Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday, Liturgy of the Palms

Job 38:1–10 (NIV): Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2 “Who is this that obscures my plans

with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels  shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment

and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it

and set its doors and bars in place,

Job 40:8–14 (NIV): Would you discredit my justice?

Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

9 Do you have an arm like God’s,

and can your voice thunder like his?

10 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,

and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

11 Unleash the fury of your wrath,

look at all who are proud and bring them low,

12 look at all who are proud and humble them,

crush the wicked where they stand.

13 Bury them all in the dust together;

shroud their faces in the grave.

14 Then I myself will admit to you

that your own right hand can save you.

Sermon

Is God fair? Today, we are going to take one final look at Job and hopefully get the answer to that question. You’ve been waiting, I know. Just to recap, in Job 1-2, we find God and satan in a discussion essentially asking the question, if you take away Job’s possessions and his health will he curse God? Will he love God in spite of his suffering. And chapter 2 closes with Job losing everything, challenged by his wife to “curse God and die”, and the arrival of 3 friends who come to comfort him.

In chapter 3, Job asks why he must suffer, and why God isn’t helping him. And from chapter 4-31, Job and his three friends enter into a lengthy dialogue in which they attempt to explain to Job how God works and how Job denies any wrongdoing on his part and eventually moves to challenging God to explain things to him. He tells his friends to stop talking and asks God to make His case.

In chapters 32-37, we have another speaker who shows up out of nowhere, named Elihu, and while he is younger than these other men, he has grown disappointed by what he has heard. Job has insisted on his innocence and Job’s friends have failed to convince him of his guilt. In Elihu’s estimation, Job has spoken poorly about God.

And then we come to Job 38. And verse 1 simply says “God speaks to Job.” Job finally gets what he has been asking for, a chance to get his answers from God. But God has His own questions for Job.

One of the first question God asks is, “Were you a part of helping me to create the world?” In other words does everything work the way you planned?

His second question is, “Are you able to understand what I understand?”. In other words are you wiser than I am?

And with these two questions, God asks His third. Do you really want justice? Do you really want what’s fair? Do you really want what you have coming? When you already admit you don’t know God’s plans and you acknowledge you aren’t wiser than He is, do you really want Him to give you what you deserve? Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” The truth this morning is that you and I receive much better than we deserve. We deserve eternal separation from God. Every one of us is a sinner. Every one of us has disobeyed God and done our own thing. We all deserve death. You may really want justice but God says, “My plan, the plan I have in my mind, in my understanding is to exxted to you grace.”

Grace is getting what you didn’t earn and don’t deserve instead of receiving what you do. We deserve death. Instead, God gave us His Son, Jesus Christ. Replacing what we deserve, punishment, with grace, salvation. Now, this morning, you can still demand God be fair. You can still tell God you want justice. But me, I’d rather live constantly amazed by God’s grace.