Passion Sunday (2024)

What is Passion Sunday

This coming week, we will kick off Holy Week with Palm Sunday and there will be a lot of special services that focus on the events that get us to Easter. One of the most important recognitions will be Good Friday where we recall the Passion of Jesus and he moves towards the cross…towards his sacrificial death on the cross.

The Church noticed something. The crowd that came on Friday to hear about the Cross of Christ and its significance was a smaller subset of the larger church. That is to celebrate the Passion of Jesus in a midweek celebration limited the audience that would hear about this most important event of God’s saving work. Since the week before Easter was already Palm Sunday the week before that was designated Passion Sunday. Today we are going to take a very specific look at the world of Jesus Christ on the cross and how it is paramount in God’s saving work, and in how we worship God.

My Main Point today is to shine a light in the Cross as a major fulfillment of the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ.

So lets look today at this Old Testament Critique that God gives of the sacrifices of the Israel, a full 600 years before Jesus.

[10] Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

Okay rough start. If God is referring you to Sodom and Gomorrah, this is not a compliment it is in fact an extreme indictment. These are two wicked cities in the OT that are entirely destroyed by God. They stand in, in the OT as representatives of very wicked cities. Its like if I called you a Benedict Arnold. You would know that he is the stand in for the worst kind of traitor. God it saying that the people of Israel are the worst kind of sinners.

[11] “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Not only are the people sinful, but their attempts to be reconciled to God through the prescriptions of the Sacrificial system are no longer agents that restore fellowship between man and God.

[12] “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? [13] Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.[14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. [15] When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

God mentions, attendance in the temple, the burning fo Incense, feast days, prayers with hands spread. Now here we are in a sanctuary that has been set up to represent the temple, on a feast day, burning incense, looking to the sacrifice of Christ and me praying with hands spread. Let me see if I can convince you that we are not violating this scripture by doing so.

So on one hand, very warm loving Christians who have close personal relationships withJesus, might look at what we are doing as say, I don’t need all the religious stuff, just give me Jesus. They might look at at these verses and feel vindicated that more informal expressions of Christian faith are better and more in line with what God is demanding in Isaiah 1.

On the other-side, more progressive Christians would look at what God has said so far and look ahead to verse [16] Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. I have actually heard this from a friend, she said that if you read the prophets they are critical of the sacrificial system of the Law of Moses because the people had wrongly interpreted Moses in trying to keep the law. If that is the way we are meant to interpret the Isaiah then what we are doing can even be seen as Evil.

So on one hand our particular practice of Christian faith is critiqued for putting religion in the way of true faith, and on the other side some critique it for putting religion in the way of true social activism.

Verse 18: [18] “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Come let us Reason…(Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury…) God both accuses the defendant of being dead to sin and yet promises a restoration…We are moving from an Oracle of Judgement to an oracle of Hope.

[19] If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; [20] but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (ESV)

And finally the play on words. Obedience means getting to eat by the production of the land, and disobedience being eaten up.

So what is Isaiah telling us 2500 years later about how we worship?

First let me remind you of my main point. My Main Point today is to shine a light in the Cross as a major fulfillment of the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ.

Okay so our readings this morning are calling into questions a highly ritualistic religious piety…what should we do about it. We are going to look at 3 things to answer this questions. How does Jesus Christ, his life death and resurrection interact with this critique, which by the way is not irregular in the Old Testament prophets. Then we are going to look at the New Testament interprets this, mainly we are going to look at the Epistle reading from Hebrews. Then look to the historic interpretations of the church.

So When Jesus, God in the flesh comes to show us the will of the father, does he discard the Law? No he fulfills the law. He does not critique the law, but he shows the law as a standard that we can not keep without being granted new hearts. And so he keeps Law perfectly and inso doing fulfills it. The Rituals of Leviticus, the commands of Exodus, the sermons of Deuteronomy, Jesus does what the Israelites could not do…he keeps the Law. So Isaiah is showing that the Israelites version of Law keeping is unimpressive to God. And Jesus shows us how we can accomplish it.

From Jesus lets move to Hebrews our reading today. [11] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) [12] he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. [13] For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, [14] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. [15] Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (ESV)

Hebrews does not say that Jesus disregarded the law bc it was odious to God. It says he fulfilled it and took us from being odious to God to being right with God.

What the Law could not accomplish, which is the resurrection of the heart, Jesus does, he does not just sanctify our flesh but our spirits.

Okay so Isaiah has a significant critique of the sacrificial system, that Jesus then fulfills and in doing so brings us to the fold of God.

How then should we read Isaiah: Well all the commentators say that Isaiahs true critique is the use of ritual without the bringing of the heart. If you are depending on the ritual to save you and not allowing your heart to be transformed is empty. Its like buying flowers for a spouse you dont love. Its like paying for the college of kids you dont want. Its like visiting parents you hate. Yes you are doing the right thing and yet without love, it is meaningless. We pray our prayers and we approach this table as new creatures whose hearts have been transformed for Christ, and not as bringers of empty gestures. That way we eat of the Lord and the Lord does not eat us.

First let me remind you of my main point. My Main Point today is to shine a light in the Cross as a major fulfillment of the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ.

Well today is Passion Sunday like I said earlier. Today we focus on Jesus on the cross. Prior to the cross, sin were atoned by the sacrifice of an animal, and that sacrifice was not changing hearts. The cross on which Jesus died was the great sacrifice that atone the sins of all for all time. Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The passion of Jesus, his suffering on the way to the cross and his suffering on the cross, is the place where all the sins, past present and future were atoned for. The sacrifice of rams and bulls were only effective in that they pointed to the Death of Jesus. Yes let us mourn our sin but let us also rejoice, are sins are taken away.

I was watching an interview with a man who has come back after being canceled. He reflected for a moment about when this culture cancels, is there a way back? Can you pay a price that allows you to be a part of the world again. He pointed to a Basketball team owner who was accused of something. Had to sell his team, proved his innocents, but he will never be restored to team ownership. Is this the world where you will seek acceptance? The world to which a sinner will try and return? Let me offer you this instead, [18] “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Today we will celebrate the assurance of pardon. The liturgy will remind us.

Hear now the comfortable words

I will offer you this: ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.

What our Protestant faith offers us is assurance of Pardon. Let us embrace that, then share that. You don’t have to live a life scared of God, but a life free as his children. It is the Love of God that takes him to the cross. The sacrifice of the son was not the act of an angry monster, but the love of our creator, giving up everything to restore us to his favor. Allow that to transform you this week. As we approach the finish line of our lenten season let us be loved children of God who loves the other children of God among us. Amen.