Robert E. Cushman - "Jesus the King" (April 4, 1971)

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	(upbeat music)	0:08
-	It is an awesome thing	2:47
	to come into the presence of the living God,	2:48
	who is holy love.	2:52
	Therefore, it behooves us to remember	2:55
	that we are creatures and sinners.	2:57
	And to acknowledge the same with penitence and loneliness	3:03
	to the end that we may be forgiven,	3:08
	therefore, I beseech you who are here present	3:13
	to accompany me with sincerity and humility	3:16
	unto the throne of grace in a general confession,	3:21
	saying together, eternal God, thou unseen source of power,	3:28
	we confess our unfaithfulness to Jesus Christ.	3:36
	We who like ancient Jerusalem have often welcomed Him	3:41
	with professions of loyalty,	3:45
	have crucified him before the week ended,	3:48
	amid the waywardness of a violent world,	3:52
	we have denied His faith and have forsaken His way.	3:56
	We have not walked kindly with one another	4:01
	or humbly with thee, or honorably with ourselves.	4:05
	We ask God forgiveness and restoration	4:11
	through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, amen.	4:15
	Hear these words of assurance of the forgiveness of sin.	4:22
	The Lord is neigh unto them, that are of a broken heart	4:27
	and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.	4:33
	The Lord redeemeth the souls of His servants.	4:38
	None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.	4:44
	Therefore, trust in the Lord.	4:49
	(soft music)	4:57
	(woman singing faintly)	6:02
	Let us hear the lesson for Palm Sunday,	9:30
	as it is recorded in the gospel according to St. Luke,	9:33
	the 19th chapter Versus 29 to 42.	9:38
	"When Jesus drew near to Bethphage and Bethany	9:47
	at the Mount that is called Olives.	9:52
	He sent two of the disciples saying,	9:56
	'Go into the village opposite.	10:00
	Where on entering, you will find a colt tied	10:03
	on which no one has ever yet sat.	10:08
	Untie it and bring it here.	10:13
	If anyone asks you why you are untying it,	10:18
	you shall say this, 'The Lord has need of it.''	10:23
	So those who were sent went away	10:31
	and found it as he had told them.	10:33
	And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them,	10:37
	'Why are you untying the colt?'	10:43
	And they said, 'The Lord has need of it.'	10:47
	And they brought it to Jesus,	10:53
	and throwing their garments on the colt,	10:56
	they sat Jesus upon it.	10:58
	And as he rode along,	11:01
	they spread their garments on the road.	11:03
	As he was now drawing near	11:08
	at the descent of the Mount of Olives,	11:11
	the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice	11:14
	and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works	11:18
	that they had seen, saying,	11:23
	'Blessed be the king, who comes in the name of the Lord.	11:28
	Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.'	11:34
	And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Jesus,	11:43
	'Teacher rebuke your disciples.'	11:48
	He answered, 'I tell you, if they were silent,	11:54
	the very stones would cry out.'	12:02
	And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,	12:09
	saying, 'Would that even today, you knew the things	12:16
	that make for peace, but now they are hid from your eyes.	12:23
	Amen, and may God bless unto us	12:34
	the reading of His holy word.	12:37
	(soft music)	12:42
	(choir singing faintly)	12:53
	The Lord be with you.	13:21
	Let us pray.	13:25
	Let us offer first a prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus.	13:34
	Oh God, who has proven thy love for mankind	13:41
	by sending us Jesus Christ, our Lord,	13:46
	and has illumined our human life	13:51
	by the radiance of His presence.	13:53
	We give thee thanks for this thy greatest gift.	13:57
	For our Lord's days upon earth,	14:04
	for the record of his deeds of love,	14:08
	for the words he spoke for our guidance and help,	14:12
	for his obedience unto death, for his triumph over death,	14:17
	for the presence of his Spirit with us now,	14:25
	we thank thee, oh God.	14:29
	Grant that the remembrance of the blessed life	14:34
	that ones was lived out on this common earth.	14:36
	Under these ordinary skies, may remain with us	14:41
	in all the tasks and duties of this day,	14:46
	but remember His eagerness not to be ministered unto,	14:51
	but to minister, His sympathy with suffering of every kind,	14:56
	His bravery and face of His own suffering,	15:03
	His meekness of bearing so that when reviled,	15:08
	He reviled not again,	15:12
	His tidiness of purpose in keeping to His appointed task,	15:16
	His simplicity, His self discipline, His serenity of spirit,	15:20
	His complete reliance upon thee, His father in heaven.	15:29
	And in each of these ways,	15:35
	give us grace to follow in His footsteps.	15:39
	And let us offer two prayers of intercession.	15:47
	One for all kinds of men and the other for the sick.	15:51
	Oh God, who knit us all together in mutual love	16:00
	and responsibility for one another,	16:03
	hear our prayer of intercession for all kinds of folks,	16:08
	in a time of international strife, and national division,	16:13
	of racial tension and class struggle.	16:20
	Of college chaos and academic bewilderment.	16:25
	On behalf of all men, we pray for peace,	16:31
	but not without justice.	16:36
	We pray for quiet, but only if the issues	16:40
	have honestly been faced and resolved.	16:45
	We pray for honor, rather than victory,	16:50
	for understanding rather than mastery,	16:56
	for sanity, rather than success,	17:01
	for the triumph for thy way rather than ours.	17:07
	For thou art the love which is goodwill,	17:13
	The creator, sustainer, and redeemer of all men.	17:18
	All mighty God, to whose son the sick were brought	17:27
	that they might be healed and who did send none away	17:30
	without thy blessing.	17:34
	Look in pity upon all who come to our university hospital	17:36
	And to thee for healing of body, mind and spirit.	17:42
	Send them not away without thy blessing,	17:49
	but now and ever more, grant them thy healing grace	17:53
	for their sake, and our sake and thy sake.	17:59
	And let us offer prayers of supplication for ourselves.	18:08
	Almighty and eternal God, whose son did ride into Jerusalem	18:14
	in triumphant humility.	18:18
	Grant us, so to hail him as Lord of our lives.	18:22
	That we may open the gates of our hearts unto him	18:27
	and allow him to reign in glory there,	18:31
	paying honor unto Him, even the same Jesus Christ our Lord.	18:36
	Almighty and everlasting God,	18:45
	who of thy tender love toward mankind	18:47
	has sent thy son to take upon him, our flesh	18:51
	and to suffer death upon the cross	18:57
	that all mankind should follow the example	19:02
	of His great humility.	19:04
	Mercifully grant that in this holy week,	19:08
	we may both follow the example of his patience	19:12
	and so we made partake of His resurrection	19:18
	through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.	19:23
	And now as our savior, Christ hath taught us,	19:30
	we humbly pray together.	19:33
	Our father who art in heaven,	19:36
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	19:38
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	19:43
	Give us this day our daily bread	19:48
	and forgive us our trespasses	19:51
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	19:53
	and lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil,	19:57
	for the thine is the kingdom and the power	20:03
	and the glory, forever, amen.	20:06
	Beloved in Christ.	20:50
	We are in another high day of Christian recollection.	20:53
	From the beginning,	21:03
	what we call Palm Sunday was a day of rejoicing	21:05
	for the disciples of the Lord.	21:11
	Let it be a day of rejoicing with us.	21:17
	Matthew's gospel records that first moment of exaltation,	21:23
	which we remember today.	21:32
	And the multitude that went before him and that followed,	21:38
	cried, saying, "Hosanna to the son of David,	21:43
	blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord."	21:48
	And Mark's account reads, "And many spread their clothes	21:55
	on the road and others spread leafy branches	22:01
	which they cut from the field.	22:04
	Here are the palms of Palm Sunday.	22:07
	And those who went before, and those who followed cried out,	22:12
	"Hosanna, blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord.	22:17
	Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that is coming."	22:23
	What does Hosanna mean?	22:32
	It means Lord be propitious.	22:35
	It means in this setting, God saved the king.	22:43
	And then St. Luke's account.	22:51
	And as he was drawing near	22:55
	at the descent of the Mount of Olives	22:56
	the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice	22:58
	and praise God with a loud voice,	23:03
	'Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord.	23:07
	Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.'"	23:14
	Luke's account, you see, is more explicit.	23:21
	While the other gospels plainly convey	23:26
	the messianic import of the event.	23:30
	Luke uses the word king specifically	23:34
	to unpack the meaning of the phrase, son of David.	23:38
	He uses the Greek word, Basileus.	23:44
	It was a word capable of controversy	23:50
	and for some, of extreme offense.	23:55
	And it is this word that prompted the stiff remonstrance	24:01
	of the Pharisees to the prophet of Nazareth,	24:05
	"Rabbi," they urged, "rebuke your disciples."	24:10
	But to this Jesus answered,	24:16
	"I tell you if these were silent,	24:20
	the very stones would cry out."	24:24
	I recall using these words of Jesus to the Pharisees	24:29
	from this pulpit, in the days of the student vigil,	24:35
	it was holy week, 1968.	24:44
	In the annals of this university, that vigil,	24:51
	despite its unfortunate excesses in the early stages	24:56
	became in my view, for some,	25:02
	a moment of rebirth of conscience,	25:07
	stirred awake by the martyrdom of a great American	25:12
	who many believe and still believe was a prophet.	25:18
	The student protest was a resurgence of conscience, I think.	25:27
	Even if we cannot say the same for all that has followed,	25:34
	but of much of it quite to the contrary.	25:41
	In like manner, perhaps we may understand,	25:46
	however, the high enthusiasm and exultant	25:49
	to claim Of the prophet of Nazareth on that day of long ago.	25:54
	By his followers, he was hailed as the coming deliverer.	26:02
	He was viewed as the long awaited Messiah to come.	26:09
	This hope was embedded	26:16
	in the declarations of Israel's line of prophets.	26:18
	Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, and the rest.	26:24
	And while the followers of Jesus	26:36
	joined in joyous celebration of expectations	26:37
	shortly to be fulfilled	26:43
	as they thought in the person of their master,	26:44
	bystanders, watching the demonstration	26:50
	sought to identify the central figure	26:53
	who came riding upon a donkey.	26:56
	"Who is this?" They asked.	27:00
	And others answered,	27:04
	"This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee."	27:06
	For some in those days, Jesus was a teacher.	27:15
	He was rabbi and so addressed even by some Pharisees	27:23
	who regarded him with suspicion.	27:29
	Among many, he was reputed to be a prophet.	27:33
	A very high rank in the thought of Israel.	27:38
	Among a few, those who joined in the acclaim	27:44
	of that entry into Jerusalem,	27:48
	Jesus was viewed in the highest possible terms	27:51
	available to the Jewish mind.	27:55
	He was the coming one.	27:59
	St. Matthew sums it up	28:02
	in the words of the prophet, Zechariah,	28:04
	"Rejoice, greatly old daughter of Zion.	28:09
	Shout, oh Daughter of Jerusalem.	28:13
	behold, thy king cometh unto thee.	28:17
	He is just and having salvation.	28:21
	Lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt,	28:25
	the foal of an ass.	28:32
	The gospel accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem	28:36
	are all of them, brief, but graphic.	28:41
	We do not know how large the disciple's band	28:47
	that joined in the acclaim of that day.	28:50
	Matthew reports that all the city was stirred,	28:56
	and our own experience of the recent past	29:02
	assures us that a resolute demonstration by a small number	29:05
	can be both jarring and spectacular.	29:11
	For the followers of Jesus, it was the moment of truth.	29:16
	It was for them, an epiphany,	29:24
	the unveiling of the Lordship of Jesus.	29:28
	In the very Citadel of Jewish faith and life,	29:33
	their master was at last to be known for who He was.	29:37
	In His hidden identity, He was for them, the coming one.	29:45
	God's chosen deliverer.	29:51
	Therefore, the words of Zechariah seemed right,	29:55
	"Rejoice, greatly or Daughter of Zion,	30:00
	shout, oh daughter of Jerusalem.	30:03
	Behold thy king cometh unto thee. Behold.	30:05
	But now, the paradox of the Christian faith is this,	30:15
	that the proclaimed kingship of Jesus,	30:24
	the prophet of Nazareth,	30:29
	was at once the cause of his rejection and crucifixion.	30:32
	And at the same time is the abiding ground	30:37
	of the Christian faith in all ages.	30:42
	Jesus is king.	30:47
	Somehow, Jesus is king.	30:50
	But surely not upon the grounds	30:54
	that aliked prompted the acclaim of his friends	30:56
	and the equally passionate rejection	31:00
	and condemnation of his enemies.	31:03
	The tragedy of Golgotha which followed	31:08
	and which we celebrate in this coming holy week,	31:12
	presupposes the well intended acclamation of Palm Sunday.	31:18
	But when Pontius Pilate nailed to the cross the inscription,	31:25
	"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."	31:31
	It was not just a Roman taunt to a subject people.	31:35
	It was Pilate's insistence on publishing the cause	31:41
	for which Jesus was repudiated by the leaders of Israel	31:46
	and the reactionary mob.	31:50
	What was an issue, from the entry into Jerusalem	31:55
	until the torturous death on Good Friday	32:00
	was we must believe a vast misunderstanding	32:05
	and vehement controversy over the alleged kingship	32:09
	of the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.	32:15
	And apparently the puzzle continues	32:20
	and the controversy lingers on.	32:25
	Perhaps the latest testimony from the secular sphere	32:30
	is the recent album, "Jesus Christ Superstar."	32:35
	In the parlance of today,	32:44
	and the idiom of the modern mass media and sports world	32:47
	or entertainment world,	32:52
	the phrase superstar may, somehow, may just say something	32:55
	to many for whom the words Messiah or king	33:03
	have well now lost their meaning.	33:08
	Who can say that this idiom, superstar,	33:13
	is not the latest wistful if bizarre and impoverished probe	33:19
	into the mystery of the kingship of Christ.	33:27
	It is pretty evident.	33:32
	And for a long time now, that the hard rock songs	33:35
	of the time are often vibrant	33:40
	with a search for what is ultimately meaningful	33:43
	to the alienated children of this world.	33:49
	If then these were silent,	33:54
	Would not the very stone cry out.	34:00
	Surely, it was so with exalted band of Jesus' followers	34:07
	on the first Palm Sunday,	34:11
	they too were reaching into the repertoire	34:14
	of prophetic vision for the symbol that was large enough	34:17
	to convey the ultimate significance	34:22
	which they attached to the ministry and person	34:25
	of their master.	34:29
	They could find no word better than the prophetic challenge,	34:31
	"Behold, thy king cometh unto thee.	34:36
	He is just and having salvation."	34:42
	Finally, then what do we understand	34:49
	by this ancient superlative?	34:54
	This proclaimed the kingship of Jesus.	34:59
	You will remember that Jesus Himself	35:06
	did not either confirm or deny what was affirmed	35:09
	in the acclaim of his followers, true.	35:16
	He declined to silence them when prompted by the Pharisees	35:22
	who were scandalized.	35:26
	For a king, His appearance that day	35:29
	was almost a parody upon kingship.	35:36
	Again, Zachariah is to be heard.	35:40
	He is lowly and riding upon an ass.	35:43
	Even upon a colt, the foal of an ass.	35:46
	Was it intended irony?	35:51
	Was it calculated satire	35:55
	upon the prevailing styles of kingship?	35:57
	Or was it a sober and direct parabolic action	36:03
	which had its immediate import	36:08
	for those who had eyes to see.	36:12
	Probably, probably it was all of these,	36:16
	irony, satire and parable.	36:23
	For after all, it is a strange figure of a king	36:31
	who approaches Jerusalem.	36:37
	And as Luke reports, weeps over it, saying,	36:40
	"Would that even today,	36:46
	you knew the things that make for peace	36:47
	but now they are hid from your eyes."	36:51
	Jesus, the King, still weeps over the city of man.	36:55
	But where is the expectancy of triumph?	37:01
	The triumph of anticipated recognition in these words.	37:05
	Plainly it is as if Jesus knew, that the peace, the shalom,	37:11
	between God and men and men and their neighbors	37:19
	Which he had enacted in his life and ministry	37:25
	had small hope of recognition in Jerusalem of that day.	37:30
	How could He anticipate	37:38
	that primacy of serving over being served	37:41
	would have espousal among strangers	37:46
	when his own disciples	37:49
	had hardly learned the rudiments of self offering.	37:51
	It was late in the day,	37:57
	indeed on the way to Jerusalem from Galilee	38:00
	when Jesus took his contentious disciples aside	38:03
	to teach them that rank in the kingdom of God	38:07
	is judged not by the measure in which one is served	38:12
	but by the magnitude of his service.	38:17
	Jesus reversed for all time, the order of greatness.	38:22
	Let him who would be great among you	38:28
	become the servant of all.	38:32
	If then we are to speak of the kingship of Jesus,	38:37
	surely it is the exact reversal	38:45
	of the world's estimate of greatness, which still prevails.	38:49
	It is not supremacy of power to which all defer,	38:56
	it is the supremacy of unfaltering dedication	39:02
	to the purpose of God and the wellbeing of man.	39:06
	The "Westminster Confession"	39:11
	represents the authentic Christian understanding	39:13
	of the threefold offices of Christ.	39:16
	In the larger catechism it is said	39:20
	He is furnished with all authority and ability	39:25
	to execute the office of prophet, priest and king.	39:30
	But as the Confession states,	39:37
	these offices are inseparably united.	39:40
	Christ is king because He is also prophet.	39:45
	Christ is king because He is also priest.	39:50
	And the priesthood of Christ	39:56
	is as the epistles to the Hebrews declared this,	39:58
	Christ has no need like other high priests	40:03
	to offer sacrifices daily,	40:06
	first for his own sins, and then for those of the people.	40:09
	He did this once for all when he offered up himself.	40:15
	The strange kingship of Jesus	40:24
	then was not and could not be perfected on Palm Sunday.	40:27
	Its epiphany was postponed.	40:36
	His kingship required the week that followed	40:41
	when he would drink the bitter cup of absolute devotion.	40:45
	If the truly great are they that serve most as he taught,	40:50
	then the ultimate and absolute service	40:56
	was the narrow and straight way	40:59
	to the majesty of unequivocal self offering.	41:04
	The paradox of the Christian faith	41:11
	is that the kingship of Christ	41:13
	lies just exactly On the other side	41:16
	of the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice.	41:23
	This Jesus did once for all,	41:28
	when he offered up himself.	41:34
	It is a puzzling kingship, this kingship of Jesus.	41:38
	I find it both terrifying and awesome.	41:45
	Nothing in all of history has been able to detract from it	41:52
	are to refute its solitary majesty.	41:56
	The alienated children of our society	42:00
	may condemn the establishment and among them the church,	42:03
	but they cannot, it seems, quite abandon	42:08
	the supremacy of the one who requires no advocates,	42:11
	but stands in the self evidencing power	42:16
	of his own moral majesty.	42:20
	The rebellious and alienated know	42:23
	that with Him there is authority,	42:27
	even all power and authority in heaven and on earth	42:31
	because with Him was the ability	42:35
	to place the love of God and neighbor	42:39
	above every solicitation of self will.	42:41
	So Christ is king because He exercised this priesthood.	42:48
	In this perspective,	42:59
	the words of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus"	43:02
	that resounds annually in this great sanctuary,	43:05
	brings us to our feet.	43:10
	King of Kings and Lord of Lords.	43:13
	And He shall reign forever and ever.	43:16
	The kingdoms of this world	43:21
	shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.	43:23
	And He shall reign forever and ever.	43:30
	But one final question.	43:38
	How does Jesus Christ reign forever and ever?	43:42
	I answer simply from the standpoint of the Christian faith.	43:51
	Christ reigns, insofar as the self-authenticating power	43:58
	of His moral majesty overrules, our tortured self obsession	44:05
	and sets us free.	44:14
	Christ reigns in man, or He does not reign at all.	44:18
	It is in this sense that His kingdom is not of this world.	44:24
	Christ reigns when we concede for ourselves,	44:30
	the honesty and ability of his authority for our lives	44:36
	and find our destiny fulfilled in a task,	44:42
	which He give us by being what He was, our priest.	44:47
	It is the enlargement, this task of his moral majesty,	44:54
	his kingship over the whole of life.	45:01
	From the Christian perspective then,	45:08
	the message of Palm Sunday is still,	45:13
	behold your king cometh unto you.	45:17
	It is the kingship of moral majesty.	45:21
	And the question is, will you and I own him as Lord.	45:26
	Let us pray.	45:34
	Thine oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory	45:41
	and the victory, and the majesty	45:46
	for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine.	45:51
	Thine is the kingdom, oh, Lord,	45:56
	and thou art exalted as head above all, so be it, amen.	46:00
	(soft music)	46:13
	(soft music)	48:28
	(soft music)	50:27
	(woman singing faintly)	50:55
	(soft music)	53:31
	Oh God, in whom we live and move and have our being,	56:53
	we offer and present unto thee, our silver and our gold.	56:59
	The symbol of ourselves,	57:06
	to be a reasonable holy and living sacrifice unto thee,	57:09
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	57:16
	And now unto God's gracious, mercy and protection	57:25
	do we commit you.	57:30
	The Lord bless you and keep you,	57:33
	the Lord make His face to shine upon you	57:38
	and be gracious unto you.	57:42
	The Lord, lift up his countenance upon you	57:45
	and give you peace, this day and forever more, amen.	57:50
	(church bell tolling)	58:02
	(soft music)	58:20