Missing the Point

This is the text from the sermon I gave to about 100 people at Monday night's community-wide Holy Week Service at First Presbyterian Church in Chanute, KS.

Mark 11:15-19
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17And he was teaching them and saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." 18And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

Jesus clears the temple and says "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers."

He doesn't like it when we miss the point.

The courts of the Temple were filled with money changers and merchants. They were selling animals that the people needed to make sacrifices. The purpose was religious, but the motive was for selfish gain.

When we focus too strongly on the religious traditions, and not enough on God's word (which is what Jesus declared as he drove them out) we are in danger of twisting our religion into something evil, though we think it is good.

And what if Jesus walked into your church? How many of your activities, programs and conversations would he overturn and say, "No, you are missing the point!"

You know, I think we could even miss the point this week as we approach Easter. This is a week when we remember Jesus' journey to the cross and then His glorious resurrection. But , its possible to make it more about the songs and the banners and the traditions than what it is truly about- the Son of God painfully blazing a path for us to the Father and then saying "follow me."

We have become so familiar with this story and so numb to the expressions that we can think of the cross without shuddering. The original disciples couldn't. They knew all too well what happened to Jesus. They knew what a crucifixion looked like. They remembered it with nausea, I believe.

I heard John Piper say in a sermon once, "If you would have been there, you would have thrown up. You would have pulled your hair and ripped your clothes and cried, 'No! No! No!' And you would have run away and thrown yourself to the ground." (quote is from memory, so not exact)
Let us not forget tonight that the things we celebrate this week and especially Friday were gruesome and painful.

I like Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" because it reminds me of that. Jesus' flesh really was torn and ripped apart. The tender skin on his head and scalp really was ravaged by the crown of thorns. The nails really were driven through his hands and feet. And he really did feel it all.

But there is something peculiar about all of this that I want to show you. Jesus died this horrible death to save us from the penalty of sin, but He has also beckoned us to follow Him in it.

Matthew 16:24
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 10:38
38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

We are able to read these statements lightly, but the disciples and early church couldn't. For them, the command to take up a cross carried with it mental images and sounds and smells. It was a shocking call for their savior to give. It was impossible for them to take it lightly.

This is what Easter is all about church!

Yes, Jesus walked that road and endured those beatings and hung on that cross to pay for our sins, but also to show us the way to the Father. He beckons to us even today, "This is the way, walk in it."

I believe the apostle Paul understood this.
Philippians 3:10-11
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

We like to get excited about that first and second phrase… I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. But what in the world are American Christians supposed to do with that third and fourth phrase? I want to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings?
I want to become like him in his death?

I don't think we fulfill this call of Jesus by merely attending church, paying our tithes or volunteering for committees. I think that even this week we are probably missing the point. Its almost impossible for Americans not to!

Everything in our culture teaches us the opposite of this mentality. Its hard to deny ourselves in a culture of instant gratification and rampant personal entertainment. Its hard to take up our cross in a country that has convinced itself that the cross is just a symbol and not a gruesome tool of torture and death.

So what has been our response?

We have let the culture change the gospel message instead of letting the power of the gospel change the culture.

Think about it… when you were led to the Lord, were you told anything about carrying a cross and denying yourself. Were you told that these things were not suggestions but requirements to follow Jesus?

I wasn't. All I was told was that if I prayed a prayer asking Jesus to forgive me and come into my heart I would go to heaven when I died. Those are great things to tell someone who wants to become a follower of Jesus, but it’s only half the story.

We have forgotten that being like Christ means being like someone who was rejected by men, treated like a criminal, beaten, tortured and then killed. We have forgotten that it means being like someone who gave up his rights and said no to his flesh daily. Someone who didn't consider his time his own, but spent his life doing the father's will.

Earlier in Philippians Paul says this about imitating Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-8
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!


By making the gospel more user friendly and easier to accept, we have filled our altar calls and our evangelistic crusades with new "converts", but we have stripped it of its power. The result is a church, full of luke-warm attendees, that is slowly looking more and more like the culture around it.

Presenting the gospel the way Jesus presented it, might mean less people accept it. But Jesus himself said that, "small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matt 7:14)

And if we don't return to the true gospel soon, then our church buildings will continue to be filled, but the true people of God, that house of living stones and that holy priesthood that Peter talks about, might just disappear in America all together.

We need to remind ourselves how to do the hard things for God again. We need to teach our children, young people and new converts that Christianity is not about taking the easy road. Its about following in our saviors footsteps and he took the hard road! Simply doing "church" is not Christianity. Christianity is carrying a cross.

Now let's make this more personal. That day in Jerusalem, Jesus walked into the Jewish temple and caused this commotion. But for those of us in Christ, our bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). If Jesus walked into the temple of your heart, what would he overturn? What would he drive out? What would he be declaring inside of you?

I wonder if he would say something like, "Your religious activities do NOT make you my follower. That is the broad path to destruction. If you want to be my follower you have to deny yourself and take up your cross. That is the narrow path to life!"

In closing though, I want to tell you that there is reason to be comforted. There is reason to take hope. There is a point to all this beyond the suffering and self denial. Look at Philippians 3:10-11 again:
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus didn't just suffer and die on Friday. He rose from the grave on Sunday!

He has assumed the name that is above every name and has received all the rights and privileges and glory that he denied himself while on earth. All authority has been given to Him and He is with us always. There is indeed power in the resurrection!

The risen Christ will aide you in your path of suffering. He'll help you bear the weight of your cross. He will assist you if you will have His help.

And someday, somehow (borrowing Paul's wording), you will complete your path in His footsteps of suffering and step onto to the path of His resurrection.

On that day every hard decision for Christ, every pleasure you forsook, every dime you gave away, every persecution you endured, every trial you encountered, every desire you denied for Him-- it will all be worth it!

You will step into your reward, having completed your journey down Christ's suffering road and you will understand why Jesus' call to come and die, was actually a call to come and live!

So, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “
Hebrews 12:2