The Final Rejection of the King
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 26:57-67
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
Some people are like a horse that you lead to water and it refuses to drink.
You can even force its head under the water, but if they are stubborn even then refuse to drink they will drown.
I have meet people like that on a few occassions.
They are so stubborn that they refuse to accept help.
They will not step back from their closed mind and have a look at reality.
They would rather suffer than accept the obvious solution to their problem that is right in front of them.
I have seen people refuse help to fix up a shed they were livig in with their children so that it would be warm in winter and offer privacy.
I have seen people in trouble who were facing really bad consequences and when an off ramp was offered that would enable them to keep their job and rebuild their career they rejected it.
I have seen people in horrible relationship situations offered a way out and they decided out of fear and the insecurity of the unknown to stay.
One of the tragic realities of life is that there are some people who you can lead to water but out of fear, pride, or pure arrogance refuse the water that is offered.
The leaders of the people of Israel in Jesus’ day were like that.
Arrogance led them to reject the Messiah and in so doing they determined the fate of the entire nation.
Jesus said in Matthew 26:2
2 “As you know, Passover begins in two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26:3 goes on to say “At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest,”
They had made their mind up.
Jesus could not be the Messiah, he didn’t fit their picture.
He would not be subject to them.
He would not play by their rules.
And he certainly wouldn’t join in their hypocricy of appearing to be pious whilst building their own wealth and power.
He was to willing to advance the cause of the marginalised and oppressed.
He was to willing to call people to account.
Often his attacks were aimed at them.
He was a revolutionary, not an ally to the elite.
The Messiah had come but the leaders of the people did not recognise him.
The Messiah had come but the leaders of the people refused his message.
The Messiah had come but the leaders of the people treated him as they had the prophets before him.
Jesus Christ was denied by the Jewish people - John 1:11 “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
The result of their rejection was chatastrophic.
They turned against the Messiah.
They turned against his church.
They brought upon themselves the judgment of the Lord.
A judgement which lead to the fall of Jerusalem, massacre and dispersal of the population and nearly 1900 years of disposession.
Jesus’ own words condemned them in Matthew 23:36-39 he said
36 I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. 38 And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate. 39 For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
It is a horrible, horrible picture.
The Roman Empire completely destroyed the city and the temple.
They carried off its treasures.
The temple and its sacrifices ceased.
Judaism became a religion of the synagogue and the books of what we know as the Old Testament.
You can reject that which is true.
But there is always a cost.
You can refuse to believe that gravity exists.
But there are consequences if you step of a roof.
You can refuse to accept that too driving to fast is illegal.
But you will get a speeding ticket one day.
You can refuse to accept the Doctors advice that you need to get the wound cleaned out and get a tetnus injection.
But you will know all about suffering and pain when the wound becomes infected and gangrene sets in.
There are consequences of denying Jesus Christ
Just as for the people of Israel in the time when Jesus came to them as Messiah and they rejected him so for us today.
Jesus said in John 12:48
48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken.
And in Mark 8:38 “ If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The early Christians understood this truth.
When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy he told him that 2 Timothy 2:12 “12 If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us.”
It has been a long time since I have ridden a horse.
But even to this day I remember the consequences of getting it wrong.
You can lead the horse to water.
But you can’t make it drink.
If you are foolish and allow the horse to paw at the water and not forcably ride it out straight away, you will discover to your horror, that the horse is stronger than you and it may decide to roll in the water.
There are consequences of being in the saddle when a horse rolls in water.
Being crushed is one of them.
Drowning is another.
The leaders of the people of Israel rejected their king.
It cost them their positions, their wealth, their temple, their country and for many their lives.
Jesus predicted that this would be their response.
He clearly indicated what would happen.
The writers of the Gospels wrote this down, before the rebellion against the Roman empire broke out.
Jerusalem fell, just as Jesus said it would with not one stone left on another.
All that remains of the temple Mount is a retaining wall.
There is rubble.
There is stonework scattered around.
You can even see the columns from the temple Mount today laying on the ground.
Now gathered together for protection
Why would we deny Christ’s rule in our life when we have this clear record from history.
Many have fought long and hard to reject the King.
Many have found that eventually they had to give in to his rule.
The great author C. S. Lewis was one of those
C. S. Lewis entitled his autobiography Surprised by Joy.
In characteristic brilliance and artistic attractiveness, he shared the intimacies of his life, his desire to discover faith, and his difficulties in finding it.
He spoke frankly of his mother’s death; study and snobbery at Oxford;
World War I; his father’s death; and his rediscovery of self.
At last, in his room at Oxford in 1929, he wrote:
“I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.… The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet.”
C. S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy, (London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1955), p. 182. quoted in Jones, G. C. (1986). 1000 illustrations for preaching and teaching (p. 143). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Jesus said John 10:10
10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
