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There are a couple different ways to do faith in the church. One way is to start with the

faith and then convince you of the rightness of it. If I was using this model of faith when it

comes to Jesus I would tell you who Jesus is, what he is about, and what you are to believe about

him. If you had questions I would ignore them. I would tell you that this is what you’re

supposed to believe about Jesus. You either accept it or reject it. You reject it at your own peril.

We don’t do faith that way at Chain of Lakes Church. We start with people’s questions

and then we examine how the Scriptures, tradition, and our own experiences have helped us

develop responses and answers to them. Through our questions we poke and prod and ponder—

and through our poking and prodding and pondering we develop a robust and mature outlook on

God. Our questions aren’t a sign of disrespect. Instead they are a sign of interest. We want to

understand. A way to understand is to keep asking questions until we are satisfied. We know

that some questions don’t ultimately have definitive answers, but this doesn’t bother us. We

come to the realization that there is a deep sense of mystery when it comes to God. Because of

our questions our beliefs about God are like a house built on a rock. They can withstand a lot of

scrutiny.

If you want to know who I am, I am a person who loves to listen to people’s questions

about faith. If you have particular questions about God, you would make my week by setting up

an appointment with me and asking your questions.

I particularly enjoy listening to the questions from people who are outside of the church.

I love to go to Cub Food or Wal Mart with our video team and ask people their their questions.

Isn’t it interesting to listen to that video and listen to people’s questions?

For the past three weeks, I’ve asked people from Chain of Lakes your questions about

Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. We received over 30 questions. I’ve put these
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questions in this brochure that I encourage you to get out of the bulletin. I’m going to share a

response to almost all of these questions. We’ve given you plenty of space in this devotion to

write down what you want to remember. It wouldn’t surprise me if God speaks to you through

this sermon and you want to write something down. If this sermon prompts more questions,

please send me an E-mail. In this brochure you’ll also find a devotion that has daily readings.

This week I’ve written a devotion that shares the significant events of Jesus’ last week on earth.

Holy Week is the most important week of the year in terms of faith. I encourage you to use this

devotion. You’ll also find a place that lists the prayer requests of our community.

With this introduction—I’d like to invite you to pray with me.

This sermon has a lot of teaching material. I’m always concerned that a teaching sermon

will come across as boring. I’m not trying to give an academic lecture. The format of

question/response does lead to sharing a lot of material

How I’m going to do this is I’ve grouped all of these questions, and I’m going to answer

them by group.

SLIDE What does Palm Sunday and why is it important

Palm Sunday is the day that the church remembers Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Jesus

rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. As he did this a very large crowd put their cloaks in front of

Jesus and cut down branches from the tree. John’s gospel said that the branches were palm

branches. As Jesus rode on the colt the crowd shouted out, “Hosannah! Blessed is the one who

comes in the name of the Lord! Hosannah.”

We can find the word Hosanna in Psalm 118:25. In English the Psalm reads:

SLIDE Save us, we beseech you, Of Lord! Psalm 118:25

If we transliterate the Hebrew word that is translated as “Save us,” we’ll discover the word

Hosanna. Another way to say “save us” is Hosanna. In our procession today when we said

“Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna,” we were saying “save

us.” When the crowds were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem they were saying “save us.”

What the crowds were saying is “Save us Jesus. Blessed is the one who comes in the

name of the Lord. Save us”

There was a tradition of people welcoming kings by waving branches. In the Old

Testament the king Jehu was welcomed with palm branches into Jerusalem. David’s son

Solomon was welcomed as a king as people waved Palm branches.

If we push into this question even more we can ask the question, “Who were the crowds

expecting Jesus to save them from?” Many expected that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem to

save the Jews from the Romans. They thought that Jesus was a Jewish king who would re-

establish Israel as a nation. The nation of Israel was destroyed 722 years before Jesus was born;

the nation of Judah was destroyed 587 years before Jesus was born. Ever since then they longed

to be a nation. Just a couple hundred years before Jesus there had been revolts against the

Romans called the maccabean revolts. Some people thought that Jesus would be the long-

awaited messiah who would establish a political kingdom.

Ever since the 4th century the church has remembered the procession of Jesus into

Jerusalem. Often what would happen is people would gather in a village. They would

participate in a blessing of the palms and hear a reading from the gospels. Then people would

process to the church building. Often the priest or even bishop would lead the procession. When

the group reached the church building would knock on the door of the church.
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At first this day was called “willow” or “olive” Sunday as people weren’t convinced that

the trees that lined the path that Jesus took were palm trees. Some thought they were willow or

olive trees.

What happened in Holy Week? Would faith be the same without the events of Holy Week?

In Holy Week we remember the last week of Jesus’ life. Palm Sunday, Maundy

Thursday, and Good Friday make up Holy Week. Maundy Thursday is the day where the church

remembers the last Supper—the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples. The

sacrament of Communion was started on Maundy Thursday. Maundy is a Latin word for

mandatum or commandment. Another way to say Maundy Thursday is Commandment

Thursday. We remember the new commandment that Jesus gave to love one another.

Holy Week was first celebrated during the last part of the 3rd century.

One of the questions that I find intriguing is this, “Would faith be the same without the

events of Holy Week? I’m glad that this question is in bold and underlined because our response

to this question will have important implications to our faith.

Would you view Jesus differently if he had lived to the age of 70 and died peacefully

with his family around him. If Jesus hadn’t suffered the agony of the cross and then was raised

from the dead would we look at him differently? Or as someone asked in the video, “Could

Jesus have done more good if he hadn’t died that way [violently on the cross].

Let me share three responses to this question.

First, the writers of the four gospels thought that the events of what we call Holy Week

were very important. This week I totaled up the number of chapters in the four gospels. There

are 88 chapters in Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. Depending on how you count a half chapter—

24 or 25 chapters of the gospels cover Holy Week. Over a fourth of the gospels cover Holy
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Week. Just these facts tell us that the gospel writers thought the events of Holy Week were a

significant part of the story of Jesus.

Second, without the events of Holy Week we wouldn’t have a Savior. If Jesus hadn’t

died Jesus would be a man who was a great teacher—the greatest teacher in the history of the

world. Jesus is not complete without his death and resurrection. There would be no need to

confess our sins if Jesus hadn’t died and was raised. You and I are restored to relationship with

God because of the cross and the empty tomb.

Third—think about how our life this week would be different if these events hadn’t

happened. We wouldn’t have had a procession today. Palm Sunday wouldn’t exist. We

wouldn’t celebrate Communion. The first observance of Communion was during Holy Week.

We wouldn’t remember Jesus’ death on Good Friday. Our kids would have to go to school on

Friday if Jesus hadn’t died. Without Holy Week we wouldn’t have the resurrection. Without

Holy Week we wouldn’t even worship on Sunday. Before the resurrection the Sabbath was on

Saturday and not Sunday.

Someone asked the question, “Who killed Jesus?” The Sanhedrin was a council of 71

religious leaders who ruled over the religious affairs of the people. Jesus was brought before the

Sanhedrin on the charge of blasphemy. The Sanhedrin convicted Jesus of the charge and turned

him over to Pontius Pilate—who was the Roman leader of Jerusalem to have him killed.

Some people have asked the question, did Jesus really die. This is another hard question

to answer in 30 seconds. To answer this question let me teach you about docetism.

SLIDE: Docetism

Are a lot of us familiar with docetism? Docetism is the belief that Jesus’ physical body was an

illusion and the crucifixion was an illusion. This view was started by a group of people called
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the Gnostics around the year 70. They believed that Jesus was purely a spirit and thus he never

died. If Jesus was a pure spirit and his body was an illusion, then he was not human. Because he

was not human he never died.

Throughout history the church has determined that docetism is not right. The best

argument against docetism is the Bible. Think about all the times that Jesus shared emotions.

When Jesus was on the cross he said he was thirsty—spirits aren’t thirsty; Jesus wept when he

found out about Lazarus’ death; Jesus felt compassion on the crowds before he fed them; Jesus

was angry with the religious leaders of his day because of what they had done to the people.

Jesus had emotions—the same emotions that you and I have. He was human.

We believe that Jesus did die. When his body was taken off the cross it was lifeless. His

brain stopped working, his heart stopped pumping, his lungs stopped breathing. When Matthew,

Mark & Luke described what happened on the cross they wrote that Jesus breathed his last.

Jesus was dead.

Someone asked the excellent question, what was the trigger point when the people

changed their support for Jesus? Many of the same people who yelled “hosanna” on Palm

Sunday yelled crucify him on Good Friday. I think the crowds were manipulated because they

didn’t understand the purpose of Jesus. As I shared earlier many in the crowds thought Jesus

was going to overthrow the Romans. When it became obvious to them that Jesus wasn’t going to

overthrow the Romans they were susceptible to manipulation. The religious leaders of Jesus day

saw Jesus as a threat. Jesus was healing people, and he said that the laws of Moses were

important but the most important law was to love God and to love our neighbor as we love

ourselves. Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites. The religious leaders could see a
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revolution happening. Their positions of power would be ended if the revolution happened.

They conspired to kill Jesus.

This combination of the crowds misunderstanding of Jesus along with the religious

leaders desire to have Jesus killed led to the manipulation of the crowds.

It’s very important for us not to hold the Jews responsible for Jesus’ death. There’s a

long tradition of anti-Semitism that goes back to blaming the Jews for killing Jesus. Anti-

Semitism still exists. It’s fueled by the belief that the Jews killed Jesus. Jjust last month Pope

Benedict made a statement saying that the Jews weren’t responsible for Jesus’ death. He

wouldn’t have made that obvious statement without a reason.

One of the most meaningful Holy Week songs for me is “Were you there when they

crucified my Lord?” (Sing song) The answer to the question for me is “yes.” Anyone of us

could have been part of the crowd shouting for Jesus to be crucified. Any one of us could have

been conspiring with the religious leaders to have Jesus’ killed. Who isn’t susceptible to wanting

to hold on to power at the expense of others. The crucifixion of Jesus is not a story about a

religion or a nation. It’s our story. It’s a human story. The crucifixion keeps happening. It

happened this week in Libya when the rebels were carpet bombed; the crucifixion happened

when a group of University students were run over by a drunk driver and the driver kept on

driving. The events that led to the cross happen all the time. It’s a human story.

Next set of questions are detail questions

SLIDE Detail questions

Calvary was the place of Jesus’ death. It’s about a third of a mile from Pilate’s palace. In Jesus’

weakened state it probably took at least a half hour for Jesus to make that walk. According to

Mark, Jesus was put on the cross at nine in the morning. Jesus died at 3:00 in the afternoon. He
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spent six hours on the cross. Traditionally people teach that Jesus was nailed to the cross in five

areas—one in each wrist, one in each foot, and one in his stomach Jesus was traditionally

thought to be 33 years old when he died. His mother Mary was at the foot of the cross as Jesus

died. Mary’s husband Joseph wasn’t at the cross. It’s thought that Joseph was older than Mary.

People have deduced that since he was older than Mary and since there was no mention of

Joseph in the gospels since the time Jesus was 12 that Joseph had died. People didn’t see Jesus’

being raised.

SLIDE Jesus’ self-perception

Some of the most interesting questions are about Jesus’ self-perception. Did Jesus know what

was going to happen to him? Was he scared? What was going through his mind at the time?

Four times in Matthew Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die and then three

days later he would be raised from the dead. These are called the passion predictions. In fact

Jesus went to Jerusalem so that he would suffer. Right away when Jesus shared his passion

prediction controversy followed. The first time Jesus shared a passion prediction Peter began to

rebuke Jesus. “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happened,” Peter said. Jesus told Peter,

“Get behind me, Satan. You’re setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” It

was always the divine desire for Jesus to die and be raised.

How did he feel about this? We can find answers to these questions by looking at the

story of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. Shortly after Jesus celebrated the Last

Supper he went to the garden with his closest disciples—Peter, James and John. The garden

most likely had a grove of olive trees. When they arrived at the garden, Jesus told the three that

he was deeply grieved and agitated. He wanted to be by himself. Jesus walked away from them

and threw himself on the ground. He prayed, “Father or Abba, if it is possible, let this cup pass
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from me.” When Jesus said cup he meant the cup of wrath—it was the death and pain that he

would experience on the cross. Jesus actually asked that his Abba stop the events of the cross

from happening. At that moment even Jesus—the Son of God—had doubts about going to the

cross.

This story has caused lots of controversy because for some people it’s hard to accept that

Jesus could have doubts about going to the cross. If we look at Jesus as a divine spirit in a

human body who experienced no emotions or uncertainties, then this story is going to cause

problems. But if we think of Jesus as both divine and human, we can understand his uncertainty.

Despite his uncertainty, Jesus still was willing to the the will of his abba. For after asking

that the cup of wrath be taken from him, Jesus said, “yet not what I want but what you want.”

Even amidst doubts Jesus was willing to do the will of his abba.

After Jesus said this he came back to find Peter, James and John asleep. Two more times

he repeated this cycle. He went away a second time and prayed this same prayer. He came back

and found the three asleep. He went away a third time and prayed this prayer. He came back a

third time. This time he saw Judas who was there to betray Jesus.

This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. If you ever have doubts about something,

don’t be critical of yourself. Jesus had doubts about going to the cross. The key part was Jesus

wanted to fulfill the will of his Abba. This is the key teaching for us. The life of faith is always

trying to do the will of God in our life—even when it is difficult and painful.

Why did Judas ultimately betray Jesu?. Some people think that Judas was disillusioned

with Jesus. Judas wanted Jesus to overthrow the Romans and obviously Jesus didn’t do this.

Some people think that Judas was greedy. He wanted the 30 pieces of silver that the religious

leaders were offering to him.

Before we are too critical of Judas, let’s remember that all of us are capable of betraying

someone. Sown inside of us is the possibility of betrayal. How would we feel if we were

disillusioned with another person? If the hopes and dreams we had for another person was

crushed. Think how easy it would be to betray that person—for 30 pieces of silver?

Perhaps the hardest question I received was via E-mail. The person wanted to know what

happened in the time period between Jesus’ death and his resurrection. What happened between

Friday at 3:00 and whenever Jesus was raised.

The Apostles’ Creed has a phrase that said Jesus descended into hell. What does that

mean and why does this creed say that Jesus descended into hell. Some people have taught that

Jesus went to Hell to set free the righteous people who were there. Some people think that Jesus

came under the power of death and when he left hell he conquered death. Some people have

taught that Jesus went to hell so that he could understand the hell on earth that some people

experience.

Muslims believe that Jesus didn’t die on the cross. When Kashif Saroya spoke last

November at Chain of Lakes he said that Muslims don’t believe Jesus died on the cross. The

Jews don’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They don’t believe that Jesus died to share

forgiveness with us.

What matters to me as your pastor is what does Holy Week means to each person at

Chain of Lakes. In particular I want to wrap up by saying what Palm Sunday means to me.

Palm Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s amazing to me that Jesus would choose

to enter Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus was the most powerful person in the universe. If he

wanted to he could have made the lightning flash in the sky in the way that would have caused

every person in Jerusalem to bow down on their knees in fear and trembling. But instead he
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entered the city peacefully, non-violently. He gave up power to display an amazing power. His

example teaches us. Many of us are working this week and our boss or a co-worker says or does

something that is rude. It would be easy to lash out. Instead follow Jesus’ example. Respond in

love and compassion. Maybe one of our kids are treated unfairly in school. It would be easy to

yell at their teacher. Instead talk and listen. Maybe some of us have doubts about the direction

of our life. Remember the doubts that Jesus must have had as he came into Jerusalem. Many in

the crowd misunderstood him.

May all of us take this image of Jesus into Holy Week 2011 and live it out.