2 Corinthians 5:14-15
INTRODUCTION
This is Palm Sunday, the
first day of Holy Week, the most important week in the year for those of us who are
followers of Jesus.
There’s a lot to remember
for this week.
Today many sermons will be devoted
to what is called the “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem.
On that Sunday Jesus’s
disciples—many more than just the 12 apostles—many men and women who had come
up to Jerusalem and people who joined in on the outskirts of the city—and they
processed into the city waving their palm branches and singing praises to their
King.
I read of a church in
Brooklyn that each year re-enacts the scene by renting a donkey for a
procession through the streets of the city to the church. When they get to the
church, they have a testimony time and share their stories of what it has meant
to them to have Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
Palm Sunday was the
beginning of Holy Week. The next day Jesus went to the Temple and drove the
merchants out of the Temple courtyard. This angered the religious and political
leaders of the nation so much that they decided to kill Jesus that they decided
then and there to kill Jesus.
We read the story of the
poor widow who cast her two tiny coins—all her living—into the Temple treasury
and how Jesus said, “She cast in more than all of them, because they
contributed out of their abundance, but she cast in all she had to live on.”
We read how Mary of Bethany
anointed Jesus with her precious ointment.
When we get to Thursday we
have the story of how Jesus washed his
disciples feet and about the Last
Supper.
We read his farewell
discourses when he said: “Let not your
hearts be troubled. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were
not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, so that
where I am, you may be also.”
Then we have the account of
how Jesus spent the night in the Garden
of Gethsemane begging God to take away the cup of suffering…
the treachery of Judas…
the arrest and trial—and how
he was spit upon, flogged, decked out in a purple cloak and a crown of thorns, led through
the streets and finally nailed upon
a cross.
We read how the bystanders mocked him and taunted him, and how his enemies said, “Ha! He saved others, but he
couldn’t save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down from the
cross, so that we may see and believe!”
We read about how he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.”
How he said to the bandit on
the cross beside him: “Today you will be
with me in Paradise.”
We hear his terrible cry of
forsakenness: “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?”
We read that when Jesus
finally breathed his last and the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, the
Roman centurion looking on exclaimed: “Truly
this man was the son of God!”
These are some of the things
that happened this week in history.
But what difference does it
make? Why do we say this is the most important week in history?
And what difference does it
make to you and me?
I. St. Paul wrote, “The love of Christ controls us, because we
are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died
for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him
who for their sake died and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15).
I have known the story of
Passion Week, Good Friday, as long as I can remember. Since I was taken to
church from the time I was born, I must have heard it as soon as I could
understand anything.
And I always believed it. I
never doubted that this is what happened
Our church had communion
every Sunday, and every Sunday someone would tell some aspect of this great and
important story.
But even though I knew the
story and believed it, it never really changed my life until much later.
I was 18 years old when I
really realized what it meant that Jesus died for me and rose again. Then I
realized the truth of what I just read from 2 Corinthians:
“The love of Christ controls me.”
And, “He died for all so that we who live might live no longer for ourselves
but for him who for our sake died and rose again.”
II. First I want to talk
about the second part of that first verse I read: “We are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.”
A. Jesus died for all. We
read in the Bible that God is not willing that any should perish. “For God so loved the World that he gave
his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life.” I suspect that every one of us learned that verse
before we were five years old.
Jesus died for you. Jesus
died for me. Jesus died for everyone. Because Jesus was not only man but also
God, his death counts for all of us.
B. Then we read “…therefore all have died.”
So what does Paul mean when
he says all have died.
What Paul is telling us here
is that Jesus died as our representative. He died on our behalf.
When we believe in Jesus,
when we trust him for salvation, when we give ourselves to him body and soul we
become in a way united with him.
The Bible says that we are
in Christ and he is in us.
Because we have become one
with Christ, what was true of him is also true of us.
So his death becomes our
death, and his life from the dead becomes our life from the dead.
This is a deep doctrine. I
have read books about it.
I won’t try to explain it
now, but just tell you that this is what the Bible teaches, and this is what
Christians believe.
This is why we put crosses
on our churches, and some of us wear them around out necks.
This is why the we worship
by taking the loaf and cup—the body and blood of the Savior—in our most solemn
worship services.
That is why we sing hymns
like “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
We do these things to remind
ourselves that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus our Lord makes all
the difference.
Nothing could be as
important as this: Jesus died for me, rose again, and invites me to himself.
III. Now I want to go back
to the beginning of the verse. This is part I want especially to talk about
today: “The Love of Christ controls us…”
A. Here are some others ways
that line has been translated:
“The love of Christ constraineth us.” (King James Bible)
“The love of Christ urges
us on.”
(NRSV)
“The love of Christ compels us.” (NIV)
“The love of Christ overwhelms us.” (New Jerusalem Bible)
The line could also be
translated: “The love of Christ holds us
in its grip.”
The idea is that when I
really understand what Jesus has done for me, I will never get over it.
I will keep thinking about
how much Jesus loved me, and I will never get over it.
Other people have loved me,
but no one else has ever died for me.
And if someone else had died
for me, it could never equal what Jesus did for me at Calvary.
Think back over Holy Week.
This is the greatest love story the world has ever known.
I’ve heard of people who
gave their lives to save a friend from physical death—perhaps on the
battlefield, or from drowning, or something like that.
But Jesus suffered and died,
not just so that we could go on living a little longer on this earth but so
that we could live forever with him in his Father’s House.
And Jesus’s death was not
merely physical death, but an infinite death that bore all the sin of the
world.
And that’s why when it
finally soaked into my mind that Jesus died for me, his love got a hold of me
and life has never been the same since.
B. The next line continues
this thought: “And he died for all, that
those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their
sake died and rose again.”
This reminds me of a verse
in another letter Paul wrote that has the same thought. In the letter to the
Galatians, Paul wrote:
“I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live,
yet not I but Christ lives
in me,
and the life that I now live
I live by the faith of the
Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me.”
CONCLUSION
A missionary was examining
some candidates for baptism, and fearing to frighten and embarrass an elderly
Korean woman with difficult questions, he said quietly, “Tell me a story about
Jesus.”
The Korean woman—her face
glowing—began to tell simply the story of Calvary. She told it all bravely
until the time came when the nails were driven into Jesus’s feet and hands.
Then she broke down completely, and with sobs and in a broken voice, she
murmured, “I can’t tell that part. It breaks my heart.”
Does the story of what Jesus
has done for you on the cross break your heart?
Does it make you want to
live for Jesus?
Does the love of Christ hold
you in its grip?
