Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

(Draw cartoon rodent on easel tablet.)

That’s it! That’s the only thing I can draw. I think that’s because on my early training.

In the first art class I ever took in elementary school, the teacher had a very interesting way of teaching art. She distributed sheets of paper with line drawings on them -- it might be the drawing of a house or a tree -- and I was instructed along with the rest of my class to take a black crayon and trace around those lines. And after I had done that I was allowed to choose any color from the eight choices in my crayola crayon box and color in that picture. We just had the basic crayons too -- none of these fancy new colors like dawn rose and key lime pie.

That was art. I was warned to stay within the lines. Week after week the same procedure.

I don't know who drew those scenes, but I know that I was to stay within those lines. So art became for me an exercise of carefully coloring within someone else's lines. The only freedom of creativity I had was the choice of which crayon. If my crayon slipped or if through carelessness or thoughtlessness or my constant day-dreaming as a kid -- I wandered outside the lines, my work was unacceptable.

I soon lost interest in art. That’s why all I can draw today is this rodent.

Some people try to teach Christian faith the way my school tried to teach art. Someone hands us a piece of paper with lines on it and tells us to stay within the lines -- and that is difficult for us sometimes. In some churches those lines are very bold and very constricting; very legalistic.

Have you ever felt that other people are expecting you to dance to their tune? Jesus had that too. He experienced this on Palm Sunday and He experienced it earlier in His ministry. In our text for this morning, Jesus faces the question of coloring outside other people’s lines. Some of these are lines drawn by people who love Him. Some are drawn by people who reject Him. But one way or another, for one reason or another, they are drawn.

John the Baptist is in prison. He's waiting eagerly for something to happen. He proclaimed Jesus as the one who would "baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire." He said "His winnowing fork is in His hand to clean out the threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

John had said of Jesus, "He must increase and I must decrease." John had been quite ready to play second fiddle to Jesus -- or to just carry Jesus’ violin case and not play at all. But now John is deeply troubled by the reports of what Jesus is doing -- and also what He is not doing.

John's disciples report the word that had spread about Jesus through the countryside. "A great prophet has arisen among us."

"A great prophet?" John had announced Jesus as much more than a prophet. He had announced Him as the Messiah who would purge Israel of evil.

With this report, John is no longer sure about Jesus. Jesus is teaching about love and grace and forgiveness. Where is the refiner's fire? Why isn't Jesus treading the "fierce winepress of God the Almighty?"

Why isn't Jesus coloring within the lines John has carefully drawn? The Romans are still in firm control. Their lackeys including are still living in comfort. The religious establishment was just as arrogant and self-righteous as ever. And John, sitting in prison, is getting no help from Jesus as far as he can see.

So John sends two of his disciples to Jesus with a blunt question: "Are you the one who is coming or do we look for someone else?"

And Jesus tells them: "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them."

In this answer, Jesus refers to four separate messianic prophecies from Isaiah. But I think Jesus that knows that His answer won't really satisfy John. He has given no explanation of why the fiery judgement has been withheld. He offers no encouragement that John will be delivered from prison. So He adds a statement of warning: "And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me."

That's a very picturesque phrase. The word "stumble" Jesus uses derives from the trapping of birds. It refers to an action that depresses a bait stick and triggers a trap. Jesus says to John: "blessed is the person who doesn't get into trouble over who I am."

Jesus hasn't lived up to John's expectations. He is not "okay" with John. And Jesus says: "Don't get set off by me."

John is not the only one who ever felt puzzled or even disappointed by Jesus. Many today say that they can’t believe in Jesus if spiritual salvation is His main interest rather than political or economic salvation. I have had people whop professed to be Christians fall away when they didn’t get the marriage partner they hoped for, or the healing, or the prosperity they though should be part of their lives. Today, perhaps more than ever, we need to hear Jesus’ blessing: “Blessed is the person who doesn’t fall-away on account of me.”

But John’s is not the only bait stick Jesus is triggering. There are also the Pharisees and the lawyers. Jesus isn't coloring inside their lines either. He's living up to their expectations even less than He's living up to John's.

Jesus is not "okay" with John. But John very much wants Him to be. He wants to be satisfied. His basic attitude is one of hope and receptivity.

By contrast, Jesus isn't "okay" with the Pharisees and they don't want him to be. Jesus doesn't meet their expectations and they keep moving the lines to make sure that He can't meet them — kind of like those moving stairs on the residence hall in the Harry Potter movies.

Some of you may remember a 1973 movie called “Bang the Drum Slowly.” Robert DeNiro plays Bruce Pearson who befriends the teams star pitcher. The only scene I remember from the movie is how they play a card game called “Tagwar” with some salesmen.

The salesmen are so impressed to be playing cards with “real for sure ball players” that they allow themselves to be cheated out of hundreds of dollars. Every time they get a hand that looks like a winner, DeNiro explains a rule that actually makes the hand a loser. For example, they might suddenly declare that in Tagwar, aces become low the fifth time the cards are dealt. Or they might declare that eights are now wild because it’s past 1 A.M. The salesmen grin and say “thanks for telling me” because it’s so cool to be hanging with real pros.

We later learn that Tagwar stands for “The Amazing Game Without any Rules.”

Well Jesus is aware that the Pharisees keep changing the rules. But unlike the salesmen in the movie, Jesus isn’t silent. He doesn’t play Tagwar.

He bluntly calls the Pharisees on their childish fickleness: "To what shall I compare the people of this generation? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another: 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge for you and you did not weep.'"

Every one of Jesus' listeners had seen children restlessly trying to find a game to play on a long, hot afternoon. They didn’t have Nintendo. They didn’t have television. They just had each other. Some want to play "weddings" and some want to play "funerals." They taunt each other. One group cries "we want to play wedding and you won't play our game." The others respond with the chant, "but we want to play funerals and you won't do what we wanted." They can't get together because each want their own way and end up enjoying neither game.

There's a great difference between childlikeness and childishness. Jesus often used children to model the honest, enthusiastic response to life He wants from His people. But in this case Jesus pictures the most unattractive aspect of immaturity ﷓﷓ the fickle uncooperativeness of a bored, spoiled child.

Jesus says that the reason the Pharisees are not satisfied with Him because they do not want to be satisfied. "For John the Baptist came eating no bread and drinking no wine and you say, 'He has a demon!' the Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say, behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners.'”

Jesus' point is that the Pharisees do not know what they want. They keep moving the lines. For beneath their uncertainty is a very real resistance to God.

Jesus is saying: "Listen! You say you want God but your actions and words expose that you don't. You talk about God's judgement but you did not willingly accept John when he proclaimed it. You say you long for the Messiah to come. But now that He is here you search for a reason to reject Him. You are childish! If you had the wisdom of God you would recognize His truth in the messenger sent to prepare the way for the Messiah and you would welcome the Messiah Himself."

All those who are in tune with God recognize His truth whether the messenger is a desert dwelling ascetic like John the Baptist or a party goer like Jesus. Jesus says in verse 35: "wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

How do we demonstrate that we are children of wisdom? How do we know that we are in tune with God?

Jesus says that we do it by embracing Him and who He is ﷓﷓ not looking for reasons to reject Him and discount His words.

There is a lot of application today for what Jesus is saying. This is a word that we need to hear.

For example, many people today reject real obedience to Jesus because of the church.

Several years ago the Gallup organization did a poll on religion in America which revealed millions of what Gallup calls "believers on the outside." These are people who say that they believe that Jesus is the son of god who died on the cross and rose from the dead. The vast majority of Americans say they believe that. But when asked how they are acting on their belief in worship, in Bible study, in Christian service the answer is: "They aren't." The reason, they often claim, is that they are "turned off by the church."

Now the church makes mistakes. But the church is not the gospel. The church isn't art. It's only a sometimes poor way of teaching art.

When the Walnut Canyon school band plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Beethoven is not on trial. The band is on trial. The symphony doesn't lose its greatness if a band plays it poorly.

In the same way, Jesus doesn't cease to be Lord just because a particular church or all churches don't do justice to the gospel. To allow something like a problem with the church to prevent me from following the Lord would be insane.

Unless, as Jesus seems to be saying to the Pharisees: "Any excuse will do. You do not really want to follow Me and no matter what I do you will still not want to follow Me. If the church were perfect, you would find another excuse because excuses are all you really want."

Some people will find fault no matter what. You’re too serious. Lighten up! You’re too optimistic. Get real! One sermon is “too complex” and the next is “too illiterate.” One church is “too gushy and saccharine.” The next is “too condemning.” But the bottom line is that the complainers want God to dance to their tune.

People say: "I don't want to get too involved or over committed because I had religion shoved down my throat when I was a kid." They are letting people come between them and Jesus Christ. Is that a tragic mistake? Or is it simply another excuse? I hear this from fifty year old men--thirty five years after the alleged offense.

The thing is that even if people have tried to "shove religion down your throat, Jesus won't. But He does say: I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in." He never breaks down the door. But He leaves us with the warning that our choice to open the door or not open the door has eternal significance.

It’s Palm Sunday. Jesus comes bringing the kingdom of God and presents us with a decisive choice. "What are we to do with Jesus Christ?" It's not "what am I to do with the church or what am I to do with my overbearing parents or what am I to do with my family that is unready to follow? It's what am I going to do with Jesus? How am I going to respond to Him?

Don't let the church stand in your way and, equally important, don't use the church as a substitute for obedience to Jesus. Don't say,"I must be doing okay because I am doing everything my church expects of me." Never use the expectations of this church or any other church as your sole guide as to what Jesus expects of you. The only place you are going to find that is in His Word.

I have to be careful of fulfilling only human expectations. This is a very gracious church. The people of this congregation cut me a lot of slack and I'm grateful. I need it. But I should not therefore assume that because I seem to be satisfying most expectations of this congregation, I am somehow also automatically satisfying the expectations of Jesus or realizing all I could be in His plan.

Jesus is not a cosmic killjoy determined to make us do what He knows will make us miserable. He said: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." It fits you. He said, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly."

But at the same time He points us very clearly to the path that is abundance. "He who would save his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will find it."

Jesus is saying to us in this passage: "Don't make excuses! Be honest with yourself. Be realistic about yourself." Not: "What's wrong with Jesus and what reason can I find to keep from following Him?" But, "do I really want to follow him? Do I trust Him that He does indeed know the way to abundant life even if the path He chooses sometimes seems unpromising to me? Can I trust Him to keep His word?"

Those are the very questions that your discipleship will be built on.