"Letting Jesus have His Way"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

Palm Sunday 2006
The Church of the Good Shepherd

How many here have seen all three Lord of the Rings movies? In the first one, the Fellowship of the Ring , Gandalf and Frodo and everyone with them take a shortcut across a mountain range by going under it, through a place called Moria. In the book you find out that Moria was once a beautiful underground city carved out by a kingdom of dwarves. For hundreds of years the dwarves worked in peace under the mountains digging deeper and expanding their city until one year everything stopped. The kingdom fell. The city went dark and silent. No one on the outside knew what happened. For centuries the underground city remained dark; it became infested with goblins and orcs and other nasty beasts until one year some of the descendants of the former rulers reopened the city. They entered the mountain in force and over a period of years they cleared out the orcs and the goblins, rebuilt the ruins, and restored light to the old city. But they continued digging. Like the people before them, they reached the depths of the earth. They stripped layer after layer of hardened rock and mineral until one day they dug too deep and they found the reason the old kingdom fell. They awakened a beast called a Balrog. The Balrog was more powerful and more evil than any creature known on the surface. It was a horrible thing and ultimately it overpowered the dwarves and once more destroyed the kingdom. By the time Gandalf and Frodo and the rest passed through, the city was dark again and ruined.

  JRR Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings was a Christian. Most of his books were shot through with Christian imagery. His story about the underground city is no exception. Like that old city, God built or created the world to be beautiful and full of light. Who remembers what God said after he finished the work of Creation? “God saw all that he had made and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31.

  But the good world, the good people God made also fell into darkness. When Adam and Eve chose to follow their own desires rather than God, they turned away from the light and their hearts and souls fell into darkness and our world over which they were stewards or caretakers fell with them. Thousands of years later in the first century, human beings were still making the same choice, to live for themselves rather than God. The world was still in darkness and ruin.

  But God went back. Jesus is God returning to his dark world and his lost people to bring the light back. But Jesus also dug too deep.

  Think for a moment about Jesus' early days of ministry, before the events we heard about in Jerusalem . How did the people, not the Pharisees and teachers, but the people, how did they react to him? They loved him didn't they? He healed their diseases. He cast out their demons. He forgave their sins. He taught them about God. He fed 5000 people for free. He said wonderful things and did wonderful things. He brought light into the darkness. And the people loved him.

  It was at the very height of his popularity, that he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. And the donkey drove the people crazy with excitement. You may be wondering: “what's the big deal about the donkey?” European kings used ride white horses as a sign of their power. In Israel , kings rode donkeys. So on the Sunday before the Passover as the people looked out over the walls of Jerusalem and saw Jesus the most powerful and popular prophet in the nation come riding on a donkey toward the city, what do you imagine they thought? “He's was coming to take power!” “He's coming to kick the Romans out of Israel .” So what did they do? They grabbed their palms and ran out to greet him like a conquering king.

 But as soon as he entered the gates, everything changed. The first place he went when he entered Jerusalem was the Temple . And he didn't like what he saw. He saw that his people had set up a money exchange in the only section of the temple set aside for non-Jews, like the Romans, blocking their only access to God's house. This made Jesus angry. So angry that made a whip of cords and chased the money changers away. When we read that story we tend think Jesus was upset because people were selling things in Church. That's only part of it.

The biggest problem was that the people hated the Romans, hated all non-Jews so much they set up their market in the only area of the Temple specifically set aside for the gentiles to worship. Why? They'd hardened their hearts. They didn't want the Romans to find God. Don't get me wrong, they hated the Romans for good reason. The Romans were brutal, cruel, and merciless toward the Jews. They were murderers. We can understand I hope why the Jews didn't want the Romans to find God. They wanted them to die.

Have you ever felt like that about someone? Is there someone in your life now who you harbor so much anger and bitterness against that you would much rather God judge them than save them?

  If so you can see why people who one moment loved Jesus and were hailing him as their savior and king in only a matter of hours came to hate him and by the week's end they were screaming “crucify him.” Because they hated the Romans and Jesus turned a whip against his own people to make room for them in the holiest part of the city. Jesus wasn't going to let the people he loved harden their hearts. He refused to let them sit there in Jerusalem happy and content in their bitterness and hatred toward the gentiles. So he stripped away the layers of anger and dug to the very center of his people's bitterness against the Romans and he exposed it to the light because despite their cruelty and sin Jesus loved the Romans and wanted to call the Romans to repent and come to his Father. And despite their hardness, Jesus loved the Jews and he wanted them to be healed of their bitterness and anger. Jesus digs deep.

  And the people had a choice. They could let Jesus do his work and bring light to the city even though it was painful and difficult or they could let that dark beast that had ruled their hearts for centuries win out. We know the story. They chose darkness. It was too easy to kill Jesus and too difficult to listen to him; it was far easier to run from his word and his truth than to surrender to it; easier to nail his outstretched arms to the cross than to embrace him, because embracing him meant facing those dark and deep places and giving them up; letting Jesus have his way with them.

  I've only been a pastor for four years, but I've already seen it too many times. Someone meets Jesus. He comes into their life and begins to change things; make things new and better. He comes riding into their heart and sets himself up in the Temple . He gives them, for the first time, a sense of peace and joy and belonging. But then it happens. Jesus digs too deep. Every believer knows what I'm talking about.

Jesus peels away layers of darkness. He peers into the depths of your heart. He finds the hard spot; the dark spot and that's where he starts to work. He works your circumstances so that you come face to face with situations that bring the hardness and darkness to the surface and he says, “Chose me or chose it; you can't have both.”

Why does he do this?

My first instinct when I get hurt or I hurt somebody is to cut and run and then stuff it down deep in my heart. But because he made me Jesus knows that when I do that I don't really get away from the pain, I just plant it. It gets rooted in my heart and grows up into bitterness and hardness. It's the same for everyone. So when you surrender your heart to Jesus, he heads straight for those roots to pull them out. And it hurts. But he does it not to harm but to heal. He does it because he loves you.

  But all too often it's at this point that people turn their backs; people reject Christ because he comes too close and digs too deep.

That's why Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem . That's why he's still rejected in the world today. His light pierces the darkness but as John tells us in his gospel, “men love the darkness”.

You and I as believers, and Good Shepherd as a church, we face the same choice and have the same opportunity almost every day: darkness or light? Jesus' way or my way? Let him in deeper or shut him out?

  As believers God has chosen us to let him in; to let his light shine in our hearts and in the world around us. That's our mission. Let him delve as deep as he wants. Let him expose and deal with our hearts. When you're at church and you hear a sermon that strikes you to the core and convicts you. Don't turn away. When you're reading your bible and the Holy Spirit stops you short and says, “you need to deal with this in your life”, don't close the book. When God brings you face to face with your past or brings you face to face with someone you've hurt or someone who's hurt you, don't run away.

Stay with Jesus, let him do his work. Only he can dig out the deep darkness of your soul and heal the wounds and the bitterness he finds, but you've got to let him. Welcome him as your king and then let him cleanse the temple of your heart because that's the only way you'll ever find real, true, deep peace. I look back at who I was ten, fifteen years ago, and it's hard to believe I'm the same person. He's dug deep and it's been hard, but I can't imagine going back. He's going to dig deeper and find more junk, but I've got let him. I want to let him. It's so much better being free of those things, it's much better having Jesus than having my hard heart.

Jesus loves you so much. That's why he came back into the dark world. That's why he came into your heart. That's why he let himself be killed; for you, because he loves you. He wants to bring the light back. But you and I and this whole church, we have to let him. If we do the light will increase, the peace, love and joy will grow. Christ will be king and he will restore what was ruined, rebuild what was fallen, and redeem what has been lost. But have to let him.

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