To the Cross (Part 1)

What is the purpose?

Since the beginning of time, men and women have been seeking an answer to the question “What is the purpose?” Whether it be about an object or about life itself, it is a question that haunts us.

After buying the latest, newest whatever it may be and discovering that, like every other one you have bought in the past, this one too will have problems, you may ask “What is the purpose?”

After working hard for hours and weeks and months and years on end, you look at your bank account and say “What is the purpose?”

At the end of many a long Sunday over the past 52 weeks, counting today, there have been many pastors, myself included, who have asked God “What is the purpose?”

Knowing the purpose is crucial to fulfilling the purpose and finding contentment.

J. Wallace Hamilton tells a story of a project that took place during the depression. Men needed jobs. A group of unemployed men were hired to build a road. They were given shovels and tools and told to build a road into the wilderness. They worked enthusiastically toward building that road. One day, they discovered that the road had no destination. They were building a road to nowhere. With no purpose, they became discontent, and eventually gave up. J. Wallace Hamilton concludes the account with “A road to nowhere, is hard to build.”

As we journey this road to find our purpose, we take a detour and journey with the disciples on the road “To the Cross,” where I am certain you will find your purpose in life. We’ll wind around the road to the cross in an usual fashion. We’ll start in the upper room looking at the people gathered around a table. Next week we’ll stay in that room and discover the significance of the items on that table. March 21st we will journey from the table to a trial and then on March 28th we’ll move to the top of a mountain and watch triumph (Palm Sunday, the parade that started it all) turn to tragedy.

Fear not, tragedy will again turn to triumph the following Sunday, Resurrection Sunday (Easter) as we celebrate the purpose of the previous four weeks. We’ll leave an empty tomb and return to the table that is now set in anticipation of another triumphant entry.

So, gather up your Bibles, put your mind in gear and let’s travel from “To the Cross”

John 12:9–19 CSB

9 Then a large crowd of the Jews learned he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also, 11 because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus. 12 The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt. 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first. However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. 17 Meanwhile, the crowd, which had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify. 18 This is also why the crowd met him, because they heard he had done this sign. 19 Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You see? You’ve accomplished nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”

Jesus comes into Jerusalem, received as a king. There is singing, shouting, praising. There is curiosity, and there is anger.

The Jewish leaders are seeking to kill Him, and to kill Lazarus.

So, with that setting in mind, let us now journey to the Upper Room. It is now Thursday in most Christian traditions. The sun has not yet setting, triggering the changing of the days. The disciples had been sent ahead to prepare for the passover. Jesus now enters to meet them.

John 13:1–17 CSB

1 Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

On this journey to the cross, the master stops to teach some valuable lessons. This morning we have before us one of those lessons.

What is my purpose?

As a Christian, we may find ourselves pondering this very question? Lord, you saved me and promised me heaven, but you have left me here in this place that often seems more like hell. Why am I here?

Jesus lays out three things for us here to help answer that question.

First, we have

An Object Lesson

The disciples were very much like you and I are today. They had dreams and aspirations. They had partial knowledge but certainly didn’t get everything. Jesus himself acknowledged that to Peter when he said,

John 13:7 CSB

7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

That is me, on this journey of life. Maybe that is you as well. We just don’t get it sometimes. We need to know more. We need more information. We need answers. Jesus, why am I here? What are you doing?

What Jesus was doing, was, even though a plot against Him was already hatched, He was serving others, including the very one that had betrayed Him.

The upper room was already set when Jesus arrived. The disciples had been there and probably argued over who would sit where and who would receive what from the Master, the Messiah.

Jesus enters and room is abuzz. The ceremony is about to begin. At this point, the disciples had been arguing over their place, their position in the Kingdom. Then, Jesus silenced the crowd with his actions, He now confuses them.

John 13:4–5 CSB

4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

While the disciples argued over who would get the highest position in the Kingdom, the guest of honor, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Messiah, the ruler of the universe, would get up from the table and move from highest position, the guest of honor, to the lowest position. The Son becomes the servant. He washes the feet of the disciples.

Jesus begins with an object lesson, the deeds before the discourse, the demonstration before the declaration.

Here, Jesus had seen the hearts of the disciples and realized that He had just a short time to show them what their purpose was. This was not the time for long sermons, it was time for a loving symbol.

Like the disciples, most of us think the purpose of life is to gain position, or maybe like Judas to gain wealth. Maybe we are searching for a place or position. Jesus shows us that our purpose is to serve, not to be served.

Now, maybe we don’t like that. Maybe we have

An Objection Levied

Peter was having none of this. He immediately made an objection.

John 13:6–10 CSB

6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”

Peter didn’t understand. He actually changed his objection 180 degrees. He went from “never wash my feet” to “wash all of me.” When we don’t understand our purpose, aren’t we like Peter? All over the place. From one extreme to another. We must understand what Jesus is doing in order for us to understand our purpose in Him.

What is the purpose? The purpose of what Christ was doing is explained:

“If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

“One who has bathed” - washed in the blood…completely washed…it is finished washed!

But as we travel this journey of life, finding and fulfilling our purpose, our feet get dirty...

The roads of Jerusalem… with no real sewer system, with animals traveling, the natural dirt and dust…we get dirty with the filth of this world, chasing the sewage of entertainment, the dirt and dust of greed and selfishness.

Maybe we have been washed in the blood, but we have become dirty in our journey. Jesus is there to wash our feet. The Son, the Savior, became the servant.

BUT NOT ALL OF YOU, Jesus warns. Maybe not everyone has been washed. Maybe some come to the table playing the part...

An Objective Learned

Our purpose explained by Jesus

John 13:12–15 CSB

12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

You have to love it. Jesus finishes His work, sits back down at the table and says “do you think you get it now?”

The Son became the servant - to show us our purpose. It was also to show the disciples His purpose. He came to cleanse the world of its sins, to wash them.

A road to nowhere is hard to build

Where are you going?

What is your purpose?