Continuing to Bear Witness

​Palm Sunday – B                                                                                           LSB #’s 828, 835, 830
Text – John 12:17
 
The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb & raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.
 
CONTINUING TO BEAR WITNESS
 
 
Do you consider yourself an average American adult?      A study done in 2018 found that fewer than one in ten Americans talk about God,  faith,  religion  or spirituality   once a week.   The actual number was 8% who think about eternal things  at most – one day in seven.   The average adult says they have only one  spiritual conversation  per year.[1] 
   In the same study, data suggested that  while non-Christians are open to having spiritual conversations, their overwhelming answer was, “No!” when asked if they’d like to talk to a pastor  or some other church professional.   And yet, more than half of those respondents said they would speak  to a friend.[2] 
In every person’s life,  under the surface,  there are unresolved tensions,  unanswered questions,  unfulfilled longings,  unspeakable sins,   unrelenting fears.   To speak about them threatens us with a strong sense of vulnerability.     Whatever a person’s perspective on spiritual issues,  it always involves risk  & for that reason  spiritual conversations require trust. 
Whether we like it or not,  our culture has lost trust in religious institutions & those, like pastors, who represent the church.   But  people still do  trust their friends.   A friend  values you as you are   & is willing to meet you  where you are.    Jesus met Lazarus where he was – dead in the tomb.   Lazarus did not pray for help,  yet Jesus called him back to life anyway. 
That  is essentially our task as God’s children – to call others  back to life.  Granted,  we
don’t have the power to call them back to life  from physical death.  You & I  are tasked with calling people back to life  from spiritual death.   We do that by declaring the Good News that Christ has set us free  from our sinful condition.    Jesus has made up for our failures.   Our heavenly Father reconciled all people to Himself  with the sacrifice of His only Son. 
Will you allow God to meet you  where you are?   Will you allow Him to lead you  on the path to paradise?   The gate is narrow.    The way is hard,  but it does lead to living   joyfully & forever.  Very few people will reject the goal of living joyfully & forever.  The arguments arise  over how to get there,  &  what to do in the meantime. 
The struggle  of calling others to life,  is that people are looking for a broad & easy road  right here & now.   Compared to many people around the world,  & throughout history,  we have had an easy life.  We’d like to keep it that way.  Satan has other plans,  & that is the problem.  Adam & Even had an easy life in the Garden of Eden.  Satan had other plans then   as well. 
Many people were cheering at Palm Sunday but all of them,  other than Jesus,  had a different view of what exactly  was going on.   Jesus was entering Jerusalem to be sacrificed as their Savior.  The people thought He was entering the city as their king. 
He will be coming back as King  one day  to usher in the heavenly broad & easy road.  Until then,  it’s the narrow gate  & the way is hard,  but not because God wants it that way.  The problem is not with Him.  It’s with us.  Even though many people are willing to say they believe in Jesus,  the truth is,  they believe in Him  like they believe in the Easter bunny. 
How many of you believe in the Easter bunny?    Certainly no self-respecting adult in a Lutheran church service would admit that,  but every year,  91 million chocolate Easter bunnies are sold.  The Easter bunny is definitely real.  It just depends on how you define it.  Research has even been done showing that 59% of all chocolate Easter bunnies  are eaten  ears first!  Millions of people do believe in the Easter bunny.  It’s just  not a real live rabbit that lays eggs.  People believe in the Easter bunny as something you eat & then it’s done.  They don’t trust the Easter bunny to deliver them from or through the trials & tribulations of life.  You’re not going to open your heart & spill your guts to a piece of chocolate formed into the shape of a rabbit. 
Neither do most people open their heart & spill their guts to Jesus.  They might say they believe in Him, but in truth  it’s no different than the way they believe in the Easter bunny.  The reason the gate to salvation is narrow  & the way is hard  lies in the sinful human heart.   That means you,  & it means the preacher man  standing before you. 
 It also means the people who welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem 2000 years ago.  It means the generation of Israelites that were delivered from Egypt, “Yet God was not pleased with most of them, & their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”  (1 Corinthians 10:5 NLT)     Jesus made it perfectly clear where the problem lies when He spoke to the issue of divorce:
“Because of your hardness of heart  Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,  but from the beginning it was not so.”  (Matthew 19:8 ESV)      As Jesus entered Jerusalem, on what we call Palm Sunday,  crowds of people were willing to say they believe in Jesus,   yet,  by Friday,  they were shouting, “Crucify him!” 
The gate is narrow & the way of salvation is hard,  because even those who believe in Jesus as Savior from their sins,  due to their nature as sinful creatures,  have hearts that are hard & closed to God  in so many  different  ways.   The Holy Spirit wants to open  our hearts because that is how Yahweh enters in. 
The only way we can describe what we see  is that some people are just given the gift to believe.   Their hearts are naturally open to God.   Many others  need to have their hard heart  crushed  by the trials & tribulations of life.  Only then,  will those hearts be opened to God.  Only when the Holy Spirit has opened your heart  can you bear witness to God’s love & mercy.  Unfortunately, we feel a lot less vulnerable  when we press our heart  shut   & keep all the struggles of life inside.  Those struggles are evidence that our Creator is working to shape & mold us into the image of His Son.  It can be through those struggles that God reveals Himself. 
On Palm Sunday,  believing in Jesus & shouting Hosanna was the broad & easy road.  Everyone thought they knew what Jesus was doing.   By Good Friday  they had no clue what He was doing.  To believe in Jesus  when we have no idea what’s up  that is faith.  And it’s that faith  which bears witness to the power of God the Holy Spirit  at work in us. 
Unbelievers  will call that blind faith, because they are blind & unable to understand the things of the Spirit.  Do not be deterred  by their unbelief.   All of us know people who’ve chosen to take the broad & easy road.  We know people who’ve rejected God’s call to live,  & we also know there is not one thing  you or I  can do  to save them. 
God does work through our witness,  but it is still & always  the work of God when a person’s heart is opened  to Him.   John recorded in his Gospel, “The crowd that had been with [Jesus] when He called Lazarus out of the tomb & raised him from the dead  continued to bear witness.”  (12:17 ESV)   John also mentions that Jesus’ own disciples did not understand. 
After the resurrection,  & especially with Pentecost,  the disciples finally understood.  Jesus’ victory was far bigger than conquering Rome or the greedy, threatened religious leaders.  It was bigger  even  than raising people from the dead  only to have them die again.   Jesus’ victory over death  was about recreating everything,  perfectly  for eternity. 
His victory was over everything sin & death can do to us.  Jesus went to battle against the dark places in our hearts & minds,  the things we shy away from speaking of because that leaves us vulnerable.  Jesus took on our worst enemies: sin,  the wickedness infesting this world we live in, & Satan himself.  Ultimately, Jesus’ victory was over our greatest enemy – death & our grave.  What sin works in our lives – the unresolved tension,  unanswered questions,  unfulfilled longings,  unspeakable sins,   unrelenting fears – Jesus can erase forever & leave in their place the peace & harmony of heavenly paradise. 
Will you allow God to meet you  where you are?   Will you allow Him to lead you  on the path to paradise?   The reality is that most people answer no.   They’d rather sing the song, “I did it my way.”  They would rather see  than believe.  As far as continuing to bear witness goes, the truth is that most of the good that God does through us  is unseen. 
For salvation, the gate is narrow & the way is hard,  because our sinful hearts  are hard  & unyielding.  They are blind to the things of the Holy Spirit.  So Jesus’ victory over evil  came in totally unexpected ways.  It came riding into town on a donkey.  It came by way death on a cross.  It came through His resurrection  from the dead. 
Our calling & privilege is to continue bearing witness, no matter what we see.  In heaven we’ll see perfectly.  Until then, the heavenly Father sees all things on our behalf,  guiding & directing all of history to bring good to those who love Him. 
As a sign of His goodwill, Jesus rode into town on a donkey instead of a war horse,  & He is still working in ways of kindness rather than bloodshed.  That leaves us vulnerable,  if we follow Him,  yet Jesus meets us there,  not to crush us,  but to renew us & to recreate us.  You may even have an unbelieving friend  who trusts you enough to ask about it.  Amen. 
 
 
On Galilee’s high mountain  Christ gave the great command  in words of strength & promise  which all can understand: “All power to me is given  to do what I shall choose; therefore I send My children,  their witness I will use.”    Lord, gather all Your children,  wherever they may be,  & lead them on to heaven  to live eternally  with You,  our loving Father,  & Christ, our brother dear,  whose Spirit guards & gives us the joy to persevere.  Amen.  LSB 835:1, 6. 


[1] Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age, Barna Report produced in partnership with Lutheran Hour Ministries (2018) 7. 

[2] Ibid., 50.