Sermon Tone Analysis

Our preaching them for 2022 is Begin again.

Currently, I have entitled this series “spiritual awakening.”

But this is not so much a preaching series as it is a time to encounter God experientially.

We read through the book of Esther interactively.

We also read a Psalm, three times with times for meditation and listening to what God would say.

I understand that last week Alan had you practice sharing your testimony.

We are going to stay with the interactive message theme this morning.

Today is Palm Sunday - the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the cheers of “Hosanna!” which means “save us.”

This week is Holy Week - On Friday we will celebrate a Seder, the Passover meal which would also be the setting for Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.

Next Sunday, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Jesus’ victory over sin, death and satan is even more vivid when you view it against the backdrop of the events of Holy Week.

By participating in the events leading up to the Resurrection, you get the full impact of the glorious event that sealed our salvation.

In the Fourth Century, when Christianity became the official religion of Rome, there was quite an interest in going back to Jerusalem and identifying the holy places associated with the events of the Bible.

Pilgrims would follow “The Way of the Cross” or “The way of sorrows” (Via Delorosa) which consisted of fourteen sites of events that took place according to tradition when Jesus was moving from the place of his trial to the place of crucifixion.

Other people outside of Jerusalem wanted to have the experience of following in Jesus’ footsteps, so the would set up stations in their cathedrals to remember each of these events.

In the fourteen hundreds the Franciscans were given charge of the holy sites, but it was not safe to travel.

Many parts of the Holy Land were contested.

So the Franciscans set up Stations of the Cross in chapels all around the world so that people could make their “virtual pilgrimages.”

Today, even protestant believers recognize the stations of the cross as a way of identifying with the suffering and death of Jesus prior to His resurrection.

However, they tend to focus only on those events which are found in the scripture.

We are going to commemorate eight of these events by reading them from the scripture.

And then we are going to take a moment of silence after each one to meditate and to listen.

Once again, I want you to feel free to participate by sharing what God is speaking to you.

Try to imagine yourself in Jerusalem on the Passover week.

You were part of the crowd cheering, “Hosanna - save us.”

But now things have taken a unimaginable turn.

What are you thinking and feeling as you “experience” each step, following Jesus to the cross.

What do these events tell you about our Saviour?

What to they speak to you for your life today?

Step 1:  Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die

One minute of silence

Do you ever wish that Jesus would speak when he is silent?

There are people mocking him.

Others, accusing him.

They are going to kill him!

But still… he is silent.

Maybe if Jesus had spoken they would not have crucified him - do you see why he is sometimes silent?

What about Barabbas?

Now there is a trouble maker!

Someone gets to go free.

Why not the trouble maker?

Release the man who stirs up the crowd and kill the silent one.

Maybe the silent one will speak?

Maybe he will defend himself?

Maybe he will break out and save us all by taking on a legion of soldiers?

Then again, maybe he won’t!

Pilate declares jesus innocent - Barabbas is clearly guilty.

Which one goes free?

Where is the justice in that?

Step one - Jesus who is the truth, bore our injustice.

Step 2:  Jesus Accepts His Cross

One minute of silence

Jesus is mocked and beaten.

They dressed him up like a king with a royal robe.

Except he was naked - wearing just a robe.

They put a crown on his head, a pointy crown with spikes all around.

Except the spikes were thorns, pointed inward and cutting into his head.

A king needs a scepter, a symbol of his authority.

So they gave him a reed, a limp stalk as a sign of impotence.

And then they beat him with it.

The only think worse than having a limp stick for a scepter is being beaten with your own stick.

That … and being spit on.

Step two - Jesus the ruler of the world, bore our shame.

Step 3:  Simon Helps Carry the Cross

One minute of silence

Jesus had to let someone else carry his cross.

Why is that so important?

Have you ever taken on a task that you could not finish?

Have you ever had to let someone else help you?

It’s not easy, is it?!?

Simon is named because he was known to the early church.

That experience changed him and made him a Christ-follower.

Jesus, in failing to bear his own cross, made a disciple.

Proving that God uses even our failures for his glory.

Think about that next time you stumble.

We think it is weakness to fail, but even Jesus failed when it came to the most important task of his life - carrying that cross.

Except it wasn’t a failure as we think of failure.

It was an opportunity for God to be glorified.

Step three - Jesus the perfect man, bore our failure.

Step 4:  Jesus Speaks to the Women

One minute of silence

Women have an important role in scripture.

Jesus is often found talking to women.

Patriarchal societies ignore women, and Rome was a very patriarchal society.

These women were mourning, wailing and expressing their grief openly.

That was the practice in Israel if someone was dead or dying.

They would even pay people to make a spectacle of their grief so that a few people could express the feelings of the many.

Jesus tells them not to grieve for him, but for some future state of humanity.

Grief is so often misplaced.

We grieve for the thinks that we miss in life, but we so often miss grieving over the greatest losses.

Until we know what is truly valuable and eternally important, we will not know how to grieve what God grieves.

And God does grieve, not only for us, but with us.

Step four - God become flesh, bore our grief.

Step 5:  Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

One minute of silence

Most pictures of Jesus on the cross show a cloth discreetly tied around his waist.

That is supposed to keep the picture “family friendly.”

John tells us that the cloth didn’t stay there.

Most of us are embarrassed just thinking about it.

I wonder how it was for Jesus?