What a Wondrous Love!

What a Wondrous Love!   2-28-2010

 

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

            As a campus pastor in years past I had a number of meetings with college men and women who had just gone through a tough time. The person they had been dating, the person they had loved, dropped them. The world seems like it was crashing down around them.   Being rejected hurts. You are not wanted. When my wife and I chaperoned dances at St. Croix HS it seemed like no dance was complete until somebody when home crying. Relationship can be such joy, but they can also be the source of much heartache and sorrow. When we reduce Christianity to just statements of faith, doctrines or rules, we fail to realize that our God considers it all relationship.   His story is a love story to this world and what the world has done with that love.  In Jesus’ journey to the cross he experienced such rejection, but his love never stopped loving. Our text unfolds both how people were opposed to him and other rejected him. As we keep our text before us may we consider: What a Wondrous Love!

I.              That Would Go Forward In spite of Opposition

            Do you remember this King Herod? In the Bible there are a number of King Herods. The first was the one who tried to kill Jesus as a baby, in the days of the Wisemen. Next is the one who had John the Baptist killed.   In fact when he heard that Jesus was preaching he had commented: "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! Here is a man who had despised the preaching of John the Baptist because John‘s preaching got just to close for comfort with his personal sins. He didn’t want to hear the truth. This is the Herod Jesus called a fox. 

            God has expected his prophets to speak the truth, not what the people wanted to hear. He also was opposed to those saying lies, quoting the Lord when he had not said what they said. The Old Testament lesson today reminds us of Jeremiah who spoke the truth and suffered the consequences.   Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. The Apostle Paul also was not afraid to speak the truth as it would apply in the days to come: (2 Tim 4:3 NIV) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 

We have Jesus going forward to Jerusalem. He was determined to go where his ministry was planned to go. He was not going to let the opposition stop him. I will reach my goal.'  He was not afraid of King Herod, in fact, Wednesday evening we will reflect on Jesus coming face to face with the man. 

How do we apply this part of the text to our own lives? These people tried to talk Jesus out of the work he came to do. They didn’t understand he was now headed to Jerusalem knowing full well that he was going to die there on a cross. 

Today Jesus knows what he wants to get done before he returns. He wants his message proclaimed in the world, disciples made, baptism and teaching around the world. So the question can come up, am I helping Jesus or am I in the way.   Maybe we don’t see ourselves in the way, but we just are not into doing the work. Jesus makes this point: (Mat 12:30 NIV) "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. If we have not been bringing people to Jesus then are we scattering people. Are people coming to know Jesus because of you? Or does Jesus have to get his work done, over you, around you or through you, because you are standing in his way. Are we content to have our Christianity only for ourselves, just don’t expect us to try to be involved with sharing his kingdom with others? Is our life one that testifies for Jesus or is it shame to his name? Are the words of my mouth speaking praise of Jesus or do people only hear curses from my lips? What kind of example am I giving of Christian life to those around me, those who know me and those who don’t? Do we need to hear those words of Jesus, "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Jeremiah’s message was simple: Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. What is my love story with the Lord really like? 

II.            That Would Go To Those Who Rejected Him  

Or can we apply the words of the Apostle Paul: For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Notice Paul cried, our text unfolds also the heart of Jesus. {34} "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…  When I hear those words, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem I am taken back to an emergency room where a little boy just died. I heard the father cry, O Carl, O Carl. Our text is the sorrow of our Savior for a city he loved so much. This is the love that would bring Jesus to tears. On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week we read of Jesus, As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—Jerusalem brought Jesus to tears.  The question then needs to be asked about each of us, have we brought our Savior to tears? Have we been a huge disappointment after all he has done to try to reach us and be a part of our lives? Is he now shedding tears concerning us? 

            This week as I was sharing these words of Jesus with our member Laura Ackerman, who is 95 years old, she had to share her story with me. When she was young she grew up in South Dakota. During the dust bowl days there was a mother hen and her chicks out in the yard. As she watched this mother hen, the wind blew fiercely.   There was one little chick that lost its footing and tumbled and tumbled along. The mother frantically tried to protect her little chick.   With her wings out stretched and little chicks under her wings that mother tried to hurry the whole little brood to her little chick. A mother’s love would care for each one. 

            With that picture do you see yourself under the protective wing of our Lord? He also does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. (Psa 91:4 NIV) He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge... This is the wondrous love of our Savior. This is the love that took him to the cross to die for King Herod, Pontius Pilate, for a Hitler, and for you and me. His love was to exclude no one. He knows of the miracles, the teaching and all the work he had put into that city and now they were set to crucify him. Can this text not be a special call to repentance, calling us to be under the protective wings of our Savior? Can we hear the Love in his voice calling to us? Do we see people as our Savior sees them, outside the protective wings? Do we have neighbors, friends, family that are being blown along, and the Savior is trying to reach out to them? Are we the ones that need to help bring another under those loving wings? 

            Verse 34 contains five of the saddest words in the world. Jesus said, “but you were not willing.” Jesus loves us all so much He died for our sins.  But whose fault is it when someone is lost? Jesus could say to Jerusalem, “I wanted to protect you and shelter you like a hen protects her chicks...BUT YOU WERE NOT WILLING.” Jesus was the rejected lover, the lover spurned. They are consequences: but you were not willing! {35} Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Jesus was sent primarily to redeem Israel, so I can understand how His heart was broken because His Jewish brothers and sisters rejected Him. The Bible says, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11) Jesus wants to lay on our hearts two things, both the depth of love with which he has loved each one of us, and that we then have a love for all those, especially those not yet under the protective wings of the Savior. What a wondrous love to experience and to share. Amen.