It is Hidden in the Savior’s Rejection by the World

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Passage: John 18:33-19:21

Date: March 12, 2025

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Up and under.  Up to Jesus’ cross.  And under our own.  As we continue the Lenten journey, we consider the cross bearing that we share with Christ and that he shares with us: The cross always brings rejection, and to our astonishment, that rejection has glory hidden in it.  And tonight we find rejection from the world.  The world does not understand the cross and does not want to.  Listen to a portion of Jesus’ trial before the world in the court of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate: “‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.  Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’  ‘What is truth?’” Pilate asked.”

Could there be a sharper contrast?  On the one side is Jesus.  He testifies that he is a king and  that all who are on the side of truth listen to him.  Yes, listen to him in the sense of hearing and holding to his Word, in the sense of believing him, trusting him, and following after him. 

But on the other side, what does the world see?  A pathetic sight!  Ridiculous claim!  This Jesus a king?  Handed over by his own people who scream for his death?  Jesus’ kingdom consists of those who love the truth—and yet there is not one person who defends him, or speaks out for him, or is willing to come forward and declare himself a follower of this King?  Not one?  The world even prefers option B for Barabbas, a rebel and a murderer.  After all, how is it that this king is captive to a petty Roman official?  Beaten and spat upon by his own people.  Soon about to endure far worse at the hands of Pilate’s soldiers.  “Some king!”  The world says.  “Some kingdom!  Some truth!”

And there stands Pilate, vocal representative for the world.  He views and judges this Jesus through his eyes of human reason.  Will he uphold justice?  He listens to Jesus.  But no, justice would lose out to his love of his position and convenience.  His reason rules, and it finds the whole message to be nothing but foolishness, and a nuisance, and bother, and inconvenient, and sparking a troublesome mob.  Pilate sees no criminal in Jesus and yet punishes him anyways with flogging, a gruesome and painful torture that often killed its victims, and then the execution of this king. 

Why such hostility?  Such anger?  Such violence against someone that on the outside seems so weak and frail, even foolish?  It all hinges on that one little word that Jesus spoke to Pilate, the word “truth.”  Jesus said that he was the King of truth, who had come into the world to bear witness to the truth!  Pilate, however, wanted no truth from this Jesus.  He had already made up his mind.  He was not going to hear this guy preach about truth.  He reasoned, “there is only me; there is only the moment.  My truth is that I already have my needs, my wants, my will, my goals, my ambition, my pleasure, my power.  And we understand Pilate, because by nature we want what he does.  Any other truth is bound to get in the way of those things.  Something else?  Something more?  Such a truth would challenge me to give up my single-minded devotion to me. 

If Pilate would have listened, would things have turned out different?  No.  For the message of Jesus and his cross always provokes hatred and hostility from the world.  The truth of the law calling out my devotion to myself was there in fallen Eden and every day since.  This truth is that even in our best works and on our best days, we still offend the holiness and justice of God.  That truth is irritating.  We recoil at it.  Because we want divine truth to be about me in the moment.  This is evident over the pages of history, evident when I look into the honest mirror of God’s law, and evident from the mouth of Jesus.  And I still don’t want to hear it.  You and I declare with Pilate: “Away with this truth and the King who proclaims it!” 

But wait!  Thankfully there is more to the message from the King of truth than the guilty verdict over all of us and all our works.  He comes chiefly and primarily with this greatest truth of all: that he himself is the solution to the problem of our sin.  He is our only solution.

And how will he solve the problem of sin?  Will he give us a new law to keep?  Will he tell us that our sin doesn’t matter after all?  Will he bid us to just do the best we can and God will be satisfied and overlook the rest?  Is that the great truth that he brings?  No!  If that were the truth that Jesus brought, the people would not have flogged and crucified him.  But the King declares himself to be the only solution to the problem of sin, of death and hell that all deserve.  Christ alone will embrace all the sin and guilt of the world as our substitute.  The solution is that salvation will be a free gift, won by the crucified, secured for us by the crucified, and given in the message of the crucified.  But, tragically, the truth of the gospel that saves is even more despised than the truth of the law that condemns.

So here is the great mystery and the profound truth: So depraved is mankind that by nature we hate to be told the truth that we are depraved; and so great is our corruption that by nature we hate still more the truth that the only solution to the punishment we deserve is Jesus, the King of truth. You would think that people would stampede to this Jesus who delivers from death and hell.  Not so.  Now if we offered them free gas or free health care or free money, we would be trampled in the stampede.  But free salvation?  Free heaven?  Free rescue from hell?  No, not that!  “Away with him!  Crucify him!  Give us Barabbas!”

Jesus’ cross alone saves.  Up we go to follow.  Yet those who follow to the cross must also follow under the cross.  That is the mark of the Christian, the sign of the cross.  For wherever the King of truth appears with the message of truth, there will be hostility, opposition, and at times even violence.  

As a cross has two beams, so the hostility to the cross has two beams as well.  The first beam is the one that we carry from our own nature.  Our own flesh, along with Pilate, dismissed Jesus’ truth.  By nature we don’t want an answer outside of ourselves.  “Right and wrong that come from God?  I already have me” we reason.  “I’m going to value this today and that tomorrow.”  People shouldn’t commit adultery; but if my children or my friends live together before marriage.  “But I’ll just look the other way.”  People shouldn’t hold grudges or gossip.  “But, God, you don’t know what was done to me!”  People shouldn’t steal or cheat.  “But the prices are too high and people have stolen from and cheated me!”  People shouldn’t be arrogant and self-righteous, “but let’s face it, we really are better than most, aren’t we?”

Then comes the confession in the liturgy: “I, a poor miserable sinner.” “No, no,” objects our flesh, “I don’t want to hear about that.  It’s so depressing!.”  Then comes the message of forgiveness: “In the cross of Christ you have all you need.  You are forgiven.  Your sin washed away.  You are redeemed by Jesus and restored as a dear child of God!’”  But the inborn flesh likes that news even less!  “Well, yea but I work hard.  I deserve what I get.  God is at least a little bit lucky that I’m on his side, and be at least a little flattered that I believe in him at all, given the world we live in today.  And if he doesn’t treat me right, I’ll show him and walk away from him, his church, and his truth.”

So the first beam of the cross that we Christians carry is the beam of our own sinful nature that hates the truth of the law and despises the truth of the gospel.  The second beam is the hostility of the world, who simply can’t stand the message of truth about Jesus.  Our world wallows in vice and wears corruption as if it were a badge of honor.  Perversions demand honor and respect in the world.  And woe to anyone who says, “But the Bible shares truth.”  And woe to anyone who says, “Jesus is the only solution and the only way to heaven.”  “No, no!  Away with such a one,” the world declares.  “Away with such a one from the earth!” 

So we see Jesus today in our reading.  The King.  The one who brings truth, the only truth.  His glory and the glory of the truth that saves is hidden under the cross.  The world wants no part of him.  And still, watch his reaction!  You might expect a lightning bolt from heaven to strike the crowd or earthquake under Pilate’s to make the world listen to the truth that Jesus has come to proclaim.  He endures it!  He takes it!  

Truth from the King is enough.  The time will come for his awe and wonder – for his exaltation and for judgment.  But that is all in his hands and not ours.  We journey under the cross as we go up to the cross.  We share the weakness and the humiliation until the Last Day.  And why is that?  Because our glory too is hidden under the cross of rejection.  Jesus works his Word  quietly in hearts creating faith when and where the Spirit wills it.  It is a miracle brought on by the gospel message, not by our theatrics, cleverness, might, or merit.  

The whole world may want to get rid of the cross and its truth – and the world has tried for almost two thousand years.  Yet gospel truth remains in the world, creating faith as God wills.  The truth still creates saints who lay their whole lives of sin and shame at the foot of Jesus’ cross.  Thousands still rise up while under the cross, to sing the praises of the Lamb that was slain and has redeemed us by his blood.  They rejoice in Christ.  They do not depend on a poll or public opinion or the views of human intellect.  No, their certainty rests on the Word of God and the work of God, even under the cross of hostility and persecution.  Heaven and earth may pass away.  But what Jesus gives will last forever!  Oh, may we always remain in the blessed number of those who know that glory hidden under the cross. Amen.

“It is Hidden in the Savior’s Solitude”

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Passage: Luke 18:31-34

Date: March 5, 2025, Ash Wednesday

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Our Lenten journey this year begins with the Lenten journey of Jesus and his disciples as it was so many years ago.  We hear Jesus’ call to go with him up to Jerusalem and to the cross  in Luke 18:31-34:  “He took the Twelve aside and said to them, “‘Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.  Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles.  They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him.  On the third day, he will rise again.’  They did not understand any of these things.  What he said was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was said.”

Jesus’ call to them and to us on this Ash Wednesday, gives us a bloodcurdling preview of what we are about to see in

this great drama of Lent.  It is horrible in the extreme.  It is shocking.  The Creator of the universe will be mocked and insulted?  How can that be?  The one who gave us breath at birth will be beaten within an inch of his life?  Is that possible?  He who is the author of every good and perfect gift that we have ever had since we were born, will be cruelly tormented and then shamefully executed?  His glory is hidden – hidden completely in the cross.

Do you ever wish that you could have been there?  Does the thought ever spring to mind: “Ah, Lord Jesus, if only you could have taken me along!  Maybe I could have helped you.  Maybe I could have wiped your face with a cool towel.  Maybe I could have yelled to the crowds that all that you were doing was for our salvation.  Maybe I could have been at least one witness on your behalf at your trials.  Maybe I could have done something, just some little thing, to lighten your burden, to show my love and gratitude for what you were doing for me.”  Don’t you sometimes want to say that to him as he begins his journey again to the cross?

Jesus takes us aside with the Twelve and announces, “We are going up to Jerusalem.”  And by faith we follow after him but we cannot help him.  The Twelve could not help him either.  Take note of the glory hidden in the coming cross.  Jesus makes it clear that “We are going up to Jerusalem.”  And after that one little word, “we,” the subject of the sentence changes.  He does not say, “We are 

going up, and we will suffer.”  No.  We are going up.  But it is Jesus alone who will suffer.  The Son of Man alone will fulfill the Scriptures.  The Son of Man alone will be mocked, insulted, spit upon, flogged, and killed.  All who follow him to the cross, his first disciples and we along with them, can therefore only be spectators at this great drama that is about to unfold.  He will not go there to show off his glory.  His glory is that he alone is the Savior.  His glory is hidden in the horrible solitude of all he suffered that our salvation should be entirely the gift that comes through his cross and his alone.

This is the way it must be, Jesus would tell us.  For he is going with purpose.  He is going to fulfill the Scriptures, to fulfill all that was written about him in the Old Testament.  Nothing will soften the blows.  Nothing will relieve the pain.  No one will help him.  Not his mother, not the Twelve, not the church or the state; no one helped him. To be sure, the angels served him for a moment in Gethsemane.  But during his trial and execution, even the angels are nowhere to be told.  Oh, what sadness that we cannot help him whom we love and adore!

The truth is that we would prefer to have the shame of his passion hidden and the glory of his resurrection on display.  But Jesus will have none of that.  All will see his shame.  No one will view the glory of the resurrection.  That will be hidden and made known only by his Word and the testimony of the few who saw him after that incredible event.  

But there is still more to it than all that.  Not only do we not help him in his agony – we caused it all in the first place.  From beginning to end, all that he has said that he will do on this journey he is doing in our place, in our stead, and on our behalf.  Was he despised and rejected?  We should have been.  Was he left alone with no help in the hour of pain and sorrow?  We should be.  Did even his Father abandon him at the crucial moment on the cross so that in the midst of life he was suffering the torments of the condemned in hell?  That was our lot.  We were conceived and born deserving that.  We have turned aside from his Word and sinned every day so that we deserve his suffering for all time and for all eternity.  

And truth be told, we didn’t even care that our sins would bring him to such suffering, such abuse, such a death.  How many times in a day do we turn aside from him without even thinking and refuse even to go up with him to Jerusalem?  We have better things to do.  We have our minds and hearts fixed not on him but on our own pleasure and convenience.  It is easier to watch television or scroll on our phones than to pray.  It is more convenient to love gossip or the lusts of the flesh than his cross.  For family bickering, there is always time.  For his Word and a family devotion, well, perhaps later.  It is time now, we often think, for the sports highlights, not for highlights in his words of salvation.

And it gets worse still.  We imagine in our total wickedness and depravity that we are not totally wicked and depraved.  We yawn or maybe even get irritated when someone points it out, especially during Lent.  We vainly assume that somehow or other there is at least a scrap of merit in us for which we should not have to suffer and for which he should therefore not have had to suffer either.  To put it another way, we imagine there is some good in us that does not require his journey to the cross.  We don’t like to recognize, much less confess the sin of our arrogance. It is the sin of thinking that at least a little bit in us needs no forgiveness and, yes, is even deserving of some eternal reward.

Where’s Jesus?  Going up to Jerusalem to suffer for everything that we are and have been when we did not perfectly love God and serve him with all of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our strength.  And when was that?  Every moment of our lives!

For we go up to Jerusalem, up to the cross with him in Lent.  But don’t follow too closely, as if you were going to somehow be of help to him.  We can do nothing to help him.  All that we have done only adds to his sorrow, his pain, his suffering, his death.  We are the cause even on our best days.  We are his curse. 

And so we go up there with him, following him at a distance, as he carries his cross all alone.  It is Jesus who must suffer and die.  He, and he alone, must do it all, or we are doomed.  Just think of it!  If he had required our help in 

order to accomplish our redemption –  we only would have ruined it.  We are sinners.  We cannot do anything at all that does not carry the stench of sin, the smell of death, the sulfur of hell on it.  We go up with him.  But he must do it all, or we are lost.  That is the glory hidden in the solitude of the cross, the solitude that Jesus must do it alone or we must perish.

And yet take heart!  As we follow Jesus up to Jerusalem as he invited, we see in him: our deliverance!  Lent holds both sorrow and great joy.  He is our peace, our life, our salvation.  Listen to him as you go up with him to Jerusalem.  There is not one word of complaint that falls from his lips.  There is not the least trace of bitterness or 

anger in his tone.  He does not accuse us as we deserve.  He does not shame us as we might expect.  No, none of that.  He alone will suffer, and he will suffer alone.  

And that is exactly the way he wants it to be.  His march to Jerusalem is a march of doom for him but of triumph for us.  It is defeat and death for him but a victory parade for us.  His face is set with determination to do all that needs to be done to fulfill the Scriptures for us.  His will is like iron and cannot be bent to turn him away from his purpose of paying the price of our wickedness and our total depravity.  So full, so perfect, so complete is his love for us.  So full, so perfect, so complete is his yearning for our salvation.  He wants to do it!  He not only does not need our help; he does not want our help either!  Every fiber of his being strains and stretches on the way to the cross for our salvation.  Without our aid, he made us.  Without our aid, he redeems us.

Now let us go up to Jerusalem with him!  Let us follow him starting this Ash Wednesday, but not too closely as though we would help him.  Let us go up with him and follow to the cross.  Let us be filled with sorrow for our sin that caused it all.  But then let us be filled with joy beyond all sorrow, that he did it all and he did it alone in great love.  For that is the glory hidden on the cross, the glory that he wanted, the glory of redeeming us by his work there.  Let us watch and keep watching until we hear the victory cry: HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!  Amen.

One Shining Moment

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Passage: Exodus 34:29-35

Date: March 2, 2025

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Are you familiar with this song?  “The ball is tipped…And there you are…You’re running for your life…You’re a shooting star…”  Any guesses?  What if I continue: “In one shining moment, it’s all on the line…One shining moment, there frozen in time.” It’s a song, recorded by a few artists now called “One Shining Moment.”  It’s played at the end of the final March Madness college basketball tournament when the Big Dance wraps up and a musical montage recaps all the great and memorable moments in the tournament.  And yes, I did my research and rewatched the “One Shining Moment” montage from 2015 when the Badgers made that great run to the championship game beating undefeated Kentucky, making them 38-1 (done) with Sam Dekker, Frank Kaminski, and Bronson Koenig.  And no, I don’t want to talk about the last 10 minutes of the championship game.  It was a memorable basketball run.  One Shining Moment.  Who knows, maybe this weekend here in our Eastside gymnasium, one of the teams or players here today may have their one shining moment as well.

Moses did.  Literally.  His face shone so brightly he needed a veil to cover it.  Why?  Because of the moments he had before God witnessing some of the glory of God.     

Do you remember Moses?  The disciples did.  He lived at one of those major moments in Israel’s history.  God used him to lead the Israelites out of their Egyptian slavery.  It was a shining moment for them, because it marked their birth, no longer as a family or tribe of people, but as a nation.  And when they came out of Egypt, instead of God leading the Israelites directly northeast to the Promised Land, he led them south.  God wanted them to see something out in the desert, at a mountain called Sinai.  They camped at the foot of the mountain.  You may remember how it was covered with black clouds and lightning.  Out of the thunder God called Moses up the mountain.  Many days later Moses came down and proclaimed God’s laws to Israel.  And here is how the Israelites knew Moses had one shining moment with the great I AM – we’re told: “Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining because he had been speaking with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:29).  He was shining with God’s glory.  He spoke God’s Words, and when he was done speaking God’s Word, the glory was covered with a veil.

One might reason that it should be the other way around.  You might think that when his face was glowing, that then the veil should be on, and then when his face stopped glowing, that then one could take the veil off.  But God always does things his way, always with his reasons.  Instead, when Moses was proclaiming the words straight from God, the people had to look at his shining, unveiled face.  Then, when Moses was done speaking, the shining glory began to fade away – it was then that he covered his face.  They never saw the plain old Moses.  Their only impression of him would be that of, well, “One Shining Moses”.  Why?

You know how it is with us.  What is amazing on Sunday is the new normal on Monday and thrown in the trash on Tuesday.  God didn’t want that to happen with his words of truth.  And so the veil that covered “One Shining Moses” was a reminder that Moses had spoken God’s word.  And even though he was just a regular guy, he was still God’s spokesman.  So, the veil wasn’t to hide the glory of God, but to hide the un-glory of the imperfect man Moses.  In addition, the veil served as a reminder that the laws given through Moses were temporary.  So, the man Moses was not able to save.  And the law given by the man Moses was unable to save, but they all pointed forward to a better reality.

We would do well to stop and think about how this applies to us today.  Because the truth is we want shining moments before God.  And much like a basketball player hitting a game winning three pointer, we often think that we can create such moments through the law.  We want to shine before God when it comes to our own deeds and accomplishments.  We want to hang our hat of salvation, not upon Moses’ name but upon ourselves. 

But humans are not able to save themselves.  For God tells us that the law demands perfection.  And it probably doesn’t take very long for each of us to recognize that we have lost some of the sparkle and razzle dazzle we had hoped to find within ourselves.  Take a quick look at your life as I do mine and we and realize that we have fallen far short of what the law demands.  Our hymnals even lead us through a series of questions we can use to examine our hearts before God and help us to recognize our great need to receive forgiveness at the Lord’s Supper.  Have we always made the most of our moments in ways that honor God?  Or have we wasted some of our time of grace on mindless pursuits, pastimes, and handheld devices?  Have we been the best employer, employee, and spouse, child, parent, or friend we could be?  Or have we had some not so shining moments of pettiness, selfishness, and stubbornness?  Have we been great encouragers and prayerful in light of God’s grace?  Or have we been mean and vindictive?   Have we always loved God above all things and loved hearing from his Word?  Or have we thought at times that we’re good enough law-keepers all on our own?  Should I keep going?  Because I could – I could keep calling you and me out.  Far from perfect people, we find in ourselves a darkness of sin – something we are born with and something we need help from God to be rid of.  And God helps us look away from ourselves and towards his solution in his Son.  We need shining moments with Jesus.

God opens up his glowing gospel for us today.  The true glory of God is only seen in Christ Jesus.  Here is perfection.  In his life, in his innocent death, in accomplishing our salvation, by swiping away every last one of our sins at the cross and declaring total triumph for you over death at his now empty tomb – which now radiates victory.  Jesus blocked  – he stuffed – the devils best work to destroy us.  Jesus himself says in John 12:46, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”  God’s plan to fulfill the law in Jesus was a complete success.  And now we, who have been made right before God in Jesus, we can joyfully live for him, not living in the shadow of what we have done but living for the light before us.  You know what really causes rejoicing in basketball – it’s when a player throws down a giant dunk.  The crowd gets on their feet and erupts in celebration.  We have more to rejoice over in our Savior Jesus!

And what’s more is that God gives us shining moments with Jesus, and helps our faith grow in him.  Our epistle reading tells us, “But all of us who reflect the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face are bring transformed into his own image.”  What a difference this shining moment makes for you and me!  When Moses came down the mountain after talking with God – the Israelites were afraid of him.  The law brings fear.  But the gospel of Jesus gives to us a peace that the world cannot and a peace that we cannot give to ourselves even through all our self-saving efforts to follow the law.  Jesus removes fear and helps us grow in life and in love.  Jesus changes hearts and renews souls.  That’s why today we look beyond the “one shining Moses,” we find the glory of God’s one and only Son.  

No matter if our basketball teams have the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat this weekend – we have these moments in the gospel right now with Jesus.  We see his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.  We see it veiled at times though Lent but there shining bright again in Holy Week!  And we get to have our “one shining moments” here at church with Jesus.  We see his coming to us as our needed Savior through his same powerful message.  We hear his gospel of peace.  We have his body and blood with the bread and wine in the Supper and we get forgiveness through him as he promises you!  We know that these moments are faith-building moments because God has promised to be present and at work through such means for our salvation.

And we can rejoice.  Because one day we will get to see the glory of God with our own eyes – better than what Moses did and longer than what the disciples had.  One might say, that all thanks to Jesus, our future song may not be “one shining moment,” but something more to the tune of “Forever with the Lord…Amen so let it be” .  Thank you, Jesus.  Amen.

Not All Lions in the Bible are Bad!

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“Judah is a lion’s cub ….the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the one to whom it belongs comes.  He will receive the obedience of the peoples.”  – Genesis 49:9a & 10

Not All Lions in the Bible are Bad!

When I was a young reader, I remember being captivated by the character of Aslan, a king in the C.S. Lewis book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Aslan was a talking lion, known to be kind, wise, and noble.  He also, without giving the entire plot away, proved to be forgiving and humbly sacrificial to the undeserving.  He freed his followers of stone, gave them life, and brought them triumphant victory.  As I describe such a lion-leader, you may be picking up on the parallels to our Savior Jesus in the Bible.  C.S. Lewis, through storytelling, taught children about the saving work and characteristics of our God.  His book made an impression on me.  Maybe it did for you as well.

Moving from fiction to fact, we hear Jesus described as a lion throughout the inspired Scriptures.  In Bible times, much of the Middle Eastern world was familiar with the lions.  We find them in locations like Babylon where Daniel’s life was spared by God in the lions’ den.  They were often depicted as a regal symbol of the earthly king.  They gave the impression of might and authority.  How fitting for Jesus, the eternal King of kings, to be described in such a way!  The power, majesty, and wonder of his kingdom is never ending.  

Victory over our sin, death, and the devil are his as well!  Jesus was born in the tribe of Judah as foretold by Jacob.  Micah the prophet reminded God’s people that through Bethlehem, the town of David, in Judah, the scepter would remain for “the one who will be the ruler for me in Israel.  His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.”   The book of Revelation, which pictures Jesus as the Lamb of God, worthy as our sacrifice for sin, also says this in chapter five, “Stop weeping.  Look!  The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed and is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”  

Our life, both now and forever, remains under the capable control of Jesus.  He is on his throne.  The scepter is in his hand even today.  We can rejoice in the security he alone gives to us.  During the season of Lent, we find Jesus suffering and dying on a cross for our sins.  And keep watching!  Look as the Lion rises to rule and reign!  And watch for Jesus’ arrival on the day when all will hear him roar.  For on that day we will join him in heaven and spend eternity before the throne of our risen king Jesus, the lion of Judah.