with his face “set” – like flint – toward Jerusalem. It was on this day when the crowds, just like us, sang out, “Hosanna!” However, those cries of “Hail the king,” would, just a few days later in the week turn to, “Nail the King – Crucify him!”
This wonderful, selfless body of Jesus Christ helps to make this body of Christ who we are today. The body of Christ reminds us how we can respond to God’s call to be people of the resurrection. We have studied and prayed, and hopefully examined our lives, not just to better understand the humble being of Jesus, but to look at us; to look inward. Then, perhaps with a deep breath, ask ourselves the hard and bold question of whether we are willing to continue to follow Jesus not just today, in this glad procession…but all the way to the cross.
The cross.
Everything Jesus has said and everything Jesus has done leads up to the cross on that dark hill.
Think about all the things we’ve seen as disciples on our journey to Jerusalem with Christ. All the healing from this great physician, and the teaching of the rabbi. The calling of the disciples. We can’t forget the fasting and the praying. Oh, and the driving — the driving out of demons and the calming of waters.
How can we ever forget the multiplying of loaves and the blessing and breaking of bread? And how can we ever forget the parables about finding? The shepherd finding the one lost sheep…the woman finding the lost coin…and the father who embracing the son he thought was dead, but finding he was now alive.
There was the time in the wilderness and the time on the road. And, ohhhh. All the words we’ve heard – words to us as disciples, of course, and the arguments with the powerful. All of Jesus’ life…has come to this. Of course, prior to today’s text was the celebration in the Holy City, with cloaks and palm leaves being strewn on the road in front of him, all the while knowing what he is facing this week – never turning his back on impending punishment. The way to the cross is to tap into the power of Christ’s compassion, listening, and never turning his back. It is power through powerlessness thru our humble Lord.
As this sermon was beginning to develop earlier this week, and reflecting on the humanity of Christ, I found my mind going back to the early 1970’s, to the play, “Jesus Christ, Superstar;” more specifically, the song from Mary Magdalene, “I Don’t Know how to Love Him.” She sings, “He’s a man, yes, just a man…” Where is our theology with that comment? I ask, “What does it mean for us to confess Jesus as fully human?” How…do we love God? Martin Luther spoke of God as, “being present deep in the flesh in the incarnation.”
Then, I thought, “What does it mean to confess Jesus as fully divine?” I love the quote from theologian, Jürgen Moltmann: “God heals the human sicknesses and griefs by making the sicknesses and griefs his sufferings and griefs.”
Does that scream volumes to you?
If there’s one thing you take away with you today, may it be how God meets humanity – God meets us – through the Christ – in Christ. It is Jesus who shows us the heart of the Father. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.
I know this can be deep; difficult to wrap our minds around how God sent his only Son to die for us so we don’t ever have to experience death eternal. This is especially poignant on the heels of two “Celebrations of Life” we’ve had a Good Shepherd this week. It is, however, thru that understanding, when we can look at life – and really every other person – through the lens of love.
Oh, how I pray we remember the last three words of the 8th verse of 1 John 4 – “God is love.” How God’s love never turns its back.
Which means we are asked to never turn our backs…
So, take those palms and celebrate today as we begin the most emotionally charged, yet, painful, weeks of the Christian year! Let us go forth and sing “Hosanna,” recognizing how the One who is making his way on that colt through Jerusalem to the cross, is the One we believe will, in the matter of days, give us what we surely do not deserve. And that, dear friends, is blanket redemption of our sins and an eternal home awaiting us.
(Pause)
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna!
AMEN.