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“THE COURAGE OF CHRIST”

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Mark 11:1-11

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Devotion, conviction, trust and vision encourage= us.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

March 16, 2008

There is a cute story = about a family that always went to church together. Practically every Sunday they were= in attendance. One Palm Sunday, = the older child, a boy about 10 years old, was sick, and he and his mother stay= ed home. After church, his little brother came bursting through the door, telling him about all that had happened. Evidently they had = had a dramatic production of the Palm Sunday event in church. Little brother described walking d= own the aisle with the palm branches and every body standing up and then Jesus = rode into the sanctuary on a donkey!

Now big brother was re= ally miserable. “Wouldn̵= 7;t you know it,” he cried. “I miss one Sunday, and Jesus shows up!”

We would all like to b= e here when Jesus shows up, wouldn’t we?&nb= sp; The good news is, Jesus is showing up today. Not on a donkey necessarily, but he promised that wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, he w= ould be there with them.[1] What better day than today to reco= gnize the presence of the Living Lord in our midst? It’s Palm Sunday—here = comes Jesus!

Palm Sunday is a great opening to the most dramatic week in the life of Jesus. But more than just the opening sce= ne in the Passion Play, his entry into Jerusalem is a supercharged symbolic action. There’s more going on here than meets the eye. The triumphal entry is a spiritual action with some pretty heavy political implications.

Palm Sunday reminds me= of Christians down through the years who have witnessed to their faith with political action. I remember a group led by a priest several years ago that blocked the entrance to a nucl= ear power station. I remember one= of the most vivid images of the Vietnam war protest era was a picture of some college students placing flowers in the gun barrels of National Guardsmen w= ho had been called in to stop the protest marches. Or think about thousands of civil = rights activists gathered on the mall in Washington, D.C., in 1963 to hear Dr. M= artin Luther King, Jr., speak. Thes= e were tense moments spiritually and politically.= I’m sure the tension was just as thick in Jerusalem the day Jesus rode into town.=

Jesus knew what he was doing. His entry into Jerusalem called = to mind the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures about the coming of the Messiah, the new King of Israel. The peopl= e of Jerusalem picked = up on it immediately and responded with the Messiah’s fight song: “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in th= e name of the Lord! Blessed is the c= oming kingdom of our ancestor David!”[2] The authorities did not f= ail to take notice, either. Imagine = for a moment that Billy Graham rode into Washington in the back of a limo, followed by thousands of people proclaiming him to be the new President of the United States.= How long do you think it would be before the Secret Service, the FBI, and the CIA would all be on the case?

Palm Sunday was an act= of courage on the part of Jesus. He knew very well what was waiting for him in Jerusalem and the kind of charged atmos= phere he was creating. He could have slipped in secretly. But he c= hose instead to use this moment to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. It must have been an awesome sight= ! In this event, we see who Jesus is= more clearly, and when we see him more clearly, we know who we are supposed to b= e. We find our identity in him, and w= e see how we can live our lives with courage.&nb= sp; Courage means doing the right thing no matter what. Let’s look today at the cour= age of Christ, and we can be encouraged.

We are encouraged toda= y by DEVOTION. Devotion is the outpouring of love= . Love is the basis of every Christi= an value and action. Jesus found the c= ourage to go into Jerusalem that day because he loved those people.&nb= sp; As he made his last desperate attempt to reach the people of Jerusalem, he wept over them and said, “Jerusalem= , Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather= your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were = not willing!”[3] Even knowing what they wo= uld do to him, he never stopped loving them. He never stops loving us, either.

Great love empowers gr= eat courage. I read several years= ago about a woman named Naomi Clinton, who came upon a tractor-trailer that was burning by the side of the road. When she stopped, she could see that the truck driver was still in t= he truck. She could see his hand waving desperately from the cab. Then his face appeared at the window, crying out for help, but the c= rowd was just standing there.

Naomi couldn’t j= ust stand there. She began running toward the flaming truck, with other people shouting at her to stay away, t= hat it was about to explode. She = said she felt a burst of power unlike anything she had ever felt before in her life. This little 111-pound w= oman jumped up on the truck, pulled open the jammed door, and grabbed that injur= ed truck driver under each armpit and pulled him out of the burning vehicle. She dragged him to safety and smot= hered the flames on his burning clothes and her own. Only after the police and fire tru= cks came and took over did Naomi even understand how courageous she had been. In fact, a reporter walked up and = asked her how she was able to do such a thing.&n= bsp; Naomi replied, “It was a power that came over me, a power that= was so much greater than my fear. I believe it was the power of God himself!”2

The courage of devotio= n is based on the relationship of love between us and our heavenly Father. Day by day, as we love him more and more, we find more and more courage to live our lives with power. On his eighty-fifth birthday, John Wesley wrote this remarkable poem:

I have only to say:

My remnant of days

I spend to His praise<= o:p>

Who died the whole wor= ld to redeem;

Be they many or few,

My days are his due,

And they are all devot= ed to him.3

A courageous life is t= he fruit of deep devotion to God.

Secondly, we are encou= raged by CONVICTION. Sometimes we can be courageous just because we know something is right beyond the shadow of a doubt. We have the courage of conviction.=

When he entered Jerusalem on Palm= Sunday, Jesus knew the path ahead of him would not be easy. He had predicted his own death at = least three times to his disciples. But he knew what he was doing was the right thing. It was God’s will; he couldn’t do otherwise. = In fact, in that intensive prayer session in the Garden of Gethseman= e, just moments before he was arrested, Jesus pleaded with God to let the cup = of suffering pass from him. But = it was not to be. So finally Jesus s= imply prayed, “Thy will be done,” and he stood up to face his betrayers. That took courage,= but the courage of Jesus was empowered by his conviction.

Mary McLeod Bethune wa= s one of the most dynamic leaders in 20^th century Methodism because she had the courage of her convictions. Born to former slaves in South Carolina, she was told as a child that black peop= le couldn’t and shouldn’t read.&n= bsp; This prejudice fueled in Mary an intense desire for learning and gave her a calling to provide educational opportunities to African-American chil= dren and young people, a vocation she followed for fifty years. Her crowning achievement was the founding of a college in Daytona Beach, Florida, which is known today as Bethune-Cookman College, a fully accredited four= -year college supported by the = United Methodist Church.

Despite her background= in poverty, and despite the racial prejudice she confronted at every step along her journey, Dr. Bethune kept persevering toward her goals. In her last public speech before s= he died in 1955, she made this statement: “It is one thing to pray, R= 16;thy kingdom come on earth,’ and it is another thing to get out and bring = in the kingdom through the courage of conviction, the knowledge of people, and= the ability to speak fearlessly and inspiringly to that end.”= 4

We can live with coura= ge when we know that we are doing what God wants us to do, what he has called = us to do, what he has placed a conviction in our heart to do.

The third encouragemen= t we receive comes from TRUST. We can do what God has called us t= o do because we trust God to provide the resources to accomplish his calling. God doesn’t leave us hanging= . Whatever trials we face in living = out our lives for him, he will give us what we need to overcome and to triumph. I never get tired of hearing Paul’s words in I Corinthians 10:13: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not le= t you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide a= way out so that you may be able to endure it.” Jesus trusted his heavenly Father = in his time of trial. Luke says his = last words from the cross were, “F= ather, into your hands I commend my spirit.”[4] We can also put our lives in our Father’s hands, and we can depend on the same God to get us through whatever life piles on top of us.

I read an inspiring Upper Room devotional some time ba= ck by a woman named Connie Carillo. It was heart-breaking to read about all that Connie had gone through. First she lost a family member in = the Oklahoma City bom= bing, and she took in her dead relative’s three teenagers to finish raising them. At the same time she was caring for her own mentally-handicapped daughter and recuperating from knee surgery. The stress caused fu= rther deterioration in her health, including asthma, high blood pressure, diabete= s, and hearing loss. Then Connie’s marriage began to fail.&nbs= p; If nothing else, she was making my problems seem mighty small!<= /o:p>

Instead of giving in to despair or bitterness, Connie decided to trust in God. She turned to Scripture and prayer= . She asked the church to pray for h= er. She accepted their support. And she survived! Her health eventually improved; her marriage got back on track; and her faith was strengthened in the process.= 5 Courageous living is not alw= ays done in the limelight of the world. Sometimes it takes courage just to deal with the difficulties of day= to day living. Every day is an opportunity for the encouragement of trust.

Finally, we are encour= aged by our VISION. We are encouraged when we can see = beyond the present circumstances to the greater picture God is showing us in the future. Jesus could enter int= o Jerusalem on Palm= Sunday with courage because he knew that beyond his suffering there would be exaltation. Beyond his humili= ating defeat there would be victory. Beyond his death there would be resurrection. He had predicted that, too. He was able to endure for the larg= er vision.

One of the most incred= ible stories of endurance I’ve heard recently is about a man who survived = for five and a half years in the “Hanoi Hilton,” the infamous prisoner-of-war camp run by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war. For all these years, this man suff= ered in solitary confinement, blistering in the summer heat and freezing in the winter cold. Almost daily he = was beaten and tortured. Several = times bones were broken, and he was sure he would die. On top of the physical suffering w= as the thought of his wife and little girl back in the United States who had no idea= if he were alive or dead.

Incredibly enough, he = did survive. He came home, and he= was reunited with his wife and daughter. Eventually he became the U. S. Senator from his home state of Arizona a= nd is now a candidate for the Presidency of the <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">United States. His name is John McCain.

(This is not a politic= al endorsement; it’s just an illustration. Maybe I can work in a Democrat bef= ore the election.) In his book Faith Of My Fathers, McCain said t= hat mere self-esteem is not enough to sustain a person through the kind of inhumanity he suffered. There= has to be a larger vision to empower such courage. What sustained John McCain and the= other prisoners through that awful time was faith in God, faith in country, and f= aith in their fellow prisoners. Wi= thout a faith in something greater than themselves, they would have lost their dignity, their courage, and the battle to survive.6

Following Jesus is an = act of courage. Not just being a chu= rch member, I mean really following him. It’s not easy to try to live your life like a Man who was crucified because he loved you. It takes devotion and conviction and trust and vision. Fortunately we have a model in the= One we follow. The more we can wa= lk in his footsteps, the more we will be authentic Christians and authentic human beings. Bill Hybels, pastor o= f Willow Creek Community Church, puts it this way: “Authentic Christianity is not learning a set of do= ctrines and then stepping in cadence with people all marching the same way. It is not simply humanitarian serv= ice to the less fortunate. It is a walk—a supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God. Thus the heart and soul of the Chr= istian life is learning to hear God’s voice and developing the courage to do what he tells us to do.”7

I want to invite you t= his week to walk the walk with Jesus. Watch his courage as he walks toward Calvary<= /st1:place>. See his devotion, his conviction, = his trust, and his vision, as he opens up a way for us to experience the resurrection. And be encouraged. Amen! =