Bible Text: Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 21:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Lent 2022 | Our epistle is perfectly chosen for today. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Look at Jesus’ one-track mind. He goes to Jerusalem. He knows exactly what waits for Him there. He’s said it over and over again to His disciples. He’s going to be betrayed, handed over to the Roman authorities, tortured, and killed. He knows His enemies are waiting for Him. He could stay with the crowds up north in Galilee. He could keep doing His miracles and all would rally around Him. No one could touch Him. But He does the opposite. He goes deliberately to Jerusalem, He stops all his miracles (with a couple exceptions), and as Isaiah prophesied of Him, He set His face like flint, to suffer and die for sinners. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. It is myopic, single-minded, close-minded if you will, concentration on one thing, His death and resurrection. Let this mind be in you, this thought always occupy your mind, Jesus, your Creator and your Brother, humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, and rose again the third day. This is everything.
This is not at all to say that you should ignore everything else in life, work and relationships and politics and health. That’s not what Jesus did. It’s to say that whatever else you think of, whatever else you enjoy in life, whatever else you struggle with in life, whatever problems you face, whatever worries you, you should see all things through Jesus’ cross and resurrection. Without it, everything is meaningless. Politics is nothing but squabbling over money and pride with lives ruined in the wake of men’s ambitions. And without Jesus our personal issues are just the manifestation of our self-conceit. But with Jesus’ death and resurrection everything comes into focus, we have the reason for living and so the foundation and goal of life.
It’s not ok when preachers don’t preach on the issues of the day, when they don’t address the problems that you are facing right now, politically and socially and personally, the instruction you need to be a good husband or wife, a good son or daughter, a good mother, father, citizen and worker. God’s Word addresses all these things and Jesus says that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. But we can never allow church to so concentrate on political or social issues that we lose the concentration on Christ and Him crucified. We can never lose this singlemindedness. When Paul came to Corinth, he said, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And he tells them that he handed down to them as of first importance, that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried, and was raised again the third day. Everything else flows from this. Demand this always from your pastors. Yes, ask them to be “relevant,” to address the problems you have and that our nation and community have, but insist all the more that they preach Jesus’ love to you, His suffering and His death to wipe away all your sins and make you right with God. There remains, no matter what else is pressing on you in life, again, either joy or sorrow, there remains nothing more relevant to your life right now than the fact that all your sin and all your guilt and your death and your hell have been swallowed up by the willing suffering of God your Creator and your Brother. Without this, as we sing, all other ground is sinking sand.
And Jesus teaches us exactly this. We said he had a one-track mind. That’s true. It’s also true that from the time he set his mind to go to Jerusalem to the time he actually gets there was quite a long journey. From Galilee to Jerusalem was more than a hundred miles. And Jesus was constantly surrounded by crowds. And so the entire time He’s trying to get to Jerusalem, which turns out to go from days, to weeks, to months, the entire time He’s focused on getting there and doing what is most important, he is also doing other things. He’s healing people, he’s teaching people, he’s dealing with the real issues that confront real people. He passes through Capernaum and tells his disciples to pay the tax, not because the tax was fair, but because Christians don’t care so much about money and they don’t want to fight about it. Jesus’ mind hasn’t suddenly been distracted from his mission here – he’s literally just told his disciples a second time why they’re going to Jerusalem – but he take the time to tell his disciples to pay an unfair tax, because his coming death and resurrection will win a treasure so great, riches incomparable, reconciliation with the Creator of the Universe, that it will teach our souls not to so obsess over earthly wealth or earthly rights, but to strive most to be and remain children of this God and citizens of his heavenly Kingdom.
And for miles of their journey to His death, Jesus talks to his disciples about ridiculously practical things, how important it is to forgive one another, that what He is about to do for them is like forgiving ten thousand talents, canceling an impossible debt, unparalleled generosity, that the Holy God would take upon Himself their sins, and so they must also forgive one another and not hold grudges. And He teaches them humility, that if they want to excel and advance in the Christian church they will do it by serving, just as, he says, the son of man has come not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
And Jesus’ journey to the cross continues. Once again he tells his disciples he’s going to Jerusalem to die. And now he’s in Judah, He’s almost there. But then there are Pharisees who come to meet him and they are advocating for no-fault divorce and Jesus teaches them that marriage is between one man and one woman for life. His myopic focus on the cross doesn’t stop him from talking about this. Because he’s going to the cross to restore creation, to bless marriages, to win the forgiveness that is necessary within a marriage, to be the great Bridegroom who lays down his life for His Bride and so to sanctify all marriage. His mission isn’t tangential to the concerns of marriage and family; it is essential to them. On the very same day the disciples try to stop moms from bringing children to Jesus, and Jesus rebukes them and teaches them that children need to be raised in the faith, that God finds them precious. And this again is not really a distraction from his focus. He wants to get to the cross. But that’s in order to take away the sins even of these children, to die even for the unborn, to bless and sanctify all human life and declare to the world that it is so precious that God Himself would bleed and die for it.
Then Jesus makes the final trek. He’s going through Jericho, Jerusalem’s just 15 miles away. And two blind men cry out for mercy to him. The disciples seem to get it by now. Jesus is in a hurry. He’s trying to get to Jerusalem. He’s stressed it so often by now it’s obvious even to them. So they tell the blind men to stop crying out, don’t bother the teacher, he has a more important task in front of him. But Jesus stops. And when he hears their cries for mercy, his guts are torn up, he feels bodily compassion for them and loves them and touches their eyes and heals them. Because this again is why He’s going to Jerusalem. He is the one who bears our diseases and knows all our human woe. And His suffering and His death are His promise to us that He cares for our sicknesses now, the failures and pains of our bodies, and that he wants us to cry out to Him in our need so that He can heal us. And His resurrection is the guarantee that He will heal us, in this life to a point, and in the life of glory forever and completely.
So none of these things were distractions for Jesus. Every single thing He confronted as He made His way to Jerusalem had to do with His cross and resurrection, had to do with the very reason He was making His journey, the very reason He had this singlemindedness.
And the same remains true today. The same remains true for you. Every single mundane, practical question or problem you have matters to Jesus because Jesus is your Savior, because He has borne your sins, because He is your Creator and yet He has brought creation into His very Person, shares your human nature, lived your human life, and has suffered its corruption to redeem it from corruption. Never think that your problems or your life out there in the world are in any way disconnected from your Creator’s love for you, His death for you, His resurrection to life. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Let his singlemindedness reign in you, not to the exclusion of all the rest of life, but to its fullness. Care deeply about the sanctity of marriage, about living a virtuous life and learning to forgive others, care about the moral direction of your country, about your health and your wealth, but do so only because you know why it all matters.
Because this life doesn’t end with death. And we are not simply the random product of evolution or the forgotten creation of some impersonal god. No, you are God’s careful creation, and you are accountable to Him for everything you do and say and think. He created you to love and know Him. And when you forgot Him and loved yourself instead of Him, His love so increased, His single-minded tenacity so persisted, that the Father sent His only Son, who set His face like flint to Jerusalem, insisted on taking all your sin and sorrow on Himself, on facing hell for you, because He wanted you with Him forever.
And now you have an eternal future, and this eternity began at your Baptism and will go on forever and ever. You are God’s child, baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works; you listen to Him, His Word rules your life, and it will guide your eyes always to His cross and resurrection, especially today, especially this Holy Week, and then all your life through, until at the resurrection of all flesh you see Him face to face.