"The Pain of Jesus"
Palm Sunday: April 1, 2012
Isaiah 53:7-12; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 21:1-11, 26:14-16

Introduction: People always hope that some day they just might win the lottery. “Oh, what I would do with that money,” they might say. For Craig Randall, that day did come. Well, he didn’t exactly win the lottery, but he did win something almost as big.

ILLUS. “The Garbage Truck Driver.” Craig Randall is a garbage truck driver and sometimes he salvages some of the trash that he comes across and brings it home with him. There was a sewing machine that he found, as well as a Wendy’s soft-drink cup. That cup turned out to be worth $200,000! You heard me right, $200,000. Neither he nor his fiancée believed it until they drove to Wendy’s restaurant and picked up his check. When he found the cup he noticed the contest sticker had not been removed, so he decided to give it a try, and he is so glad he did, because underneath the sticker it said: “Congratulations, you have won $200,00 toward a new home. Treasure lifted from the garbage heap!

Although most of us probably won’t win the lottery, or some big cash prize, we can receive a prize even bigger; Salvation; Eternal Life with God in Heaven; AND the assurance that this can never be taken away!! It comes to us by way of the cross of Christ. But, before Christ went to the cross as a criminal, He came into Jerusalem as an honored king.

I. The Pain of the Cross- (Matthew 26:20-25, 73-75; 27:45)

When Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was riding high. He

was on a donkey, people were honoring Him, shouting Hosanna to Him, giving Him praise. But Jesus knew better than to get too caught up in this. Jesus knew what was before Him. BETRAYAL.

a. Betrayed- Over the next week, Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, by

Peter, and by the whole of humanity.

1. Judas- As we read in the scripture, Judas had become frustrated with Jesus not seeing the big picture. Judas had expected Jesus to take over as a king. The Jews would then rule over the Romans, and Judas, as one of Jesus’ key followers would be rich and powerful. It all appeared to be happening as he hoped when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But then Jesus didn’t follow through on what Judas had hoped would happen. Jesus wasn’t a king in the same sense of what Judas thought. Jesus kept talking about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus kept saying that he was there to serve, not to be served; to be a servant while He was here on the earth, not to be a ruler of people. So Judas decided it was time to cut his losses and make a little money while he could.

READ Matthew 26:20-25 20When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." 22They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." 25Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

How those words “Yes, it is you,” must have stung both Judas and Jesus. For Judas to know that Jesus knew of his betrayal. And for Jesus to feel the sting of betrayal from one of his close followers; someone He had poured his life out to.

2. Peter- But Judas wasn’t the only one who betrayed Jesus. There was another disciple as well. MATTHEW 26:73-75 ⁷³After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away." ⁷⁴Then Peter began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Peter, who was called by Jesus, the Rock, on whom Jesus was to build the church, had just betrayed Jesus by denying that he even knew Jesus!

3. Humanity- And then there is humanity itself. Humanity, which has been created by God, betrays their very creator. We display betrayal all the time. When we sin against God we betray Jesus; when we sin against each other, we betray Jesus./ As Dr. Donald Strobe once said: “Sin is not breaking God’s laws; sin is

breaking God’s heart.”

b. The cross- The sin of humanity is what drove Jesus to the cross. In the

midst of the pain, Jesus knew that He must endure it because of what the result would be. Matthew 27:45- “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”/ In this cry, Jesus is feeling the separation of Himself with the Father because the sin of humanity has been laid on Him. Jesus, in this moment, was experiencing the pain of sin, and the punishment of sin that should have been for you, and for me, and the rest of humanity. But Jesus endured it for us.

ILLUS. Clint Eastwood- In the 1993 hit movie “In the Line of Fire,” Clint Eastwood played a Secret Service agent named Frank Horrigan. Horrigan had protected the life of the President for more than three decades, but was haunted by the memory of how he was not able to protect President Kennedy on the fateful day of his assassination. When the assassin had fired, Horrigan froze in shock. From that time on Horrigan wrestled with the question: Can I take a bullet for the President? In the climax of the movie he does just that and saves the President’s life!

Secret service agents are willing to take a bullet for someone they consider worth dying for. The pain of the cross shows us that Jesus thinks that we are worth taking the bullet for; we are worth dying for!

II. The Love of the Cross- (Isaiah 53:11-12)

a. A concrete act- Love is not an abstract concept in the Christian faith.

Love is a concrete act. This is important to remember, because the words “I love you,” are so often said, but not always lived out in concrete ways. Words lose their meaning if they are not acted upon. My kids say that they love me, but I know it all the more when they do what they are asked to do. I know it all the more when they do something nice for me, not just for Father’s Day, but just because they love me. How about this one? Last December we were watching the new show The X-Factor. The winner of the X-Factor was Melanie Amaro. She has a beautiful voice, similar to that of Whitney Houston. After she won I made the statement: “I wish she had an album because I would buy it. Tyler took this to heart, and for my Christmas present he paid for (out of his own money) the downloads from the X-Factor show, the songs Melanie sang on the show, and then transferred them to a CD off the computer. He even made a cover for the album with her picture!

b. Love expressed- Love is expressed in so many ways. We just need to

be more aware of it. If you have ever doubted whether God loves you, all you have to do is look at the cross. The cross expresses the love of God./ You have heard the song “Jesus Loves Me,” which of course says: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” But even more powerful words could be: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Cross, tells me so.”

Isaiah 53:11-12 tells us: ¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

If ever we wonder, “Does Jesus Love me?” we can know the answer is yes by remembering the pain that Jesus suffered for us on the cross, and the fact that He suffered and endured this out of His love for us. But there is more, and that is, there is hope in the cross as well.

III. The Hope of the Cross- (John 3:16)

a. The reason for Passover- Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem was seen as

dramatic. But Jesus knew that He was not going to allow Himself to take on the Jewish leaders or the Romans through force; Jesus wasn’t about to lift Himself up as an earthly ruler. Jesus was not going to display His Lordship and power in this way. No. The reason for the celebration of the Passover each year was for the purpose of remembering how God had saved the Jews from the Egyptians during the time of Moses.

You might remember that when Moses came to free the Jews from slavery, Pharaoh time and time again said “NO.” So finally, Moses told Pharaoh that if he did not let the Jews go free, that the angel of death would come, and all firstborn children would die. And then Moses went to his people, and spoke this message; we find it in Exodus 12:1-13 ¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire,... Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover. ¹² "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—says the Lord, “both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

And then we read in Exodus 12:14… ¹⁴ "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance.”/ Jesus was going to be this Passover Lamb for us; for all who believe will be saved. This triumphal entry was the start of the dramatic act that would end on a cross. The act seen here on the first Palm Sunday. Holy week starts with Palm Sunday, which leads to Maundy Thursday where Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and when Jesus was arrested, to Good Friday where He was put on the cross, and ultimately to Easter Sunday!

b. Hope found- As Jesus hung on the cross, He felt all the weight of the sins of the universe on His shoulders, but He also knew that by His wounds we would be made whole. Death would pass-over all who believe. All people who believe in Jesus as their Savior have been made whole by the cross. For 2000 years it has been the unique symbol for all Christians; a symbol that brings hope to our faith and to our lives. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son (and when it says “gave,” it means gave Him up to death on the cross), so that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life.”/ If you believe this, really believe it, it will change your life. If ever your faith wavers, all you have to do is look at the cross, and remember the promise. The promise is that you are never without hope. God’s power is there for you!

Conclusion: Palm Sunday is the start of Holy Week. When the people yelled out “Hosanna,” they were crying out “Hail to the king.” It was a call for help. Jesus heard their cry, as God heard the Jews cry when they were in slavery, and Jesus became the “Passover Lamb” to take away the sins of the people. Let us not think about Palm Sunday without letting it take us to Good Friday, and the cross; the cross which reminds us of the pain Jesus suffered, but even more the cross that expresses the love of God, and the hope which is found as we believe in Jesus. Let us celebrate this truth as we partake of the Lord’s Supper together. Amen.