Who's Kingdom? (Palm Sunday)

I'm going to take a quick break from the Gospel series to interject something God revealed to me at church this morning. We visited my in-laws’ biblically sound, reformed church here in Bonita Springs, FL, where the boys and I are vacationing. It being Palm Sunday, the sermon was on John 12:12-25. As Pastor Doug read the passage and begin teaching on the history and culture of the text, the Holy Spirit brought enlightenment to me, which I feel is worth sharing.

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:12-25)

I was reminded that the Jewish people were looking for a messiah. For thousands of years they were waiting for someone to come and save them. The Old Testament Prophets spoke of a savior. This idea of a savior was fresh in their minds because they were celebrating Passover, remembering the time Moses came and saved the Israelites from oppression in Egypt. Here they were, oppressed, yet again, by the Romans. This pattern of political oppression occurs over and over again in Israel’s history: Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, Babylonians, Persians, Romans. God used many nations to follow through on his just discipline for His chosen people's sin of idolatry. 

But the New Testament Israelites STILL didn't get it! They were waiting for a savior to come and rescue them from physical oppression in this world. The sin they were looking to be saved from was the sin of the Romans, not their own sin. Even if some of them realized the Roman oppression was God's form of graceful judgment, they were still looking only to be saved from the earthly punishment for their sins. They did not understand the Gospel, not the true Gospel anyway. Theirs was a prosperity gospel: this man will come, he will raise the dead, and heal the blind, and calm the storm, and he will fix this mess with the Romans. He will take away the pain of our political oppression. 

The Jews of Jesus' day were living in the flesh, not in the spirit. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). They were thinking of kingdoms of the world, not kingdoms of heaven. Jesus said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 

Many of us think we stopped “living in the flesh” when we were saved. We believe we have turned from “fleshly” sins and don’t consider this a concern. But when we focus on what Jesus is doing for us in THIS life, we are back to living in THIS flesh and THIS world. Jesus didn't come to fix this world. He came to reconcile us to God so that we could experience the world to come. “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever’” (Revelation 11:15)

Pastor Doug thought that the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus were probably wealthy businessmen, looking to get an in with an up and coming leader. They wanted a part of the next empire, the next kingdom. They were surprised when they found out what was required.  Jesus told them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:23-25).

I think it’s interesting that Jesus used the word "glorified" when speaking of his death for my sin. The Jews were looking to be a part of the glory. But they were living in the flesh. The glory they sought was in the flesh. And the fleshly glory that Jesus was about to endure was a criminal’s execution. “Follow me and die to yourself’” he essentially told them, “Then you will reign with me in glory forever, not in this world, but when this world is restored to its rightful owner.” Revelation 20:4-6 says, “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”

Paul even prophesied this in Romans 8 when he spoke of our adoption as sons and being co-heirs with Christ. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17)

When we are living and preaching a prosperity gospel, we are making ourselves out to be like the Jews who crucified our Lord. Our faith is shallow and focused on this world and its troubles, and when Jesus doesn't fix it we yell, "crucify him!"

The final verse in this section is verse 26, which was left out of the sermon today. I don't blame the pastor. It’s not a very happy ending. In John 12:26 Jesus says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” Where do we follow? The answer is in the previous verse. "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25). We must die to the flesh, we must carry our cross, we must hate this life, and love the one to come. We must place our faith in God's kingdom, not the kingdoms of this world, even those that seem like "good" ones. And when God does not come in and rescue us from the troubles of this life, we must remember that here is not where we reign. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). Our glory is not in THIS world but in the world to come, where we will rejoice in the presence of a just and merciful God for all eternity.