Up the Stairway to the Cross

When we come to Easter we want very much to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. With out the resurrection, the death of Christ would have no significance. We will not fail to celebrate that theme next year. However, if we are not careful we can talk about the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and move on to the resurrection on Easter Sunday and miss what 1/3 of the four gospels are all about. Only two of the Gospels mention the events of Jesus Birth even though the incarnation of God into human form is a once in an eternity event.

The resurrection, is described in just 3 verses in the Bible:

Matthew 28:2-4 NIV 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

There are exactly 21 other verses in the Bible in all four gospels describing the approach to the empty tomb and the angel.

One third of the Gospels are devoted to the events leading up to and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ!

Less than one week of Jesus life, what we call the passion week, fills up hundreds of verses in the Gospels.

The most sophisticated religious system of all time couples with the most powerful political empire up to that point to bring one man to death and you get the sense throughout the whole thing that that one man is orchestrating the whole thing even though he is the victim of it.

It was he who designed the religious system of laws under which he would eventually be condemned. It was he who allowed the Romans into power to bring about his sentence of death. The same Roman system would allow the story of his resurrection to spread to the whole world within a few short years

I. Steps to the Salvation of the World

The events of the passion week are carefully laid out. If you have a Bible with paragraph heading they will be broking into very distinct sections…

Triumphal Entry, Last Supper, Betrayal by Judas, Garden of Gethsemane, The Trials, Jesus death on the cross, Resurrection. Each of these is a distinct step toward your salvation. The fact that they are so carefully spelled out means we shouldn’t skip lightly over them. I see each on as part of a stairway moving toward Jesus taking our sins on himself and I want us to walk up that stairway today pausing just briefly to look at what is on each step. I want to especially point out some things that are maybe a bit different than we normally look at.

A) Step One: The Triumphal Entry

I have preached whole messages on Palm Sunday about this event:

Matthew 21:8-10 NIV 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"

Even the Pharisees said:

John 12:19 NIV 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"

Again I ask, who were these people? This was Passover time. Everybody was coming to Jerusalem for the feast, including Jesus and the disciples. This crowd that were chanting that Jesus was coming in the name of the Lord were coming to Jerusalem with him after seeing him raise Lazarus from the dead. How do we know?

John 12:17-18 NIV 17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.

His fans were not the people from Jerusalem but probably the Galileans who had experienced his ministry. Mathew says that some were the lame and the blind, and children who showed up repeating the refrain once he got into the city.

Inside Jerusalem were people who were steeped in their religious cloaks who would yell crucify him within days. As he crossed the crest of the hill the cries of Hosanna stop because another sound begins. Jesus is crying!

Luke 19:41 NIV 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.

I don’t think this picture is quite like we often make it out to be…

If you had been a Roman centurion called to the east side of Jerusalem to check on a unruly disturbance what would you have seen? You would have seen a man, followed by a group of peasants from the sticks some of whom were blind, and lame, shouting at a man sitting, not on a stallion, but on a forlorn donkey and in spite of the shouting of the people the man was looking at the city and crying.

It wouldn’t stop the people in the city from killing him a few days later. It wouldn’t cause most of them to believe he was the Christ come to take away the sins of the world. Even his disciples who had spent three years with him would all forsake him before the week was over…One would betray him…one would deny him. Jesus wept.. for the sinful hearts of the people around him and for all of us who would follow them.

B) Step Two: The Last Supper

The tension is mounting… In spite of Jesus comments the last few weeks about dying in Jerusalem none of the disciple believe that to be true. They are convinced that somehow that language is figurative and what Jesus is really going to do is become King and set up an earthly kingdom, defeating Roman power and they will all be Jesus lieutenants.

Some are a little disturbed by that crying, donkey riding thing, coming into town but Jesus words to them during his private sermon during their Passover meal raise their hopes to a frenzied level .

As he reads the account of the Exodus as the Passover host where God delivered the Israelites from the power of Egypt, their minds were very possibly substituting Rome for Egypt. He would deliver them as Moses delivered Israel. He used electrifying phrases in his sermon…

John 16:33 NIV 33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:29-30 NIV)

Then he embarrasses them all by getting down and washing their feet. They couldn’t understand him. What kind of a Messiah was this who talked like a conqueror one minute, then acted like a servant the next!

C) Step Three: The Betrayal

In the midst of this intimate evening with his closest friends Jesus dropped a bombshell…One of the twelve men gathered around him, one who’s feet he just washed, would that night betray him to the authorities… They all grew bug eyes in disbelief then began to interrogate each other. Surely, not me.. They said in turn.

Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, (John 13:26-27 NIV)

Who was this jerk who betrayed him? Some seedy lowlife who the Pharisees went straight to because he was the one with the lowest character? No…. At some point the religious authorities had approached him, offering him money to sell out our Lord. How many of the other disciples had they approached as well. How many of them had actually considered whether they would actually rather have 40 pieces of silver then a relationship with a Messiah who seemed to constantly waiver between strength and weakness.

Judas wasn’t the lowlife among them… he was the one they chose to be their treasurer. We didn’t choose Bob Rule to be our treasurer because he was the least trustworthy among us. We chose him because he was the most trustworthy. In the last supper seating arrangement, Judas was close enough to Jesus to be dipping out of the same bowl, a sign of honored position. When Jesus said someone was going to betray him I wonder how many of the others were honestly wondering if they were going to give in to what they had been tempted to do. I don’t know that Judas was prepared to carry through with the deal until Jesus washed his feet. In scripture it falls directly afterwards…. Somehow the picture of Jesus washing his feet as a servant made the decision in Judas mind that any hope of this man being the long awaited Messiah was over. Even when Jesus handed him the dipped bread he could have refused it, but he made a choice and…

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

He wasn’t the only one who left… Before the night was over, when the disciples discovered that Jesus kingdom led to a cross instead of a throne, everyone of them slunk off into the darkness.

Yet when Jesus met Judas in the Garden with a lynch mob he addressed him as “friend”.

The other disciples deserted them but he still loved them. Peter denied him, but he had a special place for him in his kingdom work. He would have just as freely forgiven Judas if he had lived. Judas died unwilling to accept the forgiveness of sins Jesus was paying for..

Peter, humiliated but still open to Jesus forgiveness went on to lead a Revival in Jerusalem that eventually reached Rome and then the ends of the earth.

D) Step Four: The Garden of Gethsemane

From an upstairs room in Jerusalem full of the strong smell of lamb and herbs and unwashed bodies they head to the cool garden atmosphere of the olive groves. Everybody is at peace… except Jesus:

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. (Mark 14:32-35 NIV)

Usually when Jesus prayed he wanted to be away from other people including the disciples. He didn’t want any human being distracting him from his Heavenly Father.

This time it’s different… This time he wants and asks for human support from his friends. It’s almost as if now he can’t bear to be left alone in the presence of his heavenly Father. When they acted uninterested and fell asleep he acted genuinely hurt.

A great struggle was underway…These are not cute little formal prayers. This is Jesus wrestling with what he is getting ready to do. He’s getting ready to take on his sinless self all of the sins of the world.

He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:41-44 NIV)

Jesus wasn’t powerless here… he had twelve legions (72,000) angels available to him if he wanted to stop the action, wipe out the Romans and set up an earthly kingdom like his disciples wanted him to.

Had he done so there would be no church history, no church at all, no reason for the future of mankind to even go on… human history would probably have come to a halt. America would never have been discovered and you would never have been born. All of this was within Jesus power if he had decided to skip the personal sacrifice and trade away the messy future of redemption.

The cross, for Jesus, was not a detour on the way to the kingdom, it is the kingdom come. It is the reason for Jesus birth.. It’s existence was certain before Adam and Eve were created into this newly created world.

E) Step Five: The Trials

We are fascinated by trials, how many of our TV shows are about people trying to defend other people who have done wrong, or not done wrong? What stands out in Jesus trials is not his great defense but his complete lack of defense. Nobody rose to Jesus defense, not one religious leader, not one concerned friend, Jesus didn’t even try to defend himself. Even the Heavenly Father was strangely quiet.

Amazingly, there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him….. Even trumped up witnesses couldn’t get there story straight so Jesus purposely and deliberately gave them everything they needed to put him to death.

But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. (Matthew 26:63-65 NIV)

To Pilate….So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. (Luke 23:3 NIV)

Just as he is ready to be killed he openly declares himself to be the Messiah. He had turned down many chances to do so up to this point. If he had done so earlier he might not have reached this point of being so alone with no one at his side.

He didn’t declare himself the Messiah until the danger of just founding a religion was past!

F) Step Six: Jesus Death on the Cross

Imagine the shame of God’s Son stripped naked, flogged, spit on, hit in the face, pierced with a crown of thorns:

Mockery illustration<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Legions of angels waited his command, one word and they could end the whole ordeal.

That word never came…. Others words did:

I thirst… from the one who created gallons of wine in his first miracle

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me… the only time Jesus ever addresses God as anything other than Abba or Father

It is finished! We’re told what Jesus cried out at the end…we’re not told what the heavenly Father cried as as his beloved son gave up his life in exchange for yours and mine.

We are told exactly what happened in that instant:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)