The Unimaginable Crowning of the King

This is Jesus, King of the Jews.

Well, we got two, three more days of shopping left, right?

I did something I promised myself that I would never do.

I would never go to Causeway Bay during the Christmas time.

You can keep me accountable that I would never do it again,

and if I do, you're welcome to kick me in the knee as hard as you dare.

I figured my wife said I needed to go get a doll, so go to Toys R Us.

There's two mistakes there, ladies.

Don't ever tell your husband just to go get a doll at Toys R Us,

because there's something about our brain,

and we walk in there and we see thousands of dolls,

and we kind of become paralyzed, and we have no idea what to do,

what kind of doll to get, how to get it.

It was just out of control.

I didn't know what to do.

I bought a craft box instead, or as the British would say, a craft box instead.

I bought a craft because I couldn't decide what doll to get amongst the thousands of them.

And as I sat there and pondered my dilemma and what I should do,

I walked around, and as I walked around, I heard the most amazing music.

I was like, silent night, holy night.

All was calm.

All was bright.

And I walked through this door, and I felt so weird.

I felt like there was this struggle of kingdoms with inside of me.

I mean, I knew there is this struggle of kingdoms all around us.

We talk about it often.

There is a kingdom of Tobin, and I know how to act there, and I know what to do there,

and I know what is required of me there, and I know who the king is because Tobin is the king,

or he wants to be the king.

And there is the kingdom of God.

And as I listened and I walked through there, I felt weird because I felt this tension

and this battle coming up within me.

And I realized that within me there's this struggle of these two kingdoms.

And if I'm honest, if I'm brutally honest, sometimes it's so much easier to work and live in the kingdom of Tobin.

Because in the kingdom of Tobin, I know all the rules and everything makes sense,

and sometimes I don't even have to think about what I'm going to do next

because I just know in my flesh what I'm going to do next.

But in the kingdom of God, things are different.

We've been talking and we read things like,

the first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first.

And I just don't get that sometimes.

We hear things that says the greatest is the least.

And if you want to be great, you need to serve.

I've never teached that in the kingdom of Tobin, but in the kingdom of God,

that's a message that goes over and over and over.

And we struggle with it in our lives, if we're honest.

As a theologian, we call that a paradox.

There's something that's happening and we see it, but we don't understand it

because it shouldn't be happening the way it should happen.

In this journey of these last four sermons, we've been calling it invertedness

or upside-downness, that we see things that aren't the way they should be

or the way that we think that they should be, and we have a hard time.

And the Gospels that we've been reading for the last three years

share a lot about Christ's kingdom

and how the rules in his kingdom are so different

than the rules in the kingdom of Tobin.

And I struggle with that, and sometimes, I have to be honest,

I feel like it's easier to live within the kingdom of Tobin.

I mean, just look at the passage today.

Six days before this passage happened,

Jesus walks into this place, Jerusalem.

There's over a million people there now.

And 20,000 people are following him, and they're cheering for him,

and they want the Christmas story to come true.

They want the baby who's born, he's the king,

he's going to be the one who's going to rule over us.

But now, six days later, they're yelling,

crucify him, kill him, kill him.

It's a paradox.

It's upside down.

I mean, if I were to write this story,

I wouldn't end it the way we did in verse 46,

when Jesus yells out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In my story, in the kingdom of Tobin's story,

the story would go something like this.

We'd get to verse 44,

and then there would be three hours of darkness.

The Greek says that the word is basically

that everyone became blind.

There would be three hours of darkness

that everyone would become blind,

and at the end of that three hours

in the kingdom of Tobin,

what would happen would be

Gandalf would run down the hill with a light,

and the light would be blinding out,

and everybody would look up to the cross,

and Jesus would be there in golden shield and armor

with a sword like this,

and behind him, there'd be 100,000 elves,

I mean, angels.

There'd be 100,000 angels,

and Jesus would be sitting there like this,

and he says, okay, let's get it on.

And he would go in there,

and he would just destroy and cut

and destroy all the enemies,

and he would be victorious,

and he would build this massive palace

on Jerusalem Boulevard,

and we would worship him there today.

He would be the hero.

But in the story we just read,

he's not a hero.

He's weak.

He's gentle.

He's mild.

He's meek.

He dies.

No hero ever dies.

I mean, Hollywood's not going to buy this script,

are they?

No way.

I mean, in Hollywood,

the hero just takes as much as he can

to the very, very end,

and finally he says, that's enough.

And then the higher the body count,

he just kills everybody.

The better the story is.

But Jesus is kind of like an anti-hero.

When I used to read this story

to my students in China

for the very first time,

the very first time they ever heard the gospel,

I would be reading these stories,

and I would get to this point,

and Jesus would die,

and I would just stop and say,

okay, that's the end.

We'll talk about it next week.

And my students would look at me,

and they would go, what?

Oh, me, lao, shi.

Bu hao, bu hao.

If you want to have a movie,

the hero has to be great.

He has to be strong.

He has to be powerful.

This is no good.

This is no good.

He has to be passionate

and have pride and dignity.

But the Jesus you just told us about,

Jesus, he's weak.

He's wounded.

He dies.

He's wounded.

He dies.

No good, no good.

I never remember the look on their faces

as they're trying to figure out,

this is a good thing?

But the passage says,

this is the Christmas story.

I mean, this is why the baby was born.

The baby was born to suffer,

to be his servant,

and to die for us.

We don't think about that often on Christmas, do we?

I mean, this is why I chose this passage today,

because I think this passage

is the ultimate upside-downness.

This passage is the ultimate invertedness.

This passage is the ultimate paradox,

and the ultimate paradox is basically this,

that the whole Christmas story

is about a baby being born in a manger

in Bethlehem

to go to a cross

to get what you deserve.

It's the greatest paradox.

The Christmas story is about a baby being born,

and Jesus takes God's punishment

for us.

For us.

We don't think that often.

when we go to a nativity scene.

Because in our kingdoms,

we vision things differently,

and we have different kings,

and we have different rules.

But in the kingdom of God,

things are very, very different,

and people act very, very different.

I gave you this passage today.

I hope that you will come back and read it,

and as we look through it,

I just want to make a couple observations

that have stuck out to me

as I've been reading Matthew 27.

Because I think it's full

of what we are supposed to do

and look and act like

in Jesus' kingdom.

It's supposed to be what

a comparison of

his kingdom

and our kingdom.

And I'm going to share some things

that I've been comparing

with the kingdom of Tobin.

In God's kingdom,

in the inverted kingdom,

in the upside-down kingdom,

in verses 11 through 14,

Jesus stands silent.

Jesus doesn't even answer

one question.

In fact, he answers one question,

the very first question.

Pilate answers the question,

asks him the question,

are you the king of Jews?

And in Greek,

he basically just says,

you say.

You say.

And by then,

from that point on,

he doesn't answer

any of his accusers.

We're told that he remains silent.

It drives the people crazy.

I mean,

Pilate is sitting back

and he's kind of laughing

because he's kind of liking Jesus

because he hates the Jews.

They've caused him so much trouble.

And here's this guy

who's perplexing the Jews,

who's causing them

all this trouble.

And you can read it in the Greek.

There's just kind of this amusement

and awe and wonder.

Wow.

This guy really can give it to them

without speaking.

accusation after accusation

after accusation.

And he says nothing.

But you know,

in my kingdom,

if people were to come

and to accuse me,

I would yell.

I might even get

really frustrated

and maybe feel like

I want to swing out

and punch them.

I would lash out.

I would blame.

I would accuse.

I would try to justify myself.

I would try to explain myself.

I might even gossip

to hurt other people.

But Jesus doesn't do that.

Jesus doesn't do that.

We're told in this passage

and the rest of Scripture

that Jesus is silent.

Jesus remains silent

so that one day

we can be heard.

When we say,

Dear God,

forgive me.

I need you.

In our kingdom

in verses 11 and 22,

when we're being condemned,

I mean,

when we're being condemned

in 11 and 22,

in my kingdom,

man,

I would be quick

to make excuses.

I would be quick

to justify myself.

I would be quick

to show my innocence,

especially if I were innocent.

And even if I weren't innocent,

I would try to make myself

look innocent.

But in the inverted kingdom,

in God's kingdom,

in Jesus' kingdom,

Jesus is condemned

and he takes all

of the condemnation

even though he's innocent.

He takes it.

He's like a sponge.

Have you noticed this

when you read the passage?

He's like a sponge.

He just,

he doesn't squeeze it out

and squeeze his wrath out.

He's just sucking it in.

And we're told it

in Jesus' kingdom.

He takes the condemnation

even though he's innocent

so that you and I

who are guilty

will one day be set free.

In our kingdom,

in Jesus' kingdom,

in the upside down kingdom.

In verses 26 to 33,

we read this in verse 26.

He's scourged with a flagellum.

It was this whip

with eight pieces of leather on it

with bone and metal in it.

And the Romans were perfect

and they would whip it across

and they would rip it through there

and it would rip out the flesh

and there'd be blood everywhere.

The Jews had a rule.

They couldn't lash anybody

more than 40 times

because that was the death penalty.

But the Romans had no such rule.

And so they went after Jesus.

And in upside down kingdom,

Jesus is there being scourged.

In verse 27,

in his upside down kingdom,

we see that he's stripped naked.

He's totally shamed.

Do you realize that?

I mean, when people went to the cross,

they tried to make it as shameful.

They would try to take away your name.

They'd try to take away everything from you.

And so he's stripped.

He's totally naked.

He's totally shamed.

He's totally humiliated.

We're told that Pilate brings them

into the praetorium.

We've gone there on our trips to Israel.

And he brings out the whole cohort.

So there's 600 soldiers surrounding Jesus.

They're actually playing a game with Jesus.

It's called the King's Game.

If you go there,

you can find it.

It's this little slide.

I don't know if we have the slide there,

but it's on the ground.

And it's right here.

It's this little circle.

And it's this little circle

like the King of Life.

And you would roll dice.

And as you entered in from the right,

there's a little scorpion there.

You can't see it.

But the scorpion meant flagellum.

You started it all off by getting ripped up.

And then you would just kind of walk your way around.

And whenever they rolled the dice,

the next thing happened to you.

And the next thing happened to you.

And the next thing happened to you.

And at the end,

the end was always the same.

The end was,

you die.

And so there's 600 soldiers,

and they've stripped him naked,

and they're playing this game,

and they're totally humiliating him.

And in verse 29,

we see that in Jesus' kingdom,

in the upside-down kingdom,

they mock him.

They put a crown of thorns on him.

They beat him in the head

over and over and over with a reed.

The verbs are very active.

It's not just like,

but they're very powerful.

They're very active,

and it's continually,

continually,

continually in this kingdom.

In Jesus' kingdom,

in the upside-down kingdom,

he takes the lashes

so that one day you and I are healed

through his blood.

In Jesus' kingdom,

he takes the stripping,

he takes the humiliation,

he takes having all his clothes

ripped off of him

so that one day

you and I

will be clothed

in glory.

In Jesus' kingdom,

he's totally mocked,

he's made fun of,

he's beaten with a crown of thorns,

it's pushed deeply in his head,

his head,

his scalp is copious with veins,

and he's bleeding everywhere,

and his back is ripped open.

And he takes the crown of thorns

in his kingdom

so that one day you and I,

we get a crown of glory.

In the upside-down kingdom,

in verses 27 through 37,

we see that God,

Jesus,

our king,

he's mocked,

he's reviled,

he's spit on,

he has his beard pulled out,

he's beaten unrecognizable.

I mean,

he's not a cute baby

in the manger anymore.

I mean,

no one can recognize him.

He's shown no mercy.

I mean,

you think about this.

In five of the 13 verses,

all they talk about is mocking.

In five of the 13 verses

of the crucifixion,

he's just mocked,

continually,

continually,

over and over and over.

He's mocked by the soldiers,

he's mocked by the passerbys,

he's mocked by the religious leaders,

he's mocked by,

he's even mocked by the,

the guys dying on the cross with him,

they even turn around

and they mock him also.

And what we see in Jesus' kingdom

is again,

that he takes all those things,

he takes all those things on him

so that one day you and I,

we might be blessed.

We might be honored.

We might be declared innocent.

We might be justified

of all our sins.

In the inverted kingdom,

in the Christmas kingdom,

we see in this passage

that Jesus doesn't even save himself.

I mean,

he allows himself

to be forsaken by God

and he dies

an incredibly painful

and humiliating death

so that one day

we can be saved.

one day

we can meet God.

One day

we can be called his children.

Have you ever thought about that?

When you looked at a nativity scene?

It's the greatest paradox.

It's the greatest upside-downness.

It's the greatest unexplainable thing

in the history of the world.

It's the meaning of Christmas.

We get God's glory.

Jesus gets a cross.

How do you feel about that?

How do you feel about that?

How do you feel about the Christmas story?

How do you feel about God's kingdom?

The upside-down kingdom

as opposed to your kingdom?

Does it make you feel good?

I keep reading this passage over and over

and I wonder why those 20,000 people

who were following him

for three years

and some of them less than that.

They're coming to Jerusalem.

I wonder why they give it up.

I wonder why

they turn.

I talk to people

all the time

about Christ

and what he's done for them.

You know,

sometimes people look at me

and they go,

I don't want that.

That's not

the kind of God I want.

I don't really want

I don't really want a mild God.

I really don't want a gentle God.

I really don't want a meek God.

I really don't want a suffering God.

I really don't want a weak Savior.

I don't want a Savior like that

because I don't want to live like that

because I know

if I have a Savior like that

then he's going to call me

to live like that.

And I don't want to live like that.

I want to be

or I want a God like the soldiers

or the religious leaders.

They wanted a God who was powerful.

They wanted success.

They wanted it now.

They wanted to be sexy.

They wanted to be relevant.

They wanted health.

They wanted education.

They wanted wealth.

They wanted power.

They wanted to prove it now.

Why would I choose a gentle

and meek and weak

God

over a God who can do things for me like that?

I mean, in our minds,

I think we read these passages

and if we're honest,

we can't ever believe that God

would really work through that way.

Would God really work through weakness?

Would God really work through failure?

Would God really work through suffering?

Would God really work through pain?

Does he want me to have pain

so that I can become a better person?

I mean, I don't think many of us

are out there saying,

Dear Lord, please bring me

more suffering today.

I need suffering today.

I need to become a better person.

Are we really saying that?

Do we want a God like that?

I mean, we want a God

who comes down from the cross.

We want a God who's powerful.

We want a God

who takes our lives into control.

We want a God

who's going to give us

everything we want.

We don't want a weak God.

God,

I mean,

if God were to give us

stuff that was hard and difficult,

we'd get angry.

We'd become mad.

We'd become bitter.

We might even scoff.

God,

if you were really real,

you wouldn't make this happen to me.

God,

if you were really alive,

I wouldn't get sick.

I would be married by now.

I would have children.

Maybe I wouldn't have children.

Maybe my children would treat better.

God,

if you were really real,

you would crush these people

who are making my life miserable.

That's the God most of us want.

Isn't it?

We know the story

tells us

that in God's kingdom,

in the upside down kingdom,

in the inverted kingdom,

God doesn't work that way.

God works through darkness.

You ever been in a dark place?

I have.

God works through pain.

You ever had pain?

I have.

God works through suffering.

God works through weakness.

God works through the difficult times

in our life.

You ever had difficult times

in your life?

I have.

Verse 45 in your bulletin

says that now

on the sixth hour,

darkness fell.

The word of the Hebrew

in Greek is skotos.

It means to become blind.

And for three hours,

people could not see anything.

Do you realize that?

Jesus was crucified

at nine o'clock in the morning.

At 12 o'clock noon,

everything just went dark.

I mean,

it was black.

I mean,

the word is you couldn't even

see your hand in front of your face.

You ever been in a place

where you can't see your hand

in front of your face?

I have.

It's kind of scary, right?

We were going through the tunnels

underneath Jerusalem

this last summer,

and we were in this tunnel,

and I realized

I'm on the front of the line,

and I don't even have

a light with me.

And I'm ducking,

and I'm weaving,

and I have my camera,

and I'm kind of trying

to take a little flash

so I could see

what's ahead of me,

but I couldn't see anything

in front of me.

And the passage says

that when Jesus was crucified

from 12 to 3,

people could not see anything.

It was the darkest hour.

I mean,

if you were a Jew back then,

you'd be going,

wow,

this is probably

not a good thing,

is it?

I mean,

they probably would have

been reminded

of Exodus 10

when Jesus,

when the people of God

were in Egypt,

and God was trying

to free them,

and in Exodus 10,

I think it's verse 16,

he sends this darkness

for three days.

It says in Exodus

that the darkness

is so dark

that you

can feel it.

You've never been

in a place

where it's so dark?

You've never been

in a time in your life

when it's so hard.

But you can feel it.

For three hours,

people can see nothing.

In Exodus,

the people just kind of

sat down,

the Egyptians,

the Jewish people

had light,

but the Egyptians didn't

because no one

could move.

And we read

in this passage

that basically

Jesus is dying.

He's suffering.

He's experiencing

his worst nightmares

in complete darkness.

I mean,

God,

God is doing

his greatest

miracles

in complete

darkness.

I've been thinking

about this

in my kingdom,

and I wonder

if many of us

think that's even

possible.

do we really

believe that God

can work

in the darkest

times in our lives?

Do we really

believe that he's

there?

I mean,

when we face

hard times

and failures,

losing our jobs,

loneliness,

sickness,

betrayal,

insults,

shame,

discouragement,

divorce,

abandonment,

hard times,

mocking,

do we really

believe that God

would allow

that to happen?

Or do we

walk by the cross

and say,

if you were God,

come down here

and make this

fixed right now

because this is

uncomfortable.

I'm not happy.

but the passage

says that in

God's

inverted kingdom,

this is how

God works.

He works

in the darkness.

He works

in the difficult

times.

He works

in the pain.

He works

in the suffering.

The passage

says that God

is doing

his greatest

work in

creation,

in your life,

in the difficult

times,

in the darkness,

in the pain,

in the suffering,

and if we don't

realize that,

we lose

everything.

If we don't

realize that God

is working

in the darkest

hours of your

life,

that he's always

there amidst

the failures,

the total loss,

the poverty,

that God is

always there

when things

are at their

worst,

when we are

at our worst.

The passage

says that when

we are at our

worst,

God

is working.

Do we

believe that?

The passage

says that in

the midst

of total

loss,

total failure,

crucifixion,

the kingdom

of God

is near.

He's

pursuing you.

He wants

a relationship

with you.

He wants

that relationship

back.

He wants

you to realize

that in his

kingdom,

things work

differently

than in the

kingdom of Tobin.

And he has

an amazing

plan for

your life.

But sometimes

we have to go

through darkness.

sometimes we

have to go

through failure.

Sometimes we

have to go

through pain.

Sometimes we

have to go

through suffering.

Sometimes we

have to be

abandoned by

everybody we

know and

love.

But the

passage says

God is

there.

And he's

working.

it's the

greatest

upside down.

It's the

greatest

inverting.

It's the

most paradoxical

thing you're

ever going to

hear.

The message

of Christmas.

The baby

coming to you

in your

darkest hour.

To save

you.

To save

you.

So the

question we

have to ask

ourselves is

this Christmas.

What kingdom

are we

looking for?

What

kingdom do

we want to

be a part

of?

Probably the

more important

question we

need to ask

ourselves is

who do we

want to be

king?

Who do we

want to be

king?

A baby

in a manger?

weak,

mild,

gentle,

humble,

who inverts

everything

so that we

might come

back to

God?

God?

Father, we

thank you for

this day.

We thank you

that you

are so

faithful.

We thank you

that your

kingdom is

not like our

kingdom.

God.

We thank you

that you're

working in the

darkest hours

and the

darkest times

and the

times we

feel like

we've lost

it all.

There's no

hope.

This passage,

your son,

the cross,

it says,

no,

there's all,

there's all

hope.

But we

look for it.

We trust you

to be God.

God.

We release

our striking

out and our

justifying in

our words and

we realize that

you're God and

you've already

taken all those

things to bring

us.

You're not just

bringing us to

heaven, but you're

bringing us along

this journey.

Lord, I pray for

those of us who

still want a

strong,

powerful God

that makes it

happen right

now.

Lord, I pray

that you would

just invade our

hearts,

that your spirit

would show us

the meaning of

Christmas and the

baby born in a

manger and that

all he's done

for us to turn

our worlds upside

down, to invert

our kingdoms.

I pray that we

would believe,

that we'd repent

of our selfishness

and our own

kingship.

We'd ask you to

come in,

become king in

our lives.

Lord, I pray for

those of us who

crowned you,

king, a long

time ago, but in

the midst of the

journey, we've

lost perspective,

we've lost sight,

we've lost

understanding.

We've tried to put

the crown back on

our heads.

We've tried to live

for a different

kingdom.

Lord, we thank you

for this passage

because it says that

you are the God who

never gives up on

your people,

that you're the God

of second chances.

I confess my

kingship to you.

I repent of my

selfishness.

You fill us with

your spirit and with

your word and with

your truth.

Show us, even in the

darkest, darkest,

darkest times, that

you're at work and

you're moving.

Lord, I pray for us

as a church during

this Christmas day,

these holidays,

these inverted

days when it's so

easy to become

confused.

we're going to run

into people every

day and every

moment who are like

the people at the

cross, but not just

for three hours or

for three days.

They've been blinded

for a long, long

time.

And the problem is

they don't even know

they're blind because

they think they're

looking for the right

king, a powerful

king, a wealthy

king.

I want to pray for

us as a church that

we would be salt and

light and they would

see that we serve a

different kingdom,

that we follow a

different king, and

that you would do only

what you could do is

open their hearts and

their minds and their

eyes and their ears to

the message of your

son, these holiday

season, and that we

would be faithful to be

the hands and feet to

love them and to

encourage them to be

real and honest with

them, but to point

them to your son.

Father, we pray for

our church.

We realize it's not

our church.

It's your church.

It's your kingdom.

Help us to be found

worshiping the true

king.

Father, we love you.

We realize that none

of this is possible

without your power

changing us.

We realize that none

of this is possible

unless we look to the

true king, your son

Jesus, and realize he

did all these things so

that we could do them

through his power.

Change us.

Make us different.

Father, we love you.

We pray all these things

in your son Jesus'

name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.