Middletown United Methodist Church

This week we focused on the supporting role of Jonathan and the importance and power of relationships. By the end of this sermon you should think about who has refrigerator privileges in your home.

This week we take a look at the supporting role of Abigail. She was known to be something of a peacemaker. How many Abigail's do you know? Do you think the world needs more?

After spending weeks walking through the suffering and death of Christ we celebrate that he has overcome death and has risen! Easter is the promise that throughout history has been an occasion of great doubt but also a source of profound faith. The text in John involves a lot of running, first Mary Magdalene finds the empty tomb and runs to Simon Peter. We have good news to share on Easter, the good news that the grief we hold from Good Friday can be turned into the joy of Easter, are we running to tell the good news? Are we shouting from the mountain tops? Easter is the moment in which we are called to share the message, Mary Magdalene didn’t hold the news to herself but shared it with others. Let’s get running to spread the message that Christ Has Risen!

Maundy Thursday is a time when we remember the coming hour, the moment that will begin our journey to the cross. The moment that began the stations that we focused on during the Lenten season. On this day, we remember that Jesus serves, he feeds, he kneels and he washes the feet of his followers. He tells them then to do the same for others. He chooses to wash their feet in a humbling posture, he lays everything aside to serve his disciples. Jesus asks the disciples “do you know what I have done for you?”this is the question that we are called to ask ourselves over the coming days, the saving work of Christ, what Jesus has done for us is not just about the cross. Do we know what he has done for us? And do we know what he is calling us to do? If we are following Christ and responding to all that he has done for us, we are following his command not only to wash the feet of another, but to love one another as Jesus has loved us. In this moment, Jesus lays everything aside to serve his disciples, how are we leading by Christ’s example? How are we loving one another? Caring for one another? Feeding and washing the feet of those around us?

On this last Sunday of Lent we go back to the entry into Jerusalem before the Stations of the Cross began. This Sunday we are called to reflect on the Stations of the Cross as we celebrate the triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the palm branches wave and the shouts of hosanna. We are reminded of the steps of the journey that Jesus will walk in the coming week. Palm Sunday is a moment of a call to communal faith and courageous proclamation of our faith as we share together as a community of faith. The people who lined the streets were common folk who experienced a message so powerful, that people followed Jesus and celebrated that he was the one that they have been waiting for. We celebrate this moment, but know that soon the religious leaders will consider him an antagonist and the nemesis to their survival. We have spent Lenten walking the Stations of the Cross in preparation for the week ahead and while we spend this Sunday waving palm branches and celebrating we are to be reminded of the journey that is ahead of Jesus and each of us.

Jesus striped of his garments. Clothing gave a person their social position, a place in society. Jesus is public stripped meaning that he no long as anything, he is an outcast. Jesus takes on the position of a fallen man, and at the foot of the cross the soldiers divide his clothing, his possessions. He is mocked, ridiculed, scorned, stripped naked and hangs before the world baring all the blame for each of us, suffering for each of us. Some scholars suggest that casting lots could have been some type of sticks, flatter stones, a made dice, or something similar. The comparison most often used today would be to that of flipping a coin. For today, flipping a coin is often a way to settle a dispute without arguing, deciding what to do, and a way of keeping the peace between two or more interested parties. How much more humiliation can Jesus experience?

The stations of the women along the Via Dolorosa are not explicitly found in the gospels. When Jesus was dedicated in the temple as an infant Simone gave the prophecy to his parents (Luke 2:34) and Mary’s heart would be broken as she watched her son go to death, the death of a criminal. While a story about Veronica is not found in the Gospel there are a couple of interesting traditions associated with her station. One story is that Veronica was the woman who touched Jesus’ robe to be healed from her bleeding disorder. Another tradition says that a woman named Veronica saw Jesus stumbling under the weight of the cross and wiped his bloody face with her fail, the name Veronica means “true image.”

Among insult and mockery Jesus carries the weight of the cross as he sets forth on the path to Golgotha. Jesus, the strong and mighty savior is overtaken by the weight of the cross on his back and the weight of each of our sins. He falls carrying our weakness and our sufferings and when the load becomes too heavy Jesus is given the assistance needed by Simon of Cyrene passing by. As we explore the physical burden of the cross that weighs down Jesus we are invited to look at the burdens we each carry from day to day, what are the burdens weighing us down? Shame, fear, old habits, lack of a job, lack of trust, bitterness, anger, heaviness of debt or the loss of someone or something dear. Is there something weighing you down that you need to give to Jesus allowing Jesus to carry them for you? In these moments who has helped you carry the cross? What are the people in your life who help you make it through the tough times, the people who helped you through pain?And how can you help others to hold up the heavy burdens in their lives?

Jesus was condemned as an imposter, mocked and beaten and tied down with the weight of the cross to walk the journey to the place of the skull. Jesus takes up the Cross, a symbol of suffering. We each have a cross, a trial or affliction that is hard for us to bear. Jesus told his disciples to carry their cross and turn their lives over to him. We are asked to do the same in our lives. Jesus does not simply call us to believe, but to commit our lives to him, trust in him and follow him. Our cross, the burden of being human, the burden of the world and so he goes before us and points out to us the way which leads to true life. What is the cross that we take on as Christians?

Jesus was condemned as an imposter, mocked and beaten and tied down with the weight of the cross to walk the journey to the place of the skull. Jesus takes up the Cross, a symbol of suffering. We each have a cross, a trial or affliction that is hard for us to bear. Jesus told his disciples to carry their cross and turn their lives over to him. We are asked to do the same in our lives. Jesus does not simply call us to believe, but to commit our lives to him, trust in him and follow him. Our cross, the burden of being human, the burden of the world and so he goes before us and points out to us the way which leads to true life. What is the cross that we take on as Christians?