For The Joy Set Before Us

Intro

Good morning Casey Church Family. Communion is one of the most special parts of being a christian. The chance to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, giving his life so that we can have forgiveness and eternal life. I think however, that at times because we talk about the death of Jesus so much we sort of normalise it. With easter coming up next week, We have the opportunity to reflect on this and today we do that in a physical and tangible but for the next 10 or so minutes I want to do it remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

Lead up to the cross

I want to have a look at the events that Jesus endured in the lead up to the cross.

Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, has voluntarily given himself to the authorities. Is in the hands of the religious leaders and they use every method possible to charge him. Matthew 26:67

Matthew 26:67 ESV

Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him,

They then tie him up and march him to Pilate, The whole sanhedrin take him. Pilate then goes back and forth between the religious leaders and the crowd. The crowd is getting bigger, louder, angrier, bigger louder angrier etc.

The first century historian Josphesus describes the crowd as a ‘mob’ - “Riotous and under the complete control of the religious leaders.” Pilate even though he knows it is the wrong thing to do washes his hands of responsibility and says alright lets crucify him.

Takes Jesus to the headquarters, in front of the whole battalion/regiment - 600 soldiers. These are 600 men, they all go to the gym regularly, they are armed with the best weaponry in the world, all because of one man that had done nothing but love and heal, and they were needed to make sure this mob wouldn’t over run the governors headquarters.

Matthew 27:27–31 ESV

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

In front of 600 soldiers, they strip him, but a scarlet robe, put a crown of thorns on his head, put a reed in his hand. (Scepter) and then they all get down on one knee and mock him yelling “Hail King of the Jews.” Then they spit on him rip the reed in his hand and start hitting him on the head. They them strip him again put his own clothes back on and start to march him towards the site where he is to be crucifyed. Where I am sure that they spitting and the hitting does not stop.

This is all before the process of being crucified happens. He is beaten, broken, embarrassed, dehumanised. The creator of the universe, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, is treated like he is not human. Did you get that? Jesus Christ, God incarnate is treated less then human. I don’t know about you but what we have read so far is enough for me, I don’t know if I could take that. Yet it isn’t the even near the worst of what he is about to face. This is confronting and I wanted to talk about it today because sometimes, because we talk about the death of Jesus so much we forget that this is a person going through these experiences. There are times we take away the gore of what Jesus went through. I believe it is important that on a day like communion we stop and take a moment and remember the confronting facts that Jesus faced.

We know that Jesus had the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders, we know that he asked his Father to take the cup (The events we have read about) away from him but if it is his will then he will do it. But what I didn’t realise was what we had read for us before.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The part that I want to focus on is “Who for the Joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.”

Despising the shame is such strong language. As he is being stripped naked, spat on, beaten, whipped crucified, a process which is very shameful, he despised the shame, endured the pain, for the joy that was set before him.

The word that jumps out at me is Joy.... it is such a different word then what we have been discussing. What does it mean Joy? Looking back on the event from our view point today we could say that the joy was that Jesus knew that we was going to end up sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. Or that he was going to be ressurcted. However, that can’t be. We have the understanding that when Jesus died, he didn’t expect, or know that we was going to be raised to life. He died the final death, the 2nd death. If he didn’t, and he knew he would be raised to life then what sacrifice was he really giving. So if we understand the events from this viewpoint, then the joy that Jesus was looking forward to was nothing about Him but rather it was about us, about you and me, humankind. He knew that once the act had been completed on the cross then that would lead to the eradication of sin in the universe. The Joy that Jesus endured the cross for was because he loved us so much he wanted us to have the chance, all the pain, all the shame, all the embarrassment, nakedness was all looked at as something he had to endure for the Joy that it would bring. Praise God we serve such a loving saviour.

So now lets bring this into our lives. Hebrews 12:3-4

Hebrews 12:3–4 ESV

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

In our faith, in our journey, in our lives, when we are feeling down and weak or tired Paul implores us to “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that YOU may not grow weary or fainthearted. And then it continues with a really confronting comment, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” I haven’t, to be honest, I don’t want to. but eternally I don’t have to. So Casey Church Family. Today as we rememeber the blood that Jesus spilt and the flesh he had that was broken, Remember the, the shame, the embarrassment, the nakedness, the excruciating pain that our saviour sent through because he knew of the Joy that it would bring to everyone else. Let us be encouraged and uplifted today as we remember in a tangablie way the love that our Saviour has for us, so that we may not grow weary or fainthearted.