Jesus prays for us.
Jesus knows that his disciples will face tough times … the powers that rejected Jesus will reject the disciples, too.
The powers of empire … prancing war horses, in oiled leather and polished silver – rank upon rank of battle-tested legions, armed to the teeth and ready for the fight …
Then, or now, nations love the dogs of war.
In the movie, “Apocalypse Now,” Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), demolishes a Vietnamese village with mortar fire and napalm, turns to one of his soldiers and says: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning... The smell, you know, that gasoline smell... Smells like ... victory"
But more than Empire, it was Temple, too.
Priest and rabbi, Sadducee and Zealot … all told Jesus to go away …
Jerusalem’s Temple was a financial powerhouse … every Passover, tens of thousands of pilgrims streamed into Jerusalem, to exchange their national currency for the Shekel, to pay the temple tax – hence the money-changers in the temple courtyard.
Thousands of animals butchered, their blood sprinkled on the altar, parts burned in the fires of sacrifice, the rest sold in the market to feed the city and its pilgrims.
In John chapter 2, the first thing Jesus does when he goes to Jerusalem is to disrupt the temple business … he makes a whip of cords and drives out the sellers of cattle, sheep and doves, and all the money-changers, and shouts at them, Stop making my Father’s House a market place.”
For the rest of the story, the powers-that-be whisper to one another, Empire and Temple: Pilate the Procurator, Caiaphas the Priest – they make their deadly plans, hatch a plot - to do away with Jesus.
Jesus must not succeed.
Jesus says to his disciples:
If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.
Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you![1]
The Greek word for “hate” means rejection.
A refusal to recognize.
John 1:
Jesus was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.[2]
A mighty chorus:
Crucify him …
Take him away …
Nail him to a cross …
We want nothing to do with him.
Give us Barabbas, instead.
A terrorist … a soldier … a man of violence and war.
That’s who we want.
We want Barabbas.
Rome lets Barabbas go.
Of course!
Because Rome knows how to handle Barabbas.
But no one knows how to handle Jesus.
So they bind Jesus and put him on trial.
Find him guilty of crimes against heaven and earth.
Condemn him to death.
Priests nod their heads in approval.
Soldiers take him to Calvary.
The powers of Church and State.
Faith and Flag.
And there they crucify him.
Yet Jesus says to the world:
I have not come here to judge you.
To condemn you, but to save you.[3]
Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.[4]
The Great Son of God.
Israel’s Messiah.
God’s Lamb.
Our LORD and Savior.
Takes away the sin of the world.[5]
I can hear the world say,
Sin, what do you mean sin?
Look at our power and look at our glory.
Look at our temples and look at our treasure.
Look at the world we’ve built for ourselves.
What do you mean sin?
But sin it is.
And God does something about it.
Heaven’s strategy.
Strange and glorious.
Not a crown, but a cross.
Not a throne, but a tomb.
No pomp and glory, but only the cry of agony.
Here’s how God rules.
Here’s how God loves.
Here’s the truth that sets the world free.
When Jesus stands before Pilate, he says to him:
My kingdom is not from this world.
If my kingdom were from this world,
My followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over … but as it is, my kingdom is not from here.[6]
Jesus follows a playbook written by God.
The world is not won by the sword.
Jesus says to Peter in the Garden:
Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.[7]
And that’s why Pilate hasn’t a clue.
Why the religious leaders miss the point.
All they know is power.
Jesus heads toward the defining moment of his ministry.
The servant surrenders.
Empties himself.
Humbles himself.
Obedient, to the point of death.
Even death on a cross.[8]
The glory of God’s love.
The glory of our redemption.
A new world taking shape.
Creation groaning in labor pains.[9]
Swords beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, war no more, and every tear wiped away.[10]
Isaiah’s exulted vision:
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the kid,
The calf and the lion and the fatling together,
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
Their young shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
On all my holy mountain;
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.[11]
Jesus prays for us:
That the Father would protect us.
From the lies and deceptions of the age.
That the truth might live in us.
That we might be one.
Even as the Father and the Son are one …
Paul the Apostle writes to the Church of Ephesus:
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.[12]
Jesus prays.
And so do we.
Calvary Presbyterian Church … a church of prayer.
We pray as Jesus prays:
That God would glorify us.
With faith, hope and love.
Grace, mercy and peace.
Endurance and endeavor.
Purpose and passion.
That we might love as Jesus loves:
And who does Jesus love?
But the blind man beside the road.
The little child struggling to get into his lap.
The woman at the well.
Sinners rejected by the Temple.
The poor oppressed by the Empire.
The lonely and the lost.
The forlorn and the abandoned.
The rejected and the despised.
The widow, the orphan and the alien.
And his love encompasses even the enemy:
The rich who have no need of God.
The proud who have no need of love.
The powerful who have no need of repentance.
Jesus loves them all.
We pray that we would glorify God.
With devotion and faithfulness.
Praise and prayer.
Commitment and courage.
Love and loyalty.
That the world might see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.[13]
We pray as Jesus prays:
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
That all the divisions of the world would be healed.
Divisions of race and color and status and gender would find no home here at Calvary.
And what a name to have for a church.
Calvary.
The very place where the Son of God was glorified by the Father.
And the Father was glorified by the Son.
We are one in Christ.
And in Christ, we are one.
We are Calvary on the Boulevard.
To God be the glory.
Amen and Amen!
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