Most Of Life Is Saturday…

I am going to talk just briefly about each of the four days we celebrate this week – Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter – and look at how in each day Jesus surprises us and defies our expectations of who he is.

It begins with Palm Sunday, which we celebrate today, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem and everyone thinks he`s coming to kick out the Romans and bring freedom to the Jews so they lay down Palm branches and shout, “Hosanna” King of the Jews.” You can understand why they are so excited because for centuries they have been oppressed and conquered by everybody – the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans – they`re 0 and 5 and their season is not improving. If they were a basketball team, they would be in the B league. In fact they probably wouldn`t even be in a league; they`d be in someone`s driveway playing horse, and they wouldn`t even have an H. They are so excited because finally they think Jesus is going to give them a political victory, but that`s not what Jesus came to do. He didn`t come to Jerusalem to kick out the Romans; he came to die to take the punishment that we all deserve on himself. That is not what they expected or wanted. Palm Sunday represents all the times that we get really excited about Jesus because of what we think He can do for us rather than about who he really is and what he really offers. Palm Sunday represents all those times we get excited about Jesus because we think he`s going to give us the job we want or the health we want or the friends we want.

I had a student who was applying for a Rhodes Scholarship a couple of years ago, and he tried to make a deal with God. He said, “God, you give me the Rhodes Scholarship and I`ll tell everyone I got it because of you.” I remember saying, “I don`t think that is going to work.” He said, “Why not? What better way to make God look good than to make me a Rhodes scholar.” Do you ever do something similar and say to God, “Lord, make me successful, make me happy, give me what I want.” That`s what the Palm Sunday crowds were saying, “Lord, do for us what we want and make us happy.” But Jesus didn`t come to make us happy; He came to make us holy and whole. Now I know that if you`re like me you`re thinking, “Bummer, that`s too bad, I want to be happy.” But trust me whole is better; it lasts longer, it`s more rewarding, and it`s more productive than happiness, which is fleeting. Jesus came to make us holy and whole – not what we expected.

This leads directly into the second day of Holy Week – Maundy Thursday. This is the night that Jesus celebrates the last supper with his disciples. It`s also the night that Judas betrays him, and the gospels imply that the reason Judas betrays Jesus is because he`s exasperated that Jesus seems more concerned about saving souls than about starting a revolution. So because Jesus doesn`t follow the script, Judas turns his back on him. Here again we can relate because this sometimes happens to us. We get disappointed with God because he doesn`t do what we want him to do. We just ignore him or do our own thing or maybe come to church, but don`t really give our lives to him. Like Frank Sinatra we do it “our way” and follow our own path. Maundy Thursday is about all the ways we turn our back on Jesus, as everyone does that first Maundy Thursday 2 000 years ago. It`s the most sordid night in human history. The disciples fall asleep instead of praying with Jesus; the chief priests put Jesus on trial in secret at night. Then the priests get afraid and pass him off to Pilate, who passes him off to Herod, who passes him back to Pilate. Pilate finally caves in like a house of cards to the angry crowds, who just a few days before were praising Jesus but now demand his death.

Maundy Thursday is about all the ways that human beings fail God, but here again Jesus surprises us. You would expect him to give up on such a sorry lot, but that is not what he does. Instead he keeps pursuing us and chasing us, and as much as we run away from him, he never gives up on us. Do you know who held the seat of honor at the Last Supper? Judas – because God never gives up on us. And do you know what Jesus does BEFORE the Last Supper? He washes his disciples` feet. Think about it — in a culture where people walk everywhere in dirt and dust, no water to take a bath, nothing but leather sandals absorbing all those odors, and what does the son of God do? He kneels down and washes those dirty feet. Maundy Thursday is about how Jesus loves us in spite of our dirty feet, in spite of our failures, fears, and weaknesses. It`s about how he cleans us up and makes us whole.

This brings us to the third day of Holy Week, Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified. Surely there is no bleaker moment in human history than when we decided it was expedient to kill our Creator. But here again Jesus defied our expectations and surprises us, because – as the name suggests – this horrible event turns out to be good. Not because of what happened on that day, but because God used that day to make us good by paying the price we deserved so we could be reconciled to God. It`s the best worst thing that ever happened and that`s the paradox of Good Friday, the irony of Good Friday. Unlike other religions that just pretend there is no such thing as evil or say if only you meditate right you can escape the illusion of suffering, Good Friday tells us the truth. Evil really does exist and suffering really does hurt, but God can take even the worst events and make them good. Unlike other religious figures, Jesus doesn`t AVOID SUFFERING and SIN, he absorbs them and transforms them into something good.

The last day of Holy Week is EASTER, the day Jesus was raised from the dead. Easter is a powerful symbol that with God there is no such thing as a dead end. God can conquer even death itself and can take the worst defeat and turn it into victory. There is a semi-famous painting called “Check Mate” that depicts a chessboard where the king is supposedly in check mate, but one day a master chess player was studying this painting for hours and finally said, “It`s not true; the painting is wrong. The king is not in check mate; he has one more move.” That`s Easter and again it defies our expectations. You would expect death to be the end of the game, but not with God. He can make even the worse defeat a victory. As bleak as things get, God always has one more move left. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter – four different ways that Jesus defies our expectations and surprises us:
1) By pursuing his agenda, not ours, and making us holy
2) By loving us at our worst
3) By using our sin to save us
4) By turning a dead end into a new beginning

But there is one more day left, and we don`t celebrate it, but I think it is the most important day of Holy Week – Saturday – the day between the crucifixion and the resurrection. What do you think the disciples were doing on Saturday? Here they have seen their friend and their Master killed the day before but also have this vague promise, which probably seemed ludicrous at the time that he would rise again. So what do you think they were doing on Saturday between the tragedy and the promise?

Most of life is Saturday. We`re in a terrible position, but we have a promise from God that we only half believe. It`s after the doctor tells us we have cancer, but before we`re cured or find a new depth of faith to cope with it. It`s after the marriage breaks up, but before God heals the grief. It`s after we`ve been laid off, but before God uses our gifts in a new place. Most of life is Saturday. It`s waiting in faith and hanging onto the promise that God is going to come through for us in spite of how bad things look. Most of life is Saturday.

I don`t know where you are this Holy Week. Maybe you`re in a Palm Sunday kind of mood wanting God to get on board with an agenda and maybe he will, but if he doesn`t know that his plans are always good. Maybe you`re feeling a little unlovable because of something you`ve done or haven`t done. Maundy Thursday means that God loves us no matter how dirty our uniform gets from the game of life. Maybe you`re in a Saturday kind of place – between a hard time and a promise you only half believe. Know this for sure that God`s Easter irony is still at work, and he can use even the worst tragedies for good, and he
always has at least one more move left. No matter how bleak and dark Saturday gets, Sunday`s coming, and it`s coming sooner than you think.”

– AUTHOR UNKNOWN –