Sermon from April 5, 1998

Sermon "From A Question Mark to An Exclamation Point""
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, April 5, 1998

From A Question Mark to an Exclamation Point

I was with Roger Gruebling this past week. We were driving to UW-M to play racquetball. Roger is the tax collector for the city of Wauwatosa. He's asked me to go easy on the tax collector sermons. I'm glad he's a friend. He and his wife Lynn work with the Sunday School in this church. I asked Roger, "How is your Sunday School class going?" He answered, "It's going great. However, we had an interesting answer when I asked the children if they knew what they would be singing on Palm Sunday." "What was their answer" I asked. One of his students said they would be singing "O' Suzanna." Of course the student meant what we heard this morning, "Hosanna." Children still say the dandiest things.

I have a question for you. I believe it's the most insightful question asked in the New Testament. We can appreciate Palm Sunday more as we encounter this question. One of the places it is found is Luke chapter seven verse twenty. When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, `Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'" ... "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

What a piercing question! The question is more startling when one recognizes who asked it. It was John the Baptist. One would have thought John and his disciples would have known by now that Jesus was the one who was to come. The Messiah of God. John was related to Jesus. John had seen the heavens open when he baptized Jesus and heard the voice "this is my beloved Son..." But he had a serious and authentic concern. What happened to John which forced him to ask such a question?

He was in prison for speaking out on the moral character of Herod. John, the eagle is caged in prison. Probably the first time he ever lived under an enclosed roof. He was an outdoor person. His situation leads him to depression and doubt and having second thoughts about Jesus Christ as the Messiah. John sent his disciples to Jesus and asked ..."Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" That remains today our question!

For John, no rival teaching had challenged his faith in Christ. His problem was doubting that what Jesus was doing furnished adequate grounds of faith. He must renew belief or let it die. "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

The question raises life's central concerns to a point of sharp focus: Can I invest my life on faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah of God? At every juncture in life we have to make the decision: Is this the way, or do we look for another?

Questions unite, answers divide. John's doubt grew chiefly on the fact that Christ did not fulfill either the hope of the Messiah as nationalistic ally interpreted, or the picture that John himself had drawn.

Most of the people wanted a mighty king or warrior to live in a palace. Instead God sent a baby born in a stable. Most of the people wanted their earthly kingdom restored. Instead God gave them one who talked about a heavenly kingdom not make with human hands. Most of the people wanted someone to reinforce their prejudices. Instead God gave them one who loved the outcasts and lonely. Most of the people wanted someone who would bless the concessions they had made to their culture. Instead God gave them someone who would not compromise. Most of the people wanted someone who would be impressed with their external goodness. Instead God gave them one who required internal purity. Most of the people wanted someone to champion their cause. Instead God gave them one who challenged them to make God's cause theirs. Most of them wanted someone to make life easy. Instead God sent one to make life great. Most of them wanted someone to vindicate the righteous. Instead God sent one who died for the unrighteous as well as the righteous. Most of them wanted someone to wear a crown. Instead God gave them one to die on a cross and wear a crown of thorns. Do you suppose instead God gives us what we need more than what we want?

Jesus had to go to Jerusalem. It was no easy decision. He knew that it was the city that stoned the prophets. He would have to give up the quiet hills of Galilee where he had seen the eyes of God in the twinkling of the stars. He would have to leave unpretentious and kind friends and the homes of humble farmers that had welcomed the young prophet to their weddings and simple dinners. At Jerusalem awaited the cruelest death known to a cruel age. There would be loneliness, pain, curses, jeers. Yet he had to go!

Now a new kind of king comes. He rode not a proud charger, but an animal of utter humility, not spears in the hands of his followers, but palms. Not the beating of drums, but the singing of the faithful. It was no longer a troubled question, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" Now it was a resounding exclamation point: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

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