November 23, 2014 - Christ the King - Pastor Timothy Berg Matthew 27:27-31 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. Theme: Worship Christ the King A. Revisit soberly B. Rejoice that he endured for us Introduction: If you look at the Gospel lessons traditionally used for Christ the King Sunday, one would find Jesus being questioned, mocked, abused, and crucified. This is the day on which we end our church year. We end our non-festival half of the church year with Jesus being humiliated and killed. What an ending!! Where’s the honor in this? Where’s the glory and joy for us believers? It seems lost or misplaced on Christ the King Sunday. We will take a few moments now to worship Christ the King. This is not sarcasm but rather a reminder for us. Revisit this event soberly. Rejoice that he endured all for us. Have you gone to the USS Arizona? Have you walked around the battle field in Antietam or Gettysburg? In these places, one can walk and try to picture what the day or days were like when these places became famous. You can hear staggering numbers of men who died. You can try to imagine the noise, the smells, the sheer magnitude that these events had. You might feel sympathetic, but who can really understand what it was like to be the soldier on the boat, or on the field, or the person who had to witness but couldn’t stop or help? One can’t but have a sober and somber demeanor as one encounters those places. With the same attitude we would have at Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, or Antietam, we revisit the site of Jesus’ death. It’s not a glorious site. Today we see Jesus surrounded by 600 men. He is already flogged. Now they take an elegant robe and place it upon Jesus. Taking thorns, they weave a crown and place it upon Jesus’ head. With their tongues firmly in their cheeks they begin to mock Jesus. “Hail Jesus king of the Jews.” Quickly bored of mockery, these men make everything just a little bit more cruel. They take the staff in Jesus hand and begin beating him with it. The pain of this alone! The soldiers increase their jeering and spit on him, hit him, and mock him. Here is God’s Son, our Lord, yet the son of Man being brutally beaten. Like a person at a memorial site, we can’t help but be somber and sober as we revisit this site, knowing Jesus was then shortly led away to his death. Today we are here to do more than just respect him for what he endured. Like every memorial we go to, it stands for something more. It was part of a war for freedom, or inspired millions to pursue freedom. So this revisiting of the site of Jesus’ death we do soberly, realizing that what makes this remembrance so special is the reason Jesus was there as our king. Jesus was there for us. Visiting a battle field of the Civil War reminds me that my life is shaped by that event. Without those battles, there would not have been the fight for racial equality. Seeing Jesus in the Praetorium is a wake-up call that this was for us. But instead of a sense of pride, be sober. Jesus was enduring all this because of you, me, everyone. Jesus, the king, had to fight the battle for us. Jesus had to go and meet the enemies head-on all alone. As a part of this battle he would have to endure the humiliation of these soldiers. The mocking, the brutality was endured because you and I sin. We want to understand just how vile and damning our sins are. Imagine going to a memorial and knowing you failed. Revisiting the site of Jesus’ suffering can be like a deserter to a memorial. You and I are a part of a long line of deserters. From our first parents who abandoned God’s plan we have inherited this sin. Our lives are constant reminders of our desertion. We started the season of End times discussing the Word as the greatest treasure. There we know we are ones who do not value it highly enough. We disregard it, break it, and don’t know it. Then last judgment was discussed. God is coming with his Son in charge. How many days do we live as ones not prepared for it? We do not live our faith. We do not live prepared for the day. Instead we may live oblivious of the day and do what feels good to us. Then we went on to discuss being saints triumphant. We are saints thanks to Jesus, but we lose faith, focus, and readiness at times because he seems so long in coming. That brings us to this day of Christ the King. It would be wonderful to say we stand as model citizens who respect and honor his sacrifice, but that would be a lie. We desert the fight against evil, against the world, and against our sinful flesh daily. We revisit Jesus being beaten and bloodied because we desert the fight to live for Jesus daily. Yet, by God’s grace, the story doesn’t end there. Today we revisit Jesus’ suffering as our king so that we may worship him. We praise him for suffering for us. We worship him giving him glory because he was about to die for our sins. Rejoice that Jesus endures for us. With that said, today we revisit Jesus’ path of suffering to remember his endurance of all that is sinful and evil for us. Jesus had to go to battle. Jesus had one purpose and it was to fight for our eternal welfare. Jesus came to this earth and did everything we could never do: he followed his Father’s plan to the letter, he knew and lived his Father’s Word perfectly, he was always preparing for what was to come with his focus singularly on the cross. Why did he do all this? For us! As king Jesus was able and willing to protect us for all eternity. The only way he could do that was to surrender his life to this humiliation. Surrendering his life to be led to be crucified gives us all a great freedom from the sin that should condemn us and destroy us. Through his surrendering to humiliation, Jesus satisfied God’s judgment for each of our sins, covering us with his blood so that we are perfect in God’s sight. See the love of our Savior-King! Knowing this fact leads us to cry out, “hail Jesus king.” Instead of mocking and criticism we are rejoicing and worshipping Jesus. Hail to the king. Today’s visit gives us great joy because we don’t have to question the necessity, the value, nor the cost our King incurred for us. Jesus knew our inherited nature as one deserted from the Lord, so he had to endure mockery and brutality. Jesus knew that the value of his stripping of dignity and his humiliation of being led was so that our eternal future would be determined by his blood rather than our sins. Jesus knew the cost and willingly gave up his life for ours. This is what makes this not a day of just soberness, but also rejoicing. The King decreed that all this was going to happen and it was going to be a success for all eternity. Today we rejoice that Jesus was robed for a while by the soldiers, because he is now robed again in his full glory. The Father restored Jesus to his right hand and gave him the name through which we are saved. Jesus allows his royal splendor to be ours. God credits Jesus’ righteousness to the sinner. Through faith we have been clothed in the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. On this day we rejoice that we are righteous and robed in Jesus’ splendor right now. Even though we can’t see it, we who believe in Jesus’ sacrifice are now citizens in his kingdom. We are properly prepared for him, his kingdom, his Father’s presence. Today then we worship Jesus. We worship him soberly yet filled with joy. The soldiers thought they were better and didn’t need Jesus. Thank the Lord we know the King took upon this humiliation and flesh so that he might fight for us and win. This church, our school, everything serves a purpose. It’s to glorify, to perpetuate, to carry on the memory of Jesus our King. Go to those battlefields or the ships in Pearl Harbor, experience those historic sites. Then come back here, worship your King, be sober realizing the seriousness of our King’s fight but also rejoice in the King’s victory. Hail to Jesus our King. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 13:02:47 +0000
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