Sermon Text: Hebrews 12:1-3
Date: March 24, 2024
Event: Palm Sunday, Year B
Hebrews 12:1–3 (EHV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us get rid of every burden and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patient endurance the race that is laid out for us. 2Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. 3Carefully consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart.
What Joy Was Set Before Jesus?
This morning we stand on a perilous threshold. Palm Sunday would seem to be a joyous celebration; after all, the crowds are cheering Jesus as he enters Jerusalem. Jesus looks as popular and as influential as he had in his entire ministry. But, with hindsight, we know what is coming. We know that before the end of this week, Jesus will be dead. Palm Sunday’s joy, if there is any, is short-lived.
But that word “joy” stands out in our Second Reading. The writer to the Hebrews speaks about joy being set before Jesus. What was that joy? What is he talking about? Because as we survey the landscape, it doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot to be joyful for in the moment. As we just sang about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, “Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die” (Christian Worship 411, s. 5).
The author of this letter to the Hebrews is writing a few decades after Jesus’ ministry. He’s writing to Jewish believers who converted to Christianity but now are at a crossroads. Judaism was legal, while Christianity was not. Because of the problems facing these believers, many were tempted to abandon the Christian faith and go back to Judaism, which was comfortable and safe. The writer to the Hebrews’ whole point in this letter is to get them to see how much of a backward step that would be. Leaving Jesus and returning to Judaism would be abandoning the source of their forgiveness and, in fact, the whole fulfillment of what the Jewish faith looked forward to.
The chapter just before our Second Reading this morning, Hebrews chapter 11, has been nicknamed the “Heroes of Faith” chapter. In that chapter, the author summarizes events in the lives of many of the faithful believers from the Old Testament, like Adam, Noah, and Abraham, and commends them for their faith and their trust in God’s promises. And this is the “great cloud of witnesses” that he references in the first verse of our Second Reading. He wants his readers (and us along with them) to consider how faithful God’s people were to his promises in the past and seek to emulate that faithfulness.
And part of that faithfulness is kicking off sin that wraps its fingers around our ankles and run the path that God places in front of us. Being a Christian means being dead to sin and not wanting it around. Being a Christian means seeing sin as a threat, like a fishing net to someone trying to run a race.
But he doesn’t tell us just to do it; he tells us how. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. Do you want to navigate this life safely? Do you want to get through this sin-corrupted world and be with God forever in heaven? Keep your eyes locked on Jesus! He’s the solution; he’s the answer. He’s the one who starts your faith, and he’s the one who completes it.
Here’s something dangerous for any preacher to do on a Sunday morning, but I want you to close your eyes. With this blank mental canvas, I want you to think about the word “joy.” Just let it bounce around in your mind for a moment. What do you see? What comes to mind?
Ok, you can open your eyes. So, what was there? Maybe parents holding their newborn child. Maybe someone moving into their first home on their own. Maybe a newly graduated student clutching the diploma he worked so hard to get. Maybe you saw some generic scenes of people being happy; maybe personal joys from the recent or distant past filled your mind.
All of us will have different things that resonate when we hear the word “joy.” But I doubt anyone saw scenes of torture and pain. I don’t think the word “joy” brought forth images of bleeding and agony. Those things are the polar opposite of joy; torment and joy do not go together.
Palm Sunday is a muted triumph, a very bittersweet moment. We see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the least prestigious and regal way someone could make such an entrance. He enters amid shouts of praise and requests for salvation (“Hosanna” is a Hebrew word meaning “Please save us!”). But there will be no lightning coming from the sky to rescue God’s people from the Roman occupation. There will be no victory here. No, as we mentioned earlier and sang in our Hymn of the Day, Jesus is riding to his death. You know what we’ll see on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday evenings: betrayal, lies, and execution by crucifixion.
And we know that Jesus’ mood ahead of this was not exactly excited. We’ll hear him on Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane pleading with God the Father to take this cup of suffering away from him. “If there’s another way, let’s do that. Let’s not do this plan if it can be avoided.” When the writer to the Hebrews mentions the joy set before Jesus, he’s certainly not referring to the physical and spiritual torture he will undergo in a few days. No, the joy that the author mentions thinks little of and even casts aside the shame and the brutality of the cross: In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame…
There is a possible way to translate this verse that goes something like this: “In spite of” or “In place of the joy set before him…” If our minds take this path, perhaps we think about the joy that Jesus could have if he wasn’t in this situation, if he never took on our human nature, if he never faced death. What if Jesus had just stayed God in his place of glory? What if he hadn’t done any of this? Wouldn’t that have been joy for him?
Well, no, actually. Nothing about Jesus avoiding the cross would be joyful to him. Yes, it would mean he wouldn’t have to suffer like he did, but the end result of that would have been completely unacceptable to him. Go back to Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Yes, he pleaded that this cup pass by him, but he then added that his Father’s will should be done.
What is the joy set before Jesus during this impossibly difficult week? What could possibly be so precious, dear, and joy-inspiring that it would take the brutality of the cross and the hell he would suffer there and throw it off to the side? What joy was set before Jesus? Well, you. Me.
The joy on the other side of this torment and pain is our rescue from sin, death, and hell. The joy on the other side of the cross is an eternity with the people he created and loves in the perfect courts of heaven. The joy beyond the cross is victory, real victory, real glory. Not the almost-ridiculous looking scene of a man riding on a foal of a donkey, but there’s a reason that final hymn verse ended the way it did: “Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die. Bow your meek head to mortal pain, then take, O Christ, your pow’r and reign” (Christian Worship 411, s. 5). In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. There’s power and regal rule ahead for Jesus.
How? Because, unlike for you and me, death was not defeat for Jesus. His death will be Satan’s defeat; it will be sin’s defeat. It will be our rescue. We’re going to see a whole lot of difficult scenes over the next week. It will be uncomfortable to sit with Jesus during that last, sometimes frustrating, meal with his disciples. It won't be easy to see him betrayed by one of the twelve. It will be difficult to hear the cracking whip and the pounding hammer, the jeers of the passersby, and his prayer to his Father that goes completely ignored, “Why have you forsaken me?”
But we will revist these verses from Hebrews on Good Friday because we must remember Jesus' attitude in all of this. He is not suffering unwillingly or unwittingly. This is not a tragedy; this is a rescue. Jesus thinks little of the cross and its shame because he thinks so much, so highly, of you. The cross, his suffering and death, was the means to the goal of rescuing us from our sin. And we know that he won’t just mock the cross’ shame, but that he will mock death itself one week from today. For Jesus, what lies ahead isn’t negative; it’s joyful because it will reunite all of us with him, who loves us so much.
The writer to the Hebrews closes our brief reading with this encouragement: Carefully consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart. Why should we keep our eyes locked on Jesus? Why should we carefully consider him who endured such hostility? Certainly not as a model. Jesus isn’t teaching us a lesson on patience and “turning the other cheek” as he suffers hell on the cross. No, consider him carefully because you want to see the results of that suffering and death. If Jesus was just a tragic figure who should be pitied, there would not be encouragement at all in his upcoming death. But, because Jesus is our Champion, our Savior, our Messiah, when we consider him and what he has done for us, we do not grow weary and lose heart, but we are lifted up and encouraged by Jesus’ love for us. Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us get rid of every burden and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patient endurance the race that is laid out for us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne.
So, my dear sisters and brothers, whatever hardship is weighing you down, whatever sin is bubbling guilt up in your heart or the pit of your stomach, whatever grief threatens to lead you to despair, fix your eyes on Jesus so that you do not grow weary or lose heart. He faced the cross with joy. But what was that joy? Well, you; you are Jesus’ joy. Thanks be to God! Amen.
