What Did Jesus Do?
TEXT: Philippians 2:8 “And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.”
MAIN THEME/TOPIC: What did Jesus do during Holy Week? He got ready to die for our salvation!
MAIN POINT: Holy Week is the final week in God’s plan to get us back!
TALKING POINTS:
1. Sometime in the mid-1990s a youth group developed a bracelet that would become a best selling item in just a short time. Its four letters, WWJD, would be on not just bracelets, but posters, jewelry of all kinds, and also the subjects of sermons and the basis for books and curricula for teens and adults and a top-selling song. WWJD What Would Jesus Do?
2. The point of WWJD has been to make us stop and consider our actions and attitudes in light of Christ’s actions that are recorded in the first four books of the New Testament - the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - actions that climax during this week – Holy Week. Today, I want us to reflect on a different set of letters, WDJD – What Did Jesus Do - for two reasons: to acquaint or re-acquaint ourselves with some of the events of that week and to more fully understand that holy week was the final week in God’s plan to get us back.
3. As we walk through this very important week, we are going to read segments of the story, primarily in Mark’s account. As we read through each segment, I want us to reflect on this question: Why did Jesus do this?
4. Jesus Reflected - Mark 11:1-11
On the first day of the last week before His death, Jesus entered Jerusalem and Mark notes in verse 11, “So Jesus. . . went into the Temple. He looked around carefully at everything, and then he left because it was late in the afternoon.” Why did he look around carefully? What was going through his mind?
We know what Jesus was up to as we read in verse 15. He was getting ready to cleanse the Temple. But, then was not the time because it was late in the afternoon, the group that He wanted to confront was not there. In the morning it would be.
But one thing was clear to Jesus at that point: It was becoming less and less the Temple – a House of Prayer - and more and more a marketplace – a den of thieves. As He looked around He grew angry, because this was not what His Father had in mind. Jesus reflected on the condition of the Temple because He knew that it reflected the condition of the occupants’ hearts. Why did Jesus do this?
Jesus did this because He was the Son of God whose mission was to turn hearts back to His Father and the plan that had been in place to make that turning back possible was not working our anymore. And so, as we turn to our next segment, His anger and frustration spilled out.
5. Jesus Got Angry – Mark 11:15 - 22
Now what does anger have to do this final week? We’ve been told that one of the reasons that we experience anger is due to the fact that we feel cheated about something at some point and we are angry that we have been cheated out of that something.
Was this the same kind of anger that Jesus had that next morning as he drove out the merchants and their customers? They were there because the sacrificial requirements, set down by God the Father, required the use of certain animals to atone for their sins and they needed to get them from somewhere so why not right there in the Temple?
But, what Jesus saw that morning, and the day before, and the day before that, and the time before that, was not what the Father had in mind. What Jesus saw was far from the original intent of God when He had given the Law, the practices and rituals of faith, to Moses and the people of Israel. They were practices and rituals that were designed to help them to live in a right relationship with God. But, those purposes were not evident, as Jesus knew in His three years of ministry, in the lives of those who proclaimed the faith, but did not live it out. And that is what made Jesus angry.
How do we know this? We have to look at what happened after this incident. When they returned to Jerusalem the next day (they were staying in Bethany, close to Jerusalem) a fig tree that had been cursed by Jesus the previous morning was noticed by the disciples to have withered. As it was called to Jesus’ attention, the reason for anger came into the discussion. It had to do with faith.
The fig tree was a symbol of a dead faith. As we notice in verses 13 and 14, “He noticed a fig tree a little way off that was in full leaf, so he went over to see if he could find any figs on it. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. 14Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.”
It takes three years for a fig tree to be able to bear fruit and this tree appeared to be full of fruit but it was not and it reminded Jesus of what He had carefully noticed in the temple on the first day – a barren faith, a fruitless religion. And it made Him livid with anger!
Jesus was angry that more people did not believe. In Luke 18:8, just prior to this final week, Jesus asked a question that is very much worth pondering, “But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?”
Why did Jesus do this? He was grieved that there was not the kind of faith in people’s lives that made a difference in their relationship to God and in their relationship with others. But, while Jesus experienced and expressed anger that week because of the lack of faith, He did find it still in some people’s hearts as we see in the next segment.
6. Jesus Affirms – Mark 14:1 – 9
We all need affirmation. We need to know that others value our efforts and us. And the main trait that Jesus was always willing to affirm was faith. Throughout the gospels, Jesus affirmed faith no matter where He found it because He found it in the most unlikely people. For example, in Matthew 8, Jesus finds faith in a Roman officer who believes that Jesus can heal his servant with just a spoken word and does not have to be physically present to do so. We read in verse 10, “When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all the land of Israel!”
What is faith? I still like Hebrews 11:1 definition of faith. “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.”
Faith is the confident assurance that someone will come through or something will take place. The phrase, “I have faith in you,” is a powerful motivator to step forward and trust and try not knowing the outcome.
In this passage, Jesus affirms what really is a statement of faith. The woman perhaps knows something that the rest of the crowd does not. And in response to her act of anointing, something that would be done after death in preparation for burial as noted in verse 8, Jesus states that this act would be remembered when ever the Good News, the gospel, would be preached. Why did Jesus do this?
Jesus did this because He did not find faith in the place where it should have been clearly seen, the Temple. He found in this act of worship by a woman whose reputation, according to other accounts of this event, was rather seamy.
Jesus, closer to death, took the time to affirm someone who mattered to God because of her faith expressed in a very costly way. I would ask us today to consider what that affirmation meant to this woman. Jesus affirmed the honest faith He saw in her. Jesus affirms the honest faith He sees in us.
Now, while Jesus reflected on what had been going on, expressed anger at the lack of faith that He saw, yet affirmed an act of faith, there was one other thing that He did that final week, something that reminds us of Jesus’ humanity. He wrestled with obedience as we read in our next segment.
7. Jesus Obeys – Mark 14:32-42
Last week we spoke of obedience and we were encouraged to note that God desires our willing obedience. In this passage, we clearly see Jesus wrestling with obedience to God’s plan.
Now, we cannot put ourselves in Jesus’ shoes and fully understand that depth and agony of those moments in prayer when Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that Judas and his associates were on their way to arrest Him. He knew that He only had 18 or so hours left before He would say, “It is finished,” and die.
Jesus was frustrated with Peter, James, and John who were so tired by that time, that they kept falling asleep. Jesus had to go it alone on this one. He was crushed with grief; he was filled with horror and deep distress. There was an agony in his soul that created such a tremendous turmoil. Yet, He said, “I want your will, not mine.” “Your plan Father, not my desire. Your purpose, Abba, not my hope.”
Finally the time came. And Jesus arose and went to be betrayed, to be arrested, to be unjustly tried and convicted, and to be hung on a cross, out in the open. Why did Jesus do this?
It was the plan God had decided upon to make it possible for all of humanity, not just one group of people, all of humanity, to be forgiven and redeemed and made right with God. Holy Week was the final week in God’s plan to get us back!
CONCLUSION:
I have an assignment for you. I want you to read Mark chapters 11 through 15 as often as you can this week. It is the entire Holy Week story from the Triumphal Entry that we celebrate today to the poignant moment when Mary and Mary Magdalene stood before the tomb of Jesus after He was buried.
As you read this story, I want you to ask yourself this question, “Where am I in this story?” Will you be among the crowds who lined the streets of Jerusalem and shouted “Hosanna! Hosanna!” Or will you find yourself among those who lined those same streets a few days’ later shouting insults and jeers and saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him?”
Will you find yourself among those being driven out of the Temple by an angry Jesus because you’re there for all the wrong reasons? Will you be amongst the twelve who a trying to understand the point of a withered fig tree? Or will you see yourself sleeping next to Peter, trying to stay awake, trying to do what Jesus’ asks but you are so tired and exhausted that you cannot stay awake? Where will you find yourself in this story and what are you going to do about it? Stay in the crowd? Run when the SWAT team comes to make the arrest? Or betray Him? Or will you have faith and do the right but very expensive thing?
We are closing today in a different way. We are going to sing the first three verses of Were You There and then quietly depart. There will be no benediction. And the reason for this way of concluding is that I think that to fully appreciate the joy and power of Easter, we have go through Holy Week and honestly examine our lives in light of the cross. May God be with you this week. Let us sing.
