SPECIAL DAYS: Good Friday Service 1:00 p.m.

APRIL 9, LESSONS: Psalm 22; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42.

SERMON TITLE: All the Way

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  1. The other night I watched Dateline.

    1. The NBC news announcement was intriguing: "A Dateline Special Report, The Last Days of Jesus. (1)

      1. Scholars explore history behind famous story By Stone Phillips

      2. Originally broadcast February 20, 2004, and re-broadcast April 4, 2004.

Stone Phillips speaking:

"For 5,000 years, the city of Jerusalem has stood witness to the rise and fall of civilizations, the birth of great religions and the death of a man who changed the world: Jesus of Nazareth. Gospel accounts of his crucifixion are the inspiration for Mel Gibson's new film, "The Passion of the Christ." Scheduled for release on Feb. 26, the film has already sparked enormous controversy for how it portrays Jesus' death.

"For some there is no controversy, the gospels are literal truth. For others, what happened isn't so clear. So, we decided to seek out some of the world's most respected scholars -- believers and non-believers -- to find out what they think happened almost 2,000 years ago. We're not exploring the mysteries of faith, but the mysteries of history, to piece together the last days and moments of Jesus' life.

"Piecing together what happened that week is a task that has puzzled scholars for centuries. The evidence is scarce, with different and sometimes contradictory books of the Christian gospel and a few lines penned by ancient historians. So what forces triggered Jesus' death? Who was ultimately responsible? Our search begins five days before the crucifixion, on a Sunday in about the year 30, when the gospels say Jesus traveled to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover."

    1. April 5, ABC announced a three hour special hosted by Peter Jennings

The program, Peter Jennings Reporting: Jesus and Paul--The Word and the Witness, includes the perspectives of a wide variety of biblical scholars--secular and religious, Christian and Jewish, liberal and conservative. Both conservative and liberal scholars say it was Paul who first articulated the ideas we have about the Jesus who was sent by God to die to redeem the world's sins. The letters Paul wrote as he traveled the Roman Empire formed the basis of the religion that today we call Christianity.

Ironically, Paul "never anticipates that 20th century Americans are going to be his audience," historian Pamela Eisenbaum told Jennings. "He has no idea, because he thinks the world is going to end."

Although Paul is as controversial today as he was in the first century, his words are read from pulpits throughout the world every Sunday. But scholars tell Jennings that in Paul's own day he fought bitterly with the closest friends and family of Jesus, who had a different vision for their fledgling movement. Paul is described by some as a madman and by many as a genius.

Paul has been accused of being anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual and a male chauvinist. The program looks at the debate, while tracing Paul's role in turning Christianity into a religion.

Peter Jennings Reporting: Jesus and Paul--The Word and the Witness takes viewers back to a time and place when Christianity was a tiny movement struggling for survival and tells the story of Jesus and Paul, two men of remarkable faith, iron will, and radical vision.

Without them, the religion known today as Christianity would not exist. Both sacrificed everything for the belief that God had chosen them to change the world.

    1. Both programs used the accepted list of experts: theologians, historians, archeologists, and linguistics.

      1. Stone Phillips and Peter Jennings do that best they can.

      2. They are intelligent, articulate, and excellent reporters.

    2. The difficulty becomes clear when you realize that you have more doubts and more confusion after the programs than before.

      1. That is if you are really attempting to understand.

      2. It is not the questions that are the difficulty.

      3. The difficulty is the confusion and contradictions in the sources.

      4. But then you would not expect the responses to be any different.

    3. There is a way to clear up our doubts and confusion.

      1. It is the way of faith.

17So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ, (Romans 10:17, NRSVA)

      1. Faith is not so much to believe.

19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder, (James 2:19, NRSVA).

      1. Faith is a word which describes a relationship with God, Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

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  1. The prophecy in Isaiah 53 catches the passion and the purpose of faith.

1Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
 he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by others;
    a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.
4Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
 yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the LORD has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
 For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.
9They made his grave with the wicked
    and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain.
    When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
    through him the will of the LORD shall prosper.
11 Out of his anguish he shall see light;
    he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

    1. We, that is humanity, and even people within the Christian Community, do not often get it.

    2. What do I mean by this rather audacious statement?

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  1. Look at the controversy surrounding the most used symbol of Christianity, the cross.

    1. Edward K. Braxton, quoted in Francis A. Eigo, ed.,Who Do People Say I Am? writes: (2)

At this crucial juncture, the Church's (here meaning the whole Church) answer to the question, Who, then, is Jesus? may be likened to an ornate jeweled cross.

Over time, the central pearl surrounded by rare diamonds has been overlaid with glittering semiprecious stones and even dime store, cosmetic plastic jewels that are very striking to the untrained eye.

What is more, about the piece there are many small clear spheres filled with a shimmering unknown liquid. In the radiant sunlight the whole is a splendid sight.

A debate arises over what is the essence of this cross.

One argues that it is the simple wooden cross at the base of the artifact.

But, another argues that this cannot be preserved without maintaining every detail of the ornamentation.

Another declares that surely the simple beauty of the pearl secured beneath the mass is of the essence.

Yet others protest that the ring of rare diamonds is of equal or greater import.

Not a few conclude that the cosmetic bits might paradoxically be the jewel of great price.

A struggle ensues with each participant convinced that he or she is salvaging the essence.

In the midst of the conflict, the glass spheres are shattered, and the elusive liquid begins to spread about, dissolve and eat away most of the precious and common pieces as well.

Many of the protagonists come to a halt, now convinced that it is the liquid that must be preserved.

There are others who stand outside the melee, confident that all the others are mistaken.

They are sure that it is the radiant sunlight that is perennial, and it needs no defense, for it is capable of reflecting from or shining through the richest or the basest of elements.

It may now be one in this age, and now another in the next.

    1. Jesus goes all the way to the cross.

      1. There are not deviations.

      2. There are no detours.

      3. There is no hesitation.

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  1. This is the supreme example of love fulfilled with a loving purpose.

Kathy Troccoli, in her book, My Life Is in Your Hands (3) tells a story about her niece Gina.

"When my niece Gina was very little, we would engage in that familiar exchange you have with children you're crazy about. I asked her one day, 'Do you know how much I love you?'

"She looked at me with eager and excited expectation. 'All the way to the sky,' I said.

"She climbed into my lap. 'Well, I love you all the way to the ocean,' she said.

"Oh yeah?' I squeezed her tight and tickled her gently. 'Well, I love you all the way to heaven.'"

"'Well, I love you ...' she began, then, 'I love...I love you...' She contemplated her answer more intensely. Finally, taking a deep breath, she said, 'I love you all the way to K-Mart in the toy department.'

"The two of us laughed and laughed. Gina thought she had given me the biggest and best possible answer.

I suppose if you told Jesus, 'I love you all the way to...' he would answer back that he loved you all the way to the cross-and that he'll continue to love you throughout eternity. It takes your breath away, and you can only respond with a heart of thankfulness.

    1. The sermon title comes from a love song: All the Way, (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy van Heusen)

When somebody loves you
It's no good unless he loves you all the way
Happy to be near you
When you need someone to cheer you - all the way

Taller than the tallest tree is
That's how it's got to feel
Deeper than the deep blue sea is
That's how deep it goes - if it's real

When somebody needs you
It's no good unless he needs you - all the way
Through the good or lean years
And for all the in-between years - come what may

Who knows where the road will lead us
Only a fool would say
But if you'll let me love you
It's for sure I'm gonna love you
All the way
All the way

  1. On a Good Friday, Jesus Loves Us All the Way.

    1. It gives you a warm feeling of being loved and cared for.

    2. It also evokes the determination to respond.

    3. We are also called to love "All the Way."

1.Retrieved from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4315203/

2.Edward K. Braxton, quoted in Francis A. Eigo, ed.,Who Do People Say I Am? (Villanova, Penn. Villanova Press, 1980), 190-91.

3.Kathy Troccoli, My Life Is in Your Hands (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1997), 14-15.

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