This Sunday is Palm Sunday. You can read about it in Luke 19. Palm Sunday was connected to Jewish Independence Day – Passover—and loaded with political significance. Jesus, who made claims to be the Jewish messianic liberator, was riding into his capital city as a conquering hero on the celebration of their Jewish independence. The Jewish community was expecting the revolution to begin. Jesus attempts to forewarn his disciples that everything isn’t going to go the way they expected. His warning falls on deaf ears.
(The Son of Man) will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again. Luke 18:32-33
The question becomes, “Who is Jesus liberating us from?” Jesus was focusing the force of his liberation efforts in a direction different from the political priorities of the day. Many in our country are still distracted by the shifting tides of political battles. They are yearning for the same kind of liberation movement as the first-century Jews. It’s not that there isn’t some value in legislative and political engagement. As believers we bring the love and justice of God to every aspect of life. It’s just that Jesus, the conqueror, came to overthrow God’s enemies, those who oppose God’s good plans for his creation. Jesus’s mission—and consequently the Church’s mission—is deeper, higher, more spiritual, more relational, and more lasting than the current political battles of the hour.
Jesus’s priorities are often subversive and offensive to our ego and ambitions; they are not what you think they should be. It’s not enough to overthrow one dictator, one socialist government, one system of racial inequality, or one human trafficking ring. We’re ready for him to start with the government. He’s ready to start with me. The cross was Christ’s greatest unexpected victory, and the first enemy he came to conquer was the ego on the throne of my heart.
Enemy #1: Myself
“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Romans 8:6-7
Each of us is an industrial factory of sin. Each of us is perfectly designed to think—I’m right. I’m ever watchful that I get what I deserve: perfectly calibrated to protect my heart or legacy plan in this company, to respond to my alarm systems if anyone at work insinuates I’m not a valuable team member. I’m fully loaded and ready to go to war with a family member or a clerk. Each of us is proficient at demonizing our enemies and coddling our friends.
I’m perfectly designed to excuse my harmful behaviors and rationalize why they are necessary for my good. I have a press secretary proficient at camouflaging my failures behind my polished bronze statue. I’m perfectly happy to scratch the itch of personal pleasures. I’m perfectly designed to outrun loneliness with a blitz of activities and Netflix episodes.
I dutifully use religious expectations to tighten an attitude here or stitch up a blown relationship over there to go to church and manage my behaviors. Meanwhile, I’m still inventing a life that suits me, that is conducive to my human flourishing, fulfills my dreams and my needs, and is autonomous of the Father’s oversite. The independent “self” is still sitting in the captain’s chair, calling the shots. The “self” and “self-government,” it turns out, are the first enemies that are way out of sync with God’s plans to renew creation with his goodness. Jesus isn’t just overthrowing one dictator; he is overthrowing seven billion dictators operating on our own executive orders. He came to be Lord of all, but he has to start with me and my unrestrained choices, my unfettered interests, and my unhindered sin-nature.
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Colossians 1:21
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Enemy #2: Sin & Death
Sin and evil do exist in the world. It has its origin in us. We are the incubators and fertilizers of its wayward error. But then, a birthed baby has a life of its own, and our sin can birth ecosystems and cultures built on lies and evil. Jesus came to destroy the sin structures we participate in.
Human slavery is a sin-structure that warps entire civilizations. Power and greed can create sin-structures that oppress the poor. An eating disorder can be a sin-structure in the daily and weekly habits of a person’s life. Our entertainment industry fascinates and inflames our imaginations with stories of selfish evil; that’s a sin-structure. The Year of Jubilee in the Old Testament was designed to disintegrate the structure of economic exploitation; that was a sin-structure. Sin structures are all around us. Big and small. Hidden and blatant.
The Apostle Paul used militaristic language, but not to describe a war on people; rather, a war on ideas and sin-structures in society.
“(our weapons) have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5
Jesus didn’t go to war against Rome or the Jewish nation. He went to war against the sin-structures that polluted Rome’s society and distorted the Jewish community. He came to set the captives free so we could be born anew in the Father’s love. Even death itself is the ultimate and unavoidable consequence of sin that Christ has successfully liberated us from.
“Death has been swallowed up in victory…the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” 1 Corinthians 15:54,56
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:40
Enemy #3: Satan and His Demons
If you are living in spiritual bondage, you need to know that Jesus has the power to set you free. Satan and his demons are real. But they are not all-powerful. They have been defeated by Christ on the cross. And by dying to self and sin, you can live in victory over the enemy.
Not only can we walk in personal freedom from oppressive thoughts, temptations, depression, or harassment, but we can also pray for the extension of Christ’s victory over others as well. That is your spiritual mandate, to extend God’s kingdom of light through intercession and prayer.
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." Colossians 2:15
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with…and raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-6
Summary:
Thank God for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. His revolution has begun. He is setting his creation free from the bondage to “self,” sin, and the demonic powers that rule over us. He came to do so much more than dominate the political landscape. He came to show us the way to the Father through humility and the joy of serving. The cure for the anxiety of this age is not social or political. It’s the quiet abiding in Christ that recreates all things with the beauty and worship of God.
Tags: jesus, sin, freedom, cross, passover, victory, passion, self, satan, savior, crucifixion, kingdom, spiritual, political
