The March to The Resurrection Sermon Series - Week 4: Drop ‘Em - Revamped

  Let me tell you a really embarrassing story. When I was about thirteen years old, I started going through some, uh-hem, changes. One of these changes was recognizing that when I would workout, I would produce a large amount of sweet. This sweet would then be transferred to my clothes, soaking them. This was a horrific development, because it was at this same time, that I wanted to be more aquatinted with the females around me.

This came to a head one winter night when I attended one of my many baseball practices. This particular practice was inside a large commercial building, where they focused on pitching, fielding, and hitting, which I was there for pitching lessons. Now, it was cold, both outside and inside the building, so I had a large jacket on. When it came to my turn, as I got up, a cute girl walked into the area, and sat down to wait for her lesson, which happened to follow mine. Instantly, my dread of sweeting in front of this girl came over me like a tsunami, and I decided that for my lesson I would not take off my jacket.

My coach wasn’t happy, and after a little indulging of my stubbornness, he stopped the lesson and told me that unless I took off the jacket, he would not teach me. I was adamant in my stance, and so I left. Now, I cannot remember which parent was with me at the time, but I do remember that they laid into me when we got into the car. I returned to my coach with tears in my eyes, apologizing for my behavior. In the end, I made a bigger fool of myself in front of that girl, than I ever would have by taking off the jacket in the first place. And you might ask, what about that girl? Well, I never met her before that lesson, and I never saw her afterwards.

But it’s this idea that there are things that we hold onto, even at our detriment, that brings us to where we’re at today. Where we’re going to return to the Gospel of Luke in Chapter 19, and picking it back up in verse 35. And as we open up to Luke 19:35, let’s bring back to our minds, where we’re at in this series.

In our first week we looked at two interactions, with four groups. The disciples were running interference against some parents that sought blessings for children, who they saw as not being worth Jesus’ time, all the while allowing other more prominent people like the rich young ruler to come unhindered to him. Jesus ends up rebuking the disciples for this practice, embracing the children, while the rich young ruler walked away from following. We walked away from that week with the understanding that, God is calling us to seek his way humbly, that others may be blessed as we are.

In our second week, we saw two more interactions, this time with two miracles as a result. The first miracle was a blind beggar receiving his sight back. The second miracle was a hated tax collector receiving salvation. But within these two interactions we saw a crowd rejoice at the first miracle and grumble at the second. It was here that we understood that we need to not allow our personal biases to keep us from rejoicing at the work of God.

With these two weeks now fresh in our minds, let’s turn our focus to Luke 19:35. And it’s here today, that we’re going to look at three sequential events that will help us tie together everything we’ve talked about so far, into what God desires from us now.

This first event, is what is called the Triumphal Entry. We celebrate this event as Palm Sunday, which is today. It’s the event where Jesus comes into Jerusalem fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah in the 9th chapter and 9th verse of his writing. Let’s read this triumphal entry passage, starting in verse 35.

35 And they brought it (the donkey) to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Do you notice the energy of the people? The sense of anticipation that is moving within the crowd? To the people, this wasn’t just an ordinary entrance into Jerusalem, this was the beginning of a new kingdom. A new, more abundant life. To the people, Jesus was there to liberate them from the oppression of the Romans. They thought Jesus was there to establish the Israelite kingdom forever. A beacon to all other nations.

The Pharisees recognize the significance of what was being proclaimed about Jesus. They recognize that the people were calling for the overthrow of the Romans. They saw this as a call to take up arms against the government. And they sought Jesus to distance himself from this belief. But Jesus is King and and worthy of this praise, and so he rebukes the Pharisees and alludes to the creation praising its God.

 

But as the crowd tops a hill and Jerusalem comes into full view, a drastic switch intone occurs. Let’s continue reading in verse 41.

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

The tone of these two sequential moments in this procession towards Jerusalem are as night and day. The first is exuberant, with people cheering for the coming King and his kingdom. But then, as if someone flipped a light switch, Jesus’ words and actions brings us to a stoic, almost morose feeling.

The mindset of the crowd and the mindset of Jesus seem to be in different places. The crowd desires Jesus to be King, but they and the people of Jerusalem do not know what that means, and Jesus weeps over what they are about to miss. 

I find it interesting that we’re not told here that Jesus weeps over the fact that he will be crucified, but rather he weeps over the people missing the point. In their enthusiasm of Jesus being King, they miss what that really entails. This Jewish crowd wants a kingdom on earth, that reigns over all other people, but Jesus is seeking a kingdom not just of the Jews, but of the Gentiles too.

This is why he weeps, many people miss the point, and because they do, and will eventual reject the King that he actually is, they will miss out on the salvation that is in store.

This is what happened in the situations with the blind beggar and the tax collector. The crowd rejoiced at the physical miracle of the blind receiving sight, but grumbled at the spiritual salvation of another. Here the people rejoice at the physical kingdom of God, but are about to miss the spiritual kingdom that must happen first. 

This brings us to our third sequential event. Let’s drop down to verse 45, where Jesus enters Jerusalem and makes his way to the temple.

45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Here’s where all this comes together. In the fist two events, we see the mindset of the people vs Jesus’. Here we see the physical reality of what is to happen in the lives of the people who make Jesus King. This is the result of what it means to have Jesus be the physical King that the people wanted. It is a cleansing of the sins in our lives that have led to a spiritual decay. Jesus wants to drive out all things that hinder us in our relationship with God.

But the mindset of the people is not on being spiritually right with God. They weren’t interested in fixing the spiritual corruption, that had made it’s way into the temple. No, they were more interested in being greater than the people who were oppressing them. They, like the Hebrews before them, were not interested in following God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, but rather only when it gave them victory over their enemies in the here and now.

But throughout the nation of Israel’s history, God had constantly called them back to a spiritual cleansing, and only when they took that spiritual renewal seriously did God restore them physically. We can see this in a situation in the book of Joshua, where God allowed the Israelite defeat because of sin that was in their midst. Only when that sin was dealt with, did he give them physical victory (see Josh. 7:1-8:35). 

But what we’re seeing right here, is that the people were not interested in a spiritual cleansing, just a physical victory.  And they have become so entrenched in this mindset, that just a few days later, they were swayed to call for Jesus’ crucifixion.

This is because they had this mindset that it’s okay to hold onto certain things, even when those things are rejected by God. See the people thought they could hold onto their sacrificial system which seemed to allow a way to feel good about their sin. They thought they could hold onto their hate for other nations, they thought they could hold to their desire to be greater than others, and they thought that all they had to do was go through a physical ceremony to get by with God. But the reality is they couldn’t. They must reject all of their sin and embrace a spiritual renewal by Jesus. But because they couldn’t, Jesus had to go to the cross. He had to sacrifice himself for their sins, that they would have another opportunity to be saved by their God.

And this is true for us today. Whether we say we follow Jesus or not, we tend to think that we can hold onto to things that God has rejected, and think it’s okay. We think we can hold onto to hate for a person that has wronged us, we think we can hold onto un-forgiveness, or gossip, or our will, or our desires, or a host of other things that God calls us to give up. 

But we are not called to hold onto anything, except those things of God.

This is why at the end of his first letter to the Thesselonica Church, Paul writes, “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thess. 5:16-24)”

This is what God is calling us to, a time of spiritual cleansing. A time of asking the question, “Do I have the mindset of Jesus to receive a spiritual renewal, or am I looking for what just benefits me physically right now?” Look at the world. We’re looking for world leaders to bring peace, were looking for economic stabilization, our eyes are on physical restoration, but what do we need first? We need a spiritual renewal. We need a great awaking to come back to God. We are moving greater and greater distances from him, and sin as become accepted as the norm, and even celebrated in our world, we need to be made right before the God who calls us away from sin and into new life. Today, as far as it concerns each of us individually, we need to repent of what sins we hold onto and the elevation of the physical over the spiritual. Because without a spiritual renewal, the physical will always be in bondage to sin. Only when we seek Jesus to rectify our spiritual lives, will the physical be renewed. 

And so my challenge for you is this: In your bulletin there is a piece of paper, with two sides on it, The spiritual and the physical. During this next song, write down those things that are physical that you want God to fix in this world. War, economics, political landscape, abuse, crime. Whatever you see as those things that Jesus needs to fix in our world. Then on the spiritual side, write down the sins that you know you are struggling with. Are you struggling with hatred towards another, gossip, lying, slandering, quarreling, sexual misconduct? What is it that needs to be brought to the feet of Jesus?

If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, then you need to repent of sin and accept him. That is the first step in your spiritual renewal. Without turning towards Jesus, confessing your sins, turning away from you sins, and accepting Jesus’ forgiving work of those sins, we cannot hope to even start to see a spiritual renewal in our lives. 

If you are believer, that sin has no power in your life, because it was broken by Jesus on the cross. But until Jesus gives you victory over it completely, we need to keep bringing those things that we struggle with, to him that he might deal with them in our lives. 

Once you have written both sides, I want to challenge you to say the prayer at the bottom of the page: “Lord cleanse this temple of all things that hinder your work in my life, so that your kingdom will shine through me to this world. That the spiritual will be dealt with, so that the physical may be impacted.”

Let us be who we were saved to be, a kingdom of priests in this present age, who minster to our Lord and the people around us, until the day when he renews all things, both spiritual and physical, at his return. Amen

The March to The Resurrection Sermon Series - Week 2, Less Bias, More Work - 2026 Revamp

  One of the good and bad things about social media is that underneath all of the posts, all of the articles, all of our searches, is the algorithm. Social media sites have algorithms that curate the user’s experience. Why is it when you search for something on one site, you get ads for it on another? Because the algorithm is presenting you with things that you want. Even if we haven’t searched something, why do we get certain ads? Because the algorithm knows our age, location, sex, and presents us with information which that group tends to search for. 

Now this can be good when looking for things that we might need. But where it gets mirky is when the algorithm only presents us with increasingly specific things, while cutting out other things. Things like news. If you’re of one political camp, then most likely you will rarely see articles presented by an opposing view. Most of the information will be coming from your political viewpoint. What ends up happening is that when we read only from our own viewpoint, we do not realize that it might actually be reinforcing a bias we might have. This is why in recent years, websites have started popping up that say they present articles from both sides on an issue, with the biases, highlighted. 

It’s this idea of bias that that brings us to where we’re at in the March to the Resurrection sermon series, where we’ll be returning to the Gospel of Luke, and picking up from last week in Chapter 18, starting in verse 35. And as we open up to Luke 18:35, let’s catch up to where we’re at in this series. 

In our first week, we looked at four groups from two interactions that Jesus had as he was making his way up to Jerusalem. As we looked at these two groups we saw that they could be compared and contrasted with each other. The first group were the parents and we compared and contrasted them with the third group of the disciples. We saw that the parents wanted their children to be blessed by Jesus, while the disciples were being gatekeepers of the blessings of God. We saw Jesus rebuke his disciples for not allowing the least of the people to come to him, in this case the children. We walked away from these two groups understanding that we need to be people who want God to bless others. The disciples should have desired everyone to be blessed, not just a chosen few.

The second group was the children themselves who were following their parents, and we compared and contrasted them with the fourth group, which was the rich young ruler. In this comparison we saw that, unlike the children who followed wherever their parents led, the rich young ruler could not follow wherever Jesus asked him to go. It was here that we walked away with the understanding that God calls us to follow him wherever he made lead. And where Jesus leads, he may or may not ask us to give up things along the way.

Now, with having those two two interactions fresh in our minds, we can move onto two more interactions, that follow close behind these. Let’s read in Luke Chapter 18, starting in verse 35.

35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

This seems like a common scenario for Jesus. Someone wants to be healed, they ask Jesus, Jesus heals them, and we move onto the next person. But let’s take a couple of minutes and look at this interaction, because we’ve been here just recently.

Does this sound familiar? Someone is looking for a blessing, but there are people who are trying to keep him away? Now the people might be different here, but it’s the same situation as we saw early in Chapter 18 with the disciples and the parents.

Sure there are some differences, like the parents were seeking the blessing for their child and not themselves, and in this case it’s not the disciples keeping the man away but just the greater entourage that has come out to see Jesus. But the root is the same: someone who is least in the society is trying to get to Jesus, and others are keeping him away.

Now, let’s talk about the blind beggar himself. In verse 41, Jesus stops and asks the man, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind beggar’s reply is, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” If this is the case, then the man had once been able to see, and now he cannot. I think this is interesting because, it would mean that either over time or through an accident he lost his ability to see. He, therefore, would have experienced sight, and truly knew what he had lost. Some of us in here know what it means to see this world clearly just to have our eyesight diminish over time. Some of us have even had surgery to restore what was lost. So we might have an idea of the situation of this man.

One final thought on the blind beggar before we move on. The way in which we address people tells us what our relationship with that person is. Growing up I always knew my parent’s friends by their first names. None of them ever asked me to call them Mr. or Mrs., but when I transferred to a new high school for my junior and senior year, you had to call the teachers, brother or sister followed by their last name. At the end of my senior year, I was told by my homeroom teacher, that upon my graduation I still had to call him brother, but now I could use his first name. The way in which we address someone let’s other people know our relationship with them. 

When the blind beggar asks about who is coming, the people in the crowd reply, “Jesus of Nazareth. (v.37)” But when the blind beggar addresses Jesus, he says, “Jesus, Son of David. (v.38)” To the answering crowd, Jesus was the itinerant Rabbi from Nazareth, but to the blind beggar he was more. By addressing Jesus as the Son of David, the blind beggar was calling him his Messiah. The title Son of David was a reference to the fact that the Messiah would be from King David’s, lineage. To the blind beggar, Jesus was more than just a man from Nazareth, he was the one who would save Israel.

It’s through his lost of sight, that led him to call on the Messiah, and we see God do a great work in front of people that thought Jesus was just a man from Nazareth.

Let’s stop here, to make some comparisons to last week. Last week we had children being brought to Jesus to be blessed by him. These were the least of society in many people’s eyes. We can see this social attitude in the disciples’ actions. Jesus rebukes them and calls for the children to be brought to him. Here we see a similar situation. The blind beggar is seen as less than the others, and yet Jesus comes to him and heals him. And when Jesus heals the blind beggar, the people that were around him praise God for it. But hold onto the people in this crowd, because we’re not done with them yet.

Instead, let’s move down to verse 1 of Chapter 19, and the second interaction on the road to the city of Jericho.

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Now, if you’ve ever been in Sunday school, you should have heard the the name Zacchaeus and instantly started to sing, “Zacchaeus was a wee, little man, And a wee, little man was he…”

That’s this Zacchaeus, and from the passage we can know a couple of things about him. First, he was the chief tax-collector of his area, that means he was the IRS for the Romans. And of course no one liked him because of that. 

Second, because he was the chief tax collector, he was really wealthy. He got this way, because in addition to taking taxes from people, they would add a little on top of those taxes for their personal commission. This is how tax collectors gained their living. Obviously this type of tax structure made it really easy to corrupt, with many tax collectors taking more than a person should from the people. 

Third, he must have not known much about Jesus, because in verse 3 is reads, “… he was seeking to see who Jesus was …(v.3)” In other words, he was curious about who this Jesus, that everyone was talking about, was. Unlike the blind beggar who knew Jesus was the Messiah, Zacchaeus didn’t know anything about Jesus.

One final note, the word that we translate as short in stature, is this Greek word hélikia (hay-lik-ee’-ah), which can also mean that he was young. So Zacchaeus may have been both a short and young guy.

 

And this brings us to him being in a tree as Jesus approaches him. Jesus calls Zacchaeus by name, and tells him that he will be eating at his house. I love this interaction because we can see that God had already been working in Zacchaeus’ life. We see how a simple curiosity about Jesus can lead to salvation. But notice again the people in the crowd. Jesus had just healed a blind beggar, and was now calling on a person everyone disliked. Instead of the crowd responding with, “What wonderful things are going to happen now?” They respond with grumbling that Jesus would eat with such a man. That’s important, and we’ll come back to it in a little bit.

The story then shifts to Jesus in Zacchaeus’ house. There the tax collector tells Jesus, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. (v.8)”

To Zacchaeus’ words, Jesus responds with, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (v.9-10)”

Now it’s here that I want us to compare and contrast with the rich young ruler from last week. Both these men were rich, they might also both be young. The rich young ruler was highly esteemed in his town, most likely Jericho, while Zacchaeus was not. Yet when Jesus called upon the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow, he couldn’t do it. But here, Zacchaeus willingly gives up his wealth and purposefully seeks to make amends for what he has done. 

We could easily think that these two stories carry with them an issue about money, but it’s really not about the amount of wealth here. Instead it’s about the willingness of the person. The rich young ruler was unwilling to do as Jesus commanded, but Zacchaeus was willing to give up wealth without the command of Jesus.

In the end, it was the social outcast, but willing Zacchaeus, that gained eternal life, instead of the socially accepted rich young ruler.

I think it’s here that we can come to two conclusions. First, let’s talk about the crowd. They tried to silence a blind beggar from getting to Jesus, yet they saw a miracle when his sight was restored. Then the crowd grumbled at Jesus eating with Zacchaeus, yet it led to a man entering into salvation and him giving up some of his wealth back to that very crowd.

I think there can be times when we can be like the crowd, thinking we know what’s best for a situation, but being in opposition to God through it. It’s easy to see someone and grumble that they get access to God’s work, or are getting more blessings than us. Yet God wants us to seek after him. We need to be looking for the people around us that need Jesus, and get them to him as fast as possible. The crowd blocked the blind beggar, if they had it their way, they would have blocked Zacchaeus too. If we’re honest about ourselves, who do we want to block? Who in our lives do we look at and say, “Nope, not them. They’re not on my political side. They’re not on my ethnic, social, economic, or whatever side.” 

This is the first conclusion, it’s really easy to fall into this mindset of not allowing people to get to Jesus, and it might not even be an intentional block. Maybe Jesus was teaching, and the people near the blind beggar couldn’t hear over his yelling. Maybe the people knew Zacchaeus and in the past he had made claims that he was going to reform, and he never did. But God reveals to us that we are not to let personal problems with people stop us from letting them get close to Jesus.

In this time of social upheaval, we can’t let people being stupid stop us from reaching out to them and pointing them to Jesus. In times of upheaval, people might be hoarding, they might be sending panic through the streets, and they might be really stupid for doing so, but most likely it’s because they’re scared. Their hope is in what they can physically control. They are blind, and they’re using their wealth to comfort themselves. We as disciples of Jesus must show grace to these people. We must show them the assurance we have in Jesus. We must show them the path to him, and not block them along the way.

That brings us to our second conclusion, it’s only when we get past our own personal biases, that we get to rejoice in the work of God which is the salvation of people. The crowd rejoiced with the blind man receiving back his sight, but when salvation came to Zacchaeus, no one but Jesus was rejoicing. The bias towards the tax collector was too much for the people to overcome, and though someone had his physical problem fixed, what greater work is it when a person passes from eternal death to eternal life?

Yet the crowd was not able to rejoice in this, but we can, when we give up our biases, we get to rejoice in God’s work.

My challenge this week is twofold, first, pray for the people that you would rather not. Someone who has hurt you, or hurt your family, or is being an idiot during this time. Pray for them, that God would help you show them Jesus, and that you wouldn’t stand in God’s way in reaching them for eternity.

The second part is to reach out to a person who seems to be struggling with what’s happening in our society right now. Ask them what you could do to help. Develop a relationship with them through this time, that shows them your assurance in Christ. That through the chaos of our world, you can face the unknown of what’s happening because you know the One who holds it altogether. 

The last two aspects of the vision that God has given us here at Arise Alliance Church is to locate and meet the needs of people, all the while pointing them back to the life Jesus has for them. Let us be a people this week who do just that. Locating and meeting needs, and pointing people back to Jesus’ life. Amen.

The March to The Resurrection Sermon Series - Week 1, Humble Seeking - 2026 Revamped

  Last week we talked about how our world is in a state of chaos. But it’s nothing new. Remember during COVID, everything was canceled? From the NBA, to schools all over the country, everything was shutdown. Social gatherings, like churches, were asked not to meet, and in some places outlawed altogether. Toilet paper, water, and other necessities were flying off the shelves in a swirl of madness. And it seemed everywhere you read, or watched, doom was upon us.

But there was always gas. It wasn’t like the late 1970s where gas lines were formed. But even that wasn’t as bad as the Great Depression. There are always points of chaos that our world is in. And in these times when society is frantically trying to hold onto whatever it can, we as disciples of Christ we need turn to God’s Word for comfort and direction. 

God allows us to be in these times of distress as a witness to our trust in him. You and I are called to bear witness to the anchor that is Jesus in our lives. That we can be secured in him and not allow the panic around us to stop us from trusting in him.

In four weeks, we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The historical event that is the crux of our faith.

And as the chaos as the world surrounds us, what better time to focus on the answer to the the chaos, the resurrection. So for next four weeks we going to be looking at some key events in the Gospel of Luke as we march towards the resurrection. 

So if you have your Bibles, for the next three weeks we’re going to be camping out in chapters 18 and 19 of the the Gospel of Luke. 

And as we open up to Luke chapter 18 verse 15, let’s orientate ourselves to where we are in this book. Now the Gospel of Luke is most likely the third Gospel account of Jesus’ life. Church history tells us that it was written by a physician named Luke, who was also a companion of the Apostle Paul on his journeys. Each of the Gospels are written in ancient biographical style, meaning that it was written to convey the important events of a person’s life in a way that explained the motives of that person.

The Gospel of Mark, is written with the overarching purpose to help us answer the question, who is Jesus? The Gospel of Matthew was written to help the Jewish people connect the dots of the Messiah in their Scriptures, to Jesus. And Luke’s Gospel has the intent to help Greeks understand who this Christos was.

Luke has been called one of the most accurate historical documents of the ancient world, because his use of historical sites is second to none. And we’re entering into Luke’s Gospel on the eve of the the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem or what we now call, Palm Sunday.

We pick up Luke’s account as Jesus is walking towards the city of Jericho. And as Jesus is walking, he’s teaching and encountering people along the way. Today we’re going to look at two situations he encounters. In these two situations there are four groups of people that we’re going to compare with each other. Let’s look at these two situations as we march towards the resurrection, reading in Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 15.

15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

In this first encounter, Jesus is being inundated with people coming to him. But not just people seeking healing from sicknesses, nor to hear Jesus’ teachings, but rather mothers and fathers who were bringing their children to Jesus. And this Greek word for infant, brephos (bref’-os), could even be speaking about yet to be born children in their mother’s wombs. This was a common practice for Rabbis to bless children on behalf of God, but in this case, there must have been so many people, that the disciples were trying to weed out those that were worthy to meet with Jesus and those whom they deemed were not.

It’s here that we see three of the four people that we’re going to focus on today. First, we have the parents of those bringing the children to Jesus. These people are desiring a touch, a blessing, a word from this well-known Rabbi, who’s command cures the sick and casts out demons. Think of the reasons why these parents would be seeking Jesus’ blessing. Child mortality rate was very high, economic struggles were a constant, the threat of civil unrest was all around. Parents tend to desire a better life for their children, and these parents were no different. If Jesus was walking among us today, how many of us would try to get our children or grandchildren blessed by Jesus? How many of us would seek him in the middle of our social unrest? These are parents looking for what is best for their children and at that moment the best was Jesus.

The second group are the children themselves. Though they do not speak, nor actually do anything in the passage, the fact that they are there tells us a lot. The children are following their parents. The parents desire a blessing from Jesus, and the children follow. It’s a reinforcement of Jesus’ teaching that the greatest in the kingdom is one who is like a child following their parent, which happens earlier in Luke chapter 9.

This brings us to the third group which are the disciples themselves. Though Jesus says nothing to the parents, he chastises the disciples for not allowing the parents to bring their children to him. And what’s interesting is Jesus had already taught the disciples this lesson of allowing children to come to him, back in chapter 9 of Luke, where he says this, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest (v.48).”

However, even though Jesus already had a teaching about children, the disciples didn’t listen to Jesus’ words about how welcoming children to Jesus is also welcoming the Father. To welcome those who are seen as the least, is to welcome the work and person of Jesus into one’s lives. But this teaching has flown over the heads of the disciples, and in the moment they have shown that they really don’t understand Jesus at all.

The parents desire their children to be blessed by Jesus, and they are not sent away by him. But Jesus makes it a point that by rejecting the children, the disciples would also rejecting him.

Now the situation with the parents and child continues when a rich ruler approaches Jesus.

We can see, that the disciples were trying to keep certain people away from Jesus, while allowing others, whom they deemed worthy, to come to him. In this case, we’re shown that to the disciples let in a more worthy person. This person was a young wealthy ruler. This man is usually referred to as the rich young ruler, which actually gives us an insight into who this man was. First, he was rich, which we find out in verse 23, but we’re not told how he got his wealth; it could have been from family, it could have been from his own business exploits, we just don’t know. The two other things we learn about him, is that he was both young and a ruler. We find out that he is young from the Gospel of Matthews’ account of this situation in chapter 19 verse 20. As far as him being a ruler, the Greek word that is used here is archón (ar’-khone), which, when referring to a Jew, usually spoke of them being a part of the elders of a city. These would be the men who would be looked to as judges in matters of law and order, and dealing with the running of the city or town.

This young man somehow gained wealth, and was esteemed enough to also be added to the elders’ board of his city, even though he was young.

In this interaction, we see Jesus having a back and forth conversation with the young man about God’s commands, and then Jesus tells the man to sell everything and follow him. We’re then told that the young man, “he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.”

This tells us that his wealth was more important to him than the question of eternal life that he presented to Jesus. The rich young ruler is our the fourth group.

Let’s take a moment and compare these two interactions. Because as we make our way to the resurrection, these two interactions point us to who Jesus saves us to be through the Resurrection.

 

In the first interaction we see parents seeking a blessing for their children. The disciples judge these people as not being important enough to waste Jesus’ time. But Jesus doesn’t turn them away. If fact, Jesus doesn’t just bless the children, he holds them above the disciples in their closeness to God. The pure humble faith of a child, is greater than the disciples adult understanding. The parents are welcomed, the children are welcomed, and instead, it is the disciples who are rebuked.

If I was the disciples, I think I could justify not having the children come, because kids don’t listen, they just want to go play, they can’t understand the deep teachings of Jesus anyways. And by keeping them away, Jesus could have more time for the people that mattered. But, that’s not how Jesus sees it. Instead Jesus calls the disciples to become like children in their humble trust of him.

In the second interaction, a man seeking Jesus to answer the question of gaining eternal life is left with a problem. The one thing that is holding him back, is the one thing he is unwilling to give up. His wealth represents what we think we need in this life. Stability, protection, status. But as we saw in the first interaction, what we need is child like faith.

If I was the rich young ruler, I think it would be easy to justify to Jesus that if I kept my wealth and my status where I’m at, then I could financially sustain his ministry. Wouldn’t that be better? I mean, if I sold everything, giving it to the poor, and then followed Jesus, I wouldn’t be able to help the ministry grow. But if I kept my wealth, stayed where I was, then I could support Jesus’ work.

But Jesus, calls the man to trust him. Jesus is asking the rich young ruler to sell everything, giving it to the poor, and releasing his control to God. 

It’s here that we can see some contrasts between the parents and the disciples. The parents sought a blessing not for themselves, but for someone who was the least in the society. Whereas the disciples only wanted those of higher social worth to come close to Jesus.

We can draw another contrast between the children and the rich young ruler. A child doesn’t tend to seek status, or wealth. But the rich young ruler only sought these things, and couldn’t bare to part with them, even if it meant that he would lose eternity.

And this is our first step towards the Resurrection, we must ask ourselves, who are we? Are we the parents, who are trying to get their children to Jesus so they may be blessed by him? Or are we the disciples, deciding who is worthy or not to come to Jesus? Are we the children themselves, who need nothing else but Jesus? Or are we the rich young ruler, trying to hold on to status and wealth which keeps us from Jesus?

Here is a quick test to see where we fall:

Let’s ask ourselves the question, “Do I seek to get other people blessed by God?” That means I pray for them, asking God to bless them even if I don’t like them? Or “Am I making judgement calls on how people dress or act, before sharing the gospel or asking them to come with me to church?” If we answer, “yes I am seeking other’s blessings,” then we are like the parents, but if we answer, “I tend to judge people on their status in my mind,” we’re a disciple keeping people away from Jesus.

We can also ask ourselves, “Am I willing to do whatever Jesus asks of me?” Like a little child obeying their parent. Or “Is the wealth and status I enjoy more important than following Jesus?” If we answer,  “I am willing to do whatever Jesus wants,” then we have that child-like faith, but if we answer, “I would have a real struggle with giving up my wealth,” we’re more like that rich young ruler.

If we struggle in any area, Jesus gives us a simple path to follow. In verse 14, of Luke 18, he says this, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””

We are called to humble lives. That was the disciples’ problem, they weren’t humble, so they couldn’t recognize that it wasn’t up to them who were allowed to meet Jesus. It was also the rich young ruler’s problem, he wasn’t humble enough to give up his wealth and status to trust Jesus. But that’s exactly what the parents were, humble enough to seek the blessing, not for themselves, but their children. And its humbleness that Jesus points to in the faith of those children.

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to humbleness. To lift up others before ourselves. To not hinder those seeking Jesus, by adding road blocks on their path towards him. To not hold onto those things that we desire, and therefore missing out on what Jesus has for us. 

We are to seek the blessing of others, and to trust Jesus wherever he calls us to.

This week, as we march our way to the Resurrection, let us seek to be humble people. I want to challenge you to honestly seek God in both these areas this week. Asking him, Who Am I acting more like, parents, child, disciple, or ruler? “Am I acting like the parents seeking a blessing for others, or am I acting like the disciples seeking to keep others away? Am I acting like a child in my faith that I am humble before God, or am I like the rich young ruler wanting to hold onto status and wealth?”

If it is revealed to you that you are in fact acting like a disciple who is keeping others from God, or the rich younger ruler holding on to wealth and status, do not be discouraged, but rather seek to be humbled by God. I’ve always found that seeking humbleness on my own initiative, is better than God making me humble on his.

If you are being humble, seeking the blessing of others, then I would challenge you to begin praying for one person to invite to Resurrection Sunday in four weeks. Pray for them, that they would be open to coming and being a part of what God is doing. Whether you’re staying in Quartzsite, or leaving town and attending another church, pray for that person that God would move in their life this Resurrection Sunday.

And take this time of social upheaval to be steadfast in your trust of Jesus, pointing to him as others frantically grasp for something.

Let us be the people that God has called to be. Humble in our faith, and blessing those around us. Amen.