Pastor Pat Edwards 4/9/2006
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

As most of you know I took a week off to work on our house remodel. I moved water and gas lines, ran some new electrical lines, tore up five layers of the entire kitchen floor, hauled out accumulated trash, chiseled out concrete and rock, removed and reinstalled sheetrock, laid 4x8 sheets of wafer board and underlayment and took 600 milligrams of ibuprofen when I went to bed every night. I also scratched my hands and arms on screws and nails, gouged them with screwdrivers, banged my fingers with hammers and buried countless slivers in my skin until I had a monumental flash of inspiration and began wearing gloves. I don’t like pain so I’m grateful for gloves and medicines and surgeries and other medical procedures that alleviate pain. So I don’t go out of my way to look for pain. But most of us don’t have to because pain and its’ brothers, suffering and trial and discomfort have a way of finding us. That’s what makes the story of Jesus so unique. To some degree most of us can avoid pain and suffering but it’s always to a limited degree and eventually the brotherhood of suffering finds our hiding place or a way around our defenses. But Jesus never had to become acquainted with pain; he could have avoided it completely. That’s what makes him so unique - he chose to acquaint himself with pain but more than that, to endure the greatest suffering any human being would ever know. God the Son who had known only perfection became a human being and suffered horribly in his physical body but the greatest suffering was separation from the love of the Father, to fully experience the wrath of God on the sin of mankind and the punishment of being separated from the one who is goodness and perfection. That’s what makes Jesus and this week of remembrance special. Today is Palm Sunday and is the beginning of Passion Week - the final week in the life of Christ before his crucifixion. Everything that will happen during this week has been predicted by various prophets over the centuries and most recently by Jesus himself. The term "passion" refers specifically to the physical suffering and crucifixion Jesus endures during this time. And as we have heard it was unique because to suffer in this way was his choice. And despite what I’ve said earlier, you and I have a similar choice. If it isn’t already it will become obvious as we move through today’s passage.

The last two sections of Jesus’ prayer that were read before the sermon have brought us full circle. The theme of this series has been "make disciples... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." So we’ve been looking at some of the commands Jesus gave to the disciples, specifically those that came from his last significant time with them, the Last Supper. Before leaving that Passover meal to go to the Mount of Olives where he would be arrested Jesus offered an extended prayer that is known as the High-priestly prayer because in it he functions as a high priest interceding for his people.

In verses 9 through 19 Jesus prays not for the world in general but for the disciples specifically but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the world. Just follow his thoughts to the end. He declares in this prayer to the Father that those disciples gathered around him have brought him glory. To me it seems a little early for that but Jesus certainly knows better than I do. So I have to ask how have they brought him glory. Well... as I think about it they’ve brought him glory by believing in him and by obeying him and by proclaiming him. Did they do those things perfectly or even very well? Probably not, but then the only one who does things perfectly is Jesus and that’s part of the message his disciples proclaim. "We’ll do our best," they declare, "but don’t expect perfection from the likes of us - look to Jesus."

As I was preparing this sermon I realized Jesus is offering one of those informational prayers I sometimes discourage around here. You know the kind of prayer I mean, the one where the pray-er sounds more like they are sharing all the latest news with the people present rather than talking to the Lord. Well, I guess if Jesus can do it I shouldn’t discourage any of you as long as the focus is on the Lord.

So Jesus goes on in his prayer to talk about his leaving the world and their staying in the world - words the disciples hear that certainly must have caused them some concern. They may have even wanted to interrupt but they had the sense to keep quiet while Jesus continued praying, Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one. Not only does he ask they will be protected but that they will have fellowship and unity even as he and the Father shared fellowship and unity.

Jesus’ next statement is also a declaration to the Father but when overheard by the disciples should give them hope and comfort. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. Even though he’s departing they can still have the full measure of joy. In other words joy is not dependent on the Lord’s physical presence with them. Even if he is taken away the joy he gives cannot be taken away. Verses 14 through 16 also emphasize that joy is not lost because of trial. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. They will face the hatred of the world because they have the word of truth and because they are associated with Jesus. Now that may sound strange but it’s really not. Think of how often the arts portray true love or great love as "you and me against the world." It’s one of the most common themes in life, "If we have each other, if we have love then nothing else matters, let the world do its worst." That’s what the disciples should be hearing, "if they have Jesus, they have it all."

And furthermore Jesus doesn’t pray they be removed from the world but instead that they be protected from the evil one as they remain to work in the world. But do more than that, Jesus asks the Father, 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. Put simply sanctify means to make holy and holy means set aside for a special purpose. So the word of truth changes people; it overthrows all the lies people started believing when the serpent first opened his mouth in the garden. "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Plus there are all the unspoken lies inherent in this conversation: God cannot be trusted; physical pleasure is superior to love and obedience; there will be only blessing and no suffering if you disobey God; fellowship with God is unimportant. The truth Jesus reveals overthrows those lies and restores the possibility of living in friendship with God. Jesus wants these disciples gathered around him to have that new life but not just them so he continues in prayer.

20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The disciples are being left in the world to continue the work Jesus has begun. They are to share the life-giving message of salvation through Jesus Christ. He asks the Father to give all these blessings to the disciples so they can share those blessings with countless others.

And that brings us full circle to where we first began looking at the commands Jesus gave on the night before his crucifixion. We started this series with what is called The Great Commission, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Early in the sermon I made comments that might have sounded contradictory. I told you we cannot escape pain and suffering even if we can sometimes alleviate it or avoid it for awhile. But then I said that like Jesus we have a choice about whether we will accept pain and its brothers into our lives. If this sounds confusing let me clarify. There is no escaping suffering in this life but some suffering we can choose to accept or refuse. Following and obeying Jesus as his disciple involves such suffering. He asks us to take up our cross and follow him, to stay in this world to work for his glory and kingdom and to accept the hatred and persecution and rejection that will surely come. We can answer yes or no. We can choose to accept such suffering or we can seek to avoid it. But if we seek to avoid it, if we say "no" then we are also resigning as disciples, we are counting the cost and declaring that it’s too great a price to pay, that we choose earthly rewards and worldly acceptance over life with Jesus.

That is of course, the short-term view of life, the one that emphasizes instant gratification over delayed reward. Certainly there are many present benefits to life with Jesus but our full inheritance is waiting for us. We are like the heros of faith in Hebrews 11, who died without receiving all that was promised but died content nevertheless because faith is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

None of us here today walked with Jesus, not one of us heard him teach, saw him cure illness or raise people from the dead. We didn’t see his trials before Caiaphas or Pilate, his scourging, his painful climb to Calvary or his crucifixion. We didn’t see him die and we didn’t see him rise again. We didn’t clutch his feet like Mary Magdalene or break bread with him like the disciples at Emmaus or watch him ascend into heaven. But we believe. We believe each and every one of those things happened. And because we believe the prayer we have read today was made for us by Jesus. So let us choose to receive all those blessings he asked be poured out upon us so that we can lovingly obey each of his commands and teach others hungry and thirsty for truth and life to do so as well.