Matthew 21:1-11: Hosanna! The Triumphal entry into Holy Week

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries on Palm Sunday, 29 March, 2026, by Major Michael Ramsay 

Today  is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of … (Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s?) …suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill –. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot.

 

Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Isreal and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I imagine it would be like Mecca during Ramadan, or if you remember Vancouver during the Olympics or Expo. The capital of Judea is Caesarea Maritima – but the historic capital is Jerusalem, so when all the people are coming to Jerusalem, the governor himself comes to town and brings all his extra security for crowd control. Jerusalem, a city of tens or even hundreds of thousands, swells to a population of more than a million potential hooligans or even revolutionaries during Passover. The Romans are there. They are ready. They are nervous.

 

Jesus is a celebrity preacher. He has been travelling the country speaking for the previous 1-3 years. Thousands of people regularly show up to hear him speak, just to catch a glimpse of him, or to see or experience some miracle that was part of his ministry. He had hundreds of disciples; 12 chief ones, that would be like his leadership team with different roles – Judas, for one example, was the treasurer.

 

So there are all these people in Jerusalem, many wanting independence from the Romans; the Roman and Jewish police are providing security. Jesus rides into the historic capital city and people run out to meet him. They line the streets as he rides in on the back of a donkey. People lay their coats before him, they wave palm branches, they shout, “hosanna”. The palm branches are a national symbol of Judah. It would be like if we in Canada would dare to speak about cancelling NAFTA, abandoning NORAD, leaving NATO, and then a celebrity rolled into Ottawa, and everyone started waving maple leaves. This is what Palm Sunday is…And more than that: “Hosanna” that they are shouting means “Save us”! The Romans (the Americans of their day) and their supporters are nervous.

 

A very popular celebrity is rolling into the historic capital of an occupied territory on a national holiday and the people are running out, waving national symbols and shouting, “save us!”, “save us!”, “hosanna”. “save us!” The Romans are nervous. They have extra security forces. The Jewish collaborators are nervous. They have a plan. They must stop this. This is Palm Sunday.

 

Where do you stand? Do you stand on the road, palm branch in hand, with Jesus saying. “set the captives free” (let the people out of jail); “you can’t serve God and money; so feed the hungry and clothe the naked” (end capitalism); “beat your swords into ploughshares” (disarmament), “give sight to the blind” (provide medical, dental and other care universally – to everyone!), “justice and mercy” (no more expensive lawyers) “love your neighbour as yourself”; “forgive your enemies” – no more war, no more hate, no more darkness. Or do you stand, without a branch, with those who want him killed and wanting retribution, revenge for wrongs, and money for fun for yourself instead of necessities for others. This is what Palm Sunday is! Jesus is riding into town. Are you with him or are you against him? Do you support the superpowers and elites of today or do you champion the downtrodden? Are you a child of the light or cowed by the hounds of hell? Where do you stand? Do you have a palm branch in hand?

 

I am going to take you through the next few days of Jesus’ life, his last before his execution. If today is Palm Sunday when he rides into town, he will go to the Temple (curse a fig tree enroute), look around, and come home to where he is staying.

 

Tomorrow he will ride back into town and go to the Temple that has just been rebuilt in or near his lifetime. He will see the people in the temple court taking people’s money and offerings and converting the different currencies into the temple shekel so that they can make the appropriate offerings. It would be very busy with everyone exchanging cash so they can make their offering, because it is Passover and so many people are in town. Jesus goes up to the booth where they provide this service, where they convert the money into the proper currency and he throws over the tables; he grabs the people working in the temple and he makes a whip and he starts to whip them right there, right in the temple of God. He calls them thieves and all kinds of stuff and then he leaves. He is not happy with the way they are making money in the temple of God.

 

Tuesday, the next day, he is back at the temple. He has a row with the people there; obviously after all that destruction and chaos he caused the day before. In his verbal exchange he says to the people working at the temple, the priests, the church people, he says, “’Blind guides!... For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness...Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:24-33)” This is what he says in the Temple.

 

Wednesday – not much. Thursday though. Thursday is the Last Supper! We will have an event here to commemorate Maudy Thursday; you don’t want to miss it! Thursday, Jesus had his last supper with his leadership team before he dies. A couple of important things happen at this dinner. He tells his followers to keep eating and drinking together in remembrance of him; he tells his followers to serve each other like by washing others’ feet, and he tells his disciples that one of them will betray him... Each of the disciples wonders about this. When they get a chance each borrows his ear, “Jesus, is it me? Will I betray you?” When Judas, the treasurer for the group, gets a chance to pull Jesus aside, he asks “is it me?” Jesus says “yes”; the devil enters him and he leaves to do what must be done. No one knows what is going on except Jesus, John, and maybe Judas.

 

After dinner Jesus and the rest of them – except for Judas who has gone off to do what has to be done – head to the garden of Gethsemane. Lots of stuff happens there and then Judas rejoins the disciples. When he does, he kisses Jesus, as is the custom, then soldiers or police, Romans or Jews, grab Jesus, attempt to arrest him. Peter grabs his sword. Swings it down at one of the soldier’s heads. The soldier moves or Peter misses or or or.. Peter chops off the soldier’s ear! Jesus stops him, stoops down, picks up the ear, and puts it back on the soldier’s head and the soldier is healed. Jesus goes peaceably with his arrestors.

 

They keep him in custody until 6am tomorrow, Friday morning, when they bring him to Governor Pontius Pilates’ place for trial and, they hope, execution. There is quite a scene there! We won’t go through it all today but Pilate’s wife had a vision and tells him to have nothing to do with this. Pilate can’t figure out what Roman law Jesus is supposed to have broken and wants to release him – but he is afraid. He is very afraid. Remember there are so many Jews everywhere, He is afraid they will overthrow the government, try to, or assassinate him, or revolt, or, or or… He still wants nothing to do with this but he compromises… and then he says it is Passover so I’ll tell you what, I will release one prisoner. You have a choice: there is this murderer, this terrorist here, Barabbas; I can release him or I can release Jesus. The people chose Barabbas. Pilate is annoyed probably even more than afraid now. He makes the Jews in his courtyard disavow God and then he hands Jesus over to them to be crucified. They go overboard with this. The young men guarding him get in on the act. They put a purple robe on him to mock him as a ‘king’. They put this crown on his head that they made of thorns. It hurts. Blood everywhere. The head bleeds. Then they start striking him and hitting him with rod. Who hit you, King of the Jews?.” Maybe Punching, hitting, kicking taunting.

 

They then take him out to be executed, along with others, on wooden frames in the shape of a cross and they make him carry his or part of his to the hill where they will assemble it and nail him to it. He stumbles and falls so they grab someone from the crowd and force them to carry Jesus’ cross the rest of the way. They then set it up beside other crosses and nail him to it. He isn’t the only one there. There are others nailed to crosses beside him for other reasons. They stab him in the side. Water comes pouring out. They go to break his legs to expediate his death but he is already dead. When he dies there is this massive eclipse, an earthquake and – by all accounts – the graves, the tombs open up and people who were dead come back to life just like Lazarus did a week or so ago. It is pretty scary, I am sure. This is Good Friday.

 

Sunday, Monday, He will raise from the grave. He will come back. ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord’ but the Lord is all about forgiveness. Jesus raises from the dead. Now we all can. And we all will. And when we do, if we serve Jesus instead of the leaders of this era we will spend eternity in His Kingdom of Love and forgiveness. If we don’t… if we choose capitalism, hate, vengeance instead, well then… that is what we choose isn’t it?

 

So today is Palm Sunday. Jesus is riding into town. Where do you stand? Do you stand, palm branch in hand, with Jesus saying. “set the captives free” (let the people out of jail); “you can’t serve God and money; so feed the hungry and clothe the naked” (end capitalism); “beat your swords into ploughshares” (disarm), “give sight to the blind” (provide medical, dental and other care to everyone), show “justice and mercy” (no more expensive lawyers) “love your neighbour as yourself”; “forgive your enemies” – no more war, no more hate, no more darkness. Or do you stand with those who kill Jesus, who want retribution, revenge for wrongs, money for fun for yourself instead of necessities for others.

 

This is what Palm Sunday is! Jesus is riding into town. Are you with him or are you against him? Do you support the superpowers and the elites of today or do you champion the downtrodden. Are you a child of the light or cowed by the hounds of hell?

 

Today is Palm Sunday. Where do you stand? The choice is yours. Are you against him or are you with him? If you are with him, I invite you to wave your palm branches and cry out with me ‘Hosanna’, ‘save us’ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. ‘Hosanna in the Highest’

 Let us pray

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Mark 6:30-44 (Matthew 14:13-21, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15): The Miraculous Feeding Continues.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 22 September 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay. Based on the Message preached on 02 May 2021 by Captain Michael Ramsay.

  

This is the 2024 Version, to read the much shorter 2021 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2021/04/matthew-1413-21-mark-630-44-luke-910-17.html

 

Today is a weekend to pray for the end of human trafficking. I have spoken about that a lot recently. The Lord blessed us at The Salvation Army to be used by Him to help out those Vietnamese workers who were living in deplorable conditions – right here in our community. I wasn’t actually going to speak about that today and I wont actually speak much about it. I do hope that we as a society can put an end to closed visas in our country soon or at least some day.

 

This week I actually had to sign an affidavit about all of that. The interpreter who helped with the situation in Port Alberni, the San Group is now suing. She is just a window washer. She has no money. They are suing her. I have spoken to lawyers (plural) this past week. It does seem intimidating. I had previously been warned about San Group. In the next week or so their legal team is going to cross examine me and others. One professional commented to me that this is not what people usually do in these circumstances – sue interpreters; it seems heavy handed in the least. It is intimidating. But I am not going to speak any more about that today. I have already used that as an illustration in two sermons here and one at Summer Rain in August.

 

September, without dealing with all this, has been a busy enough month. Many of you here have been working hard away. Many of you here have blessed us and others, as you have been blessed by serving our Lord and the community.

 

Yesterday was our big annual Thanksgiving food drive, sponsored by Foodbanks BC and spear-headed by Bruce and Dorothy Patterson and their church. You may know Bruce and Dorothy. They have come to our Christmas Eve service for a number of years and in the previous year or two have actually joined our rank of volunteers at the Army. Thank you to everyone who helped. We raised about 5000 pounds of food so far and an undisclosed amount of money. This will help a lot of people this time of year.

 

The weekend before that was the Toy Run. The Salvation Army in Alberni Valley has been involved in that since before we came to town. When we arrived, the Army had already taken over serving coffee and doughnuts at Little Qualicum Falls a couple of years prior .The Salvation Army then took over the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen and for two or three years provided a chilli and hotdog lunch on behalf of the Soup Kitchen at the Glenwood Centre at the end of their ride after providing a breakfast of coffee and doughnuts on behalf of the Army at the start of the ride. That was a lot of work with all the volunteers we needed and a very long day starting at 6am or so and ending when we picked up the toys in the evening or in the afternoon. I was blessed to be able to pray for the riders and this year our team of expert workers just concentrated on serving lunch instead of both doughnuts and lunch – you all did a great job! And many toys were raised for children and others in our community.

 

You all have been busy. The week prior to that we were at the Fall Fair and we were in the Fall Fair parade. This was a great opportunity to share with the community our testimony of how the Lord has used TSA in our community to serve our neighbours in Jesus’ name. Most of that service seems to be around food too! We are blessed to be the community soup kitchen and the community food bank and feed a lot of people. More than 14 000 just at the Bread of Life in August alone – multiply that by 12! That is not including all the families we feed through the foodbank and all the kids we feed through the breakfast and lunch programs when school is out. The Lord feeds a lot us people through us. And like I said, just yesterday we raised 5000 lbs of food for those in need in our community.

 

Today, in Mark’s Gospel, we read about the feeding of the 5000 by Jesus and his disciples. This is a very significant story. The writers of all four of the Gospels included it in their biography of Jesus’ and their record of his ministry. It is actually the only miracle that all four of the Gospel-writers mention. The authors John and Matthew were both present when this event occurred, and Luke’s version of this incident is recorded after some significant research. John Mark, whose account we read today, was certainly part of the inner circle of Jesus’ followers (remember from those of us who are part of the Tuesday night Bible Study: he was Barnabus’ companion on early missionary journey’s and Barnabus and Paul had a big fight about him); so Mark undoubtedly heard about this incident quite a bit - as he himself actually may or may not have been present for this as well.

 

John and Matthew were both there when this happened. John has a little bit different of a memory of this event than Matthew but no more of a difference of a recollection than Susan and I have over some of the events of our life and ministry.

 

This story struck me anew this week as I was looking for something in Mark to preach about. I was surprised to learn this week that I haven’t preached more often on this passage; it seems like a natural one for The Salvation Army to speak about – though I did reference it in a piece I wrote that was included in the 2008 book One Thing and the 2011 book One for All both by Commissioner James Knaggs and Major Stephen Court about a miracle God did while we were helping out with Emergency Disaster Services relief work in Texas years ago.

 

I am going to read an excerpt from my account in One Thing[i]:

Our canteens were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking out someone to give their last Cambro (container) of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.

 

As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the Cambro from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now. 

 

That is a real-life miracle that I will never forget. We have a similar miracle happening right here in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island today, right now. When the crowds in the disciples’ day were without food, Jesus said ‘you feed them!’ to which they replied, ‘we don’t have enough money to feed them!’ to which the response is still ‘no really, feed them!’ They do and God provides the food needed in the miraculous way He provided the needed food.[ii]

 

In the Alberni Valley here we have for a long time, long before we arrived, been used by the Lord to feed a lot of people in the Valley here. Throughout the pandemic we fed people hundreds of thousands of times – people who may not have eaten otherwise. At our height we were feeding more than 700 individuals a day and only God could have done that. Now we are providing breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Bread of Life soup kitchen seven days a week and other evening meals off the Salvation Army truck and at the Bread of Life and we are feeding even more than the 700 a day, which during covid-19 was a miraculous number! Now the miracle continues as we feed not only people shut-in in our community, families who need the food bank and people who eat at the soup kitchen; we also feed those who reside in our own shelter, the Friendship Centre Shelter on 8^th and the Tiny Homes and many more people in crises and more.

 

Feeding all the people the Lord fed through us during the pandemic: Think about this miracle. There is no way when Covid-19 hit that we could possibly have fed that amount of people and, honestly, the Bread of Life was broke. Jesus said to us “you feed them.” “We don’t have enough money.” The soup kitchen was close to turning out the lights forever when they approached the Army about serving the Lord and the community together before the pandemic and then the Lord produced miracle after miracle after miracle: we keep breaking bread to serve the crowds which seem to be without number and the Lord keeps producing more food with which to feed them. The Soup kitchen doors are open; and the agencies in this community: we are working together like we have never done before and we are continuing to feed people to a tune of more than 14 000 times a month which works out to more than 168 000 times a year at the soup kitchen alone, not including emergencies, the food truck and Christmas (!) and not including any of the families that the Lord uses us to feed from the food bank (!) and/or the schools – and we are still going strong. This is a miracle! And through this time more people have given their lives to the Lord here and we have faithfully put them to work. We continue to experience the miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes right here in the Valley each and every day. Praise be to God. May we continue to serve the food the He has multiplied and witness His Grace in our community.

 

Let us pray.

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Mark 8:34-38 (Luke 9:23- 9:27, Matthew 16:21-28): Savings Account

Presented to the Swift Current Corps 05 September 2010 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 08 September 2024 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay 

This is the 2024 Alberni Valley TSA  Version. To view the 2010 Swift Current version, click here:  https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/09/mark-834-91-luke-923-927-matthew-1621.html 

 

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it Mark 8:35

  

I’ve got a test for us today: Famous Quotes. Let’s see who can name the speaker of each of the following quotes:[1] 

1) “Hi Ho Silver, Away…” 

2) “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” 

3) “I am not a crook” 

4) “While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end!” 

5) “Up, up, and away!” 

6) “I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eat my spinach; I’m _________ the sailor man.” 

7) “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but for whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” 

  

These are all famous quotes from people and in some ways the quotes have even served to summarize the impact the individual had on history. Nixon is famous for his speeches around the time of his resignation. Another little quiz for you: only three American presidents have ever been impeached, can you name them? (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump; Nixon resigned he was never impeached)[2] 

  

William Booth’s ‘I’ll Fight’ quote still echoes down through the generations as The Salvation Army champions its Wesleyan version of the social gospel. As John Wesley said, ‘there is no holiness but social holiness’[3] And Jesus’ quote that we are looking at today – “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it” – is a very important one. Did you realize that no other saying of Jesus’ is given as much emphasis in all of scripture ?[4] Each of the Jesus’ biographers, in their gospel accounts, record Jesus as uttering this quote at least once. Matthew and Luke each record it multiple times in different contexts where Jesus says the same thing: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” This is thus a very important saying for us to understand. 

  

Today, we read the quote in the context of Mark 8:34-38, which is very much the same context as Luke 9:23- 9:27 and Matthew 16:21-28: 34: 

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." 

  

Jesus says “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it…”, What does it mean to SAVE your life? It means NOT to die; it means NOT to die a physical death.[5] And what does it mean to LOSE your life? It means to die. It is simple. It is not tricky – especially given the context of Jesus talking about us picking up our cross and following him: the cross – of course - being a brutal method of state execution, much like the electric chair or lethal injection in the States today only usually more painful.

  

I’ve got a couple of examples both negative and positive responses of people faced with exactly this situation that Jesus is talking about when he says “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” When we were in Vancouver, there was a large Salvation Army conference at Canada Place. General Gowans was the keynote speaker – we all know General Gowans, he was the one who articulated the Salvation Army mission very succinctly as to ‘save souls, grow saints, and serve suffering humanity.’ One speaker at that same conference was Baroness Cox who shared a testimony about a young boy from her time serving in Indonesia. 

  

This young boy came to know the Lord. He told everyone he found about Jesus. He didn’t have a lot of success in his evangelism, if I remember correctly, not anyone came to the Lord at that time - but he was not ashamed of the gospel. One day some people come to his village who aren’t so happy about his faith. They are seeking Christians for execution. They come to his town and they offer to spare his life if he simply renounces his faith. He refuses. They chop off a limb. He is given another chance to deny Christ. He refuses. They chop off another limb. They give this young boy every opportunity to deny Christ and save his life: he refuses and he dies by being hacked to death in front of his whole village. He is asked to deny Christ and thus save his life but instead he loses his life for the Gospel and for Christ. This boy really did pick up his cross and follow our Lord to Calvary. 

  

As did the apostles around Jesus’ time: We know that Jesus’ apostles, like this boy, loved Jesus more than their own families and even their own lives . Jesus’ apostles did not die peaceful deaths – many were crucified or beheaded. Matthias was stoned; Thomas was stabbed; James the brother of Jesus was thrown from the top of the temple in Jerusalem: he survived, so his attackers beat him to death. John would be the exception to the rule of the martyred apostles, but it was not for a lack of conviction. His accusers tried to boil him alive in a pot but much like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace for some reason God chose to decline John’s offer of martyrdom (Daniel 3:1-30). However no one can deny that they all lived up to the Christian standard: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it” 

  

I can think of another story of some missionaries in Afghanistan way back now, even before the American invasion (2001). This one had a very different ending. The government sentenced some missionaries to death unless they recanted their faith. These missionaries, unlike the apostles, unlike the young Indonesian boy decided they would deny Christ and the Taliban government rewarded them by sparing their lives. In so doing the so-called missionaries reward for this is only in this life – the one they chose to save. Whereas others have offered up their lives for God, and others have received their martyrs’ crown, these people apparently chose to save their life for themselves rather than to die for Christ. 

  

Even though Jesus said to do otherwise: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” 

  

I really hope that they who denied Christ when it was difficult and when it really mattered have since come to the Lord in fear and trembling and in legitimate repentance – legitimate repentance would mean, of course, that should they wind up in the same situation that they would choose a very different course of action. Just like Peter did. Remember that he denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed twice but later repented, led the early church, and eventually accepted his martyr’s crown (Mark 13-14).  

 

I thankfully am not in a position to judge the missionaries or anyone’s salvation and really hope that they truly repented of this sin and grab hold of eternal life like the Apostle Peter but... if they didn’t and don’t… Can you imagine if you were told that if you denied your faith you would live but if you didn’t you would die so you deny your faith and they kill you anyway? Can you imagine if the last thing you ever do before you are faced with the reality of God’s eternal kingdom, is to deny your citizenship in that kingdom? Jesus says if we deny him here and now, he’ll accept our resignation and then he will deny us in his kingdom there and then. It is scary. 

  

What about us here today? I don’t imagine that many of us will ever be faced with a literal life and death decision for Christ – but I look at the news – so maybe. Some of the younger people might live to see such a time (cf. Mark 3:20-35; 13:9-13).[6] I don’t think that anyone a generation ago would have been able to predict the persecution Christians are suffering in Quebec and other places in Canada these days.[7] But assuming that we never face that same life and death choice, how do we apply this very important saying of Jesus to our own life? “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” 

  

Theologian Fred B. Craddock says, “A cross is not sought or pursued, but it was and still is true that following Jesus in service to God, which translates into meeting human needs, is on a path which there are crosses, prices to be paid, pain and hurt to be accepted. We are not speaking about a death wish here but obedience to the will of Christ.” [8] We are not called to be suicide bombers but we are called to serve Christ and not ourselves. We are called to give Jesus all of our time, all of our life, and if he asks for us to sacrifice our physical life – as he did of his apostles, the missionaries that we spoke of and that young Indonesian boy - then we must not withhold it from him. 

  

Leon Morris says, “The follower of Jesus must deny himself (not just his sins, himself; he cannot be self-centred). There is nothing self-indulgent about being a Christian. The disciples had probably seen a man take up his cross, and they knew what it meant. When a man from one of their villages took up a cross and went off with a little band of Roman soldiers, he was on a one-way journey. He would not be back. Taking up the cross meant the utmost in self-denial.”[9] 

  

How do we do with that today? How can we in our life consistently deny ourselves and instead follow Christ? A lot of it comes down to how we spend our time. There are people in our city here who are not yet on a path of salvation. Jesus wants us by serving others and to point them to the path of Salvation that he died to make, and the apostles died pointing out. Are we willing to give our lives in service for Christ? Do we spend our time serving and telling people about Jesus and salvation or do we spend our time in self-indulgence? In our life everyday, we have to make our decision to follow Christ. Do we put ourselves first or do we put God and others first? Do we spend our time serving God and others and reading the Bible and praying or do we spend our time just watching videos, reels, clips, social media, TV, etc.? Do we spend our time helping and our conversations telling people about Christ or are we gossiping about others instead? How we spend our time is a true indication of what we believe and who we believe. I ask each of us here today if someone looked at our how we spend our time could we convince them that we have given up our lives for Christ? Are we offering our time and our lives to Christ? If we are then great things will happen for the Kingdom, I promise. 

  

Remember the story about the young boy that I told you. The young boy from Indonesia who eagerly and painfully accepted his martyrs crown? Shortly after and because he died, the rest of his village chose to live. He died for Christ and the rest of his village saw that and decided to live for Christ. His death led to the salvation of all those people even through the generations, I believe, and this is why and how we know this story today. 

  

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” 

  

It is September. We are starting a new school year. A new church season If in this whole upcoming year, every one of us focuses on service and Salvation and is able to bring just one friend to or back to the Lord and/or just bring them here to worship with us on Sundays then there would be at least double the number people serving alongside us just one year from now and then double that number again one year later. Jesus asked us to give up our lives for him and to invite others to do the same. Today I would like to encourage all of us here to do just that: if there is anything in our lives that is more important to us than Christ… If there is some way that we selfishly holding onto our time and if we are putting anything in our life before the work of Christ, I would invite us in a moment and lay that before the Lord. Let us each ask our Lord to “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” 

  

Let us pray

Mark 3:20-35: The Family of God

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps of The Salvation Army on February 17, 2008; Swift Current Corps on February 22, 2015; 614 Warehouse Mission on 06 May 2018; Alberni Valley Ministries on 21 April 2024 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

To view the 2008 Nipawin and Tisdale version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html

To view the 2015 Swift Current version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html

To view the Toronto 2018 version click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2018/05/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html

 

Today’s passage is about family. I have been thinking about family lately. Move announcements were this week and each year there is the potential that we can be moved. We were told that we are able to stay here for one more year. This is the longest our family has stayed in one town and even the longest that we have stayed in one province since Heather was born. And whenever we do move – especially if we have to move provinces again – this time will be different; we won’t be taking our who family with us. It is challenging enough with children in Chilliwack and part-time in Victoria as well as parents we don’t seen nearly enough on this Island here. I can’t imagine what it will be like when we move again, this time away from and not with family.

 

Mark 3 is about family – Jesus’ family. 3:20: “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.” Verse 21, “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” (Sometimes family thinks that about us.)

 

Jesus is portrayed here as almost a workaholic.  He is working late and he takes his work home with him and his work right now is casting out demons and he has a lot of work to do.

 

Can you imagine the scene? It is dinnertime. He comes to a home to eat with his closest disciples. There is so much going on. There are so many people crowding into the house that they aren’t even able to take time to eat. There must be people everywhere and Jesus is working away: he and his disciples are ploughing through people healing them, casting out demons and doing what needs to be done.

 

His family no doubt is worried about his health. They are no doubt worried because he’s not eating anything. They are no doubt worried because he is not taking enough time for himself. He is just working, working, working – without a break – this can’t possibly be healthy, can it? Is it any wonder that his mother and brothers, throw up their hands when they hear all of this and say, Verse 21, “He is out of his mind” – “he’s crazy” – “he’s nuts.”[ 1]

 

Jesus’ family decided that it is time to go and take charge of him. They are going to make him rest and take care of himself. (Now this is interesting because the Greek word KRATESAI is actually the same word that is used when the police go to ARREST someone; so, this is serious.) They are concerned about him and if Jesus won’t take care of himself, they will take matters into their own hands; they will take charge of him because, as they understand it, “he is out of his mind.”

 

“He is demon possessed,” the teachers of the Law say. “He is [even] possessed by Beelzebub…the prince of demons,”[2] Verse 22 records the learned, esteemed, intelligent, and respected teachers as saying – “[It is] by the prince of demons [that] he is driving out demons.”

 

So this is interesting. Both Jesus’ family and the religious experts agree that Jesus is not acting normally here. He is out of his mind; he is demon-possessed. And again, in this crazy scene, we can probably understand what they are saying to some degree, can’t we?

 

Jesus understands and he answers the teachers who –unlike his biological family (cf. 3:31-32)[3] - are right there, near, or even in the house with him and his disciples. Jesus understands what they are saying.

 

Now what the Pharisees might actually be doing here –unlike his family- is probably more than just looking out for his well-being. What they might be doing is probably more than just mocking him or writing him off. What they might be actually doing is gathering evidence or at least inspiration to formulate an official charge against him.

 

In our society today we think nothing of people using the language of demon-possession and witchcraft: we hear it everyday on social media, TV, radio, in pop culture and in casual colloquial language. There are witch stores on the corner here and regular witchy or psychic fairs in town. It is so common that many times we don’t even twig when we hear about witchcraft but it was different in Jesus’ day (cf. Dt. 18:10; 1 Sam 28:9; 2 Ki 19:22; 2 Chr 33:6; Micah 5:12; Na 3:4; Gal 5:20).

 

Witchcraft is a serious crime. It is a sin punishable by death (cf. 1 Sam 28:9).[4] These religious teachers cannot be left to make these remarks unchallenged. It must be addressed. They are in essence accusing Jesus of divination, of witchcraft, of sorcery, and in those days people won’t let that go unchecked. And Jesus won’t let these accusations go unchecked; he speaks to them in a couple of very short parables or metaphors.

 

Vs 23ff: “So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: ‘How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.”

 

Think about it in terms of our world today…Think of Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia. There is also Ukraine: Hundreds of thousands are dead and still dying and millions fled and still fleeing after our allies toppled their elected government in a coup and now it has escalated beyond what anyone could ever have imagined. The country is divided. It is broke, fighting at first civil war, and now a proxy war between Russia and the US. Divided countries cannot stand: this is what Jesus is saying in this parable. A divided house cannot stand.

 

And this is the kind of thing that is playing out in our very houses here today. If husband and wife aren’t on the same page, how can their children grow up in the strength of a solid family? If mom won’t stop yelling at dad and dad does stop coming home altogether, how can their daughter learn to be kind to her future husband and how can their son learn to stick it out when life gets difficult? If the house is divided, how can it stand?[6] Between 1965 and 1988, Canada's divorce rate went from being one of the lowest among industrialized nations to being one of the highest.”[7] Divided houses do not stand.

 

This is what Jesus is telling his accusers. He is saying that if he is on the same side as Beelzebub, if he is on the same side as the devil, he wouldn’t attack him because then he would be destroying himself. If Jesus were working for the devil why would he cast devils out? He wouldn’t. He doesn’t.

 

There can be many reasons and motives for the Pharisees to accuse Jesus of working for the enemy but he lets them know that their argument doesn’t make any sense. Jesus uses the analogy now of robbing a house. Jesus says that, Verse 27, “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.”

 

If Jesus were on the same side as the devil, why would he even want to rob the devil of his prize? He wouldn’t. If he was working for the devil, then he would not be freeing this man from Satan’s power; because by casting out the demons, he is weakening the Republic of Evil and in the process strengthening the Kingdom of God and when one is at war, one tries to kill one’s enemies and not one’s allies. Jesus is showing those present that indeed he is intentionally attacking the devil’s dominion, freeing his captives, liberating his territory and Jesus is reminding us that no one intentionally kills with ‘friendly fire.’ If Jesus were on the same side as Satan, he says in this parable, he would not rob him of his prize. Instead, as Jesus is more powerful than Satan, by freeing the demon-possessed man, he binds the metaphorical strong man and robs his house.

 

Jesus makes his point. We realise divided houses cannot stand. Houses cannot be robbed without first taking care of the security guard. But Jesus doesn’t stop at making this point. You’ll notice that this story doesn’t end here. Jesus has some strong words for the people who are accusing him of working for the Beelzebub. He says, Verses 28-30, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”[8] He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

 

Jesus is warning the Pharisees not to say he is demon-possessed. He is telling them point blank that all other sins will be forgiven – EXCEPT for blaspheming the Holy Spirit – He says that there is no sin as bad as this one that they may be committing here. Calling the Holy Spirit evil, rejecting God in this way. There is nothing worse.[9]

 

But what about Jesus’ family? Remember that as the Pharisees said ‘he has an evil spirit (v. 30)’, his own family said that he was ‘out of his mind (v. 21)’ and they came to take charge of, or even ‘arrest’ him; what about his flesh and blood relatives? What does Jesus say when they arrive to ‘take charge of him (v.21)?’ Verse 31. You’ll notice that they even don’t come in. It says that they are still standing outside. They don’t even come into where Jesus is working. They don’t come in to arrest him, to take him home. They, instead, want Jesus to come out to them. People who do that, they can’t be up to any good, can they?

 

Jesus’ family, vv. 31 & 32, send someone in and the crowd tells Jesus that his family- his flesh and blood – those who think he’s out of his mind for doing the will of God – those who gave birth to and those who grew up with him – Jesus’ family is here. The crowd tells Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

 

What does Jesus reply? This is important to our story. Jesus replies, verse 33ff, “‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’…Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.’”

 

Jesus denies his mother and brothers. Jesus doesn’t go out to his family in this story. He denies them. His mother and brothers are not supporting Jesus doing the work of God and he is not acknowledging them.

 

Just like Jesus told the Pharisees, that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven” because they said he has an evil spirit. He says of his mother and brothers, who went out to take charge of him, “Who are my mother and brothers?” They are not those who are my flesh and blood if they are opposing the work and the will of God!

 

My family, Jesus says, is “whoever does God’s will.” In our passage here today, the author of Mark has revealed a great truth to us. The family of God is not necessarily the educated, the theologians, the scholars and the pastors. The family of God is not necessarily those who are born into the churches, Christian families and their loved ones.[10] The family of God is quite simply those who do the will of God, which, of course, we discern as we pray and read Scripture.

 

So today, as we have looked at divided houses –those of the parable: of the Jewish teachers,[11] of Jesus’ own biological family – as we have looked at these divided houses, I think we need to consider something ourselves. Are we really members of the family of God, or are we more like some of the others represented here?

 

Are we like the Pharisees? They knew a lot about God, probably more than anyone but they thought they knew better than Jesus. Do we think we know more than God? Do we reject, by our words and/or actions, that Jesus Christ is real? Do we treat what he says and what he does as if it is not truly of God?  This is what the Pharisees did in today’s story. Are we like them?

 

Or are we like his biological family? They grew up with him. They knew him but they wanted to ‘take charge’ of him. Do we ever want to ‘take charge’ of Jesus, like his family whom Jesus even refused to acknowledge in this story? Do we ever try to ‘take charge’ of Jesus and mold him to our idea of what Jesus and God should be rather than to let him make himself know to us? This is what his biological family was doing in this story. Are we like them?

 

Or are we like his true family, his real family, the family of God? …the disciples and others with them here who were doing what Jesus was telling them to do? Do we in our daily lives discern through prayer and Scripture the will of God, and seek to do it?  Because it is only then that we will we truly be Jesus’ brother and sister and mother. It is only then will we truly be a part of the family of God. And this is what Jesus wants. He wants us all to be members of his family and heirs in His kingdom.

 

Let us pray…

No Sanatas Concert (Mark 2-3:35, John 8:1-11)

 Presented to TSA AVM, 11.02.24

(Redacted)

 

The passage that we are looking at in Mark today asks, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan’ (Mark 3:23)? The Greek word for ’satan’, ‘satanas’ literally means ‘accuser’.[i] The question being asked directly here is how can accuser cast out accuser? It reminds me of Jesus addressing Peter when he says, Get thee behind me accuser! (Matthew 16:23)

 

It also reminds me of Job where, ‘satan’ (literally ‘opponent’, ‘adversary’; pronounced: saw-tawn) the Hebrew equivalent of ‘satanas’ is used. In the case of Job, God baits the accuser. He tells the accuser how good Job is, knowing full well that he would accuse him of only being good because God does so many good things for him. The whole story of great suffering, perseverance, and more unfolds from there.

 

The main name we think of when we think of ‘the devil’ is Satan (satan, satanas), accuser. This is important. I suggest that it is because his main attribute, almost his defining characteristic, is that he is one who accuses others of wrong-doing – and he may be accurate in his accusations.

 

Think about that. Think about the times people are being satanas, accusing others in the Bible, especially the New Testament, the Gospels and Acts. Those accusing are often people who want the rules followed. We think of Pharisees.

 

Pharisees are an interesting example because they are good, religious leaders. They are a group of people that emphasizes holiness – that we can be holy as the Bible does tell us we can be (1 Peter 1:15-16; cf. Matthew 5:48). Some of Jesus’ early followers were Pharisees: Paul and Nicodemus to name two prominent ones. But time and time again people aiming for holiness for themselves and others are shown to wind up instead as accusers. Accusers in Greek are satanas and in Hebrew are saw-tawns – and when we accuse, that is what we are.

 

I have had to fire people a few times in my role representing The Salvation Army as an employer. My mind was running over these incidents in recent weeks – in doing so have I been like the accuser, seeking someone’s downfall? (Sometimes we do need to fire people for their best interests, the safety of our other staff and clients, because it is time to part ways, or for other reasons.) I don't believe I have...

 

I have never removed someone’s Soldiership. I can’t even imagine that. That would be like if the pastor who married you called you up on your anniversary and told you that you weren’t being a good enough spouse and so you should leave your husband or wife and abandon your covenant. If an Officer in authority encourages a Soldier under their care to abandon their covenant that is what they are doing. 

 

I think of the woman caught in adultery as relayed in the Gospel of John (John 8:1-11). Her accusers are standing before Jesus and the crowds ready to stone the guilty party – the legally prescribed punishment for her sins. Jesus did not accuse her. Jesus did not abandon her. Jesus restored her. Jesus saved her and Jesus instructed her to sin no more. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do?

 

Mark shows us in chapters 2-3 of his gospel that yes, Jesus cares about holiness and he does want us all to be free of sin, he does not necessarily care about the rules that were made to help us achieve that. They are means to an end not an end to defend. Jesus in chapter 2 heals on the Sabbath, forgives sins, and doesn’t fast. He has no problems breaking conventions if it leads to healing and wholeness and salvation. [ii]  The rules aren’t what’s important: what the rules were meant to be - a part of helping people to sanctification - that is what’s important. Unfortunately some people still accuse today when a rule is not followed. They want people punished. We need to be on guard.

 

Even if the accusers say that a person is supposed to be punished, prosecuted, persecuted, abandoned, destroyed; aren’t we are Christians supposed to say ‘no’, on the contrary they are supposed to be restored, reconciled, encouraged to repentance. Helped towards holiness, not abandoned into the hands of their accusers. Can you imagine if when you messed up and/or were trapped by sin, you were handed over to your accusers? Can you imagine your guilt if you handed someone over to their accusers? Remember Pilate as he was handing over Jesus to his accusers – he didn’t want to do it. He tried not to do it but eventually he succumbed to the accusers. Do we sometime succumb to satanas, saw-tawns? Are we sometimes satanas, saw-tawns?

 

We work with a lot of people here who are struggling with addiction, mental health, poverty and other things. Many of these people are our employees and volunteers. Real questions, not rhetorical: Can I really fire someone struggling with mental health for acting in a manner consistent with someone struggling with mental health? Can I really let someone go who is acting in a manner consistent with their diagnosis? Can I really punish someone trapped by addiction for acting in a manner consistent with someone trapped by addiction?

 

I will be quite honest here. We have a number of people who have done some miserable things, some illegal things, some scary things because of their mental health, things that we could legally fire them for on the spot. Maybe we have to for safety and security -maybe - but I think we still need to be available to them. They are part of our team, our family; they are our neighbours. How many times must we forgive our neighbour who sin against us? Seventy times seven times!

 

Even more than that. We have people in our employ who are struggling with addiction. We have had more than one employee fall prey to alcohol or drug addiction while they were working for us. We have had people, more than once, break the law due to their addiction. They have robbed us, broken in, and more. I can think of three examples where they have stood before us as guilty as the woman caught in adultery, deserving of us to cast the stones. We resisted (in those cases) the temptation to be the one to cast the first stone! We opted instead to encourage people to get help for their addiction, to go to AA or other support groups; we have opted instead not to put temptation in their way – not to permit them in places and circumstances that could lead to further temptation. That is our responsibility to care for people under our authority, in our care. Everyday we walk with people who could fall. Many days we walk with people who stumble. Do we accuse them before HR, their colleagues and their families? When we go to HR wherever possible we seek to restore people. We help them when, if we can. That is our job as children of the light to help others out of the darkness. We are not to abandon them to their sins, not to encourage them to leave the work, their church, or their job. We would never want to be guilty of the sin of accusing; the sin of accusing is the work of satanas, not saints.

 

It is interesting in the text we read in Mark the Pharisees and Jesus family are the ones interfering with the work of God. His family is there to seize, to arrest him (literal translation of the Greek) and the Pharisees are accusing Jesus of beating the accuser by the power of the accuser. Jesus says that is not possible. Martin Luther King reminds us that hate cannot defeat hate, only love can do that.[iii] A firefighter once said that one cannot fight fire with fire – that only makes a bigger fire. Jesus asks how can accuser cast out accuser? He can’t.

 

As I have been reading through the Bible lately, I have been paying attention to where the word satana (or saw-tawn) has been used. It is becoming more and more clear to me that we are not supposed to accuse one another – when we do that we are like the devil who is called the accuser. What we are supposed to do is walk alongside someone who is stuck in anything – be it circumstance or sin – and help them out of it. That is our responsibility: to forgive and be forgiven, to love and be loved, to repent and to be reconciled, to be received unto repentance, to turn the other cheek, and to help one another. Anything less is of the evil one.

 

With that in mind, I encourage us all, in all of our activities with one another to do everything in our power to assist one another, to help one another, to love one another. Let us never be tempted to cast the first stone. Let us never fall prey to accusers, satanas, and saw-tawns; and let us never be the saw-tawns, satanas, and accusers ourselves.

Let us pray.

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[i] Cf. NT Wright Mark For Everyone. P 37 : the word is not limited to a proper name

[ii] Cf. Donald H. Juel, The Gospel of Mark, p. 84.

[iii] Martin Luther King Jr. , A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New York, NY, 1986)